Rule one of being the leader of an army: Learn to micromanage. Rachel had learned this skill years ago. She was used to continuously managing the treehouses on Earth as well her own base on the moon. Secretly, she was slightly relieved that she now only had to deal with her base.
Not that that was an easy task. "Ma'am, every infected sector is reporting injuries."
"Tell them to assign a medic and get the injured to safety." At this particular moment, she was attempting to manage the other sectors while fighting off goo monsters that had assaulted the bridge.
She was doing pretty well. While the other operatives were spread out, she had taken the task of protecting the communications officer, partly because he couldn't fight, but mostly so that she could stay close and give orders. "Where should they go?"
"Was the medical staff evac'd with the scientists?" She asked between grunts.
"No. They don't fall under scientists. They're labeled as support staff, like the engineers."
"Really?" She stopped fighting and pondered for a second. "Well, I guess that makes sense. Though some of the scientists we evac'd were just gardeners. Hm." She resumed her battle. "Was the medical bay hit?"
"Nope. It's in the middle of the science quadrant, and the only sector in that area to not be evacuated. They probably assumed it was empty too."
"Good." She turned to the scientists, whom Fanny had begrudgingly decided to protect. "You guys-" She paused to dodge an alien slimeball flying towards her. "You guys done yet?"
The small group was still tinkering with the hat. "This is delicate work!" One engineer shouted back.
"That didn't answer my question!"
"Almost... almost..." 74.239 muttered to himself as he put on the finishing touches. "Done!" He exclaimed. 14.7 grabbed the device out of the scientist's hands.
"Catch!" He yelled to Rachel before trying to throw the hat towards her.
Trying. And failing.
"I'm hit!" An operative cried out dramatically after the umbrella hit him on the side of his head. Rachel sighed and sprinted toward where the device had landed, swinging her staff in every direction. Once she had obtained it, she ran back to the main console. "This thing keeps shields from both sides, right?" She asked an engineer.
"It should."
"Good." She removed her helmet and donned the hat. Once activated, the device emitted a layer of solid energy that formed around her, protecting her from the attackers and allowing her to manage the rest of the base. She started to type on her console, sending orders to each sector, telling them to grab anything important, shut down their systems and make a break for the science sector.
"Fanny, gather your troops get the tinkering team out of here." She shouted at her friend. "Take him too." She said, pointing at the comms officer. "Head towards the science sectors. The other sectors will meet you there."
"What about you?"
"I'm staying, for now. When I'm done here, I'll shield the blob, and run to the gardens."
"Then I'm staying too."
"No," Rachel commanded her. "You need to go. I need someone there to make sure everything goes well. Don't worry, I'll be fine."
The red head thought about arguing, but knew that doing so would only waste precious time. "Don't be late!" Fanny rallied her troops and pushing towards the door.
"If I don't arrive soon, DO NOT come back. I'm not risking you."
Rachel continued to work on the console, locking down sectors as they became empty. With the others gone, every monster in the area focused on her, though her shield prevented them from even nudging her. Once every sector had been evacuated, she shut down her console, grabbed her weapon, backed up, and swung the staff around, knocking away the surrounding creatures. "Time to go." She muttered to herself. Taking advantage of the stunned monsters, she sprinted towards the alien spawner and removed her shield, placing it on the blob instead. The device's hard-light field enclosed the nest, preventing it from spawning any more monsters.
Her objective complete, Rachel made a break for the exit, the feeling of being home free bringing a smile to her face as she arrived at the doorway. However, neither the feeling, nor the smile, lasted long, as they were replaced by stinging pain. Rachel looked down and noticed a spawn who had absorbed some of the broken glass on the floor to form make-shift teeth had now dug the shards into her leg, drawing a substantial amount of blood before detaching from the limb, leaving its temporary teeth behind. She cried out in agony. Using the boxing glove on her staff, she smashed the now red monster, splattering it across the ground. She had no time to bandage the wound, with the other monsters starting to come out of their dazed state. She limped through the doorway, hitting the switch to close the door once she was out.
