Chapter Summary: Shocked and distressed by the discovery of Abby's decommissioning and Rachel's disappearance, Wally, Kuki and Hoagie are faced with an impossible decision. Meanwhile, Nigel learns something he shouldn't've.
Content/trigger warning: Implied guardian abuse and drug abuse
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Code: RESTRICTED
Operation: W.A.R.
We
Are
Ravaged
Created by OfficiallyWrong with properties owned by Tom Warburton
And Cartoon Network
Episode 24
Location: The Galactic Kids Next Door Headquarters (at the center of the Universe)
Status: ...
Three teenagers ran down the hall. They had lost two of their members and were having difficulty finding them. Worry settled in. Without them, there was no way back. But what was more, without them they would have to return without what they came for. Wally, Kuki and Hoagie did not know exactly how they managed to hack their way into the Galactic Kids Next Door, only that they did it. Rachel was gone, separated from the group and with her the code module. Abby had gone to find Nigel Uno, but since her departure had given them no responses. They feared the worst.
They weren't that far off.
They searched all over, but there were no signs of any lifeforms. Had all those Children really abandoned their post just for the prospect of free ice cream? They supposed it made sense. And having found no new useful information, they were starting to become fatigued, hungry, and most of all, frightened.
"Nothing?" Wally griped at his nerdy friend, who was trying very hard not to look at him. The shame was eating away at his insides. "You mean to tell me we came all this way, did all this stuff, and you didn't find nothin'?"
Hoagie grimaced. "I wasn't entirely sure what to look for."
"Oh, you weren't sure what to look for. That's brilliant."
"Hey, I am not the only person that can read this stuff, okay? You could have helped!"
"We were busy getting the code module."
"Which you didn't do," Hoagie reminded him.
"And why is it that when Abby goes off with you something bad happens? It's like bad luck or somethin'."
Hoagie blushed. "I am not exactly the most competent fighter if you haven't noticed. I'd just slow her down. My skills lie elsewhere."
Wally huffed. "Like not finding information?"
"Like building a memory machine that'll won't fry your brain." He grinned. "Oh, wait. Too late."
"Rude."
"Wally, you stop it," Kuki snapped. "Hoagie, you too. We don't have a lot of time before the kids get back."
"I honestly thought I would be able to figure out the plan, but all I could find was stuff about Nigel Uno. Apparently, he was like...the real deal."
"What do you mean?" Kuki asked.
"The Galactic Kids Next Door watched him for like three years before giving him the recruitment test. He was the first of any human to be selected for a Universal position, and that was big for the planet. They'd stayed isolated from us for so long, afraid of the virus. Nigel being allowed into the G:KND meant huge strides toward understanding it and how it worked, though a lot of that information was obviously kept classified."
"Jeez. What a special snowflake," Wally derided.
"Yeah that's what I don't understand though," Hoagie explained. "Sure, it's a huge deal and a big honor. He basically abandoned everything and everyone to pursue this dream. But him joining the G:KND doesn't make any sense, not really. Why would they take a field agent if they wanted to learn about the virus? Better yet, why not select a whole team of representatives? Scientists and tacticians and diplomats. Uno may have been the best, but he couldn't have been the best at everything."
"Maybe they did have others."
"If that's the case, then where are they?" Hoagie asked. "I don't know, guys. Don't you feel it in your gut?"
"I feel that chocolate bar I ate earlier," Kuki admitted, holding her stomach. "Oof."
"Well I totally agree with you, Burger Master," Wally said. "I been sayin' it since the beginning. This whole thing don't make any sense."
"And now Rachel and Abby have both disappeared...and we still haven't found the code module..." Hoagie adjusted the blaster he had on his back, which was starting to weigh him down. "I wonder...about this whole thing. Nigel Uno was Earth's hero, and they took him away. They completely isolated him from all connections to the planet, knowing that in paradise he probably wouldn't return."
"That's pretty dark for Kids."
"I don't think the Kids are behind all of this," he said. "And if they are, then they're not like the kids we have on Earth. Remember what Rachel said. They can't all be as innocent as they say they are. And if experience serves, someone is always waiting in the wings to take advantage of innocence. We know that too well."
"There's definitely something weird goin' on," Wally insisted.
"Nigel Uno is a hero," Hoagie thought to himself.
"So?"
"So if there is an evil scheme, he would have been an obstacle. Something to get rid of."
"But they didn't get rid of him," Kuki said.
"How do you get rid of a hero?" he said in rebuttal.
"You kill his Butler!" Kuki answered.
"You capture his girlfriend!" Wally added.
"You lock him in a freezing chamber until his limbs fall off!"
"What, no. Gross, Kuki," Hoagie's face contorted.
"Well, what then!"
"...You turn him into a pawn."
Just then, the sound of footsteps clamored against the metal floor. A shadow growing down the hallway. Then two.
"Hey!" A voice called and the three froze. "You! Stop!"
"Should we run?" Hoagie asked, his body shaking.
"We ain't got these guns for runnin'!" Wally positioned himself for attack.
But just as they prepared to fight, the footsteps slowed down. A human boy stepped into the light. He was holding a weapon and eye-level, squinting at the three. He was a well-built teenager, with blonde hair that swooped to the side and dazzling blue eyes.
"No way..." The Teen stood back. "Sector V?"
The others relaxed.
"And there's hot blonde number three..." Kuki recalled. "Wait a minute! Is that Nigel Uno!" She gasped in her boyfriend's ear. "He's sexy!"
"Ugh. You think?" Wally replied.
"You kidding?" Hoagie added. "He's a total hunk."
"...You're a total nerd."
Hoagie smirked "I mean..."
The teenager lowered his weapon. "Yeah, you're definitely Sector V." He stepped forward. "I'm Chad. I'm, or I was, Nigel's partner."
"Of course he's a Chad," Wally complained, earning him a slap from Kuki.
"Yo," a woman's voice came as the second figure came around the corner. "Do you really know where you're goin'? Cause we've been wanderin' around in circles for ten minutes and I got a cramp."
Wally, Kuki and Hoagie sighed with relief as they saw Abby's familiar face.
"There you are!" Kuki exclaimed.
Abby gave them a dull stare. "Y-yep. Here I am."
"Uh, guys...listen..." Chad tried. "There's something you should—"
"Thank god, humans. Y'all with him?" Abby asked.
"W-what are you talking about?" Kuki asked. "We're with you."
"With me?" Abby's eyes darted from one Teenager to the other. "Oh. Aliens got you too, huh?"
It took the three a little while before realizing what was going on. Abby looked the same, but in her eyes, there was no spark of recognition, no awareness. When she looked at them, it was as though looking at them for the first time. At first the feeling was numb, and then it cut deeply into their chests.
"Right?"
"Uh..." Kuki struggled. She turned to Wally. "Is that right?"
"Don't ask me!" he whispered harshly back.
"Well who am I supposed to ask, Wallabee!"
"I...We..." Hoagie straightened his shoulders, giving off his best heroic pose. "I am Number 2, this is Numbers 3 and 4 of the Teens Next Door!" He grinned. "And we're here to rescue you."
Abigail looked at each of them with all the skepticism a human could muster before finally nodding. "Cool."
"Why did you say that?" Chad whispered as they walked back toward the ship. "I know for a fact you guys are not TND. Plus the hard-r gave you away."
"Shh!" Hoagie tried to make himself small. "I panicked, okay? What was I supposed to say? I didn't wanna freak her out. I thought she'd feel better if she thought we were, you know, competent."
"This is so screwed up," Chad said. "First I have to deal with Abigail and now you losers show up? What the hell am I gonna do now? I can't keep playing babysitter, you know. In case you didn't know, I have a real mission to accomplish here."
"Hey if you're a Teenager how come you're not decommissioned like her-?"
