Next chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter 1-2 - Root and Imaginary Numbers

Numbuh 1 continued to follow the robot operative through the hallways when a low rumbling sound emanated from deep inside the ship.

"What was that?" Numbuh 1 said.

"Heh. We're taking off." EB-4000 chuckled.

"Taking off?" Numbuh 1 gasped. "Now?"

"Yeah. You should've been in medical by now. Looks like we're going to wait until after take off. Can you handle that?"

"Of course I can! I've been to Moon Base and back. I'm sure I can handle take-off into space."

"You've only ever travelled to your Moon and back, and a couple of other planets within your solar system in a few of your missions. This isn't anything like it. We're blasting into deep space. You know, hyperdrive and stuff. I don't think your body has ever experienced such a thing?"

"It can't be that bad." Numbuh 1 really thought it didn't sound like a big deal.

"There's your confidence I've heard about." EB-4000 snapped his fingers, which sounded weird since they were metal. It was like a sharp scraping sound. "Oh sure, you may think that but the enormous amount of energy needed to lift this bad boy into deep space is insane! You'll feel the force pushing down on you so hard it's almost like being flattened by a steamroller. Everyone here's used to it now and those that can't physically handle the force go into their rooms where the pressure is maintained. But hey! I don't know anything about humans. I guess you have a lot of resistance since you're not so worried about it."

Numbuh 1 gulped nervously in response. He certainly wasn't expecting that.

"I think we should find a room." Numbuh 1 said shakily. EB-4000 smirked.

"So much for that confidence. Medical doesn't have a pressure stabilizer and, we haven't set up a room yet for you."

"What?" Numbuh 1 meant to shout, but it came out as a squeaky yelp.

"There is a spare room but it's on the other side of the ship. I can get there of course but, you know, time." As if the rest of the crew were in on the sick joke, an alarm sounded throughout the ship, echoing along the corridors while bright blue lights were flashing. "Hey look at that! We're only minutes from take-off! Still think you can handle the pressure? Or do you want me to lead you to the room?"

Numbuh 1 was already sweating nervously. Only half an hour in the Galactic Kids Next Door and he could be flat as a pancake before they even leave Earth!

"What are you waiting for? Let's go now!"

The knock on the door didn't register as the Plugger kept working away on his latest invention. The door slid open and Numbuh 99.0 stepped inside, ducking under the doorway. The room was much too small for him and it annoyed him. He had to be extra careful with his four arms to make sure he doesn't break the random bits and bobs lying around. There was a lot of tech in the room and as long as it worked he didn't really care who made them or how it was made.

"I told you not to enter my room unless I tell you to." the Plugger spoke, not bothering to look up at 99.0.

"Save your lip android. We have a new recruit."

"So?" the operative continued working on his invention, soldering random pieces together.

"He could be assigned to you. You could be going back out into the field." 99.0 smirked at the Plugger's reaction. He didn't show much, as usual, but there was a slight twitch of his natural hand when he said he might be going out into the field again. "That good huh? You know, I remember the last one didn't even last three months before he practically begged to be assigned to another sector." The Plugger turned his chair to face 99.0. The light faced him now and 99.0 could see more of the operative in front of him.

Almost his entire body was covered in jet-black metallic plating. His whole body fused with intricate nanotechnology on his home planet. He was, as Numbuh 99.0 put it, an android. The upper half of his face looked like he was wearing a combat helmet. His eyes fused together with bionic glasses giving him not only enhanced vision, but also different modes such as infrared and sonar. The perfectly round glasses glowed a crimson red. His brain was basically a supercomputer able to process millions of raw data in a short amount of time. Aside from that, the supercomputer was designed to suppress emotions that could potentially arise from his mind. 99.0 could see his shoulder pads were a bit bulky, no doubt concealing some sort of portable missile launcher. Parts of his arms were covered in the metal armor but there were other bits that weren't. From what could be seen, the android had a pale white skin color. His left hand was completely robotic with three fingers. His other hand however was left untouched by the technology surrounding his body. Five fingers. Just like other humanoid shaped beings. His entire back, and lower body was completely integrated with the robotic suit. All this was done in childbirth.

Numbuh 99.0 and Numbuh root-2 never got along well with each other. It wasn't the fact that they rarely saw each other, it was more of the classic 'brains against brawns' conflict. Nerds against jocks.

"You know what happened then right?" the android stated emotionlessly. It sounded almost menacing to 99.0, even if he knew the operative didn't mean to sound it that way.

"Yeah. There weren't any other sectors available so he took a desk job instead. What's your point?"

