Incoming story~. And oh how the tensions rise! Thank you so much to Nefertirisan for your wonderful messages and Man of Cartoons and Ben10 Madness for your incredible reviews. You guys make this story that much more fun to write :D. I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the others~!

Time Until the End of the Earth: 4 Days, 18 Hours, 46 Minutes

"Numbuh Five?" Grey whispered, turning to her commanding officer, her expression concerned.

"Don't whisper, Grey," Numbuh Five said, not looking up from her quiet discussion with Iggy, who was twiddling with the radio's antennae. "You don't want to let the enemy know you're on to them, do you?" Grey was too surprised to look sheepish. Numbuh Five smirked at her subordinate's open-mouthed expression. "Yeah, I heard 'em too."

"Heard who?" Zigzag demanded. Numbuh Five liked to think he was being so noisy because of her earlier comment to Grey, but she highly doubted it.

"You really should try and be more alert," Angel admonished. "I also heard them." Zigzag scowled at her.

"Teacher's pet," he said. The redhead blushed.

"Take that back," she snapped. Zigzag stuck his tongue out.

"Quit it," Numbuh Five said. "Last time I checked, you don't deal with intruders by calling each other names. Zigzag and Grey, go check things out. If you can, subdue the intruders and bring them back here. They might be able to tell us something about that base of Fuse's."

"Yes ma'am," Grey said, followed by Zigzag's less enthused, "Yeah, yeah."

After gathering their supplies at what Numbuh Five deemed an unacceptable pace for responding to a possible enemy attack, the pair trudged off into the forest, grumbles and a bit of name calling trailing behind them as they disappeared from sight.

"Uhm, Numbuh Five?" came Angel's tentative voice once her teammates were gone.

"Hmm?" Angel stared down at her over-sized weapon, gathering her thoughts before continuing.

"What I heard, it…it didn't sound like fusion monsters. It almost sounded like someone was…complaining?"

Numbuh Five allowed herself a small laugh, which caused Angel's expression to quickly shift from unsure to overwhelming worry.

"I mean, I know I could be wrong," she rambled quickly, "I couldn't hear it all that well, and the others were arguing over here, so it could have just been that, but…uh…" she trailed off uncertainly when she realized Numbuh Five was still laughing. She glanced over to Iggy, hoping he might understand what she'd missed, but he simply shrugged, as confused as she was.

"Oh no, you're not wrong," Numbuh Five said, waving a dismissive hand. She'd heard the "intruders" too, specifically the distinctive sound of an Australian accent as it denounced all insect life throughout the entire jungle. Numbuh Five smiled. "Girl, you're more right than you know."

This is one of Fuse's minions? Grey wondered as she watched the short boy in the orange sweatshirt jump about, cursing and swatting any hapless mosquito that happened to wander within range. He doesn't look very…threatening.

Looking to her right, Grey tried to convey with just a look her question, something she was used to watching the Academy instructors do.

'What?' Zigzag mouthed, scowling. Grey sighed. Clearly her silent communication skills needed a little more work.

'What should we do now?' She mouthed. She frowned when Zigzag gave her an annoyed look and shrugged, still not understanding. Maybe it wasn't her skills that were lacking, after all. Squinting her eyes in thought, Grey tried to recall the hand signals they'd been taught in training. She could only remember three: halt, there's a snake, and keep moving.

'What,' she mouthed, 'should we do about him,' she pointed to the boy still hopping about, 'attack' she finished up with a gesture at her guitar and then shrugged, using the lifting of her shoulders to signify a question mark.

Zigzag's brow furrowed, his expression half way between confusion and the suggestion of an insult as he tried to work his way through Grey's botched attempt at silent communications. His mouth dropped into a small 'oh,' causing his teammate's eyes to roll as he finally figured it out. He scowled at her, and then shrugged one shoulder—'whatever you want to do,' it seemed to say.

Grey held back a sigh of annoyance. 'Fine,' she said, with a frustrated shake of her head. She pointed to herself—'I'll do it.' Zigzag just shrugged again.

'Whatever.'

Turning away from the obnoxious boy, Grey decided she just wasn't going to communicate with the boy concerning her plans any more. This weird kid of Fuse's couldn't be all that tough, and when she single handedly took him out and brought him back for questioning it would simply prove that both she was qualified for field work and Zigzag was qualified for little beyond a second run through the Academy.

Reaching behind her to loosen the strap holding her guitar in place, Grey watched the orange clad boy carefully. She didn't want to attack recklessly—she needed to make sure his guard was completely down. A good surprise attack could give you the advantage throughout the entire fight, after all.