The young general took a seat on the cold, metal floor, leaning her back against the wall, confident that she was safe, if only for the moment. She tore off the blood-stained portion of her right pant-leg and wrapped it around the bleeding wound. She noted that the wound was the worst she'd ever received. Even when she worked in the field, she had never gotten anything worse than a sprained ankle. Her leg wrapped, the girl arose, using her staff as leverage. She cried out in pain again once she put weight back on the injured leg, but remained standing. She limped away from the bridge in retreat, her staff being downgraded to a cane. The bridge was fairly close to the science sectors, but it would still take her well over ten minutes to get to the gardens.
Rachel remembered what 74.239 had said, about how odd it was that the Kids Next Door were scouting their own base. Now it was worse, she thought. Now they were retreating from one section of their base into another. Soon, they'd have to wage an assault on their base. As she hobbled through the hallway, Rachel realized something. Something that brought more fear than anything she's ever thought. She realized that, despite her endless confidence in her troops, despite their undying will, despite their experience and training, despite their numbers, despite everything, she wasn't entirely sure they'd win.
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With all the operatives having gathered in one location, Fanny had taken it upon herself to do a head count. The Scotswoman mostly used it to take her mind away from her still absent leader and friend. Despite feeling an intense need to do otherwise, she followed Rachel's orders and stayed with the others. She realized after a few minutes of trying to count a moving crowd that it wasn't the most logical of ideas, yet her stubbornness and desperation to take her mind off Rachel forced her to persist. She left out the operatives who had been admitted to the infirmary. The excuse she gave herself was that the medical officers would tally them anyway. While this was true, the real reason she avoided the hospital, and its wounded residents, was to prevent the thought of Rachel being absent do to injury, or worse, from taking over her mind any more than it already had.
Eventually, the young commander gave up, half-jokingly reporting the head count at one bajillion. Nobody was reported missing, other than Rachel of course, so she cared not.
She was speaking with one of the sector heads near the entrance to the gardens when one of the operatives that were guarding the doorway interrupted. Considering the number of times she and other operatives had been cut off that day, she was ready to scream in the guard's face. However, as she turned towards the entrance, it was not a scream that left her mouth next, but a gasp.
"Rachel!?" The adolescent officer was practically dragging herself across the ground, putting more wight on her staff than on either of her legs. Her makeshift bandage had slowed the bleeding, but not before absorbing so much of the red fluid that the bandage itself was dripping it, leaving small crimson dots on the ground a she moved.
Three operatives who were guarding the entrance ran up to help, with Fanny following close behind. Knowing that help was on the way, Rachel finally felt safe enough to collapse on the ground. The last thing she heard before passing out was the clanking of the yield sign on her weapon, as it too hit the floor.
Fanny rushed up to her friend and screamed for a medic. "Lift her onto my back." Fanny ordered to the other operatives. The three worked together, wrapping the unconscious girl's limp arms around Fanny's neck. Once they had her in a standing position, they lifted her up and Fanny held her up by her thighs, piggy-back style. Fanny leaned forward in a hunched position, making sure Rachel didn't fall backward and carried her through the gardens toward the medical sector. Rachel's leg continued to leave small, scarlet puddles as Numbuh 86 moved through the sector. As Fanny walked through the gardens, every operative she passed looked on, either in surprise, in sorrow, or in horror.
Once Rachel's comm officer saw them, he ran up beside Fanny, following her to the medical area. Once they arrived, the officer calmly opened the door, and Fanny, panic having invaded her mind, made her entrance. "Hey!" She yelled out, getting every conscious person's attention. "Help!"
A senior medical officer, designated as Numbuh 120/80, ran over and started guiding Fanny to the closest empty bed. "What happened?" She asked.
"I don't know. She just showed up like this. She collapsed before we could ask." Fanny replied, trying and failing to hide the fear in her voice.