The android operative sighed. "My point is, if a Lordon, who if I may repeat the medical team's evaluation of him. 'A calm and level headed operative who keeps grounded and realistic mind even during the most stressful of situations', ran off to Global Command groveling and pleading with them to move him to a desk job, how is an Earthling ever going to handle the job of being the leader of Sector VA?" Numbuh root-2 emphasized some of the words to make sure his message got across.

The rumbling from the ship, followed by the blue alarm alerted the two to the ship's take-off but it was hardly a concern. They continued talking.

"Look. I don't know and frankly I don't really care. You look happy enough fiddling with all these machine parts and everything but if you're frustrated then take it up with Global Command. They told me to tell you to get your robot parts up to the briefing room now." 99.0 was getting fed up with hanging around.

Root-2 stood up and while he was about half as tall as 99.0 he was a little taken aback at the gesture of courage.

"I am not frustrated. Let's go." He pushed 99.0 out of the way and walked out the door.

"You're going the wrong way." 99.0 said.

Root-2 turned around. "We're going to get the rest aren't we?"

"Captain's orders."

"Great…" root-2 muttered under his breath. He couldn't suppress his disappointment in seeing his other teammates.

It wasn't that he hated them or anything of the sort, he just couldn't socialize. He was a half-robot who had his emotions suppressed from birth! It wasn't surprising he couldn't act like how others expect everyone else to. It simply wasn't natural for him. He preferred being by himself instead of other people. More specifically, he preferred being with other machines which was why he liked to stay cooped up in his room. Lately that was his reality and it was fine with him until this happened.

And that was part of the problem. It was why he was never out in the field in the first place even when he did technically belong to a treehouse sector. It was why operative that were supposedly 'good leaders' could never stay with them for more than a month. Him and his teammates had no chemistry. They always fought and quarreled about everything. Sometimes it would get violent to the point where the leader could do nothing but watch until the team members' rage had subsided. Sometimes it resulted in them not talking to each other for days, or maybe weeks. Not willing to cooperate or go out on missions or do anything. Sector VA had a lot of potential and root-2 knew it. Their teammate composition was extremely unique and varied, and in theory they were supposed to be extremely effective working together. But it wasn't just their powers that were varied; it was also their personalities. And the conflicting personalities between his fellow teammates always got in the way of missions every time.

From experience, root-2 knew this was a futile task. He knew this would not last long but it seemed the GKND were desperate to create something out of him and his teammates. It's only going to be for a month and no more. Then you get to go back to your room. Numbuh root-2 thought as he turned around and followed 99.0.

"How much farther are we?" Numbuh 1 panted as he continued to run. It felt like he was running for ages. The corridors looked exactly the same wherever he turned and he was panicking much more as the thought of him being crushed under enormous force got to him. It was definitely unappealing.

"Not much further now I think. Stop thinking about the take-off and just run!" EB-4000 looked behind his shoulder.

Numbuh 1 really thought about how someone could navigate their way through the ship. He knew he wasn't going to stay on board the ship forever, not unless he somehow got a job as a janitor or something, but memorizing the entire layout of a huge spaceship proved extremely difficult. There were one or two instances of him wandering into random parts of Moon Base. If he could get lost back the Moon Base, how was he ever going to make his way around this maze? What's worse is that everything looks the same! At least in the interiors of the ship. Numbuh 1 really wanted to go back outside and see those floating transparent rooms. They looked really cool.

For now though, he kept running making sure he didn't lose track of the operative in front of him.

EB-4000 turned right and Numbuh 1 heard a crashing sound. When he was at the corner he saw he collided with two other operatives.

"Watch where you're going robot!" the gruff operative with four arms said. Numbuh 1 recognized him as the guy who tackled him down and strapped on that helmet.

"I'm trying to get someone to a pressure chamber! Move it." EB-4000 turned to Numbuh 1. "Don't just stand there. Let's go!" and he continued running.

Numbuh 1 could see that there was another robot next to the big operative. There were a lot of robots here, thought something seemed a little different about the robot. It was about his height and it was looking at him with ominous red glowing eyes. Numbuh 1 didn't want to feel any more uncomfortable than he was now so he mumbled a quick sorry and followed EB-4000.

"How much further are we now?" Numbuh 1 said when he caught up to EB-4000.

"Not much longer now, although the same could be said for the mothership launch. There's probably some delays or something happening in the control room. Let's not waste any more time."

"You ok?" Root-2 asked out of expectation than anything else. That's what people usually said when they looked hurt.

"Yeah I'm fine." 99.0 said as he lifted himself back on his feet. "Amateurs." He shook his head. "He'll be lucky to last a week with that sort of attitude."

"Whoever it was, he won't get crushed. Yet. The emergency pressure room is just a few hundred meters from here and judging from the ship's movement it seems we're experiencing some technical difficulties."