And there it was! The boy was spun completely around, his back to her as he leapt up and down, trying to clap a mosquito between his hands before it could fly off.

Shifting her grip on her weapon, Grey tensed, prepared to spring.

"Dang it," the boy spat, watching the bug fly away. "I almost had him, too." His hands dropped to his sides in defeat and, knowing this was the best chance she'd get, Grey pounced.

About time. Numbuh Four grinned as the bushes behind him rustled wildly. A moment later and a wild battle cry—a tactic that only throws the enemy off if they don't already know you're coming, Numbuh Four thought—announced the appearance of the person who'd been watching him. He allowed her (he assumed it was a her, based on her war shriek) to get close enough to think she still had the element of surprise, timing his spin until the very last minute.

The impact of her weapon sent a jolt through his arm, although Numbuh Four had to admit that the strike hadn't been all that impressive. He allowed himself a moment to take in his attacker—female, tall, blonde, dressed in a strange conglomeration of clothing that one might consider armor, and wielding a musical instrument—and quickly surmised her identity as one of the trainee soldiers traveling with Numbuh Five.

And, Numbuh Four recognized the message the girl's attack sent, courtesy of Numbuh Five.

One of his fellow KND's quirks was a tendency to introduce new soldiers to the ranks by tricking them into attacking their superior officers, a prank Numbuh Four knew first hand—it had taken Numbuh One ten minutes to be convinced by a laughing Abigail that the kid in orange wasn't working for any of their enemies and that it would be awfully polite of him to release his newest subordinate from the headlock he had him in. If she was willing to pull a trick like that now, it meant that she and her team were nearby and safe.

And, that being the case, Numbuh Four could find no reason for why he shouldn't oblige his friend in her dark sense of humor.

Unfortunately, the unsuspecting recruit before him was allowed no insight into the thought processes of the boy she had just attacked, leaving her woefully unaware of the butt kicking she was about to be handed.

She was leaning all of her weight into her weapon, a fact Numbuh Four used to his advantage. Abruptly he stopped pushing back against the force of the girl's blow. She shouted her surprise, stumbling forward without his support. Numbuh Four, already a step ahead of the surprised girl, dropped to the ground, bracing himself with his hand as he kicked out, sweeping the girl's legs out from beneath her. Rolling to the side, he neatly avoided being trapped under the girl as she toppled to the ground with another yell. Her guitar dropped from her hands and Numbuh Four, never a fan of leaving weapons lying around for your enemy to pick up again later, scooped it up as he leapt onto the blonde's back, twisting one of her arms behind her as he straddled her, effectively pinning her to the ground.

"And that," he said simply, "is how you win a fight." He then frowned as another bug buzzed past his ear. He swatted at it once, noticed the weapon still in his hand, and then gleefully used it as a makeshift fly swatter.

"Not bad, Numbuh Four."

"Thanks." Numbuh Four brushed a bit of imaginary dirt from his shoulder as Numbuh Five stepped out from bushes she'd been watching from. She shook her head fondly at her teammate's antics.

"I think you missed a spot," she said, pointing the patch of damp dirt on Numbuh Four's side, picked up when he rolled across the ground. Numbuh Four stared at the spot for a moment, as if trying to remember how he'd gotten dirty, and then shrugged.

"Adds character," he decided.

"Numbuh Four?" Grey questioned from where she was still pinned beneath the older operative. "Aren't you one of Numbuh Five's teammates?"

"Teammates?"

The irate shout came from the bushes from which Grey had previously emerged, and it was followed a moment later by a head, which was scowling in Numbuh Five's direction.

"You knew they weren't enemies?" he demanded. Numbuh Five nodded. "So why did you want us to attack them?"

"Maybe Numbuh Five wanted to test your combat abilities."

"Which suck, by the way," Numbuh Four chimed helpfully.

"Hey," Zigzag snapped, "in case you didn't notice, I'm not the one who got his butt handed to him. In fact, you guys didn't even know I was here!"

"You sure about that?"

Zigzag jumped, turning to stare at Juniper Lee, who was lounging against a nearby tree trunk. She winked, wiggling her fingers at him in greeting. Zigzag huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I could have taken her if she'd attacked me," he informed his commanding officer. She pointed over his shoulder.

"Could you have taken her as well?"

"Wha-?" Zigzag turned, blinking in surprise when he spotted the green clad girl standing right behind him. She giggled, tilting her head and smiling in greeting. Zigzag frowned. "No offense? But you don't look all that tough."

"Yeah, I get that a lot," the girl agreed, still smiling. Something poked Zigzag in the side, and he looked down, surprised to see the end of a Null-Void Gun. "But neither do you."

