A/N: Hey hey hey! I'm back! Okay, not much to say right now, so here are the review responses!

Numbuh 46: Yay! I was wondering when someone was going to notice the Total Drama reference back there! You are the winner! ...of something. And I think I will put Chad in, that's actually a pretty good idea, thanks!

Kai2: Thanks for all the reviews! It makes my story seem more popular than it really is. Glad you like it, and yeah, I think most of us have our lazer tag moments when it stops being a game and starts being a fight to the death... or at least until the temporary disqualification.

Maria: I'm typing as fast as I can, but it's hard trying to think of enough interesting plot twists to make the Fic go the full 30+ chapters I intend to make it... Oh, well! I guess I'll just have to go with it and add a lot of side-stories to keep it going!

Okay, ready... set... READ!

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Kids Next Door Mission...

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

Fragments

Of

Recovery

Gradually

Enable

Team

Chapter 15 –

Kuki was bouncing around the kitchen, going from the oven, where a tray of nachos thick with warm, gooey cheese was bubbling away happily, to the bench where she had a mixing bowl full of choc-chip brownie batter, to her mini-speaker to turn up the volume. As she breezed around swiftly, she sang along to the words of one of her favourite songs.

Woke up on the right side of the bed,

What's up with this price song inside my head?

Her mother was in her room, getting ready to go out. And Kuki was going out of her way to make the best late-night get-together she could manage. That was typical Kuki. She was always ready for a fun time, and always ready to make it funner. More fun. She didn't know what the right word was, but she knew what she meant.

Hands up if you're down to get down tonight!

Nachos came out of the oven, the cheese still at bubbling temperature. They smelled good. Kuki smiled in anticipation as she placed the tray on a cooling rack. Her phone went off with a ding on the other island benchtop.

Abby Lincoln: We've got the chips, drinks and DVDs covered. We'll be over ASAHLTCR.

Kuki frowned at the strange acronym, before picking up the phone and typing another message.

Kuki Sanban: ASAH... what R U talking about, girl?

Another minute and there was another ping! as the reply came through.

Abby Lincoln: As soon as Hoagie leaves the candy rack.

Kuki Sanban: Oooooh-kay.

She laughed. Hoagie could be one funny kid sometimes. But strangely enough, a little voice in her head told her that he wasn't. Some part of her was almost irritated by his sense of humour. Though she couldn't pin down exactly why. She had only known him personally for a few weeks.

Oh, well.

She went back to the bowl of brownie mix, stirring rythmically and humming along as the singers blared away.

Woah-oh a oh-oh,

It's always a good time.

Ten minutes later, the brownies were in the oven and her mother and father were just about to leave, with Mushi trailing behind, waiting to be taken to her friend's house.

'Remember our agreement?' her father reminded her, giving her a stern but affectionate look.

Kuki counted off the terms of her staying home on her fingers.

'No parties, stay inside, music turned down to a "reasonable level," avoid anything "unsuitable," movies are to stop at midnight, and in bed by twelve-thirty,' she recited.

'Oh, and those who disobey or break these rules shall be hung upside-down by their ankles in their room and grounded until their final year of college,' she added, joking.

'You joke now, but we were serious about those rules. Just a small sleep-over, are we clear?' Her mother said, already knowing the answer.

'Crystal!' Kuki beamed.

'Okay, then. Have fun, sweetie."

Her parents left, Mushi in tow, and Kuki was alone.

But not for long.

The oven dinged, and Kuki pulled it open, the sweet, rich scent of chocolate hit her full on. Donning a pair of oven mitts, she pulled out the pan, licking her lips.

No sooner had she lowered the tray to another cooling rack next to the nachos, than the doorbell rang out, startling her slightly, but also putting a smile on her face, or at least brightening the one that was already there.

She opened the door, and found the four of them standing, crowded into the small doorstep to avoid the rain outside she had failed to notice.

'Hey guys! Come on in,' she waved them through with a flourish of her hand, 'I just finished with the brownies.'

