A/N: Oh. My. Gosh. I AM SO SORRY. Has it really been 3 whole WEEKS? I cannot believe I missed 3 WEEKS of publishing. I am so mad at me! GAH! So, So, So, So, So, (ect.) SORRY.
Okay, so this chapter: I put in a little more about Robert, our soopreme leader of today, as well as a fairly interesting bit with the gang (I hope).
Oh, and to the fake numbuh 166: four words;
don't like, don't read. To the real one: It's okay, it's not your fault. Thats all... carry on!
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Kids Next Door Mission...
Operation: F.O.R.G.E.T.
Fragments
Of
Recovery
Gradually
Enable
Team
Chapter 14 – One by One
"Mom! I'm home!" Kuki called out as she stowed her keys back into the front pocket of her bag. She slipped off her shoes near the door and walked into the kitchen, where her mother was working on a laptop at the bench.
"Hello, Kuki. How was school?" Her mother greeted, taking a sip from a steaming white mug.
"Good. We had P.E, and Annie got four goals in a row in soccer," Kuki recounted. Her mother nodded, then turned to face her completely.
"Kuki, your father and I have to go out tonight. Will you be okay here on your own?"She asked.
"What about Mushi?"
"She's going to a friend's place. Are you sure you'll be okay on your own?" Her mother insisted.
"Mom, I'm sixteen. I think I can handle one night on my own," Kuki assured her. Her mother nodded again, but looked slightly less than convinced.
"Mom, if you're that worried, I'll ask Abby to come over. We can study, maybe watch a movie, she could even sleep over."
This seemed to reassure her mother.
"Well, okay," she resorted, but not without adding quickly; "Just as long as you don't stay up too late."
"But mo-om!" Kuki whined, "it's a student-free day tomorrow! The teachers have planning or something like that. I don't have to go to school!"
But Genki Sanban was still hesitant about letting her daughter stay up without restrictions. She knew that Kuki was a responsible child, but it would be hard for any mother to just leave their daughter alone and without instruction. It was like leaving a small kitten alone for a week with only a small bowl of water and a tiny sliver of food. In short, it was unsettling. But, as she realised that she herself as a teenager would have wanted the same thing, she gave in.
"Alright. But, if you're still awake by the time we get home..." she trailed off at the end, implying that there would be trouble.
"Don't worry, mom! We'll be fine! Anyway, it'll only be me and Abby. It's not like I'm gonna have a party or anything." Genki seriously hoped not.
~(*)~
Hoagie took a deep breath. He was going to do it. He'd been staring at the phone for at least ten minutes now, but he was going to do it. He was going to call her.
He reached for the dial, then drew back nervously. What if she said no? What if she laughed at him? He pushed his fear of embarressment down and tried again to force his hand to the phone. Just do it. Don't think, dial. Another deep inhale, and his fingers snapped up the handset before he could hesitate again.
He punched in the number, and pressed the talk button. It was ringing. Meanwhile, Hoagie was at war with himself. -What am I doing? Hang up, man.
-No! You've been crushing on her for almost four years now! You have to do something about it!
-She doesn't like you! She barely knows you exsist!
-Which is why you have to let her know!
But just as he was about to let the negative side get the better of him, the phone was answered.
"Hello?" Abby's voice said. Hoagie panicked.
"Oh! Uhm, Abby. Uh, hi... Hoagie, it's-it's Hoagie." He kicked himself mentally.
"Okay. What's up, then?"
Hoagie wondered what to say. In fact, he was so busy wondering what to say that he almost forgot that Abby was on the other line.
...
"Hoagie? Ya there?" Came the call from the receiver. Hoagie jumped, then facepalmed, then recouped (ish) and spoke again.
"Oh, yeah, I'm here. Sorry, I had to.. talk to my mom," he fibbed, "but, I was wondering.. I have the footage for the ad for History, and I need someone to help me edit, so I don't, y'know, make something everyone hates.." He swore he heard a small chuckle through the phone.
"Sure. Nigel's over here too, we were studying for our Science test. But judging by the look on his face right now, he'd rather be stuck on Pluto than study for five more minutes." Hoagie laughed a little, but somehow it came off as nervous to him. When a person was this scared, it tended to show even when you didn't intend it to.
"Okay, I'll be over there in five. Can Nigel hold on for that long?"
This time, her laugh was clear. Clear, melodious and bright as usual. That nearly cracked Hoagie into little, tiny pieces.
"Well, we'll be cutting it close," she joked, "so you might wanna hurry. He's almost slipped into a boredom-induced coma. Seeya then!"
Hoagie managed a slightly squeaky 'bye,' then grabbed his laptop and was out the door.