"Shhhh!" Chad was agitated. "I was imprisoned. They've been running experiments on me. They claim it's to study the virus, but that's bull. Then I started getting these rumors about how the Council wants to decommission Nigel before he turns eighteen. Which meant they were going to do the same thing to me first. Only thing keeping me alive this long was Nigel. So I had to get outta there. But when I went to find Nigel and escape, he was gone. I thought I was too late, so I rushed to the chamber and..." he nodded to Abby. "That's where I found her."
"So y'all just go around savin' people from Alien abductions is that it?" Abby called from the back, catching up the two. Hoagie pulled his hat down. "Hey, you're in charge, right?" She poked him.
Wally laughed as Hoagie stopped. "Me?"
"Yeah, you. How exactly did I get here and what exactly is here and what's a Teens Next Door and how the hell you gonna get me home?"
Hoagie flushed. "Why are you asking me?"
"You serious? Ain't you the Captain?"
"Captain?"
Wally couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"2, 3, 4...you're 2...and you ain't with him that's for sure."
"T-The numbers are arbitrary."
"I seen an anime. Abby ain't no nerd, but she knows what it is." She tapped eyelid, indicating his prominent accessory.
"You think Hoagie's the leader cuz he wears goggles?" Kuki was now snickering alongside Wally. "That's..."
"C-Correct!" Hoagie interrupted. "Captain Hoagie P. Gilligan Jr., at your service. Traverser of galaxies, explorer to the stars, sailor through the cosmos—" He puffed up his chest, performing.
"There he goes..." Kuki said.
"Oh, brother," Chad rolled his eyes.
"Aww. Y'all came out here just to rescue little ol' me?" Abby flipped her hair. "I'm touched."
"It didn't start out that way," Wally said. "We were on a mission and lost one of our mates."
"There's more of you?" Chad asked. "How many more?"
"Just Rachel," Kuki said. "We lost her and the code module during our mission."
Chad halted. "Numbuh 362 is alive?"
"Um..." she fiddled with her hands. "Yes?"
"And she's here?"
"Yes."
"And you lost the code module...Earth's code module!"
"Y-Yes."
Chad groaned, moving forward again. "Same old Sector V..."
Wally's body tensed as he watched the girl next to him shove her hand onto the bag, shoveling handfuls of chips into her mouth. He himself wasn't hungry, though by all accounts he should have been. The girl warmed her hands, blowing into them. Without thinking, he removed his jacket and offered it to her. No words. No eye contact. Just the simple gesture. She took it, clearly feeling just as strange about the whole thing he was. Her eyes cast down onto his phone, he could feel them stare.
"That work all the way out here?"
Wally handed her the phone, still unable to say anything. She took it and began scrolling through the music.
"No signal though." She rifled through the albums. "I don't know most of these."
He took off his headphones and handed them to her. "Go ahead."
The phones fit snugly on her ears. Her face contorted into a scowl as she quickly tried to find another song. Wally observed her facial expressions as she went through five or six songs, not particularly caring for any of them. At last she landed on one she enjoyed, leaning back with a soft smile. A gentle hum buzzed against her lips, her eyes closing for only a moment before lifting up to see the dancing stars above. And then, words:
"Blackbird singin' in the dead'a night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You have just been waitin' for this moment to arrive."
Kuki squeezed herself close to the other side of Abby. "You can sing?!"
"Hm?" She removed the headphones, the music now pouring out for everyone else to hear.
"Your voice is so good!"
Abigail laughed. "Oh, I ain't trained or nothin'."
"The Beatles are the only 'mainstream' thing Wally will listen to," Kuki said. "It's his last name so he feels obligated."
"I just grabbed whatever was familiar," Abby admitted. "I only sang in church on Christmas and Easter. I dunno nothin' about music."
"Wally! Isn't she good? Play it again, we'll sing together!"
Wally listened to them chat, a pressure forming at the bridge of his nose. As soon as a tear fell from his right eye, he quickly wiped it away. "You can use it," he choked as he got up and walked toward Chad, who was still hanging out by the walkie-talkie.
"Nothin' yet?"
Chad sighed. "I haven't even heard static. I'm worried she may have gone to get Nigel on her own."
"No way. She's got the code module. She wouldn't do that."
"I can't have you guys go out there. And if I leave you won't have anyone to fly the ship." He sighed. "If she doesn't return soon, we'll have to leave without her."
"And without Uno. Or the code module." Wally rubbed his eyes. "Fuck."
"Hey, Man. We'll be back. Nigel's my partner. I'm not letting anything happen to him. As for the code module...I don't know."
Wally looked back at his girlfriend and Abby laughing together. "We lost then."
"There's still time."
"Sorry, Mate but...without Abby?" He sighed. "I ain't so sure we still got a chance."
"Did I say something wrong?" Abby asked Kuki, now scraping the bottom of the chip bag. "He didn't have to let me use it."
Kuki put on her best smile. "No! Not at all! Wally is just—" She caught his eyes, only briefly before he shied away from her gaze. "Tired. We all are. We failed our mission so we're all a little bummed too."
"Because of me?"
"What? No! It's our teammate, Rachel. We lost her in here and there's been no contact. If she doesn't come back soon, the whole thing is bust."
"I see." Abby hugged her knees. "I guess I still don't really get what's goin' on." She sighed, tracing her finger along the stone floor where they sat.
A loud sound erupted into the air. A blue light flashed from the ship window.
Abby sat up. "What was that?"
Kuki sighed. "Hoagie."
"You mean the Captain?" Abby slapped her cheek. "Wait...that's his name? No wonder y'all go by numbers."
Kuki stood up. "Um...will you excuse me a sec?"
Abby leaned back again, putting back the headphones. "Don't mind me, Baby. I'm just along for the ride."
It was entirely dark. No lights on, nothing could be seen when you entered the ship. Kuki found her friend inside, bathed in the darkness. A dull glow came from the goggles he wore on his face, allowing him to see even in the mess. His back hunched over the small table as he worked, parts of his project already disassembled onto the floor.
"Hoagie?"
"Hm." He barely acknowledged her.
"Why are you...sitting here in the dark?"
"I can see fine."
"Are you gonna come outside?" She stepped further into the room, her foot kicking something light and plastic. Picking it up, she stared at the small orange plastic bottle, noticing many more like it scattered about the floor. "Please tell me you didn't."
"I took an Adderall. To focus."
"We agreed you weren't going to do that."
"It was just one."
"Then what's with all these other bottles—"
"Had to dig for it." She didn't reply. "It's fine, Kuki."
"It's not fine. You're spiraling."
He stood. "You're not my fucking psychiatrist, okay?" He groaned, running his fingers over his eyes. "Do you get what's going on? At all? Do you pretend to be ignorant to piss everyone off?"
Kuki's chest tightened. "That's mean."
"We are fucked!" He shouted back. "The only thing that's going to un-fuck us is this thing. Right here. And every second we keep arguing about this is another second we are fucked!"
"So you're gonna go numb? That's your plan?"
"I'm going to fix it."
"How."
"I don't know!" He sat back down. "If I weren't so stupid, I would be able to figure it out. But even with my memories, I wasn't enough. So what if I need a little extra help? What's so wrong with that? Isn't it worth it?" His hands slammed the table. "What kind of moron can't figure out paperclips and rubber bands?"
"It's okay. You did your best—"
"Well, my best was shit, wasn't it?" he snapped. "If I just did what I was supposed to do Abigail wouldn't..." He grit his teeth. "I have to fix it. Whatever means necessary."
"You need rest."
"I promised her I would fix it. One little thing. Fix the toy. You can do that, can't you? You're a genius, aren't you? It's just a wooden box. A fucking wooden box. How hard could it be? Do one thing so you're not completely fucking useless."
"Hoagie, stop!"
"I failed. Just like that stupid apparition said I would. It should have been the one that came here. I should have just let it..." His throat closed before he could finish. "This wasn't supposed to happen."
