A/N: I'm back! And I am exactly quarter of an hour early! (over here it's 11:45 on Friday night) anyway, I should be able to update fairly consistantly for the next few weeks, as all of our major assignments and tests are over! (and there was much rejoicing!) and there is only two weeks of school left! (more rejoicing!) and I will probably be spending about 85-95% of my holidays writing. I did my English oral under the 'my passion theme' on writing. You would not believe how amazing it felt when people came up to me afterwards telling me to publish my story. EEK!

Now Loading...

Kids Next Door Mission...

Operation: F.O.R.G.E.T.

Fragments

Of

Recovery

Gradually

Enable

Team

Chapter 8- Under Stress

"Robert? A-are you okay? You seem strange lately," Jamie spoke so quietly that I almost didn't hear her. I didn't blame her for thinking that. But then, she really should have known what was causing me to be so unfocussed and closed off. I sighed deeply.

"Sorry, Jamie. I- just, everything that's going on lately, makes me wish... I dunno, that..." I didn't want to say it. It was like the thought that you knew no-one would take lightly, but you yourself couldn't deny that it was true. Unfortunately, Jamie Clearway was one of the few people on Earth (and moonbase) who could read me like a book.

"No! Rob, you can't just bail on everyone else! That just makes more of them believe that we can't handle this! Look, I know you've taken this hard, and we are all feeling a bit, for want of a better word vunerable, but I just want to make sure you know that we're all here for you, just as much as we're here for each other." Wow. Girl knew how to make a point. But I was determined to win this one.

After all, she may be my best friend, but I had to let all this out on someone, right? And if best friends couldn't understand that sometimes it was just too much, then who could?

"But for how long, Jay? We don't know how much more the entire organisation can take! Any one of us could turn at any minute of every day from now until- until..." That was the worst part. We all knew that this whole nightmare of a situation had to come to an end, but thinking about how it would end was just pure torture. Hope tried to convince us we would win, but then, hope and reality could be two very different things.

"Until...?" Jamie repeated. Well, rather, she was 'accentating the flaws of my belief that we were doomed, and using anything I had missed a beat on to her advantage.'

Dang, she is good. "Rob, we can't think about 'until' before we sort out 'now.' And according to 'now,' you are not going anywhere. So, if you want to get to 'until' any time soon, you better get yourself a renewal on your faith, or it's going to be a miserable 'now' from here until forever!"

What?

That made no sense to me whatsoever, but no way on Earth I was going to let her know that.

"Jamie, I want to- I want to call a game of tag," I admitted. I had wanted to now for a long while now, but I just didn't want to actually do anything about it, for the exact reason that she had just stated; if I bailed, then I was officially giving up hope. And that meant that almost everyone else would too.

What good am I as soopreme leader if I can't even convince myself that we can get through this?

I asked myself that on almost a regular basis now.

"Robert Greene, do you remember when you were first made soopreme leader?" Jamie questioned, though she knew the answer perfectly well that I did.

I suddenly flashed back to that day.

I thought I would be on top of the world for the rest of my life.

But now, it feels like the world is lying on top of me.

And it's laughing.

Flashback

"And so, fellow Kids Next Door, it is with a heavy heart and a sincere regret that I must resign from my post as soopreme leader. I need to get back to my team, back to field work. At the start, I felt sure I could do this; I thought that if I could handle the field work, I could tackle an office job in my sleep. But, as it turns out, it takes a lot more than that to run an organisation. It takes something that I don't think I have anymore."

That wasn't true, and every single kid in that arena knew that like they knew the sky was blue. Abby Lincoln was one of the best Soopreme Leaders we had ever had. No-one, save for maybe her own sector, knew why she was stepping back so suddenly. It was certainly shocking to all of us.

Even I, a mere rookie, having graduated the Cadets Net Door only months before, knew that this was going to be a defining moment in my time as a KND operative. It always was when a Soopreme Leader decided to resign.