~(*)~
Robert had been lying on the observatory deck of the Moonbase for almost half an hour, thinking, the cogs in his mind spinning so fast they nearly stopped working completely. In the past week alone, at least three-hundred-and-fifty operatives had turned.
Three-hundred-and-fifty.
That would bring their total to coming on one-thousand-seven-hundred. One-thousand-nine-hundred-and-fifty if you count the kids decomissioned in that time. People didn't usually think about things like that in a crisis. Other bad things still happened in a time of crisis. People still contracted other diseases in the time of the plague. But if one big thing was happening, all of the spotlights were rushed to cover it, leaving all the other little things forgotten and shrouded in darkness. That was one of the many, many tangents that Robert had slipped out on as his brain grew less and less focussed. But that didn't stop him worrying. If anything, the more tired be grew, the more he ached to know why, how, what was doing this to everyone. Like if he stopped thinking about it now, he would never have another chance to figure it out. In a matter of months the KND would be over.
The word was like a ten ton block of cement dropped sqarely onto his shoulders. Agonising, pressuring, a heavy toll on not just his mind, but everything about him.
Gone, destroyed, the KND all but a memory. Or maybe not even. The 'turned' kids were still their own age, but non seemed to aknowledge the Kids Next Door's existance. No-one was sure whether the effect was essentially a process like decomissioning, a complete erasal of all memories of childhood, or whether these new 'teens' were simply too ignorant and stuck-up to care about remembering.
Robert closed his eyes, though he was still all too aware of everything going on around him. Every one of the tiniest noises caught him, made him jump, pushed his mind until it was as it was now, on the edge. He was always on alert, never let his guard down. Sleep was something that was rare and precious, and his lack thereof was only adding to the near-paranoic state of mind he was hurtling towards.
Suddenly, it was all too much. Suddenly, he was over the edge. The very thought of being so close to defeat had caused him to break down, like being stuck on a cliff edge, and even the though of being so high and so unstable is enough to make you lose balance. He rolled over until his knees were tucked up under him, and he was srunched up into a ball. He clenched every muscle in his body, strained every fibre of his being, pulled every bone in towards his middle. He squeezed, as if he could physically wring out all the stress, all the pressure, all the fear. Then, lifting instantaneously up onto his knees, he screamed. He yelled as loud as he would let himself, then louder. He screamed at whoever was doing this, at whatever was making this happen, screamed at the stars outside, glittering and twinkling, oblivous to what was going on, just screamed at whatever was there to hear it. When he needed air, he stopped. Drawing in a shaky, jagged breath, he flopped back to lying down, facing outwards towards the sky. The sky filled with planets, stars, all of which had absorbed his frustration as if it were nothing. The sky was still the same. He was both thankful and annoyed by that. It was a source of security to know that there was one thing that would never change, no matter how much things went wrong. There was always the constant, slow-moving expanse of the universe that would always be there. People could look up at the sky, at war or peace, in hatred or love, in hope or despair, and somehow the sky managed to stay the same.
It was comforting.
But at the same time, it was almost insulting.
How could the sky not realise how badly the world below was being effected? It wasn't just the Kids Next Door, but everything; injustice, hunger, war, seemed to be nothing to the sky. Nothing could phase the serene, almost other-worldy way that the stars prickled the sky like holes in a pitch-black sheet of silk. Almost and insult that Earth was apparently not worth crying over.
Robert thanked the stars every night for being there, being a distraction and a break from the real world, but he cursed them for bringing up endless trains of thought like this one.
Robert was suddenly aware of a presence in the room, behind him. He felt eyes burning into his aching back, and instantly regreted the scream.
"Uhm, numbuh 263?" He knew that voice. Joey Beatles. Robert took a deep breath and strained to hold back the tears that pricked the back of his eyes, the ones that he was all but too ready to release.
"Numbuh 404." Robert addressed Joey in his codename, to keep up the belief that he wasn't as distraught as he really was.
"Uh, Ah'm sorry ta interupt..." the little blonde boy stated sheepishly, holding his head a little lower than was usual.
Robert brushed himself off, rising slowly to his feet, and attempted a fake calm smile.
"No. No, I was just finishing up here. Uh, can I help you?"
"Well, ya see.." Joey sounded as if he were embarressed about why he was here, like it was sort of a little off. "Ah've been, well, trying ta find out about sector V," he finished, looking at the floor as he spoke.
"You mean..?"
"Yeah. The real sector V."
"Why though?" Robert asked, genuinely confused. Sure, there had been a couple of times when he had wished for some of the old KND legends to come back (if they couldn't fix this, no-one could), but he would expect Joey to have those same thoughts. For want of a better expression, he was a 'live in the moment' kid. At least that was what Robert thought of him.
"Ah-Ah was just insterested. Y'know, since we've got ta live up to them and all."
Robert twisted the corner of his mouth up in thought.
