Weapons drawn, the squad flipped on their flashlights and began scanning the room. They slowly moved their heads from the back of the chamber forward, the light following their line of sight. Nothing moved. They kept turning until they all faced the front of the room. All eyes fixated on the large blob. Despite being fully illuminated by the operatives' flashlights in addition to the dim pulsating glow it emitted on its own, the alien object still seemed dark. Still, nothing moved. The silence in the room was enough to make some operatives shake.
"What did these things look like?" Fanny whispered to the engineer hiding behind her.
"Th-they were small, and green, and gooey, like giant boogers or something."
"Giant boogers?" Fanny repeated.
"Well, yeah." Fanny sighed, marking the end of the unhelpful conversation.
"Okay, we need to get everyone out." She said to the rest of the group. "Move towards the exit. The light at the end." The group shuffled forward, never breaking formation. They knew the creatures were here. In between them and the door was the blob, still pulsating with green light.
"Should we do something about that?" Fanny asked the engineer. She got her answer, not from the engineer but from the blob itself. Its pulse became more rapid, and its size began to increase. "Um, did it do that before?"
"I don't know."
"Okay, everyone, back up!" The mass continued to grow, its light becoming ever more rapid until it stopped pulsating entirely and resembled a giant green lightbulb. Fanny thought about her next course of action, before deciding to do what she does best. "Screw it. I'm gonna shoot it." The shot rang out from Fanny's blaster, hitting the blob dead center. Everyone watched carefully as it wobbled, every so slightly before, exploding in size. Smaller masses of goo started to grow outward on the enormous blob.
One operative commented on the outgrowing blobs. "Ew. Those look like-"
"Boogers." Fanny finished in a moment of realization. "Kids Next Door! Fire on the blobs!" She cried out. Flurries of chili-infused lasers and high-velocity gumballs shot toward the gooey mass. As the lasers merely made scorch marks while the gumballs caused ripples across the green surfaces, the blobs of green goo did nothing in response.
Until they did. Spurts of goo followed a large popping sound. One soldier yelled out in horror as he quickly removed his goo covered chest piece, tossing it beside him. Another squishing sound was heard. This time, however, it came not from the blob, rather, from the ground behind them, and suddenly, the operatives remembered that they weren't alone. Another scream pierced the tense air, this time from an engineer. "It's those things!"
Fanny stopped shooting and turned around, noticing the wave of sentient boogers assaulting towards them. "Behind us!" All but a few operatives turned and started firing on the aliens. But with only a few guns focused on the larger mass, it was able to grow and accomplish its task. One of the smaller globs formed a menacing face before detaching from its former nest. Jumping out from the glob, it attempted to pounce at one of its attackers, but was shot out of the air by one of the many shots being fired at the blog. Fanny's gaze returned to the massive alien mass, which was now releasing dozens of smaller goo monsters one at a time.
"We need to get out of here!" One soldier cried out.
"Right! Everyone, head for the door! Regroup at the nearest sector!" Fanny ordered amidst the chaos. The team broke out in a full on sprint, moving around the spawn-releasing blob. Despite their slug-like appearance, the aliens were only barely slower than the sprinting operatives. Fanny was one of the first out, but unlike the others who, upon exiting the infected sector, continued their sprint down the hallway, she stayed beside the door, ready to close off the room once everyone was out. As soon as the final engineer left, she smashed the control panel and the the two halves of the door slammed together, squashing one of the monsters beneath it as more of the monstrous blobs slammed themselves into the steel door in an determined yet illogical attempt to get past it.
Before he could run off to join the rest of the group, Numbuh 14.7 was stopped in his tracks as a hand grabbed onto the collar of his shirt and he found himself being yanked back towards the Scottish commander. "Is there any other way they could get out?" She nearly yelled at him, trying, and failing, to hide the fear in her voice.
"Uhh..." He hesitated, his fear of the monsters just barely outweighing the fear of the red-head. "The, uh, vents, maybe."
"We have a locking mechanism for the vents. Where is the switch?"
"Inside the-"
"Inside the room." She finished. "Of course."
"It's meant to keep things out, not in. But all lockdown systems can be activated remotely from the bridge."
"Then we need to contact the bridge." With their new heading in mind, the two ran off to meet with the rest of the group.
–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–
Rachel continued her rounds, keeping track of the status of each sector. Whenever a sector encountered an issue, she either solved it or redirected it to someone who could. It was and endless wave of "Message from the mess hall," "Message from the hanger," "Message from the armory," etc. Until she received a peculiar one.
"Message from botanical gardens." The botanical sector was part of the Moonbase's secondary function. Though it was mainly used as a central command station for the KND, it was also used as a research and development station for KND's science division.
"The gardens? Shouldn't that be empty, what with all the scientists gone?"
"Maybe it's .239."
"It better be. Put it on." The screen flashed up a familiar face, but not the one Rachel was hoping for. "Fanny?"
"LOCKDOWN ENGINEERING! VENTS AND ALL!"
"Um, okay." Rachel sprinted closer to the console in front of her, switching one screen to a tactical map of the base. She selected engineering and activated emergency protocols. "Its locked down. Fanny, what happened?"
"That thing that landed there, is it doing anything?"
"No, why? Should it be?"
"Find a way to contain it, we're on our way." With that, Numbuh 86 hung up.
"Thanks for all the information," Rachel said to the now blank screen. She stepped away from the central console and walked towards a storage closet.
"What are you looking for?" One of the guards asked once Rachel started digging through the closet.
"The closest thing we have to a force-field. Now will somebody find 74.239!?"