Once the wounded leader was placed in a bed, the doctor removed the make-shift bandage and revealed the bite marks, many of which had shards of glass embedded in them. "Okay, we need to get those shards out and close the wound."
"Can you do that?" Fanny asked, knowing that this doctor was only a child.
"Yes. I've done stitches before. You'd be surprised how many clumsy people are in the KND. It's rare, but it wouldn't be my first time." Technically, the doctor was a teenager, at age thirteen. Once the fusion planet had been detected, all decommissioning procedures stopped. Most believe this to be due to Rachel having turned thirteen since the planet was found, but in reality, Rachel simply decided that the KND needed every troop it could get. This resulted in most of the operatives on the moonbase being teens.
Rachel, and Fanny, knew that thirteen was still young, but as much as the KND was a fighting force, it was also the home to some of the smartest children in the world. They could handle themselves, better than many adults could.
The doctor gathered a small team, and, after removing the shards, stitched up and bandaged the wound. "She lost a good amount of blood, but she should wake up soon." She told Fanny, who was watching from a couple feet away, doing nothing to hide her panic and anxiety. A nurse arrived and delivered a glass of orange juice to the young doctor, who placed it on the table beside Rachel's bed. "Make her drink this when she does." She ordered the worried girl before leaving to attend to the other wounded operatives.
With no team of doctors telling her to stay back, Fanny rushed to the bed, ready to stay with her friend and wait for her to awaken. However, today was not a day that would allow waiting. A lone operative had arrived next to her, who hesitated for a moment after seeing his bandaged leader. "Numbuh 86? You asked me to come get you when we gathered the weapons."
Fanny sighed. The comms officer, who had been standing beside her, put his hand on her shoulder. "I'll stay. You go. They need leadership. Right now, you're the best they have."
"Call me the second she wakes up," Fanny ordered before walking away with the operative.
"I will."
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"You know, I don't think I know your name." The comms officer looked up from his tablet at Rachel.
"You're awake." He noted, his priorities seemingly more in order.
Rachel spoke in a quiet voice, not yet having the strength to talk at normal volume. "I know your designation, Numbuh 10,000hz, but I'm not sure I know your name."
The boy smiled. "It's James."
"James," Rachel repeated. Before the officer could ask what had happened, the door to the medical area slammed open.
"Where is she!?" A young voice yelled out.
"Oh boy." Rachel didn't need to see the source of the question to identify them. The unique voice was enough to give away the identity of the operative who had entered the infirmary. Someone who wasn't even supposed to be on the base.
"There you are!" The voice belonged to one of the youngest operatives on the base, Numbuh 363, who also happened to be Rachel's younger brother. "What the heck happened to you?" He asked.
"I got bit." She said offhandedly. "But I swear, if I don't die, you're going to." Rachel warned him, the motherly side of her personality taking over.
"Wait, what? Why me? What did I do?"
"You stayed," Rachel replied bluntly.
"I wanted to fight. I'm KND too you know." Harvey defended himself.
"You disobeyed orders. Not just from your commander, but from your sister! What if you got hurt? This isn't some random adult supervillain. This is an invading army. They aren't gonna stop because you scraped your knee. You can't just-" She cut herself off.
"Can't what?" The young boy asked, ready to continue the argument.
"What is it?" Rachel asked, noticing the concerned look on James' face. The officer had his hand to his ear, listening closely to the message coming through his headset.
"Here." He grabbed his tablet, tapping it a few times before handing it to Rachel. He touched his earpiece again, transferring the transmission to the device. "It's on the main emergency channel."
A voice came over the speakers on the tablet. "Come in Moonbase, come in Moonbase. This is Numbuh 792 of Kids Next Door light team. We are on our way in a rescue vehicle. Please respond." The voice paused for a couple seconds, waiting for a response, before repeating the message.
Rachel listened a couple more times before turning to her brother.
"Go get 86."