"Well, I guess we have some information on numbuhs 1 through 5, but it's all very restricted, no names or adresses or anything," he recalled, knowing what would happen if you searched 'sector V' from when he had time to be curious. Nothing but current day sector V and a few old mission logs. Nothing about the actual operatives of the original Sector V.
"Ah know. Tha computer's useless." The aussie kid had read his mind.
"Well, there's always..." Robert trailed off, wondering if Joey would catch his drift.
"Tha Code Module? Are you serious?"
Robert shrugged. But inside, he was breathing a sigh of great relief. Nothing like a full-scale investigation to get your mind off things.
So, off they went, looking for the nearest pod that would take them to the Arctic base.
"Oh, and Joey?" Robert said just as they were leaving.
"Yeah?"
"You guys are no less the 'real' sector V than they were."
~(*)~
Ding-dong!
The doorbell chimed, announcing Hoagie's arrival at Abby's place. The raven-haired girl began to get up, but Nigel was quicker, having been ready to leave his textbooks behind for the past 15 minutes.
"I'll get it, I'll get it, I'll get it!"He repeated, walking swiftly past where Abby lay on her stomach on the floor, propped up on her elbows and chewing on the end of a pencil.
Nigel opened the door, and there was Hoagie, standing slightly nervously, on the doorstep. He smiled a little when Nigel appeared in front of him, and gave an awkward little wave of his hand.
"Hey, Nigel," he said in a voice slightly smalled than usual.
"Hey. You got here just in time, man. I was about to die of brain overload."
Hoagie resisted the urge to blurt out the words 'physically impossible,' and instead smiled and laughed quietly before wandering inside when Nigel stepped back from the door, proceeding to the living room.
"So I brought over the film, and my laptop, and I was thinking of going with a sort of sepia or black-and-white theme, but if you guys think of something..." It was then that he stopped, paused and realised what he was doing.
"Uhm, uh sorry," he stammered, grinning sheepishly, "I-I mean; Hello!" He gave a little wave, while, once again, he scolded himself inside. Cursed himself for being so socially awkward.
Abby smiled, a small smile like Hoagie wasn't meant to see it.
"Hey Hoags. Come sit down. Y'know, I kinda like that -what was it?- sepia tone." Hoags. Hoagie liked that.
"Yeah, I thought it would add a sort of, y'know, medievil effect to it."
"Exactly."
Bang-bang-bang.
There was another knock at the door. A pause.
"Well, I'm already here," Hoagie frowned, confused.
Another pause.
This time, the pounding was more desperate.
BANG-BANG-BANG!
... ... ...
"Well, someone get the door," Nigel pushed. Hoagie would have gone, but he felt awkward since it wasn't his house. So, finally, Abby got up and walked down the hall to the door.
The other two boys followed, curious to see who was so desperate to get in.
Just before Abby got to open the door, there was yet another banging at the door, this time a deeper, harder Boom!
"I'm coming, I'm coming, geez," Abby said, obviously not intending for the serial door-knocker to hear.
The knob turned, the hinges squeaked, but apparently it wasn't fast enough for the person on the opposite side.
Hoagie heard panting, then, before he could wonder why, the door was shoved open and there was a flash of orange and blond.
"Wally! What in the name of Issac Newton are you doing?" Hoagie bluted out. Meanwhile, Wally was doubled over, trying desperately to catch up with the rate his breath was going, and merely held out one finger, giving the sign; give me a minute.
All the while, Abby had closed the door and bent down to her schoolbag, dumped untidily at the door. Pulling out a waterbottle from the side pocket, handing it to the still panting like a dog Wally. He was grateful, and swallowed half the bottle in a split second.
Once he was inhaling and exhaling at a normal speed again, Nigel asked again; "Wally. What the heck is going on?"
Wally took in another deep breath.
"Well, ya see-" another gasp. "Ah was stuck in my stupid tutoring lesson, right?-" again, he drew breath. "And Ah'm sitting there, bored to death, when I realise; there is a window right there! Right next to me, like, 5 feet away!-" A deep suck in again. "So, Ah escaped. When my tutor went to get a glass of water, Ah just jumped out!"
"You what?" Abby said in almost dry disbelief.
"Ah jumped out. Escaped. Aw, man I would 'ave loved ta see the look on her face!" He said with a laugh.
"Right. So you jumped out a window. That doesn't explain what the whole door-pounding, breath-catching, showing-up-uninvited-on-my-doorstep thing," Abby pushed again, folding her arms.
Wally gave a little, almost nervous, laugh. "Eh, well, that's tha funny part. Ah was outside, in tha garden, and Ah see this dog on the otha side of tha fence. Now this ain't no ordinary dog. This mutt is like this big." He gestured with his hand, about 4 and a half feet off the ground.
