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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 6
"Well, what are we gonna do? We can't keep going without Numbuh 3," Numbuh 2 said groggily. He had almost fallen asleep lying on the path, and had only woken up when they realized Numbuh 3 was missing.
Numbuh 5 looked at the height of the sun. Despite how early it was, the sun almost seemed to be going down already. "And if we double back to find her, we probably won't make it to the pyramid in time. It'll get dark, we'd have to spend the night who knows where, the GKND will probably be gone by sunrise-"
"Who cares about the stupid Canadians?!? Kuki's all alone out there, we can't just leave her!" Numbuh 4 exclaimed. "She could be hurt, for all we know! Or abducted by aliens! I ain't going if she's not here!" He folded his arms, and was about to sit on the ground in stubbornness when the little cactus, still stuck to his hand, pinched the other, and he remembered the last time he'd tried to sit on the ground. So he just glared at Numbuh 5 instead. "You guys can go find Numbuh 1 if you want, but I'm going back for Kuki!" With that, he turned on his heel and started to walk in the opposite direction.
Numbuh 2 had been watching Numbuh 4 the whole time, and now returned his gaze to Numbuh 5, wondering what to do.
Numbuh 5 just stood there in a silent debate with herself. After a short moment, she ran after Numbuh 4, calling to him to come back. Numbuh 2 jumped up from his spot and followed them.
"Numbuh 4! Hey, Wally, wait up!" Numbuh 5 called. Numbuh 4 hadn't gotten very far at that point, only a few strides away from the others. He stopped and turned to face her, who ran the rest of the way to stop in front of him. Numbuh 2 was right on her heels.
"We ain't going without Numbuh 3 either. We've waited 5 years to see Numbuh 1, I'm sure he can wait for us for just a little while longer." She smiled at him, her eyes covered by her hat.
He didn't say anything, just turned around and kept walking. When neither of them followed immediately, trying to decide why he hadn't answered, he called over his shoulder, "You guys coming or what?"
And of course, they followed him. After a moment of walking, Numbuh 2 nudged 5 in the arm and whispered low enough that Numbuh 4 couldn't hear, "He's as protective of her as he was back when we were kids!"
Numbuh 5 smiled. "Some things never seem to change, huh?"
It had been a half hour of retracing their steps, and still no sign of Numbuh 3. They looked everywhere, both on the path and off it. They were all worried for their friend's safety, Numbuh 4 especially. He was the one who called her name the loudest.
"KUKI! WHERE ARE YA? KUKI!?!"
He'd been calling the same thing the whole time, and Numbuhs 2 and 5 could hear his voice was starting to get hoarse.
They were quickly running out of places to search, and what was worse, they had absolutely no clue how much ground she had covered during the time she'd been missing. They had barely kept in touch after their decommissionings – mostly because they had all been in different countries and different continents – they didn't know her physical capabilities; if she could walk for that long without resting, if she walked quickly or slowly, absolutely nothing that could have helped them.
Numbuh 2 eventually reached his own capabilities like before, and again fell flat on his face in exhaustion. Numbuh 5 had to drag him along, barely keeping up with Numbuh 4; despite his exhaustion earlier, he now walked non-stop with no signs of tiredness at all.
"COMMON, KUKI! WHERE ARE YA?! KOOKS!?!"
It was a bittersweet moment for Numbuh 5 right then. Bitter, because she knew how much pain Numbuh 4 was in at that point, herself also worried about her teammate. Sweet, because even after the years apart, he still loved her to death, even remembering his pet name for her as kids.
Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Numbuh 5 saw a glimpse of something off color. Up until now, all she saw was green and brown; there wasn't much color scheme in the landscape around them. But now she saw something pink. And not a natural pink; a very florescent, hot pink color.
"Hey Wally, Numbuh 5 thinks she found something!" She called out, dragging Numbuh 2 over to the pink object. Upon picking it up and closer inspection, she realized it was a pink colored earring.
"Why would there be a pink earring in the middle of nowhere?" she asked herself. Her heart leaped to her throat when she remembered a very important detail from earlier.
Kuki had been wearing pink earrings when they left the ship.
Numbuh 4 finally reached her. Panting, he asked, "What'd…you…find?"