"It could have been worse," Kuki tried to console him. But his eyes stared straight through his goggles into her. She knew that, somehow, she said the wrong thing.
"You know..." Hoagie looked back to the machine, folding his hands together and resting his elbows down. "It was about two weeks before my grandma died when she finally forgot who I was. I went in to give her breakfast that morning and I'll never forget it. She smiled at me with this...kindness in her eyes and said: 'you're such a sweet boy.'"
He laughed at himself bitterly.
"I've never hated anyone more than I hated her in that moment." He removed his goggles completely, pushing his fingers into his nose. "I'll never know if my grandma was ever a good person, if she hated me or was just cruel by nature. It's confusing for a kid, seeing this image of happy old ladies baking cookies and knitting sweaters and being a symbol of unconditional love on TV when the only one you've ever known can't stand you. Most kids complain about their grandmas kissing them on the cheek. Mine put me in the hospital."
Kuki stood perfectly still, listening. Trying not to let her emotions get the best of her. Hearing him speak so candidly, however, made that last part difficult.
"Makes you wonder how much of ourselves are just the actions we take and how much are the memories we have." He sighed. "Dementia took my grandma from us. It took the screaming and the bruises and the fear and the bartering and the excuses. I thought Abigail was crazy for trying to hold on to a life no one else remembered, but I did the same thing. That old woman took everything with her leaving me with memories that no one believed could be real." He sniffed, sucking tears back into his eyes. "Will Abby be the same without her hers? Different? Doesn't matter. They stole her life." He exhaled deeply. "And I am going to get it back."
Kuki waited a while before approaching, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I know you will." His shoulders tensed. "But right now, there's a girl out there who is cold and alone, and probably scared, who thinks she was abducted by Aliens and has no idea if she's going to get back home. That girl doesn't need a hero. She needs friends."
She left him with those words, stepping back into the light.
Wally had taken back his headphones now, Chad sitting beside him, looking flushed. Kuki sat beside Abby, who was howling with laughter.
"How did you..."
"Is she right?"
"Of course I'm right. Abby's never wrong," Abby announced.
"Ooh! Are you playing a game? I wanna play!" Kuki sang.
Wally smirked. "Chad's a fruit."
"Shut up! Sherbet is a perfectly acceptable favorite ice cream flavor! It's a step away from sorbet but not pretentious—"
"Rainbow sherbet!"
"Is delicious!"
Abby grinned. "I bet them I could guess their favorite ice cream by their personality. It's a superpower I have."
"Ooh! Do me!" Kuki scooted.
Abby looked her over. "Definitely cookies n' cream."
"Don't you mean Kuki's and cream?" Hoagie stepped out of the ship door, giggling at his own joke.
"And Gilligan strikes again," Chad muttered.
"Where the bloody hell have you been?" Wally whined at his best friend. "You missed everything! Abby called Chad a fruit cake!"
"For the last time. Rainbow! Sherbet!"
"I'm cookies and cream!" Kuki tossed her hair. "I think it's fitting."
"Yeah if you eat your ice cream with hot sauce," Hoagie quipped as he sat down, earning him a shove from Kuki.
"I got rocky road," Wally bragged.
"Because you're difficult to navigate?" Chad sneered.
"At least I'm not a Chad."
"She can guess them in seconds! It's amazing."
"Oh, can she?" He crossed his arms. "Okay, let's see then."
She looked Hoagie over. "Vanilla."
Hoagie frowned. "Vanilla?"
Wally started to snort. He couldn't stop laughing.
"You think I'm vanilla?"
"You're probably the whitest boy she knows!" Wally howled.
"Is that wrong?" Kuki asked.
"That's not the point, the point is..." He looked himself over. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm almost positive," Abby said.
"Not even chocolate chip? Or...smores? Or...something?"
"Hoagie's an Aquarius," Kuki explained.
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Oh, honey," she snickered.
"Abby don't see what the problem is," Abby said. "Abby likes vanilla. It's one of the three original flavors of ice cream."
"Four," Hoagie said.
"...three."
"Four."
"Four?"
"Four."
Abby stared at him. "Listen, Sugar. Nobody in the world knows more about ice cream than Abby."
Hoagie grinned. "Then Abby would know about the ancient fourth flavor."
Abby's face lightened. She leaned in. "What is it?"
"No one knows." He lifted his finger into the air in lecture. "Only that it was lost to the sands of time."
"He's makin' shit up again," Wally groaned.
"No, this is real. I have it on very good authority," Hoagie explained. "Yep. If I were an ice cream flavor, that's the one I would be."
"How could that be your favorite flavor if you ain't never tasted it?" Wally asked.
"Because objectively it's the best one," he said. "And it's rare, so it's understandable you wouldn't have guessed it."
Abby moved her hair out of her face. "Can't argue with a guy who wears goggles on purpose."
"Exact—hey."
Then, the air tensed. "Someone's coming," Chad said as he stood up.
"Is it Rachel?"
"It looks like..." He squinted. "No. That can't be..."
"IS IT NIGEL UNO?!" Kuki bulldozed her way over to him.
His voice tensed. "It's..."
"Heeeey! What is up, fellow Teenagers!" A young teenage girl with bright red hair and freckles waved at them. Her eyes smiled through a pair of thick-rimmed round glasses, her hair bouncing up and down as she jogged. "I am here to join your forces!"
"I thought you said there were no other Teenagers besides you and Uno."
"I did. There aren't." Chad scowled. "What are you doing, Vine?"
The girl pouted. "How'd you know it was me?"
"Gee, I don't know. Your Teen human S.U.I.T. looks exactly the same as your child human S.U.I.T. Real smooth there."
Galactic Kids Next Door: S.U.I.T.
So
Unknowingly
I
Transform
"Duh! How else would my Nigie recognize me?" she beamed.
Abby giggled. "Nigie? Seriously, who named you people?"
"Wait, so you're not a Teen?" Wally scanned her. "Then what the bloody hell are you?"
"Well, technically I'm a Kid. Numbuh Vine from the Galactic Kids Next Door." She saluted. "Reporting for duty."
"Number Vine..." Wally thought hard. "Vine ain't a number. Is it?"
"Are you serious?"
"Is it like..." he tried again. "A fancy high number?"
"Maybe it's a space Number?" Kuki suggested. She walked up to Vine, poking her face. "So realistic..."
"Wait a minute! You can't just come in here with a S.U.I.T. and expect us to just accept you into our team," Chad said.
"Oh, Chadwick. I didn't." She cleared her throat. "There I was! Trapped in a glass cage! No one to talk to! And no candy or anything! Punished for absolutely no reason at all!"
"Just Chad, Vine. It's always been just Chad."
"Then! A voice! Was it my Nigie come to rescue me?" She frowned. "No. It was that dumb blonde from the Moon Base all sweaty and panty. Like she was running from something."
"Rachel rescued you?" Chad asked. "Where is she now?"
Vine swallowed. "Uhh...well, see..."
"Vine." Chad stepped forward, his nose almost to hers. "Where is Numbuh 362?" She wilted. "Where is the code module!"
"She got captured! I didn't know what else to do! I pretended I caught her, so I wouldn't be followed. I looked and looked but couldn't find my Nigie anywhere! Then, I wandered around and there you were!"
"Why didn't you go and rescue her?" Chad asked with derision.
"Pfft. Why would I do that? She's trying to take my Nigie away from me." Vine grinned. "Now I can join the revolution and win my Nigie back! And little miss tomboy won't get in my way."
"Oh, no!" Chad said. "You're not getting anywhere near Nigel. You make him crazy!"
"Oh, really? What's he gonna do? Go back to Earth with—" Vine pushed through the others, stopping when she saw Abby who was staring at her with demanding eyes. "You."
"Sup?" Abby said. "You abducted too?"
Vine turned back to Chad. "Oh, I am definitely coming with you."