"But, my friends, I will say this; just because I am no longer your leader, doesn't mean I have lost faith. The circumstances under which I have been forced to step back are not ones that I am on good terms with. So, I leave you with one last order.

Stay true, guys." She finished, a tear formed in her eye and a catch in her throat threw her breathing out of time.

"For one last time, Kids Net Door, I take the greatest honour in leading you, for old time's sake."

I could feel it coming.

One last cry, and then it would be off with everyone, some scrambling to find a place in which they could never be found, some ready and eager to be tagged.

"Kids Next Door RULES!" Came Abigail Lincoln's final solitary cry. We followed on, our raised fists acting as a salute to all the victories Abby had lead us to.

"Kids Net Door RULES!"

There was silence.

Then, she spoke up.

We knew what was coming.

"As a now former soopreme leader, I would like to say a few words," she said calmly, walking steadily over to numbuh 86, who was pretending to not be crying at all.

"...TAG! You're it!" And with that, Abby (along with everyone else) was gone, leaving numbuh 86 alone where once stood millions of kids on which to unload the burden currently attatched to her by an unbreakable tie.

"Ah! I'm it! Oh, what'll I do...?" she whined, looking around for options and finding none.
"Hm. Deja vu moment..."

I honestly don't know how it got from there to me and Abby in the corner of the skydeck on Moonbase, me attempting to hide myself, her attempting to get rid of the 'it' label across her forehead.

"Abby? I... please don't tag me," I had said. She just looked at me, the smile of someone who'd been-through-this-before on her dark features. She looked at me with something that I hadn't seen before; I expected desperation, but instead I saw almost a willingness, a sort of 'I've had my time, now I have to move on' vibe. Then, she spoke, words that I would never forget.

"Robert, I watched you on your first day, I watched all of you. I was there when you graduated, and I have heard nothing but good things about you since then. You, you may be a rookie, but you deserve this, kiddo." I was so taken aback that I just stood there. She continued as if that was completely normal.

"Look, I'm not giving you a choice. I didn't have one when I started as Soopreme leader. No-one ever does, but no-one ever regrets it." I never thought about it that way. It never occurred to me that she may not have chosen this job.

Suddenly, I wanted to do it. I wanted to do the organisation proud. She reached a hand out slowly, resting it on my shoulder.

"Tag, kid. You're it."

I was only seven.

Now, I was taken back to the office, where Jamie stood stubbornly in front of me, refusing to let this go.

"Well?" She inquired.

"I-" I was about to answer, but then realised that I didn't know what to say. I flashed qickly through all the marking moments of my life in the KND; graduating, my first mission, taking the oath as I was officially named Soopreme leader.

Now I knew what to say.

"Jamie. This agency is not going down without a fight. I have no doubt about that. I just don't really know yet how much effect my actions have. I- I just think I'm too young. I'm not used to being... noticed."

Jamie sighed deeply, finally taking a seat on the opposite end of my desk.

"Robert, I'm going to level with you here. At first, I thought you were too young. I mean, we've never had a soopreme leader under the age of eleven, and you only just turned eleven two months ago. But when you directed that first mission, when you sent Stickybeard's entire fleet packing in record time, I was speechless. If anyone's going to get us through this, it's you."

I couldn't believe it. I honestly could not comprehend that she thought that about me. I suddenly felt a lot more worthy of this than before.

"Jamie..."

"Now before you go blaming yourself again, just-"

"I'm not giving up my role," I intercepted. Jamie looked up, stunned, but relieved all the same.

"Say what now?"

"I'm staying. Jamie... thanks. I really needed someone to remind me why I love this job."

I beamed. She beamed.

Cliché? Oh, heck yes. Less heartwarming? No way in the universe.

"Alright, dude. I gotta go do some paperwork. You're awesome, and don't forget it!" She joked, starting to get up and walk out of the room.

"Not on you're lifetime, man!" I played along.

"You mean woman," she corrected.

"You mean girl," I finished.