She handed the earring to Numbuh 4, who looked down on it. He then looked back up and glared at her. "Numbuh 5, this is no time for girly accessor-whatcha-call-its. We need to find Kuki!"
Numbuh 5 just stared at him, not believing his stupidity. When he didn't say anything more, she sighed and said, "Fool, Numbuh 3 was wearing this exact earring when we got here!"
His eyes suddenly got as wide as dinner plates, and he looked like he was about to fall over. "Cover your ears," he warned her, and she confusedly did so, not sure what he was getting at. He sucked in a huge breath, and then screamed at the top of his lungs, "KUKI!!!!"
Even with her hands over her ears, the scream was still very loud, and hurt her ear drums. She never knew Numbuh 4 could scream at that pitch, or for so long; it seemed like it had taken over a minute before he stopped, gasping for air.
The three of them stood quietly, waiting to hear something, anything. Even a bird would have been a relief to hear, to assure that they all hadn't just gone deaf. But all they could hear was the echo of Numbuh 4's scream in the distance; or perhaps it was just in their heads, echoing off the sides of their inner skulls.
And then…
"WALLY???"
An equally loud scream, this one more high-pitched, coming from the same direction Numbuh 4 had just yelled to.
Bewildered, they all stood stupidly for a moment, amazed they had actually gotten a response. Numbuh 4 was the first to snap out of it. He motioned to the others to cover their ears again.
"KOOKS?! KUKI, WE'RE COMING! DON'T MOVE!"
He ran off in the direction of her scream, the others trailing closely behind him. Numbuhs 2 and 5 kept their hands over their ears as Numbuh 4 continued to scream/talk to Numbuh 3, to make sure they were running in the right direction. Their run turned to a sprint when they had to cover their ears to Numbuh 3's responses.
They eventually got to the point that they were so close, neither had to scream to each other, and Numbuhs 2 and 5 could lower their hands. They landed up in a small clearing, with a large mountain in front of them. Looking around, they still couldn't spot their friend.
"Kuki! Kuki, where are you?!" Numbuh 4 called out while searching through some bushes.
"I'm over here! In the cave!" was the response they heard a moment later.
Numbuhs 2, 4, and 5 stopped for a moment to try and process what she had just said. They didn't even realize there was a cave around here, let alone where to find it.
"Where's the cave, Numbuh 3?!" Numbuh 5 called to her.
About a split second later: "Do you see the mountain? It's in the side of it!"
They ran closer to the mountain, and began searching it for entrances, meanwhile still calling to her and following her voice. Numbuh 4 and 5 searched on the larger section on the left, while Numbuh 2 searched on the smaller section on the right. You'd think a large gaping hole in the side of a mountain would be easy to spot, but with all the vegetation, it was proving to be a great hassle.
Finally, Numbuhs 4 and 5, who were moving closer and closer to the back of the mountain, heard Numbuh 2 yell, "HEY! I FOUND IT, GUYS!" They immediately doubled back to find him.
He was standing in front of a huge tree, which was broken at the trunk and was fallen over. Behind the tree appeared to be a large opening in the mountain, though climbing in, or out, of it with the tree blocking the way seemed impossible.
"I was just calling to Numbuh 3," he told them, "when I heard her voice inside here. She says she can't get out, and I can't move the tree on my own."
Numbuh 5 looked up and down the fallen tree, and then said, "Alright, we'll get under the biggest branches, and push up. That way, it will fall over in the opposite direction!" The others agreed, and they climbed into the leafy part of the tree. When each of them had a strong hold on a sturdy branch, they counted to three in unison, and on three they lifted the tree together.
Though the tree was old, it was rather heavy, and it took a few rounds of counting and lifting together to actually get the tree to a standing position. Numbuh 2 then ran around the other side and pulled the trunk in the same direction. With their combined strength, they were able to successfully push the tree over to the opposite side, letting it slam to the ground.
Panting and wiping his hands on his jeans, Numbuh 4 ran over to the mouth of the cave. It actually wasn't all that big; if he had actually walked inside it, he wouldn't have been able to stand straight up without hitting his head. As a kid, possibly he would have stood straight, but not anymore. So instead of actually trying to walk in, he bent down slightly so he could see inside.