Chad groaned. "Wonderful."
Vine made her way over to Abby and Hoagie. "Hello, Hogarth." Her attention moved over to Abby, her voice dropping. "Abigail. You're looking...old."
"I'm sorry," Abby stopped her. "Hogarth?"
"Please never call me that."
"Sorry. I thought we were in War'a the Worlds but turns out we were in Pride and Prejudice all along," she teased.
"It's a family name!"
"Mmm. They still worried about the cholera?"
"Ahem!" Vine tried to get her attention. "Excuse me? I said hello!"
"Oh, sorry. Hello. Are you Rachel?"
"Oh, wow." Vine scoffed. "Wooow."
"Vine!" Chad grabbed them by the wrist, pulling them aside. "Let me introduce you...Abigail, this is Agent Vine. Vine, Abigail Lincoln. The girl we rescued. From Alien abduction." He got really close. "Who has no idea what is going on."
"Why are you talking to me like I'm stupid?"
Chad grabbed their arm. "She doesn't remember anything," he whispered.
Vine was quiet for a minute. "She doesn't remember...not even..."Chad shook his head. She gasped. "That's even worse!"
"Vine! Shut up!"
"You mean she doesn't have any baggage! What Teenager doesn't have baggage! How am I supposed to compete with that? I'm doomed!"
But Abby just laughed. "No baggage? Me? Baby, you must be an Alien."
"I'm sorry about Vine. They're not feeling well."
"Wait!" The stopped him. "Call me...Lizzie. Lizzie the real genuine teenage girl!"
Abby shrugged. "Whatever tickles ya. Abby don't judge."
"You're not a girl," Chad griped.
"Why not?" Lizzie pouted.
"Because you're an Alien!"
"So? I want to be a girl," she announced. "I was happiest when I was a girl. When I was with my Nigie..."
"Oh-ho," Hoagie rubbed his hands together, as though scheming something. "So Uno has a girlfriend, huh?"
"Well, not...I mean we broke up. But as soon as I find him, we'll run off together in the starry sky and grow old like Adults do."
"Grow old?" Hoagie was confused. "But you're a Kid...you're immortal, right?"
"Vine may have contracted the virus," Chad explained. "At least that's what they're saying. She's been in the red for a while now."
"If I have to die, I'm glad I learned what it truly means to be in love!" she said. "Apparently that's not cool out here."
"That's beautiful," Abby said.
Lizzie scowled. "Shut up, Abby."
"I truly hope it works out for you crazy kids," Hoagie said, unable to hide his grin. "Meanwhile I reap the sweet, sweet rewards."
Abby smirked. "Vanilla," she quipped under her breath.
"Whatever," Chad let go of Lizzie. "You," he pointed at her. "Stay. You," he pointed at Hoagie. "Come with me. We've got a situation."
"What? Why do I have to stay?" Lizzie whined.
"Good luck," Abby said as Hoagie stood to leave. "Captain Horrace."
"Hoagie."
"Yo' daddy must've hated you."
"You know I could leave you here, right?" he said back.
"You won't. Abby's too cute."
She patted the seat next her, offering it to Lizzie.
"Well. Sit down, push-pop. Let's girl talk."
"Numbuh 362 has been most likely been captured," Chad explained to the others. "Which means not every Kid fell for the ice cream scam. We have to be careful."
"If Rachel has the Earth code module thingy," Kuki added. "And she doesn't come back, how will we re-commission the Kids Next Door?"
"We gotta get it back," Wally said.
"And if Rachel was in Quarantine and didn't run into Nigel there, that means he isn't there anymore," Hoagie added. "Who knows where he could be?"
"Maybe they're together?" Wally suggested.
"Normally I would say we re-group and go back in, but with Abigail..." Chad sighed.
"You're right. You're the only one left who can fly the ship out of here," Hoagie said. "And the three of us can't go to the TND without some kind of collateral. They'll scramble us right there."
"You have to go back to the TND?"
"We can't take Abby back to Earth," Wally said. "Who knows what those fuckers'll do to her?"
"We have the recommissioning module," said Kuki. "To trade."
"Which is useless to them without the code module," Hoagie explained. "We have to go back."
"Dude, I get it," Chad said. "But we only have so much time before the Kids find a way back here. We need to be out of here before then. And no way am I trusting Vine alone with a ship. Not for shit."
"So what do we do?"
"We split up," Hoagie said after a while thinking. "Chad stays with Abby and the Alien, you two and I go back and find Rachel. We get the code module and get out as best we can. And hopefully we can find Nigel Uno before he's decommissioned."
"What happens if the Kids hack their way in before that?"
"Our top priority is getting Abigail out," he said with conviction. "If we don't make it by that point, consider the mission a failure and go without us." He checked in with Wally and Kuki. "If they are okay with that plan."
"It's that or go back with nothin'," Wally said.
"We started this together," Kuki stated. "And we'll finish it together."
Hoagie put out his hand. "V for Victory?"
Wally and Kuki joined. "V for Victory!"
"Alright," Chad nodded. "I'm counting on you guys. Let's kick some ass."
"She thinks I'm vanilla!" Hoagie harrumphed over the hill. "Vanilla! How am I vanilla? Look at me!"
"You gotta let it go, Mate," Wally said, fiddling with his weapon.
"What do you have against Vanilla anyway?" Kuki asked. "Isn't that like a special Spice or whatever?"
"That's not the point! The point is Abigail thinks I'm boring! That's her first impression of me. Boring. Plain. Vanilla. Which I am not."
Kuki shrugged. "Maybe that's not what she meant."
"Oh sure. Vanilla means cool and interesting. Everyone knows that."
"I think you're taking this too seriously."
"Do you even know where we're going?" Wally asked, trying to catch up to Hoagie, who was fueled by his ice cream predicament and therefore a good ten feet ahead.
"We're going back to Quarantine," he said.
Kuki scuttled her way forward, catching up. "But they said Nigel Uno wasn't in Quarantine."
"No, but Rachel is a Teenager. If she was captured, don't you think that's where she would be?"
The others agreed that it was worth checking out. They wandered around the large treehouse, trying to find the entrance where they came in. There was a sign that appeared, flashing neon and indicating HAZARD or something to that effect. It wasn't precisely the same as it was on Earth, but the idea was similar. They tried to enter the door, but it was locked.
Hoagie puzzled at it. "That's odd. I thought I unlocked all the doors. Er...Number 2 did."
"Allow me," Wally stepped forward with his gun, blasting the control panel. The circuit electrified, and the door opened. Wally was pleased with himself. "Sometimes you just gotta be a little rude."
The door lead, strangely, to another door. This one opened with the push of a single button, opening to a small metal room with nothing inside.
"An elevator," Kuki noticed.
"To what?" Wally was uneasy. "Never in my life have I seen a movie where a lift leads to a good thing."
Hoagie examined the buttons. "It only goes down."
"Oh! That's even better!" Wally shouted sarcastically. Kuki grabbed onto Wally's arm as they stepped in.
The door slid closed. The button for the basement pressed. Wally made certain to mention that basements were the absolute sign of death in any adventure, but they all knew it was necessary. The ride was dark and seemed to take forever despite the swiftness of the descent.
At last, it opened.
The room the three were led into was a narrow little thing which resembled a chemistry lab. It was illuminated by blue lights shining on the rows of what looked to be plants. Small seedlings barely budded. There was a green glow coming from the walls.
"Looks like Kids got themselves their own grow operation," Wally said, moving to take a closer look. "You think this is how they make Khlorophill?"
"But Rachel said they mine that stuff," Kuki reminded him, still keeping her distance from the weird walls. "Didn't she?"
"Guys," Hoagie called them over to a door on the other side. He opened it, revealing a much, much larger room, one the size of an average aircraft hangar. Plots of soil scattered all around, with the same blue lamps hanging over them.
"What the bloody hell..." Wally started. "Is going on?"