"Alright. Let's go get your teammates."

Both of them continued walking down the corridors, the walls and ceiling alternating colors between the dark shade of purple and the bright neon blue from the alarms.

Neither of them said anything to each other. They didn't get along that well, which was apparent the moment 99.0 stepped into root-2's room. The tension in the room spiked as soon as he entered. It could be worse though. Root-2 knew a lot of operatives who hated each other's guts, constantly getting into fights and on occasion almost killing each other. It wasn't the shining organization of child freedom he thought it was. As with every large organization, there will always be conflicts, fights, 'office politics', corruption and so on. It wasn't surprising really. The GKND was spread out over whole galaxies, they were stretched too thin to be completely organized. They did get the job though, and that's what mattered. He contributed however he can and recently it was inventing new tech.

The only sounds that could be heard were the blaring sirens and their own footsteps against the metal floor. That was good. As long as root-2 and 99.0 weren't talking they could at least round up everyone without some sort of argument.

From the path 99.0 chose, it looked like he was getting his teammates in first number order. Root-2 thought that was incredibly stupid, seeing as how the closest teammate was only few floors below him but 99.0 selected they would have to go to the other side of the ship past the interrogation room and generator entrance. It was not efficient, and that annoyed root-2. He still couldn't believe some people didn't have any common sense.

A random thought strayed into root-2's mind. Why does the GKND label everyone using the wrong spelling of 'number'? Root-2 reasoned that it must serve some kind of symbolic purpose.

If anyone could be the polar opposite of root-2, it was none other than Numbuh i. While root-2 was a cold and calculating machine, Numbuh i was extremely emotional. The sentient beings on her home planet were Emosentials. They relied on emotional reactions which gave them their powers. He remembered a short conversation with Numbuh i when he wanted to know the source of her powers and she replied saying it was just natural. It was probably some hidden sense or a heightened detection. He really didn't know how emotions could be quantified properly. She said she could feel 'auras' of people around her. That each person emitted a different energy and it changed depending on how they were feeling. He didn't really know if it was true, if people dispersed energies out of their bodies in relation to how they are feeling. When he asked what she could feel coming from him, she said he was 'cold, icy cold'.

There was at least one aspect of her power he could get, which was the manipulation of intense light energy as projectiles. Or using the energy to enhance weapons, which root-2 remembered she did at times. The weapons would glow a bright white color when she did so. However, Numbuh i insisted that her abilities relied on feeling the emotional energy around her and that threw root-2 back into a loop. How could emotions disperse energy, and 'different' kinds? The only way he though possible was if someone was excited or angry and they kept moving about. Kinetic energy. It couldn't be some other kind of energy like waves could it?

Numbuh i looked different physically too. Her long hair went down to her shoulders and was pure white and her pupils were only slightly darker so differentiate between the pupils and cornea. She would wear rather loose fitting clothes which, again, were white. Usually, it was some kind of white jacket and long skirt separated by a grey belt. Her skin was a white peachy color. While root-2's own skin was light due to the lack of sunlight exposure, her's was just, well, really light. Being a humanoid species like him, she was the same in basic body structure. Two hands and two legs. She was also a little taller than him but that hardly mattered.

Root-2 tried to imagine the possible scenarios when they would meet again but as usual, it was a fruitless effort. Emotions were simply too unpredictable and unstable to be able to analyze properly. Of course he could talk to her, that wasn't hard at all. But he couldn't 'be' emotional. He was a rational person in and out. If someone was angry, was he supposed to be angry with them? Was he supposed to be upset? If Numbuh i saw him and she smiled, was he supposed to smile back? What if it was a smile out of politeness and not sincerity? If his suit had more sensors, he could at least sense the minute little patterns that were associated with how a person was feeling. Internal temperature, body language, pulse, and the like. Maybe that's what Numbuh i meant by 'auras'. It could be extremely heightened senses to those particular factors.

Numbuh root-2 didn't realize how deep in thought he was; when he looked up he knew they were in front of Numbuh i's room. He couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. There was something about not having sufficient data for certain situations that made him edgy. Maybe it was his supercomputer-powered brain screaming at him for more concrete data. He didn't know it, but he was subconsciously hiding behind Numbuh 99.0's much bigger stature.

99.0 knocked on the door and it was answered almost immediately.

"Hi…Numbuh i." . He tried to maintain an even voice but it came out softer than he thought. Root-2 limply raised his hand in an attempt at a friendly gesture.

"Hi root-2." Numbuh i smiled back.

When I start I story I start churning out chapters quite quickly. So...that's a good thing right? Please leave some feedback too. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: C:KND belongs to Mr. Warburton.