A/N: Heya guys! Sorry I'm a bit late; it was my brother's birthday over the weekend and, of course, I just had to go to his lazer tag birthday party! (lazer tag is the awesomest thing known to man) (I don't care if awesomest isn't a word) I also got a bad cold today, and spent the whole day on the couch watching Phineas and Ferb (next fic I will do after I've finished this one will be a KND/P and F Xover) so read on. This is fully Abby's chapter, with a little bit of the others, so Go on, read it It's not gonna hurt you...
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Kids Next Door Mission...
Operation: F.O.R.G.E.T.
Fragments
Of
Recovery
Gradually
Enable
Team
Chapter 6 – Deja vu
Abby POV
"Daddy? I'm gonna go out for a walk, okay?" I called down the hall to where my father was sitting in the kitchen.
"Okay, Abigail. Yo have fun now, with the healthiness and the fresh air and the, aw, you know what I mean."
I chuckled.
"Sure dad."
I set off on the sidewalk, breathing in the smell of early evening. This was the best time of day. Kids played on the streets, dinner was set on the table, cars pulled into the drive. It was going home time. I headed over to the park, paying no attention to the couples that strolled the stone paths or the dogs that ran playfully away from their closely following owners. at the end of our street, thinking about visiting the creek. The creek was my place. I could be alone with my thoughts there. That was the only place that the faded memories didn't scare me. Here, I almost welcomed them. Every so often, while sitting under the large willow tree that leaned out over the water, thoughts would appear in my head, thoughts that were none of my own, at least not in recent times, but I still felt a strange ownership over them. The first time it happened, I had gone home and sat up until three am, researching any possible causes for this; normal and paranormal. I looked over schitzophrenia, quickly crossing it off the list; I wasn't crazy. Period. Ghosts were also a big possibility, but I rejected that thought as well; these thoughts weren't that of an angry ghost come back to haunt me. They were pleasant, though most of the time it was only a feeling, less than a thought. Just a feeling of happiness, a feeling of friendship, a feeling of something a little more. And, after a few more completely irrational theories from crazy people on the internet, I was back to square one. So, after I finally gave up hope, I just let the feeling wash over me without resisting. it wasn't as if they were painful or unpleasant memories. I found them happy and simple, and refreshing from the sometimes complex life of a sixteen-year-old girl's life. But, after a time, the feelings began to turn... for the worse. It started one day after school, when I just had to get down there to wind down after a particularly long day.
Flashback
I sighed as I pushed my way through the thick scrub leading to the creekside. It had been a challenging day. On top of a late night andd an early rise (as per usual, 6:30 in the morning) I could not seem to let go of the suspicion that I was being watched. That made it hard to concentrate on work, and stressed me out to no end. Once I reached the clearing in the undergrowth, the deep breath of releif I expected was not at all what I got. Somehow, the normally peaceful-looking, dormant bank had aquired a nasty, unfriendly quality. Frowning in confusion and ever-so-slight frustration, and a small ball of emotion from the disappointing day combined with the now eerie atmosphere forming in my stomach, I cautiously made my way over to the base of the Willow tree and lowered myself down, as if being 'nice' to the grassy patch on the water's edge would fix the creek's 'bad mood' of sorts.
Almost as soon as my head hit the trunk of the slender, weeping form of the tree, I lost consiousness. It all happened so fast that I didn't know if I was asleep or I was having an out-of-body experience. It seemed to be both.
The feeling that I wasn't alone was still there,
ever-present as it had ever been.
My head spun. Where was I?
I got up, dusting off the imaginary dirt on my clothes. That was when I realised that I wasn't in my clothes. Instead of my usual long, dark blue, white-sleeved t-shirt with black shorts underneath, I was wearing a simple navy shirt, with a white stripe on the side of each bell-shaped sleeve. I wanted to look at them more, ponder how they had gotten on me, and more importantly, how and why I was here, but instead, I found my hands rising up to pat at the top of my head. At least my hat was still there. Again, I attempted to survey my surroundings, only to find myself starting to run straight forward, as if I had been running that way the whole time. It dawned on me. I wasn't the person in this dream, I was merely seeing through their eyes. My eyes. I was me somewhere, sometime that definitely was not now.
Runnning through the slightly dim halls, I got the feeling that something big was going down; you know, that sort of 'it ends here' kind of thing. After a while, I reached a clearing, and before I knew it, I had sprinted out into the open, vunrability washing over me, and lept over a large mound of dirt. There was a small hole in the side of the pile, and I- um, Abby of whatever time and place I was in jumped in without hesitation.