"Maybe the Galactic Kids Next Door are environmentally conscious?" Kuki asked.
"Maybe it's a new branch of their government," Hoagie teased.
But Wally backed away. "No way. Somethin' about this place feels wrong. I don't think we're in Quarantine. I think..."
That's when Kuki screamed. She fell over onto the floor, her finger trembling as it pointed across the way. The boys looked. On the other side of the room, they could finally see the makings of shadows coming out of the wall. They were immobile, coated in a green substance that covered the glass like algae. Wally went to comfort his girlfriend, but she wouldn't stop shaking.
"Stay away from the walls," Hoagie muttered. "I'll take a closer look."
"Are you crazy? This is how it begins, man!" Wally screamed. "Fucking Ripley's Believe it or Not haunted wax museum shit!"
"Wally!" Kuki grabbed him and moved back to the center, realizing there were more beings in the walls they were close to.
"Fuck!" Wally held her. "Can we go now please? The code module ain't here!"
But Hoagie continued to walk around the walls. He stopped when he found what he most feared he would find. "Rachel." He pointed at the silhouette of a teenage girl, unconsciously slumped over, dusted with the algae. He tapped on the glass, but there was no response. "Rachel!" The tapping turned to pounding. "Rachel, it's us. Sector V. Can you hear us?"
"Dude. If we don't get out of here, we are fucked!" Wally ran back to the elevator, noticing the door was closed.
"This is it," Hoagie backed away. "This is what they were gonna do to Abigail. They decommissioned her so she couldn't escape. And Chad was going to be next."
"Fuck this shit. Fuck this shit!" Wally repeatedly pressed the button. "I am so fucking out of here!"
"Wally!" Kuki went after him. "Come on! Grow some balls!"
"There's bein' brave and then there's bein' a dumbfuck!" he screamed.
"Oh. You choose now to finally learn that lesson!" his girlfriend griped.
"We gotta get out of here before whatever did this comes back and does it to us!" He turned around, his back facing the elevator door. "Well, come on!" But the look of horror on Kuki and Hoagie's faces stopped him. He looked down at his feet, noticing roots slinking around him. He slowly turned, seeing the shadow of a giant tree. A tree with eyes and a mouth, grinning at them.
"Leaving already?" a voice came from the Tree. "But I haven't had a chance to show you my experiment yet."
Wally tried to shoot at it, but none of his shots did any damage. "What the—come on!"
"You're..." Hoagie quivered. "You're not a Kid. You can't be. No Kid could do something like this."
The roots continued to grow, covering the walls as the trunk of the tree alien pushed forward. "Oh, Gilligan..." it grinned. "Always the cocky know-it-all."
"It knows our names," Kuki shook.
"Children. So pure. So innocent. So...gullible," They berated. "Not as gullible as humans."
A shadow fell over the three.
"Holy shuck-buckets t-they're not plants..." Hoagie trembled. His eyes met one of the seedlings, watching it stretch their vines up into the air, as though yawning. "They're babies."
Kuki gasped. "Cute!"
"No! Not cute! Very bad, Kuki!" Wally shouted.
The shadow got larger, now entirely engulfing them. "You guys like riddles? I have one! One of these things is not like the others," They asked in a cutesy innocent voice before it dropped to the very low base of its register.
"Can you guess what it is?"
Abigail Lincoln was a simple person. She valued that about herself. Nothing was ever too complicated, nor too hostile. Sure, she worked hard and was at the top of her class, but that wasn't what she identified as complicated. Work was actually very simple when you sat down and thought about it. She lived by basic principles, helping others and following through on tangible goals, stopping to rest and relax when needed. She never over-worked herself, she never under-worked. It was sad to her those who spent their lives grinding away at dreams that were not theirs to please people that were not themselves. To Abby, life was straight-forward.
She was the last person in the world anyone would expect to be abducted by aliens, and it was the furthest thing from her mind.
There was a surreal calm she had about the whole situation, trying her best not to panic or do anything that could disrupt the flow of events. She trusted the people around her, and maybe she shouldn't've. But it was better to trust them than to question them at this point. After all, what good could space life forms do stealing her away from her home?
She wandered around the narrow spaceship, tracing her hand along the cool metallic surface. Moving slowly, she stretched her neck, startled by the fact that she did not have many thoughts regarding anything at the moment. Maybe it was shock, maybe it was peace. After her journey, she stepped outside. Chad had fallen asleep and the alien girl who wanted to be called Lizzie was doing something weird with her fingernails. Abby scanned the area.
"Where is everyone?"
"How should I know?" her nasally voice sang.
Abby bent down. "Shouldn't we maybe try'n contact'm?"
Lizzie moaned. "They're probably finishing their mission or whatever," she said. "All out there looking for Nigie while I'm stuck here with..." She stopped herself, but Abby knew what she was going to say. "Oh, yeah." Lizzie moved over to one side, pulling out a piece of folded cloth, patches of grey stitched together with patches of a flowery pattern. She threw it at Abby. "That's for you."
Abby felt a lump inside the cloth, which was revealed to be a hat, the size of a child's head. Inside, a grey pair of goggles with bright yellow lenses stared back at her. "It ain't mine."
"No doi," Lizzie rolled her eyes. "It's Numbuh 2's dumb hat."
"The Captain's?" She held it up. "Why would he give it to me?"
"Maybe to match your dumb hat," Lizzie mumbled.
Abby ignored her, walking away with it. She went back into the ship, snuggling herself into the captain's chair and stared at them. They were too small to belong to him. How could anyone even see out of them? She picked up the goggles, lifting the lenses to her face. However, gazing through the lenses, she saw nothing. "Huh?" She pulled them away, blinking to make sure she wasn't crazy. Placing them back on her face, she stared intently into the pitch-black cover. Her finger graced the side of them, feeling an indent. Hardly any pressure was placed on it when the inside of the goggles lit up, red letters flashing across the front.
D
E: 5
Abby blinked. The thing was malfunctioning, that was certain. Probably was short-circuiting from all the space travel. It didn't even spell the world Number right. What a strange little device. Abby tried to fiddle with it, seeing if she could find anything fun to do. She didn't want to pry into this guy's privacy, or whosever these things were. She wasn't that bored. Using the buttons she now realized were on the side of the goggles, she navigated the odd little computer. She found some strange diagrams and weird notes, some poems she tried not to read, but was way too tempted in the end. Just as she was about to put them back, her eyes wet to a little camera in the corner. Without clicking on it, the screen sensed her attention and the file opened.
Oops.
Abby's nose scrunched. It was an image of some kid's feet. Without needing to move a muscle, the image changed to another picture. Abby understood now. They were photos, taken with the goggles. Most of them were poorly shot. The kid probably had no idea he was taking them. He was a short child, a little on the plump side with a round face. He wore a lot of costumes, big floppy hats and capes. When he wasn't, he just looked like a normal kid. After flipping through quite a few photos, one of them started to move. Ambient noise came from the little speakers.
"I'm not supposed to take any pictures...but I'm bored..." a tiny voice said as it crept down what looked to be stairs. Around the corner, down to the table. His squatty nature made him move the camera back and forth. He approached the kitchen where a stout woman was leaning over the stove.
"Tommy, you are supposed to be in the tub!"
Abby chuckled to herself. So these were some kid named Tommy's, huh? Pretty smart kid...
"Hoagieeeeee," the boy called to another boy, a Teenager with his nose down in some kind of project. Tommy climbed up, leaning on the table. "What are you dooooing?"
"It's private."
"You promised you were gonna play with me today! It's Saturday!" The kid whined. "You prooooomised."
"This is important," the older kid said. "We can play later."
Tommy pouted. "You're no fun anymore."
"And you're just as annoying as ever," he grumbled.