He found Numbuh 3 curled up in a ball far in the cave, apparently trying to stay as far away from the entrance as possible (so as not to get hurt when the tree was being moved). But the moment she saw him standing there, she jumped up and attacked him in a huge hug, almost knocking him to the ground. It was one of her 'death hugs', the kind no one could escape from and made it practically impossible to breathe, because she held her captive so tightly.
Which was exactly what she was doing now to Numbuh 4. Her arms were tangled firmly around his middle, her face buried in his shoulder. All Numbuh 4 could do was stand there in shock and try not to die of suffocation (though this was more of an overstatement; she always let go when someone asked her to, or if she realized she was hurting them).
"K-Ku-ki!" Numbuh 4 managed to gasp out, his face slowly turning pale.
Numbuh 3 didn't let go, but she loosened her grip considerably. He was no longer suffocating, which was a relief.
"Boy, you sure know how to take someone's breath away, huh Kooks?" he laughed. But the laughing only lasted a moment when he realized she wasn't laughing along with him. Her face remained hidden in his sweatshirt, and he suddenly noticed she was shaking a bit.
"Kooks?"
No response; the shaking continued.
"Kuki?" he said worriedly. A sudden memory came back to him, where she had done the same thing before. Not the happiest memory in the world; it had been the day of his decommissioning. "Kuki, are…are you crying?"
The shaking abruptly stopped. And as quickly as she had attacked him, she jumped back away from him and turned so her back was facing him.
"No, I'm not crying! Why in the world would I be crying!?" she yelled at him.
He put his hands up defensively. "I'm just asking! Calm down, Kuki!"
"Well maybe I don't want to calm down! Maybe I wanna be all hyped up, ever think of that!?" She still did not face him. Occasionally, he saw her arm move up towards her face, like she was wiping it.
"Okay, okay, sheesh! You wanna be like that, be my guest."
"Well then, good." She turned to run off and join the others, who were over by the fallen tree. At the moment she turned enough that he could see her face, he realized she had been crying; her face was wet with tear stains, and her eyes and cheeks were bright red. There was also some dirt on her chin and neck, probably from climbing in the cave.
Numbuh 4 couldn't understand why she had snapped at him so suddenly. He hated to see her so upset, but he shrugged it off, figuring it was just another 'cruddy girly thing', and also left to go to his teammates.
"So, you mind explaining what happened, Numbuh 3? We were really worried about you," Numbuh 5 said when she noticed Numbuh 3.
Numbuh 2 looked at Numbuh 3's face, and said, "Hey, you okay, Numbuh 3?"
She tilted her head at him. "What do ya mean?"
"Well…it kinda looks like you were crying," he simply said.
She glared at him. "No, I wasn't crying. Dirt got in my eyes, and I was trying to get it out. No big deal," she told him angrily. Then she quickly changed the subject, her voice more light-hearted. "Okay, so where should I start?"
Numbuh 4 couldn't believe what just happened. Sweet little Kuki, all up in everyone's face. She'd changed emotions before – heck, she could be downright evil if she wanted to – but never like this.
Numbuh 5's response broke his train of thought. "Well, I guess start when you got separated from us."
Numbuh 3 nodded. "Okay, well, I saw this really shiny black stuff out among the trees, and it looked sorta like metal. I thought maybe it was some mechanical stuff or something, like from a Teen Ninja camp or something. So I ran over to it, and I didn't say anything because if it wasn't it, I didn't wanna slow you guys down. And I kept following the metal thing, it was actually moving! Then I found this clearing and the metal seemed to be in the cave. So I ran over, and I guess something hit the tree because the next thing I knew, it fell over and I was trapped."
Numbuh 5 simply nodded. "So the Ninjas are in the area. That means we're gonna have to be a little more careful on our way to the pyramid. Which..." she glanced up at the sun, "we might be able to reach by sundown. But we'll have to hurry, no more shenanigans, guys."
The all nodded their heads in agreement, and made their way as quickly as possible back to the path. They all stayed close together, so as not to get separated again, and Numbuhs 2 and 4 made the best effort they could not to whine. Numbuh 3 never mentioned once if she saw the metal again, nor did anyone ever see any in the overgrowth.