A/N: Last day of holidays, NOOO! Oh well, only ten weeks until term three holidays!
Disclaimer: (about time one of these showed up) I do not own Kids Next Door. All of the characters, aside from ones not featured in the original show are owned by Mr. Warburton and Cartoon Network.
P.S. Do not trust any of the scientific details in this chapter. You will probably be able to tell, but they are all fake. Okay, this is a pretty interesting chapter. But, why should I tell you about it when you can read for yourself? Go ahead!
Chapter 12 – Unexpected
"Joel! Mia! Get over here! We need to focus," Cree hissed to her friends and accomplices. They were on hands and knees, crawling through the airvents in an enemy location.
Sometimes Cree thought she was too old to still be working as a spy for adult villains. She was twenty-two; almost old enough to be an adult villain herself, and yet here she was with her boyfriend and another, younger teen ninja who had potential despite being four years behind the two she was with.
"Cree, you may want to take a look at this," the youngest one said, jerking a thumb in the direction of a vent in the side of the airway.
"What is it now, Mia?" Not that she had been a pain or anything so far today. Cree just liked to make sure that she was the one people were scared into respecting, and not the one who was forced into respecting another. She wasn't the kind of person to come in second place when she could do something about it.
Crawling over to where the two others were staring intently at something in the room below, Cree took a look for herself.
"What? Isn't that the stuff that crazy scientist guy was using to make the kids go weird?" Cree found herself overlooking a room, a laboratory probably, containing five or six children in pure white lab coats (save for maybe a few scorch marks) holding a few test tubes of pale yellowish liquid up to the light, squinting in concentration.
"Looks like it," Joel confirmed. Pulling out a high-tech pair of binoculars, he scanned both the children and the concoctions they were studying.
"The code of whatever that stuff is definitely matches chemical Z2A. I think somehow the kids have gotten their hands on it," he reported. Cree scowled, in both anger and in thought. If the KND hada managed to take some of the chemical this entire project was balanced upon, they were only a step closer to figuring them out completely. Giving a frustrated 'hmm,' Cree spoke again;
"We may have underestimated those brats."
"I suggest we listen in on a bit of their conversation," Mia began, "It would tell us how much they know, and if there's any way we could steal whatever amount of Z2A they have back."
Giving her a once over and considering her idea, Cree nodded slowly.
"Huh. I like the way you think, kid. It was a good thing you decided to ditch those dorks all those years ago." She smirked. As did the eighteen year-old she was talking to.
Though inside, Mia was thinking about what it would have been like had she stayed with the Kids Next Door. If she hadn't given away the Code Module. If she hadn't betrayed her newfound friends. If she had fought instead of fleeing. If she had stayed numbuh 12 until the bitter end.
But then, she had always liked to be on the winning side. And as far as she knew, the teens were the winning side right now. Let them catch her, let them decomission her; she had alreay given everything she knew to her fellow teens. And there was no way those brats could make a comeback now; it was just a matter of time before they were all on the teens' side.
"Mia, we'll need your sound-magnifier to hear what's going on down there," Joel brought her back to alert.
"Oh, yes, of course," she said, bending back to reach her backpack in the cramped space she was in. She pulled out an object roughly the size of shoebox, or slightly smaller, with buttons and knobs on the side and what looked like a tiny megaphone on the end. But even with its small size, the megaphone had ten times the power of a standard stage microphone. Flicking the 'on' switch and pushing a button marked 'above,' Mia fiddled with the volume knob until the conversation of the children below them came into focus.
"So, if it reacts with the sodium chloride and Rioten peroxide solution and creates a negative charge, we can then assume that it contains Hydrogen ionide and Omniscius." Came the voice of one of the older kids, as two others watched on intently.
"Woah! Uhm, Numbuh 5687? Wha-wh-what is that?"
The operative dropped his spontanious science lesson and jogged over to another group's bench. Another test tube of the 'Z2A' chemical was boiling in a stand over a bunsen burner. However, as the solution began to steam, the lemon-coloured gas was drifting towards the two who were tending to it.
Back in the air vents, Joel, Mia and Cree were all bewildered by what was happening underneath them. It was like watching a suspence movie. Live. Cree lowered her eyebrows, Mia leaned in a little, as if making sure that what she was seeing was actually real, and Joel simply stared, wanting to kow what would happen next.