Then the video skipped again. This time it was the Teen boy, which Abby realized must be the Captain. But he didn't look like a space Captain here in these videos. Actually, he was understated. In this video, he had glasses on and had lost about four or five years. Tommy, who was even younger, sat with his arms crossed and back hunched on the floor.
"And see? We're recording. Easy-peasy! I've saved everything into this file, Tommy, so don't lose it."
"I'm not gonna lose it!"
"Uh, you said that about my yipper numbuh 44 and look what happened to that!"
But Tommy pouted. "This is dumb."
"You need to learn—"
"No! I don't! Because you're not going!"
The older one sighed. "Tommy..."
"No!" The little boy ran off, angrily.
"Tommy! Come ba—" And then there was one. He brought the goggles closer. "Ugh. Great. Fine. I'll do it myself. Tommy, if you're watching this in the future, uh...hi. It's me, your big brother. Sup? Okay. So. We've still got some stuff to go over...I think...so um...right." He pulled out a small spiral notebook, clearing his throat. "How to calibrate the thrust of a 2x4 jet engine. I know I went over this before, but I wasn't sure if you were paying attention or what and since I won't..." The boy's face fell. He squeezed his eyes. "God this is the worst. Look. I know I suck as a big brother. I know I didn't treat you right. Doing this isn't gonna make up for it. I'm sorry. I dunno if I'll be better or worse after it's all over but, I'm gonna try, okay? Don't ever grow up, Tommy. It's the pits." He sighed. "Okay. Take two."
And the video changed.
"Introducing the butt-busting champion!"
This boy was different. He was extremely short with a blonde hair cut in a bowl. He wore an orange sweat-shirt even in the hot sun. Abby laughed to herself. That must be Beatles, she figured. It brought her heart joy to know they had been friends for so long.
"Are you gettin' this, Numbuh 2?"
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Don't be a weenie!"
The camera moved over to a girl jumping up and down and waving. "Go, Wally, Go! Go, Wally, Go! I believe in you!" Cookie, Abby realized.
The blonde boy blushed with pride, pulling up his sleeves.
Then, quietly the voice of some other kid came behind. It was soft, low, almost mature and oddly...familiar.
"He's gonna break that butt'a his one of these days..."
The boy laughed through his nose. "You spend all that time busting your butt and get nothin' in return! What a world."
The camera jumbled as something red swiped across the front.
The video cut out, switching again. Abby was thoroughly enjoying the home movies and the poorly framed pictures.
"This'll be fun..." the narrator snickered. "Numbuh 1's having one of his days...we haven't had a mission in forever. He's goin' nuts!" He crept up to another kid who was quite unique-looking as well. Skinny, a bit too skinny, and pale, probably a bit too pale too. He had no hair. That was the odd part. He was lying on wood, groaning. "Hey, Numbuh 1! Workin' hard or hardly workin'?"
The bald boy covered his face. "Three days. I can already feel myself withering away..." He moaned in a thick English accent. "I feel so useless. Like a slab on a rock. Who puts a slab on a rock? No one. Because it's useless. Which is what I am."
"Aw, come on, Numbuh 1. It's not all bad." The camera fell to his eye-level. "Wanna learn King's Corner? It's a card game for old people but it's pretty fun!"
But the boy just moaned more. "Just let me wallow..."
Now Abby was laughing out loud. She hoped the others wouldn't come back and catch her.
"For cryin' out...get off the floor!" It was that other voice again. The familiar one.
Numbuh 1 lay down, defiantly. "Never!"
Abby could only see the bottom half of the little girl, who had marched over to pull the bald boy off the ground.
"N-Numbuh 5!" He squirmed while the camera looked away shyly. "Get off of me! Help! That's bullying!"
"Oh, quit whinin', you big baby!" Black hair fell in front of the screen, blocking her face. "Numbuh 2! Get up and help me."
"N-No thanks I'm good."
"Wimp. Boys are such babies!"
So this was Numbuh 5, the person who the goggles had mistaken Abby for. The one who was mysteriously missing from this mission. Come to think of it, so was this Numbuh 1 character. This Numbuh 5 did look a lot like her, she had to admit. Though she couldn't get that good of a look. She hadn't yet seen a really good picture of her. As though reading her mind, the video changed again. She wondered how it was doing that...but knew it was probably broken somehow. Hopefully all these things could be saved, she would hate to have someone lose all these precious memories.
"Numbuh 5?" the narrator's voice was so tiny and sweet now, very different from how he was before. He climbed over the couch, much like his little brother did. Abby could see the girl had long black hair, braided like she wore it. She was sleeping, a hat sitting on her chest. "Psst. Numbuh 5..."
"Don't bug me."
"Can I arachnid you, then?"
There was a long pause before the girl shot up grabbing her hat and the camera turned from the girl, running away as fast as it could.
But this time, Abby wasn' t laughing. She couldn't stop thinking about that hat. It looked just like Cree's hat.
Her hat.
The visual likeness was sure uncanny, but that she could accept. But that hat...the hat she randomly arrived with in this place, the hat that she swore belonged to her sister when she was eleven. The hat she wore every single day for most of her childhood. There was no way.
She ripped the goggles off, storming outside to where Lizzie was still fidgeting with her "body." Angrily, she threw the hat and goggles at her.
"Ouch! Hey! What's the big idea!"
Abby's chest rose and fell. "When we met, you knew my name."
Lizzie blinked. "Uh..."
"And Chad...he also...knew my name. Before I told him anything. He said he overheard it somewhere, but that ain't true is it?" she steamed, stepping over Lizzie, who cowered. "You don't like me, do you?"
"N-nooo. I wouldn't say—"
"You know me, don't you?"
"Know is a strong word..."
"The others..." she growled. "Where did they go?"
"I-I-I told you. They're completing their mission."
"Why would he give me this?" she demanded. "If they were plannin' on coming back. Why would he do that? Answer me!"
"How should I—"
Abby grabbed Lizzie by the collar of her sweater.
"They went to go find Nigie and Rachel, who was supposed to bring back the code module, so they could use it to save Earth." Abby dropped her, backing away. "You know...I'm a trained agent of the Galactic Kids Next Door...you don't scare me, miss missy! I could take you on with or without your memories!"
Abby glared at her. "What?"
Lizzie bit her tongue. "Oops."
Abby was still confused, but mostly her heart filled with fear. The people who saved her, she knew them. She'd known them for a long time. Somehow, she had forgotten them. Or someone purposefully made it so she would forget them. Her stomach tied itself up. She felt a cramp in her side.
The Captain. Cookie. Beatles. And even...
Without thinking, she started sprinting, hearing Lizzie's voice fade into blackness. She had no idea where she was going. She had no skills to rely on. It was stupid. She would probably die. But still, she couldn't stop running.
Hoagie couldn't see past the bridge of his nose. Everything appeared like a green mask around him, a dirty fish-tank or a psychedelic trip with a single color-filter. Green. Everywhere. He saw slight alterations when he turned his head, realizing he was surrounded by forms and figures. Dust particles caught in his throat as he tried to clear them out.
"Wally!" he called, but there was no answer. "Kuki..." he was less confident. He waited, but there was still nothing. He didn't dare stand up to investigate. He felt the goop in between his fingers, sloshing around. Moving his hands toward his face, he could see the slime clearly. It was only then that he started to panic. "H-Hello?"
"Wow. That was way faster than I thought!"
The voice came from the other side of the glass. Hoagie turned, only able to make out a dark shadow of a tree, planted outside of his prison. He knew where he was but couldn't bring himself to admit it.
"I gotta say, I was a little worried. I thought I was gonna have to get a plan B. But better late than never!"
He shook his head. "Just who are you?"
"Numbuh 74.23, head of the Human and Disease research division," they said. "I've been waiting like...so long for this you have no idea."
"Where are my friends?"
"Beside you, there," they replied without much emotion. "I was hoping more than one of you would have it. But oh, well. One's plenty."
"Have it?" he was confused. "What do you mean? We all have it. We're teens."
