Wow. Almost 4 years later. I'll be honest, I never thought I would start writing again. For several reasons; my poor English, work (I work as a 3D modeller now in animation films!), poor health (it's been a tough road) but somehow, just somehow, I came back to this. I think out of all of my stories, Allies and Enemies is the one I'm most passionate about. (K.N.D. Rules!) I've had a long think about think story and recapped myself with my story notes from back then and I guess here it is.
Chapter 5: Headaches upon headaches upon headaches.
Red.
Sat on his classical, leather armchair. Fingers entwined. Lights flashed. He viewed what seemed to be hundreds of screens showing footage of his loyal Ice Cream men; pillaging anything and everything that was necessary for his scheme. One screen flickered, showing six confused and befuddled children. "Finally." A voice echoed. His voice. He swivelled in his chair, a hint of playfulness, unable to contain his excitement.
"A plan. An evil plan that no body can dream of." He smiled, "Finally, I will get rid the world of those annoying Kids Next Door brats! They won't even know what hit them." From a smile, to a grin, only to be followed by a slew of laughter, echoed from within the Delightful Mansion from Down The Lane.
Father.
Unlike the cold, dark, hallways of the Delightful Mansion, somewhere, way, away; the sun was shining, birds were chirping, it was peaceful in the neighbourhood or so we thought. A loud, screechy voice could be heard in one of the local ice cream parlours.
Two children sat outside, table decked with two enormous servings of banana split. "Oh, isn't today such a wonderful day? I must be the luckiest girl in the world, cause I get to celebrate my 3 month anniversary with my amazing boyfriend." Lizzie boasted causing others sitting around the couple to grumble, others shook their heads. She spooned some ice cream into her mouth. "It's not every day a girl gets treated to the best ice cream in town you know." One could visibly see, people walking away from the table where the couple sat.
"Right," said Numbuh 1, his head leaned against his hand, elbow on the table. He sighed. "Look. Lizzie, I know it's happy 3 month anniversary and all but did you really have to be rude to my friend?" The girl blinked, "What are you talking about Nigie?"
Numbuh 1, let out a huge sigh, "By friend, I meant Numbuh 8. Did you really have to be that rude to her and call her a grandma? I mean what was that all about?" At this point, Lizzie's face turned red in rage. She slammed her hands down, almost knocking down their sundaes. "Rude? Are you calling me rude Nigel Uno? She was the one who was rude. Interrupting our date, calling me an acquaintance and she does look like a grandma for crying out loud! I mean what kind of a kid has white hair?"
Numbuh 1 buried his head into his hands letting out another deep sigh, "Lizzie, she's my team mate, an essential member of Sector V and it's not her fault that she has white hair! It's a long and complicated story. That and she's had a tough time..." Lizzie folded her arms, she couldn't believe it. Her, now in her opinion, so-called amazing boyfriend wanted to talk about some other girl, who was rude to her on their 3 month anniversary. "Why are you being so nice, to another girl of all people? And so what? How tough a time can it be?"
Before he could hold himself back, the usually calm and collected child lost his patience. Numbuh 1 shouted at Lizzie in frustration, "She doesn't have a mom or a dad! How could someone like you understand?!" Lizzie became quiet, tears welled up in her eyes. The sudden guilt hit Numbuh 1 hard. He reached over for her, but she turned away. "Lizzie, wait, look I didn't mean to shout at you." His hand now on her shoulder. She shoved it off, in one swift motion. "I take it back. This is the worst 3 month anniversary date ever." She began to walk away, "Lizzie..." she turned around. "Don't you Lizzie me, Nigel Uno!" Her hand grabbed her bowl of half eaten sundae. "Until you get your priorities right, don't even think about talking to me." And with that, she rammed the bowl of banana split into Numbuh 1's face. He fell back and she stomped away.
Great. Just great. He thought.
Lizzie was mad at him, he couldn't find out anything about the Ice Cream Men and the biggest thing that was bothering him was the fact that he still had no memory of Numbuh 8.
He wiped the sticky sweet ice cream away from his face. What a waste, but that was the last thing on his mind.
Speaking of Numbuh 8, she was back at the treehouse. The white headed girl was irritated. Finding out what Father's plans were going to be a lot harder than she expected. Like the first Ice Cream truck, she had planted trackers on the two she followed, only to be greeted by empty warehouses and trackers rendered useless due to their lost signals yet again.
Her irritation was evident to Numbuhs 2, 3, 4 and 5. They had all seen her return with her head down, muttering words to her self as she sulked to her room. She had even raised her hand up at Numbuh 3 who had opened her mouth, wanting to attempt to comfort Numbuh 8. "Sorry Numbuh 3, I just need some space right now."
Now, locked in her room. She stared at a wall in her room. It was the only wall in her room which she re-designed herself. Instead of the usual wood, this wall was covered in cork. It was a solid solution for Numbuh 8 to visually see and organise her thoughts. The corked wall was now covered with a large map of the neighbourhood with pictures of the warehouses and Ice Cream trucks, each pinned to their corresponding location on the map. She kept muttering to herself, eyes darting, left and right. There was something missing, something she couldn't put her finger on, and for the life of her, she couldn't think what.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door. "Um, Numbuh 8?" It was Numbuh 4. Him, along with Numbuhs 2, 3 and 5 were worried about her, from the moment she left the treehouse to when she returned. The four children were concerned about their friend. Being the closest to Numbuh 8, Numbuh 4 decided to approach her. "Can I come in? Um... we're all worried about you and..." before he could finish his sentence the door clicked and swung opened.