"What the heck?" Cried the older child, taking an involuntary half-step back. "That is not normal. Okay, this is an unstable situation. Numbuhs 1090 and 1092, I suggest you do anything you have to to avoid coming in contact with that cloud."
"You don't have to tell me twice!" Said a child on one of the split ends of the snake-like trail of steam, almost stumbling over a cardboard box in his effort to back further away from the steadily-flowing mid-air stream.
Meanwhile, another kid had switched off the gas release pipe that gave the bunsen burner its feul. The flame went out, but the test tube was still bubbling and boiling.
"It'll take at least ten minutes for the chemical to completely cool down," she said, "is there any way we can speed that up?"
"I don't know." Numbuh 5687 said, brow creased in concern.
"How about we drop it in one of the ice baths in the freezer?" Another boy, making sure to stay well away from the yellow haze spoke up.
"I don't care what you have to do, just get it to stop chasing me!" Yelled the other boy being followed. Numbuh 5687 considered this, all the while the numbuhs 1090 and 1092 were given no relief from the persuit of chemical Z2A.
"OK, numbuh 89.12, grab an ice bucket from the freezer. Actually, make it the tin of liquid Nitrogen in the corner, if you can manage. Numbuh 149, I need a wire test tube holder, STAT!"
The girl who had turned off the bunsen burner scurried off towards a huge metal door marked 'Super-freezing refridginator' while the smaller boy practically dove into a cupboard off to the left.
"1090, 1092. How are you guys doing?" He asked, turning back around to face the two boys.
"Just peachy!" The one on the left, 1090, said nervously.
"Never better!" Numbuh 1092 chided, trying to juggle the tasks of walking backwards without falling and keeping one eye on the gas.
"Glad to hear it," Numbuh 5687 said, taking note of their sarcasm but ignoring it altogether.
Three minutes later, the supplied were gathered; a huge canister with a heavy, secure lid, and a small wire figure. It had a triangular gap in the middle, and one long spoke coming off each point.
Numbuh 89.12 had on some thick oven mitt-like hand-protectors to sheild her skin from the intense, extreme cold of the Liquid Nitrogen, and was in the process of carefully opening the lid to the container of liquid Nitrogen. Once opened, the substance produced a thick white fog that rivaled the Z2A steam itself. Numbuh 149 handed the wire structure to numbuh 89.12, who then lowered it steadily down to the rim of the canister.
Numbuh 5687 nodded his approval to her progress, then proceeding to pick up the test tube of the offending chemical between the claws of a wooden clamp. Taking slow strides over to the tin, being careful to stay away from the side that the steam was being emitted from, he placed the tube into the wire rack.
The liquid Nitrogen hissed slightly at the tubes' impact, then kept on steaming as if nothing had happened at all.
In less than seconds, the tube of yellowy liquid stopped bubbling, and the cloud emerging from it dissapated instantly. Another half-second passed, and the liquid froze solid. As well as that, the toxic-looking steam targeted on numbuh 1090 and numbuh 1092 started to thin out, like someone had turned on a fan.
"Yes!" One of the boys yelled in relief, giving a small fist pump. The other simply smiled and sighed deeply.
Cree looked to the others she was with. Both bore the same expressions as her; confusion with a hint of disapointment. All three were apparently anxious to see what would have happened had the gas touched the either or both of the two operatives.
"That was strange." Numbuh 149, in his small and inward nature, seemed to come out of nowhere.
"It sure was," numbuh 5687 agreed, letting out a breath of air through clenched teeth. "And that wasn't any ordinary chemical reaction. This, my friends, this is a spacially aware chemical."
The others gasped.
"So, what does that mean for our research?" Numbuh 1090 piped up.
"It means that this chemical can target on one thing in a room. It knows where you are going. It can follow your moves. This is, most likely, the thing that has been turning our operatives against us." Numbuh 5687 looked at the frozen test tube in front of him, watching it as if it would suddenly leap out and attack all of them.
"But how?" Numbuh 89.12 asked, also intent on keeping the tube in sight. She was frowning, her arms somewhere between crossed and wrapped around herself. It was an obvious sign of nervousness to anyone who was not in the room.