"Okay, that's enough. I really have to finish this report. You should know, you were the one who set the deadline!" Man, she would not stop! But then, I didn't mind playing about a bit.

"Hah, yeah. And I can move it up any time I want!"

"I am fully aware of that, thank you very much!" Was the mock-annoyed reply.

"Okay, get yourself outta here! I'll send ya up a cookie." And with that, she was gone, leaving me only to think that there was never a more amazing decommisioning officer in the Kids Next Door. Scratch that, the entire KND.

Wally POV

I walked down the hallway to my brother's room, bouncing the football in my hands as I went.

"Ay, Joe! You wanna come play some footy with me and dad?" I called through the door.

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Huh?" Came the reply, finally.

I sighed and opened the door slightly, poking my head in through the gap.

"You wanna come play some footy?" I asked again. He seemed pretty foussed on some sort of paper (homework?) that lay on his cluttered desk. He looked at me, then at the football. Then at me. Back to the football. It seemed as if this simple decision was causing an internal battle of some sort.

"I really do want to..." He said his voice almost a slight moan.

"Homework got ya down?" I queried. I looked at the desk, and the papers strewn across it, as well as on the ground where they missed, or fell out of, for that matter, the brimming paper-bin in the corner. He thought for a moment, like he was trying to choose his words carefully.

"Uh, yeah," he answered.

"Ah understand. Well, me and dad'll be at the park if ya change your mind," I gave a small mock-salute and headed out to the door. I found myself feeling sad that my brother was doing homework instead of learning how to play an actual game.

"Joe's got homework ta do. He's stayin' here," I said to my dad as he looked to me.

"Aw, that's a shame, Wal. I knew you were lookin' forward to teachin' him the game ta day. Maybe sum other time," he said in reply.

It was true. I was planning to give my little brother a lesson in the entire game of Rugby League. I wasn't usually such a sentimental dork, but this was a tradition in our family. And I was in no world about to let that tradition get lost just because we were in another country.

Oh, well. I guess I could take him out some other time. And there was always the trip to Australia, where we could learn with all our cousins and uncles and sometimes even aunts, but I really wanted him to know how to play before we left. I was going to ask dad if we could get tickets to a Manly game.

But if homework (cursed thing that is) was keeping Joey back from that, all I could do was increase my hatred of the concept.

Joey POV

I let out a deep sigh, trying again to clear my head. My mind was just a jumble of half-formed ideas and concepts that I'd tried hard to understand.

I was attempting to think of some possible way to protect us from being 'turned' as the process had been dubbed by the other kids. But so far... nothing. Nada, zilch, zip, zero, nothing. I was about to scrunch up another piece of paper covered with meaningless scribbles and little drawings, and lob it into the bin (or the floor around the bin) across the room. But something at the door stopped me. I heard my brother's voice, but the words were indistinguishable through the heavy wood door.

"Huh?" I asked, hoping that would be enough to tell him to either a) Speak louder, or b) Open the door.

He chose option b).

When he asked me if I wanted to play footy with him and dad, I was honestly excited. One, because it was sort of like a coming of age thing, like 'you get to play, you're officially one of us.' I know it sounds strange. And two, a small contributing factor to this excitement was the prospect of getting away from the desk and leaving my tired and overused mind back here for a bit. I wanted to go, but... I had to work. If I didn't get this done today, who knows how many kids would wake up tomorrow to find their teams are acting like teens, or worse, acting like teens themselves. I wasn't the 2x4 officer of our sector, but if I at least had the idea for some sort of protection today, I could get Jake and some of the other scientists on it by tomorrow.

When Wally asked me if what I was doing was homework, I thought a bit before saying 'yes.' I wasn't really comfortable with lying to my brother, but techinically I was telling the truth. I mean, I'm at home, and I'm working, right? But it wasn't until I heard Wally and dad talking downstairs about 'teaching me the game' that I changed my mind from 'Got to finish this' mode to 'Screw this, I wasn't going anywhere anyway' mode.