"And before Ah can do anything else, it's all snarly and growly at me, and flies over the fence-" he illustrated this with some exaggerated hand movements- "and comes right at me! So, what else could Ah do but run?" At the end of his little storytime, he took in another gulp of oxygen, followed down his throat by the rest of the bottle of water.
"And you ended up here how, exactly?" Hoagie queried. He wondered how the frazzled boy knew where Abby lived.
"Uh, uhm- Ah really don't know." He said it as though only just realising himself. "Ah kinda just, panicked and Ah sort of... took myself here, Ah guess."
There was a pause as everyone considered this in their own way.
"Well, my guess is you probably subconciously remembered seeing Abby walk home and that was the first place you thought of," Nigel pitched, though no-one seemed convinced entirely.
"Subconc...? Subcon...? Subconci..? ...Never mind." Wally gave up on that 'big' word before even starting. Hoagie tried to change the subject.
"Well, where's the dog now?" He asked. Wally merely shrugged. Nigel and Abby checked out the windows, but no-one saw any sign of a dog.
"Must have lost interest," Abby dismissed, "Well, now that you're here, Wally, you may as well help with the editing phase." She dropped herself on the couch, deliberately in front of the coffee table Hoagie had put his laptop on.
"Okay, whateva," Wally breezed, flopping down next to Abby.
Nigel and Hoagie sat on the floor, wedged between the coffee table and the couch where Abby and Wally sat, and were about halfway through the editing.
"I think it looks cool like that," Nigel sat up proudly, looking happy with their progress.
"If you like it now, just wait 'til I..." Hoagie trailed off, pressed a few buttons, clicked a few things, and suddenly, the already sepia and old-fashioned filming had a watermarked, yellowed quality.
"Awesome!" Wally seemed oddly fascinated by this. It wasn't usually like him to be so interested in something that involved so little physical contact, but then, he could have still been stuck inside in the middle of a Math tutoring session. Watching paint dry would be better than that.
Rrrrring! Rrrrrrring!
The phone announced itself, cutting through the peaceful editing session the group had going on.
Well, aside from Kuki, of course.
Rrrrrring! Rrrrrring!
"Is anyone gonna leave us alone today?" Abby asked to no-one. Getting up and walking into the kitchen, she fumbled through a few sheets of paper to find the phone, then pressed a button, gave a slight subconcious flick of her hair, and placed the speaker to her ear.
"Hello?"
...
"Oh, hey Kuki. T'sup?"
...
"Well, actually, I have Nigel, Hoagie and Wally over at the moment." .. "Yeah, long story. Apparently, if you have one boy over, they self-multiply until they take over your whole living room." She said with a laugh.
...
"Well, if the others could come."
...
"I'll ask 'em."
...
"You sure your mom's cool with that?"
...
"Sweet. Kay, seeya there!"
She hung up, returning to the lounge area.
"Hey, that was Kuki," she reported, "her parents are out tonight and she asked us if we wanna come over. So, whaddaya say?" She raised her eyebrows in expectation of a response. Nigel considered that. Sure, it would be slightly awkward, but it'd be fun, right? And he'd really, really had enough of anything school-related at all.
Really.
Hoagie was unsure as well. Going over to a girl's house and probably not leaving until late wasn't really his thing. In the slightest. But, then he weighed out the situation. It ould be three boys to two girls. That made him feel better.
Wally thought he'd refuse at the first moment. Any other day he would have. But, it was Kuki. He was going to be at Kuki's for the night.
And besides, he needed to let his parents cool off a bit after his little houdini trick in his tutor lesson. For the third time this month.
So, all the boys agreed, for one reason or another, and soon a proper get-together was arranged.
"Okay. Cool! I'll text Kuki to tell her we're all coming. Nigel, you make a grpcery store run and get some snacks. Hoagie, I'm counting on you for the drinks. Get some cherry soda for me, kay? And Wally, you're in charge of the movies. Meet at Kuki's in fifteen. Let's move people, go!" She alloted the jobs like a drill sargeant, in a mock-military style, then rushed off to grab her mobile from her bag.
Abby Lincoln: All of us R in! C U there!
Five minutes later, there was a reply.
Kuki Sanban: Cool! Can't wait! Bye! 3
A/N: Again, I'M SO SORRY. But was it okay? I think I was really in the zone in Robert's little bit. I liked that. But, you tell me! If you have read this, please review! I have guest review on, so just tell me what you think? Please? Okay, that's all from me. Oh, and I'm 13 now. Aw. But, it's not so bad. Anyone know Owl City? He's my favourite singer, and guess what? I GOT TICKETS TO HIS CONCERT FOR MY BIRTHDAY! Woo-hoo! Kay, bye.
-xoxo, Numbuh 25
