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Codename: Kids Next Door

Operation F.I.N.I.S.H.

Finding

Indecisive

Nigel

Is

Sure

Hard

DISCLAIMER: I do not, nor have I ever, owned the Kids Next Door or its franchise. If I did, this fic would have become an episode.

Chapter 3

The four of them looked at each other, then turned their heads away in unison when their eyes met. Numbuh 539 could see tears in both Kuki and Wally's eyes.

The moment of silence was maddening, and she felt compelled to break it. But when she opened her mouth to speak, Numbuh 5 cut her off. She was the only one to face back to Lexi; the others did not turn their heads.

"He's…with the Galactic Kids Next Door," she said simply.

Numbuh 539 had the strangest look on her face, what could only be described as amazement and confusion combined.

"You mean…the GKND is real?!?"

The others, surprised at her outburst, finally turned to her, all nodding. They looked as confused as she did.

"But we thought…we thought it was just a rumor, like the Splinter Cell! That's what Numbuh 362 told us, all of us; that it was only a myth, just another name the Splinter Cell went by!" She seemed almost frantic at the thought of it being real.

"The Splinter Cell is a rumor," Numbuh 5 said, "just a rumor to cover up the GKND. Though I'm not surprised they're getting mixed together, especially when only a few know about the latter." She paused a moment. "I'm pretty sure Rachel just said all that after she found out the truth."

"Which is…?" Lexi trailed off, waiting for an answer.

Numbuh 5 looked at the others, like they again were having a silent conversation with her. They shrugged at her.

"Why don't you tell us what you've heard?" Numbuh 2 suggested.

"Alright, makes sense. Excluding what Rachel told us, all we know is the GKND is a group of Kids Next Door operatives sent to other planets to destroy the adult virus, which includes destroying all the adults on said planets, and anyone who seems to have caught the virus, like me and some of the other Spies. We think they're leader is Numbuh Infinity. And that's pretty much it."

Numbuh 5 smirked. "Well, you got most of it right. But as far as we know, they aren't planning on destroying already-made adults altogether, or anyone who's caught the virus. Just the virus itself. And Infinity is their leader, though Numbuh 74.239 seems to be up in his ranks, too."

"Then I see where the Splinter Cell got mixed in there. So, I'm guessing none of you have seen any of them in awhile." The last part was more of a statement than a question. The others nodded, still with sad looks on their faces.

"We haven't seen or heard from any of them since we were 10. They could all be in Canada right now; have you checked there?" Numbuh 4 asked, still in the mindset that the GKND was in Canada and not outer space.

"Uh…yeah, we checked there." Numbuh 539 didn't get the Canada-Deep Space reference he was making. "We figured he had to be in space still, so we sent a few scientists out to find them. But so far, no luck. At the moment, we've got 5 operatives out looking for Infinity and Rachel, but we're planning on calling off the search to have them back in time for the battle."

Numbuh 2 looked confusedly at her. "But, if you're looking for…Nigel…specifically, then why would you waste your time looking for Infinity or Rachel?" He said Numbuh 1's name painfully, bringing back up old memories that hurt them all.

Lexi picked up on this, so she tried to avoid using his name. "We're looking for anyone who might have any leads to where he is now, and we figured Infinity's his leader now, and Rachel knows all about the GKND, heck, we even sent out an operative to look for her brother Harvey, since he'd know where his sister is. But no matter where we looked, we couldn't find any of them." She counted off a few operatives on her fingers. "Infinity, Rachel, Harvey, 74.239, the other scientists, 9, Chad, everyone we could think of who had some connection with him. You guys were the last ones on the list. Everyone else seemed to be wiped off the face of the Earth, practically." She frowned sympathetically at Numbuh 5. "You're not gonna love hearing this, but we even looked for Cree. Unfortunately, we think she was already taken over by the virus, so she was no help to us."

Numbuh 5 shook her head. "Don't matter to me anymore. I've known for months now something was up, and now that I have my memory back, I know she's got it. Nothing we can do for her now, she wouldn't fight with us anyways."

Again, an awkward silence.

"Well, I guess that's it then. Without him, or any of the GKND members, we're short a lot of fighters. If you guys don't know, then no one knows." Numbuh 539 stared down at the floor sadly.

"You're not just gonna give up the fight though, right?" Numbuh 4 suddenly asked.