Hitting the ground with a thud, I looked back up to see a group of dirty-looking kids staring back at me. There was easily thirty of fourty of them, all staring at me. Finally, someone spoke up.
"Numbuh 5! Thank goodness, we were getting worried," said someone with a heavy English accent. It came from a boy in red, with a pair of black shades hiding his eyes.
"I'm fine, numbuh 1. And I got the book," I replied pulling something out from a satchel I only just realised I was wearing tightly around my neck. Handing it over, I noticed someone pushing through the closely-packed huddle of people. Someone that I was apparently glad to see, judging from the feeling I got now, deep in my chest.
"Abby? You're okay!" He ran over to me, catching me in a hug so tight that he made it hard to breathe. I didn't mind; I was enjoying the warmth that he gave. I smiled softly, my voice suddenly low and emotional.
"Yeah, Hoagie. Abby's okay."
He pulled away, keeping his hands firmly on my shoulders, eyeing me in concern.
"Are you sure?" he asked. His voice melted me on the spot. I was so good at staying strong, I even managed to convince myself sometimes that I was incapable of emotion. And suddenly, that wall was down.
"Hoagie, I'm- I'm fine, really," I knew I was fooling no-one, but I said it anyway. My gaze suddenly broke, though I was sure that neither me nor the Abby that was controlling me wanted to. I looked out at the other kids in the crowd, who were all either looking on obliviously or trying to avoid eye-contact all together.
"Uhm, Nigel, what are our orders?" I said in a desperate attempt to get things rolling again. He cleared his throat.
"Oh, uh, right. I think that's your decision, Abby. After all, you are soopreme leader."
I was all too aware of that fact apparently, and merely hoping that he would take over.
"Okay," I sighed. "Sector G, you try to take out their front line from the trenches. If you can't do that from there, head out with sector I and get a closer aim. Sectors J and K, you keep digging. We may be able to get closer to them and plant a few sooper-stregnth detonators close enough to take out their hideout. Sector B, get to the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.S. and find a place to refeul and get some supplies. I ain't gonna lie, we may be here a while." With that, I saluted, leaving the other kids only to copy and head off to their assigned jobs. I was surprised at myself that I could actually adopt such a purposeful, confident voice.
"And our orders are...?" Came numbuh 1's curious tone. I could tell he wanted something, but only dream-Abby could have a chance at knowing what that might be. I turned to face him, taking a deep breath.
"Nigel, you check in with moonbase. See if they need backup. And-" A lump wedged itself in my throat. "Say hi to numbuh 3 and numbuh 4 for us." He nodded obediently, leaving to complete his task.
I turned back to face Hoagie.
"Hoags, I-" I was cut off when he placed a finger on my lips.
"Don't worry. It'll all be okay, Abby. We'll get through this." His voice was soothing, and I calmed right down as soon as I heard it.
"This has just been going on too long. I- it's been almost a month!" Before I knew it I was blabbering on like an idiot. When he could finally get a word in, Hoagie spoke again.
"It'll end soon. They're coming down. Slowly, yes, but they are definitely breaking. Don't blame this on yourself," I was about to interupt and protest that it was, in fact, my fault, but he stopped me so suddenly that anybody could swear he knew I was going to.
"No, it is not your fault, Abby. Listen to me, okay? Without you, we couldn't dream of getting through this alive! Whether you believe it or not, you are what's holding us together right now. You saw how closely those guys were listening to you! They look up to you, Abby. I-I look up to you." His eyes were hidden under those tinted goggles, and suddenly, I couldn't bear not seeing them. Reaching up, I pulled off his aviator's cap along with the goggles, revealing his dusty brown hair and soft blue eyes. He, in turn, raised a hand to knock off my hat, letting it fall to the trampled ground. We both knew what was coming, but each of us tried to pretend we didn't. We got closer, breathing heavily. I had had a crush on this boy since I first met him, but I never thought it would go anywhere. Now it was going somewhere; and travelling faster than I had expected. By now we were inches apart, and I could almost hear his heart beating fast in his chest, just like mine.
As our lips finally met, everything that I had been stressing about only moments ago seemed to vanish off the face of the earth. It was just me and him and though it was a bit cliché, it felt like we were the only two people in the world. For years I had wondered what he thought of me, for years I tried to kid myself like I didn't have feelings for him, but now, I didn't have to pretend. Now, I knew he felt the same way. And I could tell he'd been waiting for this as long as I had.