–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–
Numbuh 74.239 found himself in a small room, surrounded by darkness. He had only recently arrived, after spending much of the last twenty minutes looking for an isolated location. Once he was sure there were no other operatives within a hundred feet, he rolled up his sleeve and activated the small device on his wrist. A small holographic logo appeared hovering over the wrist-worn gadget. "Galactic Kids Next Door Operative Numbuh 74.239 placing a call to High Counselor Numbuh i," He spoke firmly into the deivice
"Hello, Numbuh 74.239." A computerized female voice responded, the scientist's voice replacing her own to fill in the built in sentence templates. "Numbuh i is currently unavailable. I will put you on hold. Current wait time: four years."
"Authorize emergency code six dash twenty-one dash nineteen dash five."
"Speech input unrecognized. Please repeat."
The scientist sighed, clearing his throat and swallowing his saliva in an attempt to make his voice more comprehensible. "I said authorize emergency code six dash twenty-one dash nineteen dash five." He repeated in a clearer, if more irritated, tone.
"Emergency code authorized. Connecting call."
After a couple seconds, the logo disappeared, replaced with a lower-case italic "i". "He's here." A deep female voice, different from the computer's, spoke out.
Numbuh 74.239 responded. "Yes. He arrived quicker than we had anticipated. We were unprepared. We still are."
"We sent you to help the Earth based Kids Next Door."
"I can't. I need to know how you fought him off."
"We did not. All GKND races that encountered Fuse fled their planets, including mine."
"These humans are not yet capable of mass interplanetary transport, much less planet-wide evacuation or interstellar relocation. Running is not an option!"
"Well then, I guess you'll have to fight."
"How?!" 74.239 asked angrily.
"You're asking the runners. Ask the fighters." Once that sentence was finished, the previous logo returned, and the scientist shut down the device. "Fine!" He exclaimed to nobody, slamming open the room's door beginning is walk to the bridge.
–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–|–
Being closer, 74.239 was able to reach the bridge before Numbuh 86. Rachel stopped her search once she heard the door open. She didn't greet the visitor, but her welcome was still more comforting than the guards, who raised their weapons towards the entering scientist.
"Well 'hello' to you too." He greeted the soldiers. "I've never seen the bridge this empty."
"Where the heck have you been?" Rachel shouted at him from the closet.
"Full of hospitality today aren't we?"
"Don't you start with me."
"I was... doing things."
"Okay... well, catch." The nerdy operative barely had time to react to the flying umbrella hat coming towards him like a frisbee, and yet he caught it with ease. "Oh, I didn't expect you to actually catch that."
He examined the device in his hands. "Why am I holding a birthday suit?"
"I need you to modify it into a forcefield. Can you do it?"
"Probably. It depends. How big do you want it?"
"Cover the entire station."
His eyes widened. "Sure, just give me five bajillion years."
"Okay, how about cover this thing?" She pointed to the still inactive blob.
Numbuh 74.239 frowned at the massive orb of goo. "Wouldn't it be easier just to cut it off?"
"With what? Do you have any idea how many nine-year-olds are on this base normally? Sharpest thing we have are safety scissors. You wanna try cutting through that thing with safety scissors, be my guest."
"Point taken. Maybe I can find a laser. Seriously, though, where is everyone?"
"Numbuh 86 took them scouting. They're on their way back now."
"It doesn't scare you just a little bit that we are currently scouting our own headquarters?" The scientist said grimly as he tinkered with the hat.
"I guess I didn't think about it like that." Rachel replied, the though now taking over her mind. "How long is the modification gonna take?"
"I don't know. I'm a scientist. This is a job for-" He was interrupted by the bridge door slamming open. A crowd of operatives came pouring in, 86 stuck somewhere in the middle.
"SECURE THE BLOB!" Fanny cried aloud as a group of soldiers surrounded the mass, weapons at the ready.
"-engineers." 74.239 finished pleasantly surprised to see the group that had arrived with with the scouts. "Should I be worried?" Rachel asked her friend.
"No. Well, yes. But not right now." The redhead replied unhelpfully.
"Okay, Fanny, you need to tell me what's going on."
"Those things are pods, holding some type of goo monsters."
Rachel immediately turned her to 74.239, who, having recruited the engineers, was now of in one corner of the room, tinkering with the protective device. "Work faster." The scientist met her gaze just long enough for a quick nod before returning to his assigned project.
"We need to get people away from them." She turned to her comms officer. "Loudspeaker, now." She grabbed the mic.
"Attention all kids next door. Back away from the blobs. If there is a safe, blob-free location near you, please go there imm-"
"Uh sir?" She was interrupted by one of the operatives on blob watching duty. "It's glowing, and growing." The operative pointed out roots that were quickly spreading.
"What does that mean?"
"It's about to release monsters," Fanny explained in a nervous tone.
"How much longer?" Rachel shouted to the engineers.
"Five minutes?" One replied. Rachel looked back at Fanny, who simply shook her head.
"Ma'am, I'm getting messages from all other inhabited sections." Her comms officer reported.
"Let me guess, their blobs are being weird?"
"Yep."
"Okay. Screw it! These things wanna fight? Then let's fight." She explained, removing her sweatshirt to reveal a samurai-like chest piece. "Go on full alert." The officer hit a large button, aptly labeled on their console and alarms sounded. Rachel picked up the mic. "KIDS NEXT DOOR!" She mentally prepared herself for what would come next. "BATTLE STATIONS!" The other operatives sprang into action, ready for the ensuing battle. Rachel grabbed her weapon, a long metal pole with a yield sign on one side and a boxing glove on the other, and took a commanding stance.
"Let's do this."