"Not the virus, stoopid."
"Ha!" Hoagie pointed at the wall. "You thought you could stop us by using the Khlorophill, didn't you? Well!" He grinned cockily, crossing his arms and puffing out his chest with pride. "That's not gonna work! Cause I've been eating vegetables my whole life and have never gotten sick! And I don't even feel any different right now! I've stumped you!" He laughed at his own joke. "So! What'cha gonna do about that?"
"Me?" Numbuh 74.23 said. "Nothing."
"That's right. Noth—" Hoagie's chest fell. "Nothing?" And then the rest of his body followed suit. "Oh, no," he whispered. "Oh no, no no no."
"Oh, yes." They jeered. "You...are exactly what I've been looking for."
Desperately, his fists pounded on the glass wall, kicking it to try and shatter it. But it was too thick. "Help!" he called out on instinct. "Help! Please! Somebody help me! Abig—" He stopped. There was no point. She wasn't coming for him. Not this time.
Hoagie felt a pain in his neck, like something was biting it. He screamed, doubling over in pain.
"What's the matter? I thought you would be happy. You finally get to be special. What you've always wanted."
"I know what you're planning. Nigel Uno will stop you," he choked. "When he finds out what you did to Abigail, he'll—"
"What I did? I only decommissioned her on Numbuh 1's order."
Hoagie reached for the ground, attempting to stabilize himself. "You're lying...he couldn't—"
"I'm not like you, Gilligan. I don't have a need to lie about things to manipulate others. Everything I've told Uno about the virus is true. He is one of us. You think he cares about you humans who don't even remember him? Face it. He's moved on," the Alien said. "He doesn't love you anymore. Why would he? I know everything about you. So you can trust me when I say: there's nothing to love."
Hoagie coughed something green and slimy out of his mouth, which tasted like leaves. Or... raw broccoli stems...or...he was losing consciousness.
"T-Tommy..."
His body grew heavier, unable to take in a full deep breath. He sank into the glass, everything finally growing dark.
Nigel rushed down the halls. Where was everyone? They couldn't have all fallen for that trick, could they? Children were not always so daft. But then again, Abby was far cleverer than he was. He bolted around the restricted area. She wasn't in the decommissioning chamber, which meant he was too late to stop it. An ugly feeling lurched in the pit of his stomach. If she was decommissioned, but wasn't anywhere secure, then where the heck did she go? The thought of her wandering around without any idea what was happening frightened him. He didn't know what she would be like without her memories. Gullible? Skeptical? Cautious?
Suddenly, Nigel found himself in an area he did not recognize. That was odd. He thought for sure he knew of every single section of the base. There was a lift with a broken access pad.
Abby.
Entering the lift, he realized it actually went down lower than the underground, deep into a part of headquarters he had never heard of.
He did not hesitate.
As the doors opened on the bottom floor, he noticed the back of a large being examining something under a microscope. Nigel was never more relieved to see a familiar figure.
"Numbuh 74.23!" Nigel said as he scurried into the room. "Thank goodness! You're still here!"
Numbuh 74.23 froze. "N-Nigel..." It turned around slowly. "What are you doing outside of isolation? You know we're in a very crucial period..."
"Abby is gone!" He told him. "I know I'm not supposed to leave the unit, but she must have escaped somehow. Everyone is gone. Vine. Chad. Those Adult convicts. Something has happened. We must warn the council immediately!"
Numbuh 74.23 did not seem that surprised. "Is that so?"
"I think I've made a terrible mistake. I acted too soon I—" He went to the tree Alien, who backed away from him. "You must help me get them back! I don't see any agents anywhere. We've been infiltrated!" He rested his hands on his forehead. "It's my fault. Abby hacked through the system because I decommissioned Earth and now everything has gone into chaos!"
"Right. Sure," They spread their branches out. "Why don't you go back upstairs, and I will be right with you."
Nigel paused, looking around at the room. "I've never been down here before. What exactly is this place?"
"It's classified G:KND information. High-ranking stuff. Sooper boring. You don't wanna know." The alien continued to cover up their tracks, which Nigel found suspicious.
"No way..." he gasped. "This is where you test the virus, isn't it?" His breath got short with excitement. "That is so cool!"
"Right. So you should leave. Like...right now." They tried to usher him out, but Nigel circumvented.
"Oh, wow," he ignored them, walking to the wall. "These must be Adult criminals. It's as you said...the Khlorophill tests the aging process." He scratched his neck. "It's kind of scary, isn't it?"
"Yes, very scary. Now go back upstairs and—"
"It's funny," he said, his attention aiming at one of the figures. "This one almost looks human..." He looked at it closer, its blonde hair still had some color in it, though the skin was completely green. Yet there was something familiar about it. "And that one..." he said, pointing to the figure next to it, with black hair. "Looks like a human girl."
"It's just the glass."
There was a larger one next to the girl, who twitched as soon as Nigel got close to the glass, giving him a fright. He walked across to another figure, this one was also blonde, her hair was tied up in a ponytail. This was one Nigel could not stop staring at. There was something about her that particularly caught his interest.
"Numbuh 74.23..." Nigel swallowed. "You're not...abducting humans?"
Numbuh 74.23 laughed. "What? Why would I do that? You know the G:KND doesn't abduct people. That's an Adult thing to do. Do I look that cliché?"
"Right of course it's just..." Nigel stared at the girl. "They look so much like them. Like this one..." He stepped forward. "Long ago...a friend sent me a message saying she was going to come to space. She never arrived. I never heard from her again. They claimed she disappeared."
Numbuh 74.23 laughed nervously. "Come on, Nigel. That's crazy. You think I have any reason to steal humans?"
"Perhaps not." He blushed. "You're right. I'm being silly." His back went against the wall. "It's the vegetables causing me to lose it. I have to find Abby before..." He stopped, his eye catching the black-haired girl again. There was something about her eyes...the way that even when they were closed, they were elegant. Eyes he could spend hours looking at. He noticed the blonde-haired boy's hand clasped tightly in hers. And on the other side of her, a large patchwork cap, too large for either of them, or for most human teenagers.
His lips were dry as struggled to even form the words that came to his mind.
"N...Numbuh 3?"
"Nigel—"
"And that's Numbuh 4..." he said. "Which would make the one on the other end..."
Numbuh 74.23 moved inward. "You're not thinking straight."
But Nigel just stood there, staring, his back turned. "My friends. But they couldn't be. Abby wouldn't...she wouldn't have...not here..."
It was then that Numbuh 74.23 began to backtrack. "They trespassed through security. They are the reason no one can get back into headquarters." They said. "They are Adults, Nigel."
"What exactly have you been doing down here?"
There was a crack that appeared the glass. Nothing touched it. It appeared almost by—
"Nigel—"
"Why did you want to decommission Earth, Numbuh 74.23? Certainly not for you to continue illegal experiments. That couldn't be."
Crack. Crack.
"One would almost think...that you have no intention of saving my planet from the virus."
The crack was now half-way up the wall.
"One would almost think..."
A halo of red light radiated from his body. Numbuh 74.23 backed away into the lift, but buttons wouldn't work.
Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!
"...that you lied to me."
"N-Nigel...come on, now...they're Adults! All of the humans are Adults! We need to protect ourselves."
He inhaled.
"You're not with the Galactic Kids Next Door...are you?" He turned, everything in his eyes from the corneas to the pupils, glowing fire-engine red, an aura of light beaming out of them.
"You're the Splinter Cell."
Numbuh 74.23 grinned.