'Cool! Wait... do I smell nachos?' Hoagie stopped dead and took another deep breath in.

'Huh. Stick some cornchips and cheese in the oven and suddenly the boy's a german shepard,' Abby mused.

Kuki laughed at both Hoagie's keen sense of smell when it came to anything food-related, and her friend's humorous comment that almost suggested she'd been watching him enough to know that.

'Yup, they're on the bench,' Kuki said, but apparently in vain as the yellow-sunglass clad boy was already moving towards the kitchen in a manner that reminded Kuki of a cartoon character drifting through the air in persuit of food.

Abby, Nigel and Wally waltzed in after Hoagie, Abby and Wally placing each placing a bulging bag on the island bench closest to the entryway.

'We got chips -plain, salt and vinegar and barbeque- doritos, pringles, and for afterwards, butterscotch-caramel-ripple ice-cream, and a few packets of whatever on the rack we touched first,' Abby announced, pulling each bag of assorted snack out of the plastic shopping bag as she listed them.

'And the Sour Spiders' Nigel added. At the store, he'd been extra-careful to make sure there were at least three bags of them in the mix.

That was a lot of snack food.

Now, it was Wally's turn to rant.

'Well, Ah was gonna get Prom Destroyer three, but then Ah realised that there were gonna be girls here, and Ah was in no way about to rent a stupid reach-for-tha-tissues chick flick, so Ah went with the entire series of Austin Powers, and a few otha funny movies Ah thought you'd loike. Ah mean, comedy is like tha all-rounder, right? Can't go wrong with comedy.' Kuki smiled. Now they had something to do while trying to get through all the food they had.

'Too right. No way to screw up there,' she agreed.

'Hoagie?' Abby went over to nudge the boy in the back, disturbing him from his vacant staring at the trays of nachos and brownies that were oh-so-tempting.

'Hm? Oh! Oh, yeah,' he reversed back to where the others were standing, placing his own grocery bag with the rest of the supplies.

'I got some soda; plain, orange, lemon-lime, cherry-' he breifly glanced at Abby- 'and tutti-fruity. I don't know what that is, but it came in the value pack, so we may as well try it.'

'That's a... lot,' Kuki said, once again going over the mass of things that were taking up almost all of the bench, 'are we really going to finish all this?'

'Well, I guess we'd better get stuck in then, if we want to finish it,' Abby said, clapping her hands together.

Kuki had everything ready already. Pillows from every room in the house had been piled up onto the couch and two armchairs that adorned the living room. The DVD player had been hooked up, and there was a small wooden table in the centre of the room ready for the food.

'Right this way, Ladies and Gentlemen, your movie -marathon- is about to begin,' she joked, with a gesture towards the room, adding the word 'marathon' a little lower, like a subtext.

Her friends filed in, Nigel on one side of the couch, Hoagie on the other. Wally slumped down in an armchair, scootching it over towards the middle a bit to get a better view of the TV screen and so he did not look left out. Abby seemed more comfortable on the floor, arms on the table in front of her, where she could turn around and see everyone clearly. Kuki grabbed the pile of DVDs on the bench and followed her friends into the living room. Picking movie on the top of the pile, she turned on the DVD player and slotted the disk in, before taking a seat next to Abby, surrounded by the table, the couch and Wally's chair.

The lights were switched off, and the movie started, the light from the screen flickering across the room.

Partway into the second movie, when the nachos were gone along with the first bag of chips, and everyone was good and ready to not move for at least another six hours, Kuki had a thought. She had only known three out of four of these people less than a year, but it seemed so easy to be around them. Where someone you were only just getting to know would feel a little more secluded, and tend to be a little more self-concious about how they act, she felt she could just as easily fool around and make a fool of herself in front of these people as if she had known them years and years.

Wally stirred.

'Ugh. Ah want somma that brownie, but Ah really don't wanna move,' he groaned.

'You and me both, man,' Hoagie seconded, reaching out an arm feebly towards the table.

