A/N: Just a heads up, first part of this chapter is flashback.

Loading...

Kids Next Door Mission...

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

Fragments

Of

Recovery

Gradually

Enable

Team

Chapter 19 – A Cat and a Discovery

March 2nd, 2008

5:45 PM

'Hey guys? Have you seen Nigel?' Hoagie asked, looking to the others who were lazing around the TV room, either unenthusiastically tapping away at a videogame or flipping through and half-reading a magazine.

'Nope, not for a while. Last I saw he was out on the terrace a few hours ago,' Numbuh 5 answered, not lifting her eyes from her magazine. Things had been pretty ordinary around the treehouse after "That Day."

'He'll be back sometoime soon. Ya know Nigel, he's always off chasin' birds and stuff,' Numbuh 4 added, switching off the video game and heading towards the kitchen.

'He'll be back for dinner soon.'

'Maybe if you open a tin of tuna he'll come back?' Kuki chirruped. She had been just as sing-song as usual since it had happened, but the rest of the team knew that she was just as torn apart inside as themselves.

Hoagie left the TV room and went out onto the terrace to look for Nigel. After they'd picked him up from the shelter, he'd come and gone, -then again, most of his kind did- but he was still theirs. He helped dull the pain they got whenever they had nothing else to think about.

The cool evening air hit Hoagie full-on as soon as he stepped outside. It swirled around his goggle-covered face, and sent a shiver down his spine. He looked around for their friend, but he was no-where to be seen. Hoagie let out a deep sigh. Things were... complicated now that they'd gone through the whole 'Galactic Kids Next Door thing'. Hoagie himself hadn't believed it was real at first. He thought it was just another splinter cell thing. Just a fake. But, oh, it was real all right.

Too real.

It made Hoagie just a little bit nervous everytime he thought about the adulthood disease. He hated to think how horrible it would be for a kid whose planet had been all but consumed by the infection. At least Nigel was here. He was always cute enough to make you smile. Even if it was only for a little while.

Hoagie heard the door click shut from behind him, and he turned to see Kuki standing there, her everpresent smile now holding an element of sympathy.

'Hey, Numbuh 2,' she greeted.

'Hey, Kuki.'

'Looking for Nigel?' She asked, her naïve tone now completely dropped.

'Mm-hm. He doesn't seem to want to come in tonight,' Hoagie frowned.

Kuki laughed silently, a mere shift of her shoulders.

'Yeah, he's like that most nights, isn't he?'

'Yep.'

Hoagie leant against the railing that bordered the terrace. If you came out in early morning you could see the sun rising right in front of you, right in the middle of your view, with the edges bordered by leaves and branches. Hoagie had built it that way. Well, not the leaf-border part, but the sunrise was definitely part of his plan. Kuki joined him at the railing, leaning her hands against the wood that was slightly splintered with age.

'Y'know what's strange, Hoagie?' Kuki asked with a loud exhale.

'What?'

'Last night I was in my room, playing with my do-you-want-sugar-with-that rainbow monkey and Mister Fluffikins, when suddenly, I thought; aren't I too old to be playing with these things? Shouldn't I be off doing something... older? I mean,I know we still have a while before decommissioning, but I felt like I should be, I don't know, "acting my age".'

Hoagie wasn't sure where this conversation was meant to be going, but what he did know was that Kuki had never been this serious for this long. Ever. In all the time that Hoagie had known her, which was a pretty long time.

'But then I thought, who says I should be doing that?' Kuki continued. 'I like playing with my rainbow monkeys, and it's not like there's a rule that says you have to start doing that stuff at all. So, you know what I did?' Kuki asked, finally taking her eyes off the view of the street ahead of them, looking Hoagie in the eye in a way that made Hoagie wonder if this was actually Numbuh 3 he was talking to. She seemed so tuned in to reality, so aware of what was going on, this was a new side of her that Hoagie hadn't seen come out for longer than a few seconds. Everyone knew that Kuki wasn't nearly as much of an airhead as she made herself out to be, but still, it was almost unnerving to see her like this. Unnatural.

'I don't know what you did,' Hoagie said, blinking behind his yellow-tinted goggles.