She jerked her head up. "Heck no! We've still got a good number of fighters, we can take them on! We were just really planning on having them as a secret weapon, put them in when too many get pulled out."

"Well…good then. Didn't wanna have us go down without a fight."

Not surprisingly, there was another moment of silence on the main deck. That was, until someone came up with a plan to end all plans.

"Wait, are you sure he's still in space?" Numbuh 5 asked her.

"Well, not really, no. We just figured, there's a lot of planets out there, he wouldn't have come back by now."

"Then what if he's NOT still in space!? What if he's hiding out on Earth, somewhere you haven't checked for yet, like near enemy territory?" Abby asked, seeming to get excited at the thought that she knew where he was.

Numbuh 539 seemed excited too, for the same reason. "Then that would explain why we can't find any of them, they must be on Earth, not here in space! That's absolutely genius!"

Numbuh 2 smirked at this. "Well, she was Supreme Leader, after all." Everyone saw Numbuh 5 blush a bit.

"Well, are you up for the challenge? Do you think you guys could find him in time for the battle?" Lexi asked, looking to each of them for a response.

They also looked at each other, trying to figure out what each other would say. Numbuh 5 was the first to answer.

"Numbuh 5 don't know 'bout you guys, but she's in." She stuck her hand out, waiting to see who'd join her.

"I'm in, too." Numbuh 2 placed his hand on hers.

As did Numbuh 3. "Me three!"

"Me four!" Numbuh 4 finally added his own hand.

Numbuh 539 placed her hand on top of theirs. "Alright guys, this will probably be one of your toughest missions yet. But I know you guys can do this. So get out there, find him, bring him back, and we'll kick some adult butt!" She looked over all of them. "Count of three. One…two…three!"

On three, they all shot their hands that had been in the pile up in the air, with a simultaneous yell of, "KIDS NEXT DOOR RULES!!!"

Numbuh 539 led Sector V, now Sector F-V, down a long corridor to a room filled with operatives and what looked like 2x4 technology. As they came in, all the operatives dropped what they were doing and instantly saluted.

All at once, they said, "Numbuh 539, sir!"

She sighed at this. "At ease, go back to work." Whispering to the others, she said, "This is the exact reason why I hate being their leader. Formalities get so annoying."

"Numbuh 5 hears that, girl." She was the only one of them there who could relate to Lexi on formality annoyance. Though Numbuh 2 had been the Sector's leader while she was Supreme Leader, Numbuhs 3 and 4 couldn't think of him that way, and opted to avoid saluting him, which was just fine by him.

"So, let me show you guys what we've come up with since you've been gone. We've been waiting for an expert's opinion for awhile now, Hoagie." She led them over to an open table, covered in blueprints and spare parts. She grabbed a part, and held it up for them to see.

"Looks like a soda can, right? But it's not; it's one of our more popular weapons, the F.I.Z.Z.B.O.M.-X."

***Teens Next Door: F.I.Z.Z.B.O.M.-X.

Fizz Intensified Zuper Zany Bomb Opts Many Xplosions***

"Here, I'll show you how it works." Suddenly, she yelled to no one in particular, "IS THIS ONE READY, OR IS IT A MOCK-UP?

One boy, who was passing by with an armful of junk, looked it over briefly and stated, "Mock-up," and walked out the door.

"Thanks, F-Numbuh 59!" she called out.

She led them to another door, one with a large flashing green sign stating, "TESTING ROOM" on the front of it. She took one step in before running back out again, tripping and crashing into the others behind her. A BANG! was heard, followed by a cloud of smoke, causing everyone in the room to cough uncontrollably. A moment later, a couple of operatives ran out of the testing room, also coughing.

Brushing dust off her clothes, and trying to control her coughing, Numbuh 539 yelled, "WHAT THE CRUD DO YOU GUYS THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

The smaller of the two was pushed forward by the other, and he timidly said, "T-testing a F-F.I.Z.Z.B.O.M.-X."

"Well, obviously! But why, when the sign is green?!" She pointed to the green sign on the door.

The boy rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Uh, well, you see, funny story about that-"

"I'm not in the mood for funny stories! Go help F-Numbuh 59 clean up, and stay away from the F.I.Z.Z.B.O.M.-X.s!"

The two quickly ran out of the room, looks of sheer horror on their faces.

Holding her head again, she muttered, "Ugh, forgive me, 59." She suddenly remembered the others, and quickly said, "Sorry about that, they've been giving us all a hard time. If I've told them once, I've told them a million times: change the light to red when it's occupied, green if it's open."