Abby rolled her eyes, still not taking her eyes off the TV screen.

'Geez, you really are such go-getters, you two, huh?' She chided, passing up the tray so the boys could take a piece.

'Hey, mind passing it over to the left?' Nigel chimed.

Abby said nothing, but swivelled the tray over to the other side of the couch into Nigel's reach. When Hoagie tried to sneakily grab another slice without Abby noticing;

'Hey! You got your bit, leave some for the reast of us!' She said, putting the tray back to its place on the table and removing her hat from her head, using it to smack him.

'What the- I-it's like she has eyes in the back of her head!' he exclaimed, looking to the other boys either side of him for confirmation.

'Sh-sh-sh! This is a good part!' Kuki hushed, waving her arms at the rest of the group, eyes glued to the screen.

The room quietened, with the exeption of the DVD, which blared away in front of them, oblivious to anything other than itself.

~(*)~

Wally and Robert had been flying for about ten minutes, with the radio on quietly in the background. Joey couldn't help thinking that Robert looked uncomfortable in some way, which, in turn, made himself uncomfortable. His mind kept returning to that moment, he was on his way to his Soopreme Leader friend's office, hearing the scream from the skydeck, seeing Numbuh 263 on his knees, as if begging for mercy, it was unsettling to say the very least. Almost worrying that their leader was so afraid, but then, everyone needed an outlet for their stress, especially in such a hard time. The speakers sang out with a song that neither boy recognised, and no-one spoke. It was like there was some barrier, a wall between them. Anxiety was openly present in the air.

Finally, when the atmosphere turned from clear to a foggy white, and the hillsides turned into mountains, Robert broke the silence.

'Uhm, how long have you been looking for the original sector V?' he asked, obviously looking for something to break the ice- a little heavy-handed seeing as they were gliding above endless expanses of ice at that moment.

'Well, quite a while, actually,' Numbuh 404 confessed, 'Ah dunno, Ah guess Ah just really wanted ta know.'

Robert seemed to think his answer over before replying.

'Yeah, I guess it would be kind of interesting to know who your predecessors were.'

The boy had such a mature way of speaking, it defied his age infinately. Just another thing that Joey had to think about; well, it had better get in line.

When they reached the Arctic base, after what seemed like almost a day of bleak white plains and blizzard-blurred dunes of snow, the tight feeling the two boys had buried deep in their stomachs began to subside, replaced by a buzzing feeling of anticipation. They threw on their gloves and parkas, as well as snowboots and snowhelmets, before heading out. Despite the many layers they had on, the cold still bit through to their skin, causing them both to shiver.

Once again, in silence they made their way to the entrance of the Kids Next Door arctic base, a mere lone pine tree with a red flag wedged between two boughs.

Of course, that was all there was until you got underneath.

Tapping on the trunk of the tree, Robert eyed his watch and fidgeted impatiently, fiddling with the ties on his jacket and bouncing on his heels agitatedly.

Finally, there was the sound of mechanics from inside the tree, then half the seemingly solid trunk slid back on itself, revealing a fully operation albeit slighly cramped elevator.

Standing in the elevator already was Numbuh 556, aka Alena Fitzgerald.

'Oh, Uhm, Numbuh 263, sir!' she scrambled to give a salute, and this of all things seemed to break Robert's anxiety.

'Numbuh 556, how many times have I told you that you don't need to salute to me. No-one does,' he reminded with a small laugh. Ever since he started as Soopreme Leader, he had insisted on telling everyone to ditch the formal salute; he didn't want to be treated with some military form of respect, he wanted people to respect and like him as a friend, no automatic physical signs of loyalty attatched. He didn't want to feel superior; he knew exactly where he'd be without everyone else. Nowhere.

'Oh, right, of course sir. May I ask what you're doing here? I don't want to interupt anything, I mean...' she said, stumbling over her words.