Abby stood, frozen still in the middle of a strange room. She didn't dare move a muscle. Everything had an eerie red glow around it, some objects, even large tables were lifted into the air. She was starting to be over this whole business. She didn't know what she was looking for, or what a "code module" was. This whole ordeal was confusing. What she knew of her life was only a fraction of what it actually was, and who knew if those hazy memories weren't altered in some way? She held a tiny fire gun thing in her hand, which looked like a toy and didn't seem to have much power at all if she was being honest. Little buds rose from their roots as potting soil lifted like a wave ebbing and flowing. Abby stuck her other hand out, too curious to resist. She parted a path for herself, swiping the soil away from her and watching as it bounced off in zero-gravity.
She shivered.
Okay, Abby, she thought. This is easy. Just find the others and they will explain everything.
But as she thought this, the floating objects crashed into the ground. She could see now, roots emerging from the next room over, expanding out. Every thought she had told her to turn back, but her instincts told her that this was exactly what she was looking for. She could hear a faint call but couldn't place it. A step forward and finally she realized what the shout was. One of the roots was barreling her direction, so fast she was paralyzed. She forgot about her gun. She forgot about everything.
But the root did not attack. It stopped right before it reached her face. She opened her eyes watching as it split open, colored with the same red light that was originally around the floating objects. A creature slinked out of the room, growing larger and larger until it hit the ceiling, eventually breaking out of its energetic hold. Abby didn't even back up. She was too shocked to move her feet. Instead, she held up her little weapon, that Lizzie had insisted was easy to use, and aimed it at the creature.
"Uh...F-Freeze...Alien..." She tried. "You're under arrest! I think..."
Then, she saw another form leaping over the Alien creature. A boy with no hair and what looked to be a space suit. His eyes and body were glowing red and Abby had seen enough shows to know that he was the one who must have saved her.
The boy looked at his hands, almost startled by his own strength. "What's happening to me?" he asked himself. "I'm feeling...I'm feeling..." He looked at his enemy. "Authoritative," he growled. With those words, he sliced another one of the creature's roots, this time licking it clean off.
"Kay." Abby observed. "This is new."
"Are you alright?" he asked her.
As he looked at her, she recognized him. "You're the kid who wouldn't get off the ground."
"What?"
"Uh...Numbuh..." she tried to remember. "S-Six?"
"Six?!"
"Or was it seven..."
"Nigel Uno!" Their enemy wasn't about to take second stage.
"Yeah! That's it!"
When Nigel wasn't looking, it took its chance. It wrapped its roots around him. And now that Nigel had lost his concentration, he could not summon his powers again.
"Y-you...used me..." he choked.
"Oh, please. It was too easy convincing you to join the Galactic Kids Next Door," it griped back. "You wanted to be the best so badly! You humans! You're all the same! You all want to be number one...and you'll believe any story that tells you that you are."
"I am...Earth's representative..."
"You're nothing." It squeezed harder. "Earth's greatest warrior now a crummy, boring, old Adult. Like the rest of your scummy, sick planet."
"That may be..." he said. "But at least...I'm not a scaredy-baby."
"Scared?" It smiled a sickening smile. "I'm just doing what I need to do. To survive. And you humans...are the scourge of the Universe...You're no different. You're a disease, Uno. That's all you and your planet will ever be."
"A-Abby...m-my team..." He reached toward the door. He could barely breathe now, but was able to find his power again, moving the roots just enough away from him to keep him alive. Tears formed in his eyes. "My friends..."
"Oh, no you don't—" the Alien tree began, sending a root after Abby. Her body moved, without thinking first, as she leapt over the creature and made a break for it. "Hey! No fair!" It sighed. "Oh, well. She won't make it far."
She ran into the room, glass was everywhere. Aliens of all shapes and sizes were thrown across the ground, all unconscious.
"Oh God," she whispered, having a bad feeling. There was something thick about the air, like breathing in a fog. It stank like rancid spinach left in the fridge.
Abby hated spinach on any occasion.
It wasn't long before she found them, their skin turned a sickly green along with most of their hair and teeth. She didn't know whether or not she should touch them, the fumes from the room were giving her a headache. Never in her life did she have such an urge to go to sleep, but something kept her awake.
"Cookie?" She poked the girl. "I mean Numbuh...four? No, three. That's right you were three. Beatles is Four. But where's the..." Abby sighed. If she ever made it out of here, she was going to have to actually learn their names. The third body twitched, the boy seething up in pain. "Captain!"
The veins of neck stuck out as he choked his final plea for help.
She noticed a long vine latched onto his neck like a parasite, injecting the green glop into his body. "Oh, boy. Okay, Abby." She closed her eyes. "It's fine. You're on a beach. There are waves. There's a crab. Hi, crab. You wanna pull out the gross sticky poison tube so I don't have to?" She waited. "No? Fuck you, Crab." She put her foot on the boy's back. "I am really, really sorry—"
She pulled, and he screamed but relaxed as bit by bit it unlatched. If there was blood, she couldn't tell. Everything looked green. Proud of herself and completely grossed out, she dragged it out. The boy wasn't doing well. She didn't quite know what to do, but she knew she had to do something.
"I-I'll be back."
"Hey! Tree-sap!" Abby held up the vine. "Let. Him. Go."
The Alien tightened their grip as Nigel Uno was losing control over his powers.
"I don't know what the heck is goin' on! I don't know who you are or how I got here. But so far, I have been abducted, given the run-around, had my memories taken...apparently...and now you wanna hurt these nice folks?" She held the vine out.
Numbuh 74.23 let go of Nigel just enough to turn around. "W-wait! Abigail! There's been a grave misunderstanding!" They dropped him. "No need for that. See? I let him go. Like you asked. Now put the vine down and we can all walk out of here."
Abby nodded. "You're right. Of course. It was just a misunderstanding."
Numbuh 74.23 relaxed. "Right. A-A misunderstanding. Yeah."
Her face suddenly soured. "Yeah, right." With great strength, she lodged the vine into one of the branches. The alien screamed, as though it were bitten by a venomous snake. Nigel stood there, petrified, as the being expanded bigger and bigger, bulging from the sides. When it could no longer expand, it exploded. Gunk flew everywhere as Nigel and Abby just stared and waited. The tree decayed, limping to the side. It did not move again.
Abby was sure of herself, but still couldn't ease her anxious breath. "That's right. No one fucks with the Teens Next Door, Bitch." She checked in with Nigel. "I am in the Teens Next Door, right? I got that right?"
Nigel looked around at the scene. And perhaps it was from exhaustion, or perhaps it was a reaction to the fear, but right then and there he collapsed unconscious.
It wasn't long before Chad and Lizzie came looking for Abby and the others. Abby had a hard time explaining what exactly happened. Chad tried to go to Nigel, but Lizzie was already way ahead of him. He explained to Abby that the superpowers made sense, considering both Nigel's grandfather and his Uncle possessed them, albeit in different forms. He jovially stated that Nigel being telekinetic was almost too appropriate.
"Nigie!" Lizzie cried, collapsing over the boy. "I'm so sorry! I'll never ever lose you again!"
Chad rolled his eyes. "We need to find the code module and get the hell out of this place."
"What about him?" Abby asked, pointing to Nigel. "He saved my life. We can't just leave him."
"Oh, he's coming with us alright," Chad explained. "He has violated the trust of the people of Earth and must answer for his crimes." He sighed. "Damn you, Uno. You scared me for a minute there."
"And...them?" she asked, gesturing to the other humans. "They'll be okay, right?"
Chad's face darkened. "With that much direct exposure to Khlorophill? I don't know..."
"If Nigie is going then I'm going too!" Lizzie whined.
Chad flushed. "No way!"
"I'm going! I'm going! I'm going!"
"You're not even human!"
"Lalalalalala I can't hear you! Lalalalala!"
"You're not...Lizzie...I mean Vine! You're not-! Stop it!"
Abby watched the commotion, her mind fluttering from all the insanity she witnessed the last few hours. She wasn't certain what was going to happen to her, or really what had happened to her at all. The photographs were still dancing in her head like sugarplums. Then, a thought.
"I think I wanna open a bake shop."
END TRANSMISSION.