I.E. Cree, Joel and Mia.
"No idea," Numbuh 5687 began, his face switching from concern to determination, "but I know that we are going to find out."
And with that, the kids set about clearing up everything that had been disrupted during the little episode, including everything that 1090 and 1092 knocked over while evading the gas.
"Wow." Joel whispered back up in the air vents. "That was... unexpected."
"Sure was," Mia agreed turning off the eavsdropping device and stashing it into her bag once again.
"Well, we know where they are in figuring us out. That's one thing," Cree pointed out. "Are you guys up for a stakeout tonight? We'll wait 'til they're gone, then take back what's ours."
Just then, numbuh 89.12 spoke up below, seemingly in answer to Cree's statement, in a voice so loud that it had no need for a microphone.
"Hey, numbuh 5687! When do we go home? It's taco night at my place!"
The head scientist in the room almost laughed, calling back to her, where she was almost opposite him in the room.
"It'll be a long night tonight, Gracie! We've got a lotta cleaning up to do after the houdini brothers' less than clean getaway!" He shouted, purposefully directing a smirk to where the two boys stood. Numbuhs 1090 and 1092 blushed and chuckled nervously.
"I'm thinking... no on the stakeout," Joel announced, crawling off in the direction they had come from.
"Yeah. I got better things to do than watch some stupid kids playing janitor in a child-sized labratory," Mia followed after Joel.
"Urgh, fine, if you're not game enough. But as soon as we can get here again, we are getting those test tubes."
And with that, Cree crawled behind the two others to the outisde vent they'd entered through, her mind already at work on a method of breaking into the lab undetected.
~(*)~
Wally finally neared his house, pulling his car into the drive. The journey home could be a nightmare sometimes.
First, he had to endure the pushing, pulling and outright shoving of the students in the lockers surrounding his. Then, it was out to the carpark where countless others were trying (some more than others) to get to their cars, those too young to drive or at loss of a car simply attempting not to get run over as they made for the bus stop. The queue to get out of the carpark was always horrendously slow, because some jerk up the front couldn't talk to whoever it was they were talking to before they get into their car. On a good day, it would take you ten minutes to get out of there. Then, you were finally on the open roads, free from the claws of the beartrap that was school.
Walking up the path and approching the door, Wally was about to grab for the handle when he noticed something stuck to the door. A note.
He ripped off the little stickynote, attatched with a piece of tape, and read over it
Joey,
I've gawn to the park to play footbal.
It'd be kool if yu cood come 2, if yu wanted.
I will be wateing fore yu there.
-Wally
Wally's grip on the note intensified, the not crumpled between his fingers. Someone was messing with his little bro, and he was going to find out who. Because he swore, if Ace was behind this, he was going to pummel that jerk into next week. Mess up his school life, Wally couldn't care less. Mess with his family, and you were going to pay the ultimate price.
His temper heated, Wally took off towards the park, thinking about what he was going to do to whoever was responsible for sending Joey on this wild goose chase.
Once there, Wally scanned left and right for his younger brother. When he saw nothing but other kids playing happily on the playground, he took off again, headed for the oval.
Joey was sitting on the grass when he arrived, panting heavily. The smaller version of himself looked disheartened, pulling out bunches of grass in an uninterested way. Wally felt a pang of sympathy. Joey was probably feeling like a loser, under the impression that his brother had tricked him.
"Joe! What's going on?" He called to him. Joey looked up, frowning in confusion.
Wally was about to continue, when he spotted something. There was a figure behind his brother, sneaking slightly out of the bushes. In an instant Wally knew that he was looking at the person who had left the fake note. But that wasn't important. What was important was the fact that his brother was about to be kidnapped if he didn't do something.
The man held something in his hand, like a compact dart shooter of some kind. And worse, it looked like it was loaded. Wally's heart quickened, his breath almost caught; this was actually happening. Some kind of criminal mastermind had played him and his brother like a drum. And now, it was all going down.
So, without warning, and much to Joey's bewilderment, Wally charged.
The figure jerked backwards on account of his unexpected appearance, but didn't show the tiniest hint of intimidation. Joey following his older brother's burning glare, found him too, and jumped to his feet.