'Just a little research mission,' Numbuh 263 said, which was technically true. Only he was really meant to be doing paperwork back at Moonbase. He hadn't been on a real mission in almost a year. 'We just came to check something out. We'll be gone in ten minutes, tops.'

Alena nodded hastily, glancing down at her clipboard as if there was something on it that was relevant to the conversation. 'Okay then.'

There was silence. Robert and Joey stood, wondering if numbuh 556 was going to move the elevator, which only took a maximum of two people at a time, seeing as it was only as wide as the trunk of the pine tree.

'Weeell, we should be goin' now,' Joey said, 'I'm due for dinner at six.'

That seemed to jolt Alena back into focus.

'Oh, yes! Yeah, I- I have to go too.' She gulped. 'But, uhm, before I do... Robert?'

'Yeees?' He dragged the word out expectantly.

'I- uh, well, you see...-' she gave a big sigh, giving in to whatever big news she was holding back. 'Ten more operatives have turned this afternoon.'

Of course, the boys were saddened and worried, but this was news they'd come to expect over the past weeks. There had to be something more. And suddenly, both boys felt the need to know who had turned. Robert gave Alena a stern but soft look, before saying, in a small, dread-filled voice;

'Who was it?'

Numbuh 556's eyes brimmed with tears. She wanted to say it, wanted to get it out, but it just wouldn't come. She opened her mouth, spluttered for a second, and finally;

'It- it was Jamie.'

And then, Robert's gaze drifted, drifted to nowhere. He was looking at the wall of the elevator above Alena's head, no longer feeling the sting of the arctic winter outside. And for a minute, nothing moved. His best friend. The girl who had pulled him through his misery and renewed his faith in not only himself, but the entire organisation. Jamie Clearway was special to Robert, and now that she was gone, he saw that inch, that hint of a crush grow, and now that she was gone, he felt it more than ever.

Gone.

Gone was the girl who could tell when something was wrong, even when you were doing your best to cover it. Gone were those stunning, bright emerald green eyes, replaced with the mascara-slicked eyes of a teen.

Gone was the only girl he pictured himself with as "more than friends."

Alena groaned, as if she'd just done something personally to upset her leader.

'I- I'm sorry, Robert! I- j-just had to tell you, I didn't want you to find out the hard way.' There was no other way. Every way was the hard way.

'I... w-we have to go now,' Robert said, his voice strained by the tears he was holding back, but they pushed forward just behind his eyes like a dam about to break

Alena left, shaking her head at herself and clutching the clipboard close. Joey caught a glimpse of the words she was whispering to herself harshly;

'Such a stupid girl, you could have offered something, should have done something...'

The elevator trip, with the boys elbow to elbow in the small space, was silent and almost awkward, and Joey felt like a bear caught in a trap for the second time; didn't we just get out of this?

Robert kept his silence, he could focus only on holding those tears back, speaking would surely open the gate. Joey held his tongue out of respect, wanting to give his friend time, and not force him into a conversation when he was in a state like this.

The elevator dinged, and the door opened on the busy, bustling inner warehouse of the Arctic base. Kids were replenishing ammo and supplies, cadets were being trained, operatives on break threw frisbees and chased each other in and out of the stacks of equipment. Robert looked over to where a troop of young recruits, they gave him bittersweet memories of him and Jamie, as energetic cadet operatives, giggling and talking and dreaming about being full agents. That time seemed so far away, so distant, almost another lifetime from where they were now.

Another five minutes, and they were two levels down, where the Code Module was stored.

'Well, this is it, roight?' Joey said, clapping his hands together and hoping to break the tension. 'We finally find out.'

~(*)~

'I want popcorn!' Kuki declared as the third movie finished. All the food on the table was gone (i.e. two bags of chips, the nachos an the brownies) and they had already gone through two-and-a-half bottles of soda.

Kuki jumped up and exited the room, moving into the kitchen to find the popcorn kernals, the butter and the salt.