Numbuh 8, signalled to Numbuh 4 to come in. He walked into her room. She closed the door shut. "Um, are you... um, okay, Numbuh 8?" Numbuh 8 looked at him, her face scrunched up. "Ya... I'm okay. I'm just, I don't want to admit it, but I'm just a bit annoyed, Numbuh 4." "Ya, we were all saying how stupid Lizzie is just so stupid and cruddy and..." Distracted, his eyes wandered to the cork board behind Numbuh 8 causing him to stop. She followed his eyes and turned to the board. "Woah. What's that Numbuh 8?" She pulled over two swivel chairs and passed one to Numbuh 4, urging him to sit down. She herself sat down backwards onto the chair, her hands leaning on the back piece. "It's a map of the neighbourhood, Numbuh 4." With her feet, she lightly pushed herself towards her desk, grabbing a long ruler. She repeated the motion and moved towards her cork board. The ruler snapped to a photo. "This is the location of the first Ice Cream Truck, when I saw it this morning, the one that we ended up following together after class," the ruler followed a red line, she paused, "this is where it ended up before I lost signal with the tracker. The empty warehouse." She continued, pointing to other red lines and photographs. "These are the trucks, I followed earlier on. And they all have two things in common. First, they all disappear in empty warehouses and second, my trackers, would all lose signal." Her hand dropped. "Even with my B.O.O.S.T.S. on my skateboard, I still lose them," she sighed in defeat, "and there's something missing and I just don't know what." She was tapping the back of her hand to her forehead, ruler still in hand.
Numbuh 4, was trying his best to process all the information, "So, you followed and tracked the Ice Cream trucks and put everything you know together on this board here?" Numbuh 8's head slumped into her arms on the back piece, nodding into her sweater. "But Numbuh 8, this is amazing! We've got to tell the others! Maybe we'll figure something out about Father's plans" exclaimed Numbuh 4. He got up to leave only to feel and arm grab onto his hoodie. "No!" A loud thump. He turned around to find that Numbuh 8 along with her chair and ruler had fallen onto the floor in an attempt to stop him from leaving. "Oh my God! Numbuh 8, are you okay?" He helped her up as she brushed herself. "I'm fine but please, don't tell the others." She picked up her fallen chair. "But why? We can figure this out and get those cruddy adults!" Numbuh 8 folded her arms and paused. "Well, Numbuh 8?" Numbuh 4 was eager, he was ready, hungry even to kick some adult butt. "Can I be honest with you, Wally?" Numbuh 4 knew something was up. "Hey, what's up?"
She sighed, "it's Nigel, Wally." His heart dropped. Did she figure out that Numbuh 1 doesn't remember her? "I didn't like how he seemed like he didn't believe me, about the adults being in the warehouse and all." Numbuh 4, let his breath out. She was talking about that. She raised his eyebrow at him, "Is there something you're not telling me Wally?" Panicking, "no, no! I believe you, so do the others!" Letting it go, she retorted, "ya, everyone but Nigel." She was clearly upset at Numbuh 1.
"I'll be honest, I'm just a bit hurt Wally. When I came to Sector V, I was so happy that I got to see you, Nigel and Hoagie. So, so, happy. But, Nigel," she turned away from him. "I feel like, with you, me and Hoagie, things were just as good as back then. But, I just feel hurt cause I feel like mine and Nigel's friendship has changed. Maybe it's just me but he just feels really distant. Like he doesn't even know me at all."
Numbuh 4 didn't know what to say. He didn't like lying to her. Not one bit. And he wanted, no needed Numbuh 1 to hurry up and remember. "I'm sure, it's just because of the mission." Numbuh 8 looked down. "Talia," Numbuh 4 saw Numbuh 8's hands were clenched. "He's just really stressed about the mission. He's probably just more mad at himself for not knowing what to do." Numbuh 8 rubbed her forehead. "I don't know." Numbuh 4 continued, "it's been a long day for you, Talia, you're probably you know, um, tired! Thats's it, tired!" His hands moving along to emphasise the word tired. "You know, I mean first day of school, chasing the Ice Cream Truck, Lizzie, chasing more Ice Cream Trucks, figuring all this out! I don't know how you did it!"
Numbuh 8, looked at the younger Australian boy. She knew he was trying his best to make her feel better. She gave him a small smile and gave in, "maybe you're right." She took in a deep breath, breathing in, then slowly, very slowly breathed out. "I'm sorry for making you worried Wally, I just want to figure out what Father's up to." "And we will!" Numbuh 4 egged on. "We'll get him together. So let's go talk to the others, okay?" Green met brown, as her eyes looked into his. "Let's talk to the others about what I found out, but later, after I find a bit more information. I know I'm close to figuring it out but I need some time." Deep down Numbuh 8, didn't want to share the information, not yet anyways. She knew Numbuh 4 wanted to cheer her up and help her, and she appreciated it. But, what Numbuh 1 said bothered her enough for her to want to prove to him that what she saw was true and that there were adults. She was determined to figure out this mystery of the Ice Cream Trucks so that she could give solid evidence to Numbuh 1. Maybe then, he'll have more faith and value her more, is what Numbuh 8 thought to herself.
Satisfied to see Numbuh 8 perk up, Numbuh 4 said, "you got yourself a deal. But before that, let's go see the others. Watch some TV, play some games or something, how does that sound?"
She nodded, "Sounds like a plan."