As they walked in the testing room, Numbuh 2 asked, "Those guys look familiar, were they F-Numbuhs 34 and 42?" She simply nodded in agreement. She flipped a switch on the wall, then brought them over to the far side of the room.

"Alright, you know how this thing looks like a regular soda? Well, then Ninjas are gonna be thinking the same thing. Until we throw it at them, that is." As she swung her arm back, she warned, "You might wanna cover your ears." They did so, and she flung the contraption at the opposite wall. A fountain of sparks erupted from the wall, as did the same type of smoke they saw from before. Though this time, they were at a safe distance, so they didn't cough very much. When the smoke cleared completely, they could see a large black spot where the bomb had exploded.

"Explodes with a simple throw, and if the bomb doesn't waste them, the smoke will distract them enough for us to finish them off." She smiled proudly. "It's amazing what a bunch of kids can come up with."

"'Waste them'? You mean… you're actually fighting to kill?" Kuki asked, shocked.

She nodded with a somewhat guilty look on her face. "It's a sad day when our disputes with them come to fatal violence, but we've already had a few close calls with some of our own, and we aren't willing to risk sending out operatives empty handed.

"But," she added, "the good news is, you'll have plenty of 2x4 tech with you, so there shouldn't be much of a threat. I'll set you up with our older technology, as well as a couple of prototypes. They need real testing, but I won't send you out with only new stuff, just in case something happens to malfunction on ya."

She led them out of the room, flipping the switch again. Numbuh 4, who had been the first to walk out, noticed the sign had been red when they were inside, and switched back to green when the switch was hit.

They were each given a backpack, which they filled with the bombs and assorted tech, some they recognized from the Kids Next Door, some they didn't recognize at all. Among those they recognized was a M.U.S.K.E.T., a few dozen M.A.R.B.L.E.s, and "I Can't Believe It's Not Booger" (to which Numbuh 2 was ecstatic about; "I told them it was a good idea!!!" he had exclaimed). For those they hadn't recognized, they saw a small portable cannon that resembled a B.A.J.O.O.K.A., but instead, according to some of the operatives getting them supplies, shot out CDs with tracking devices on them, mainly to track enemies to their hideout and get information from Father. Another device was a communicator similar to the KND's, but doubled as a flare gun. The others noticed that Numbuh 539 herself had one attached to her belt, which hung loosely to her waist.

When each of them was prepared with their backpacks, they all gathered in the docking station of the Moon Base. Each of them had space helmets on, as the dock was open and there was no oxygen in the room. They were standing in front of an old S.C.A.M.P.E.R., and they could tell how old it was by the chipping paint and all the dirt it was covered in. Before going in, Numbuh 539 held up her right hand to them.

"Remember, your KND Ring is your lifeline. Don't ever take it off, ever. If you guys get in a jam, just contact us, we'll use your Rings to get your coordinates." She paused a moment. "And the most important thing: don't forget what it means."

Numbuhs 2,3, and 5 held up their hands as well, and Numbuh 3 nudged 4 to signal he was to do the same. The palms of their hands were facing each other. In unison (except for Numbuh 4, who was struggling to keep up with them), they said:

"Alone, we no better than the enemy."

They flipped their hands over, so now the fronts of their hands faced each other.

"Together, we are our own kind. We are, the Kids Next Door.

The four of them climbed into the S.C.A.M.P.E.R., Numbuh 2 at the controls. The others took their usual positions. They looked over at Lexi, who did not climb aboard.

"If I could, I would come with you. But these guys need me here, I can't leave them right now. But I know you guys can do this without me; Numbuh 5, you're in charge, can you double up duties?" She saw Abby nod. "Good. Good luck guys, we'll be waiting. Oh, and before I forget, if you find anyone, operative or not, who wants to help out, send them here. We need all the help we can get."

Numbuh 2 started the engine, and a low-pitched sputtering was heard. A moment later, the engine kicked in completely, and the craft hovered in the air a moment, before shooting out of the dock and out into space.

As Numbuh 539 waved them off, she muttered to herself, "Let's just hope this one works, Hantell."

Just so you know, the little saying they did with the Rings is better explained on a page on my dA account (Genincat), which shows you the Ring's meaning and how to make your own. And remember to check said account for chapter pics, the cover, chapter 1, chapter 2, and this chapter are up now.