'I'll help!' Abby chimed, rising from the floor and stretching. Before the movie finished she had been stretched out on her stomach on the floor, sick of the uncomfortable hardness of the wood floor.

'Yeah, I guess I could take a break,' Hoagie agreed, following the girls out of the room, closely tailed by Wally and Nigel.

Kuki already had the stove working when the boys got to the kitchen, and was busy pouring the contents of a blue bag into a saucepan on the bench, the small, brown kernals making a clink-clink-clink sound as they came to impact on the metal. Abby was slicing off about a third of a stick of butter an putting it into a bowl to go into the microwave.

'So, what movie is going up next?' Nigel asked, looking over Kuki's shoulder as she placed the lid onto the now half-full saucepan of popcorn kernals.

'Uhmm,' she tapped a small finger on her chin in thought.

'What about Zoolander?' Wally suggested. He leaned bak on the bench, stretching his legs out, arms crossed.

'Yeah, that sounds cool,' Abby nodded, placing the bowl of butter into the microwave and keying in the numbers.

Kuki put the pan carefully onto the stove, then turned up the heat.

'Alright, we've got about five or so minutes until this stuff is done,' she thrust a thumb in the direction of the stovetop. 'So, I guess we have some time to kill until then.'

'Anyone watch the game last night?' Hoagie asked. Kuki and Abby said no, Nigel did the same, a little more quietly.

'If ya mean the NRL Manly versus Melbourne, then yeah,' Wally started, 'but if you're talkin' NFL, then nah.'

Out of manners, Abby inquired;

'Why? Was it a good game?' to which Hoagie answered;

'Uh, I really don't know. I didn't watch it, I was just, sorta, making conversation, I guess.'

There was a loud bang! as the first kernals in the saucepan began to pop, and everyone jumped slightly at the noise.

'Haha, Ah love seeing it do that!' Wally laughed, refering to the bouncing popcorn as it tapped on the clear glass lid, trying to break free. Interested, he wandered over to the stove, looking over the pan as more and more of the little seeds began to explode, turning the light pattering into a full-on belting.

And, not thinking straight, combined with the fact that it was 11:45 and his brain wasn't functioning properly, combined with his not-too-bright common sense, he reached for the handle to the lid. By the time the others realised what he was doing, they barely had time to shout 'No!' before the lid was off and the room was ambushed by flying popcorn.

Ducking instinctively, Abby shouted;

'Wally! What the heck did you do that for!'

'Ah-Ah dunno! I just wanted to see what would happen!'

And Hoagie replied;

'Well, now you know! Can we please get a lid on that thing now?'

By now, all of them were on the floor, though they still got hit with the popcorn as it rained down from above. And though their snack was being wasted, none of them could keep a straight face. Withing thirty seconds all of them were in stitches, even more so when Nigel accidentally caught a piece of airborne popcorn in his mouth.

Finally, Wally scrabbled up to the bench and grabbed the lid, which had been dropped in the panic and lay discarded on the bench.

Almost all the popcorn was gone. And no-one could stop laughing. It was chaos, and everyone loved it. And somehow, they felt like real friends. Real friends who had known each other all their lives.

'Wally, I suggest you stay out of the kitchen for now,' Kuki said, panting.

Once all the escaped popcorn had been swept away, and a new load (lid on, of course) had been put on the stove, the casual conversation continued, though this time much more comfortably.

Flying popcorn: Guess that's one way to break the ice.

And strangely, as they were talking, everyone was thinking the same thing, despite their short aquaintances with each other; it was completely typical of Wally to do something like that.

A/N: So, what did you think of it? I like doing the bits with Numbuh 263, though I think I kinda pick on him a bit. Poor Robert, going through all that stuff... Oh, and when I said the bit about the 'mascara-slicked eyes,' I was really reffering to most of the teens in the show. I didn't mean real teens. But really, most of the teenage characters in the show are like that, aren't they? Anyways, I'll be back next week, with the words and the pages and the... aw, you know what I'm talkin' about!

-xoxo, Numbuh 25