He was going to teach me!

That was like a dream come true for me. Some times I think Wally thinks that I'm losing my Aussie background here. He tries hard to stop it, but he doesn't realise that it doesn't need stopping because it's not happening. I want to learn everything I can about Oz, and I am stoked for our trip later this year. But hearing those words from him just set me off like a fire cracker. I grabbed any two socks plus my shoes and thundered downstairs as fast as my legs would go (and when that wasn't fast enough, I stepped back and let gravity do its work), and caught the both of them just as they were leaving the front door.

-(*)-

Wally grabbed Joey as he bolted past him, though his legs kept going and came off the ground after him.

"Woah, woah, woah. Calm down, man," Wally said, looking down to the excited little blondie below, "Changed our minds, 'ay?" Joey just looked up, smiling wildly and, his fringe creating a shadow over his eyes that reminded Wally of himself.

"I wanna come! I wanna come!" He blurted out, the surge of energy still in action.

"Great! Now we've got tha whole gang togetha!" Their father cried, patting the two boys on the shoulder.

Wally smiled; "Well, what 'ah we waitin' round for?"

In a while, they were at the park, past the trees and nearing the oval, the dew on the light-green blades sparkling in the afternoon sun. Their father grabbed the football out of Wally's hands playfully, before kicking it out into the field.

"Okay, mates. Let's play," he announced.

Both the younger boys began sprinting out to retreive the maroon-and-white ball that was now bouncing uncontrollably on the damp grass, changing direction with every rebound.

So, Wally and the boys' father began teaching the littlest Beatles how to play the game that had them bowling each other over and covered in mud and grass stains within fifteen minutes. And for all three of them, it was one of the best times they had ever had with each other.

-(*)-

I looked out onto the feild, watching the two boys and their father fighitng over the ball. Pathetic. I payed attention to the smallest one especially. After all, he was the reason I was here. He seemed so carefree out there, but then, most of them did.

At first.

The start of the procedure was usually boring, but every now an then you got a kid that wasn't as utterly predictable as the rest. This kid, well, I wasn't sure yet.

I would be soon though. After a little more observation, I would be ready to start with the good stuff. Then, there would be one less bratty kid out there. Well, as far as their mind state was concerned, anyway.

I must say, though, this boy reminded me of someone. And, according to the strange mixture of deja vu and hatred that whoever I was reminded of was someone that I definitely did not like. I consulted some papers; the boy's name was Joey Beatles, he was in the team they called 'Sector V,' he was nine years old, and had been a member of the (cursed) Kids Next Door for between four and five years. Hm, fairly standard. And it wouldn't be a waste of time turning him over, seeing as he would be a kid for another four years. He seemed like as good a target as any. Right, now I just had to figure out how to get him alone and unprotected. Then, I could really get down to buisiness.

I allowed myself a small smirk as I took a final glance up at the young boy on the grass field. The thought of him being on our side in under a month gave me the maniacal genius feeling that I just lived for. I checked the time, then backed into the undergrowth, and, after a short trip though some trees and bushes (I liked to get into the hardest-to-reach positions. It lessened the chances of someone stumbling onto my observation point) I slid into the driver's seat of a sleek pitch back car.

Now, it's go time.

It was a long car trip, and I passed by street after street of humble and methodically-working household, wondering how many of them contained future victims. At least half of them, surely. Although, a few may well house 'kids' that I am already done with. That was the hardest part, the part after I was done. There was always the small chance that the child's parents would notice something wrong when they started acting like a teenager at ten years old, but I have a suspicion that the parents are either completely oblivious, or enjoy a less... disruptive child in the house. In essence, I was doing them a favour.

Finally, I turned into the driveway of an old abandoned warehouse. The concrete was cracked, and the going was bumpy as I guided the car over them, pulling to a halt in an imaginary parking space. It didn't matter where I parked; there was only one other car here, and a virtually zero chance of anyone else arriving.