The kiss went on for what seemed like years, and I didn't want it to end. But, who should walk in but Nigel having completed his check-in with moonbase and now looking for something to do. He walked in casually, looked around and spotted us in the middle of the 'room' (more an excavated hole in the ground) and froze as if he'd just witnessed a murder. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, and broke the kiss immediately. Hoagie hadn't noticed him quite yet, and was standing with a confused expression on his face, before turning around himself and dropping his jaw. Nigel just stood there for a while. I could almost hear the sitcom crickets in the background. I nervously cleared my throat, forcing the words out of my mouth.
"Numbuh 1! What's the situation at moonbase?"
He basically sighed in relief.
"They're doing okay. Numbuh 86 has been hospitalised for Brussel sprout consumption; the adults are loading their guns with the stuff. But other than that, they seem to be handling the situation pretty well. Numbuh 362 should be able to take care of them."
Alright. That was good. The KND seemed to be handling the ambush of millions of adults pretty well. Ever since they teamed up with the teens, we've been outnumbered. And when they decided to send everyone they had to attack, we have had to fight to our limits every day. As new soopreme leader, it was more pressure on not just me, but the entire team. I just feel like it's because of me that they're so overworked. Looking back at Hoagie, he gave me a reassuring smile, as if he could read my mind. It was time to move on.
"Uh, well. We should move on," I continued. "I suggest we do some scouting from the air. It would be good to get a clear view of the field."
"Awesome! I get to fly a S.C.O.U.T?" Hoagie beamed.
I nodded. "yep."
"Sweet! Let's go!" He practically pulled me and Numbuh 1 out of the gap in the dirt and into the clearing. We jogged across into the surrounding forest, not wanting to stay out in the open too long. After walking through the trees for a while, we reached the area where we kept all our weaponry and aircraft. Hoagie was eagar and jumped right into the pilot's seat of the S.C.O.U.T.
Kids Next Door: S.C.O.U.T.
Search
Collect
Outlined
Undergrown
Terrain
Within 5 minutes we were in the air. Now this is how it was supposed to be. Except...
"We should pick up numbuh 3 and numbuh 4!" I chimed. The others were hesitant, but I got the feeling that they wanted to have the whole team together again. We picked the two up from the makeshift first aid department we had created as soon as we could manage. They were glad to see us, and dropped what hey were doing straight away to join us.
"Hi numbuh 5! Hi numbuh 2! Hi numbuh 1!" Kuki greeted us all cheerily with a hug. Wally, obviously, was more inward, but that didn't mask the fact that he was glad to be out of there. It was depressing in that place, all full of fallen soldiers and hurt operatives so desperate to get back up and keep fighting. We left after saying a quick hello to some friends.
"Phew! Glad to be outta that place!" Wally breathed. "Now where ah we goin'?"
"We," I started, "are going to check out what those adults are doing."
"Aw, Cool!"
"Yay!"
A few minutes into the flight, we were working as a perfect team again, just like old times. This, this was how it was meatn to be. Us as us not as an army. Us not having to worry every day about things that effected the entire organisation. I wanted that so, so bad... I wanted the good times back.
Numbuh 1's leadership and slight paranoia...
Numbuh 2's piloting skills and all the corny puns...
Numbuh 3's never-failing optimism and joy...
Numbuh 4's tough attitude and fearless spirit...
Me in the middle of it all, enjoying every minute...
I wanted it back so bad.
I woke up, dazed, confused and overwhelmed. What had just happened? That was definitely not just a dream, or I would have forgotten most of it alreay. I could remember ever second of it as if it actually happened, from the jump into the hole, to the kiss, to the branches catching in my hair as we ran through the forest, to the comfort of seeing my teammates' faces again.
The desire still burned in my chest, the same desire as I felt up there in the clouds, but more meaningful, more connected to me, as I was.
Sometimes, you just feel that if you want something enough, if you wish hard enough, it will just happen for you.
The hardest part of life is admitting that it won't.
A/N: So? I know, too much in the past. 'Stop dwelling what's already passed, Abbey (my name) and get going with the future!' I will, I promise! But I like doing the gang as kids. I feel it's a little truer to the show. That's not to say that I don't like KND teen fics, 'coz I love them, but I just like seeing how they got from 10-year-olds to teens. Okay, that's it from me! Bye!
-Numbuh 25
Oh, and shoutout to Sols06; my fave Phineas and Ferb writer!