"Well, what do we have here? The dynamic duo, I suppose?" The shadowed figure taunted, before emerging into the light. There stood a middle-aged man, beginning to bald on top, an evil smirk set on his hardened features.
Joey gasped as if in recognition, but remained silent.
"Who that heck are you, and what are ya doin' tryin' ta kidnap my little bro?" Wally demanded.
"That is none of your buisiness. I should be asking you the same question, Wallaby. What brings you here to disrupt the natural order of things?" Wally's heart skipped a beat. Somehow the fact that this guy knew his name was like giving him the advantage. He felt exposed, unprotected. But he didn't back down. That was just not like him.
"Ah'm not stupid, whoever-you-are. Ah found tha note. Word of advice; think your plans through next time, kay?" He growled, spitting the words out with uttmost contempt.
"I'm not going to hurt young Joey. I merely need to... give him something. He will be back in your care within five minutes, I assure you," the man elaborated in a fake friendly voice.
"No, weirdo. Tha answer's No, with a capital 'N'."
"Okay. I gave you the option of going peacefully, now I shall take what I need." With that, the man, cloaked in a thick white coat, made a leap for Joey.
Reflexes kicking in at lightning speed, Wally threw a punch at the man, knocking him off course and sending him hurtling to the ground. Joey, who Wally had expected to be cowering far off to the side, was instead standing right next to Wally, looking down at the man and watching to see what he would do next.
Brushing off the previous impact, the cloaked man stood up, seeming to tower over the two boys despite being barely taller than Wally himself.
Wally tossed another punch, but the man caught it, and began trying to push him aside. But Wally's strength held out, and he resisted. But this merely led the two to a stalemate, the man pushing one way, Wally opposing.
Luckily for the Beatles' side, Joey marched up to the man, knowing that he wouldn't let go of Wally for fear of being struck again, and in a second, lowered down and swept his right leg around in a full 180° semi-circle, taking their opponent's legs out from under him and causing him to crash to the ground, hitting his head on the dirt below. The two boys waited a few seconds to make sure he was defeated, and when they got no response but a desperate reaching out of one arm, they left the man to work out how he was going to move from that spot, let alone get back to wherever it is he came from.
"WALLY! That was so completely amazing!" The youngest one screamed once they were a reasonable distance away.
"You were all like, leave him alone, you jerk, and then he was all, make me, and then... and then... wow," he wound down, finally out of breath.
Wally chuckled at his brother's reaction, then stopped and looked down at him.
"Where did you learn those moves? They were pretty darn awesome, and it was even better that you were brave enough to use them on that creep," he said honestly. He was really proud of Joey. He had shown a lot of courage, skill and determination. It may have been strange, but Wally felt that he saw a part of himself in his brother's eyes, a part that he had almost forgotten.
"It was really nothing. I just thought that you were going to be there for a while if someone didn't do something." Though he blew it off as nothing big, Joey felt a lump of pride and happiness rise in his throat. Not only had he encountered the man that was turning the KND operatives bad (he had seen posters of the man), but he had managed to really help his brother and show him what he could do. He felt closer to his brother at that moment than he had in a long time.
Another thing that came to Joey's mind was that Wally's reflexes and technique were pretty good. He struggled to supress a giggle as he imagined something.
What if his brother used to be in the Kids Next Door? He wondered what that would have been like, but after a while, he stopped, shaking the thought from his head. While Wally as a former KND operative was a pretty cool thought, it was completely crazy. Joey was sure that his brother couldn't have been in the Kids Next Door.
"So, squirt. We make a pretty good team, huh?" Wally broke the silence.
"Yep! That was fun!"
"Y'know, it kinda was. If taking on a criminal can be described as fun." Wally said. Then, on a whim, he picked Joey up and swung him up onto his shoulders, just like the first time they'd walked to the park.
"I can't wait to tell mum and dad about this!" Joey cried.
"Oh, yeah. Everyone has to know about how you took that guy down. You were like a ninja!" Wally smiled up at Joey.
"But you were really cool too, Wally!" Joey smiled down as well.
And so, the two set off home, playfully arguing over who was the most ninja-like.
A/N: So? What did you think of the whole 'Z2A thing, and Wally's confrontation with him? Hope you liked it!