I locked the doors (also unnecessary) and trodded up the neglected path, being careful to keep my head down and make my presence as unknown as possible. Confidence and visual pride were two things that made it very easy to go from 'what's he doing there?' to 'that doesn't look legal' and then I was one call to the police away from being shut down. And we couldn't have that, no. I was too close to victory.

I reached the door and rapped a fist on it. There was the sound of rustling papers and something being knocked over, followed by a word that I'd rather not repeat, and finally, a dark face at the now open door.

"Oh. You're here. Why-" I cut her off. I just couldn't stand unnecessary chit-chat.

"It doesn't matter. I have a new target to get started on. Get started on the computer. You're looking for a Joey Beatles." The look on her face went from mildly annoyed at what may have interpreted as my ''rude interuption' to slight puzzlement.

"Joey Beatles? I didn't know that twerp had a brother," she mumbled. I ignored. Like I said, I had a strong distaste for anything that wasn't strictly buisiness.

I walked swiftly over to the bench in the middle of the room, checking on some concoctions that I had left to boil while I was out. My attention was quickly caught by a slightly red-tinged liquid that seemed to be attempting an escape via the side of the bench and the floor. I looked over to where the girl was sitting completely upright on a computer chair, clearing my throat sternly.

"Yes?" She asked, as if there was nothing out of order.

"Care to explain?" Was my curt reply, as I gave a sharp nod towards the sowly expanding puddle of pale red on the floor.

"We all make mistakes," she said rather obnoxiously, before trying to turn back to the computer and make herself look too busy to talk.

"Excuse me? All of us, huh? Well, that had better change soon if you plan on taking down those Brats Next Door! We cannot afford mistakes, idiot girl! That just gives them time to catch up! And once they catch up, which, I assure you, is not going to happen under my watch, they will fight. And fight hard. And even if we've taken out one hundred or so operatives, they are still millions strong!" Instead of the intimidated expression I expected from my 'assistant' (great assistant she is), I instead got one raised eyebrow, an ignorant 'whatever' and probably some thoughts questioning my mental state. She was so predictable. I almost literally growled at the sheer cheek of the girl.

"Just, clean it up. I don't want nightmares as well." She stomped off to carry out the task, and I took over her position on the computer. The screen showed an overview of Joey Beatles' life as a KND operative, as well as some of his stregnths. Espionage, Hand-to-hand combat, the usual. Nothing to suggest that this kid was in any way different from the others. Flicking the computer onto standby, I strode back over to the bench. Now I had to be creative. How was I going to get this kid alone. Usually I just waited until they were just going to bed, but lately I'd been finding that the kids had protection on them even then. Heck, some of them even had motion sensors set up. That was, I assumed, now that we had 'turned' a considerable amount of operatives, because word had gotten out about it and now they'd be enouraged to watch themselves and those around them more carefully. Ah, paranoia. It made this job so much more interesting just to see how bad the thought of having their minds invaded could effect these helpless little delinquents. But then, it was quite a bit easier to catch these kids and inject them when they had nothing to fight back with. Of course, they would always try to fight themselves, but the chemical worked quickly, and they would soon barely have enough energy to pull the trigger on a gumball gun than get up and fight. Then they were implanted with the device and the waiting game began.

I began thinking of the little snot-nosed brats now, irritated to the point of infuriation by merely the thought of them running around as if they owned the place, playing their little games and... yes. Yes, that was how I was going to get the Joey kid on his own. It was so simple. Once again, I rewarded myself with a smirk of anticipation, looking forward to putting my plan into action.

A/N: Ohh! The first appearance of the villain! Has anyone figured out who this guy's 'assistant' is yet? Shoutouts in next chapter to whoever reviews with the right answer! Go on, guess! Okay, tell me if you found this chapter confusing/had too many character changes, and I'll work on that for next time. Until then, I leave you with a quote from the show Friends;

Ross: I AM DOCTOR MONKEY!

Hasta la vista baby!

-xoxo, Numbuh 25