Numbuhs Four and Five shared an amused look while Zigzag swallowed nervously, suddenly looking a lot more wary of the girls standing around him.

"Zigzag," Numbuh Five said, "I'd like you to meet another of my teammates. Numbuh Three, this is one of the new recruits, Zigzag."

"Nice to meet you," Numbuh Three said, lowering her weapon and smiling even more brightly. Zigzag almost expected flowers to start popping up at the girl's feet.

"And that's Grey," she added, motioning to the girl Numbuh Four was still sitting on, hoping he would catch her subtle hint.

"Oh, uh, sorry," Numbuh Four said, hastily scrambling off of the girl and offering her a hand up. "Didn't mean to, uh…yeah," he trailed off, blushing slightly.

"No problem," she said, waving him off. "Good fight, by the way."

"Thanks," Numbuh Four said, grinning. Numbuh Five was sure she could see his head actually grow a little bigger.

"Not to interrupt the reunion," Juniper said, gaining the group's attention, "but our mission was to find you guys. I'm assuming the other two are around here somewhere," she added, directing the comment to Numbuh Five, who nodded. "Right, so, since our mission was to find you guys, I think it's time for us to get going. Shall we?" She raised an eyebrow when Numbuh Five's recruits umm'd, looking at one another and then to their commander. "Do I want to know?" she asked. Numbuh Five sighed, shaking her head.

"There's something you guys need to see."

The Frilled Fiend let out a low groan as it busied its self with rooting through the grass. Picking a spot at random it started kicking up dirt, occasionally bending over and using its little arms to assist in digging. It wasn't attempting to accomplish anything in particular, simply keeping busy as it awaited word from Lord Fuse, or a signal that the territory it had been assigned to protect had been infiltrated.

A strange sound from the nearby trees caused it to pause in its digging. Looking up, it tilted its head, the large frill around its neck shifting as the robotic dino tried to pick up on any possible radio waves coming from the tree line.

When nothing came of its searching the Frilled Fiend snorted in dismissal and returned to its hole, and for a few minutes it dug quietly. Nosing aside a clump of weeds, it was about to start chewing its way through a thick root when another sound from the trees drew its attention once more.

Frill adjusting and fine tuning towards the direction of the sound, the little computer of a brain the fusion possessed kicked into gear, one of its preprogrammed protocols kicking in: strange sound occurring twice, from the same location, the second instance within so many minutes of the first—something to be investigated.

Snuffling in what could have passed as fusion monster annoyance, the Frilled Fiend lumbered over to the trees. Shoving its head inelegantly into the bushes, it sniffed around. Its sensors detected a small spike in heat signature here—likely from an animal, scared off by the fusion's invasion of its space. Snorting, the dino pulled its head free, shaking leaves from its frill as it wandered off.

"Twice?" Juniper asked, staring at Numbuh Four, her expression incredulous. "Who almost sneezes and gives away his team's position twice?"

"When you gotta sneeze, you gotta sneeze," Numbuh Five offered from where she was lounging against a tree.

"I feel like while you're observing a recently discovered Fusion base swarming with fusion monsters is not the time for sneezing," Juniper said, shaking her head.

"Forget my sneezes," Numbuh four said. "What about that-that…that place we just saw? What was that!?"

"It looked like a communications center," Numbuh Three offered, looking at Numbuh Four. "When we came to the jungle to find a spot for an outpost, we saw those monsters, the ones with the satellite dishes on them, and we figured they were being used like radios."

"Triceraclaws," Numbuh Four spat. "They kept interrupting our transmissions. Fuse used them to keep track of where we were and plan counter attacks against us."

"So…he could use them to predict your movements?" Juniper asked, the seed of an idea growing in her mind.

"Not exactly," Numbuh Four said. He scrunched his face in thought, and then said, "It was more like he could react to them a whole lot quicker."

"It's a big disadvantage if the enemy knows what you're gonna do before you can do it." Numbuh Five said, frowning at the implications of Numbuh Four's words. An uncomfortable feeling grew in the pit of her stomach when she noticed the expression on Juniper's face as she thought about it as well. "Is that what you think Fuse is trying to do?" she asked.

Piecing together Numbuh Four's words with what she'd just seen, and the unusual events of her last mission, a single possibility was beginning to rear its ugly head in Juniper's mind. While not something Juniper wanted to ever even consider possible, she knew it wasn't one that could be ignored. And so, with a growing sense of dread, she spoke the realization that had begun to take form almost three days ago, while she sat on watch after days of Skeeter attacks.

"No, I think he's already doing it."