'I kept playing with my rainbow monkeys, silly! Once the teaparty is really started, no-one can make you stop but you!' Suddenly, the old Kuki was back. Eyes disappeared again behind a ridiculously huge grin as she swung back and forth on her heels.

'Bye!' She called, as she skipped away, tossing something over her shoulder about "not wanting to keep Mister Fluffykins and Big Bottom Rainbow Monkey waiting."

Hoagie was left thinking about what his friend had said. Her words were simple, but somehow they held a deeper meaning. Sure, if someone had enough power, they could make you act like an adult, but they could never make you think like one. The only one who could really change who you are... is you.

Huh. Kuki had a few pearls of wisdom up her sleeve after all.

Go figure.

There was a rustling a little way along the branch next to Hoagie, that startled him from his thoughts. He looked over to see Nigel blinking back at him, his eyes as full and innocent as always. Hoagie smiled, and leaned to pluck the little cat up off the branch.

'What's up, Nigel?' Hoagie said, smiling as the cat nuzzled his chin. The sector's new cat was always happy to see them.

'Come on,' he said, 'I have a tin of Fancy Feast inside with your name on it.'

~(*)~

28th November, 2014

3:35 PM

Kuki half-skipped through the street, adding half a bounce in after every step.

She breathed the cooling November air, thinking about how close Winter break and christmas were suddenly.

But that means only a few weeks until Wally leaves as well, she thought to herself. She would miss him. She had to admit, the boy was kind of cute. He was always acting so tough, like he wasn't afraid of anything. But Kuki could see through that. There was something underneath, something warm, something comforting, something that Kuki seemed to know.

She didn't know what to call it. At first sight, one would label it as "The 'L' word." But the feeling was something more than that. Kuki felt that there was something familiar about it. Something she'd been almost waiting for. The Aussie boy had a smile that could just melt her, and the way he had stood up to Ace at the lazer tag centre...

well, Kuki knew that he and Wally were never really on 'good' terms. But she'd never expected what had happened today.

It had all started when Wally had been called to Coach Barns' office at lunch. Kuki hadn't meant to eavesdrop, but she couldn't help catching a snippet of conversation as she walked past, and she just had to stay to figure out what was going on.

'Beatles, I'm very disappointed in you.'

'Coach, Ah didn't do any of that stuff! Someone's messin' 'round with somethin'! Ah swear, coach. I. Didn't. Do. It,' Wally persisted.

'I would like to believe you, Beatles. But mister Kidd has witnesses that say you were involved with almost all of these little 'drinking' incidents. I'm sorry, but I can't have a team captain who lacks the self-control to know right from wrong. I'm afraid you're off the team, Wally.'

'Look, to be honest, Ah couldn't care less abou' tha team. Stuff the team. But, Ah'm telling you, Ah wasn't involved in any way in any of that stuff!' Wally was standing now, arms tense as he leaned down on the desk, looking Coach Barns in the eye.

'Look, Beatles, I'm going to level with you here. I don't think you did it. Anyway, I would like to think that you didn't. But, your past record combined with Kidd's accusation make your case a very hard side to ague for.' The coach had sounded sincere.

'Whot's on that record?' Wally asked, knowing the answer.

'A couple a' tardies and a few counts for reckless behaviah. But Ah have nevah done anything like whot Ace says Ah did. Ah may not be one ta follow rules, but Ah'm not that kind of kid!' Wally seemed frantic to prove that he was innocent of whatever crime Ace had pinned on him.

'Ah betcha those witnesses ah fakes. All of 'em. Probably just more of Ace's cronies.'

And with that, Wally had stormed out of there, looking for the boy (who was now doomed beyond all help) who had gotten him kicked off the team and, more importantly, scarred his permanent record with crimes he didn't commit.

No-one knows exactly what happened after that, but Ace had ended up in the nurse's office ten minutes later with a broken nose and a few chipped teeth.

And that was a mark Wally didn't mind having on his personal record.

Kuki was about to round the corner when she got the feeling that someone was watching her. She stopped dead in her tracks.

'Hello?' She called, slowly turning around in a full circle. She didn't see anyone, but she still had the strange niggling at the back of her mind that just wouldn't go away. Uneasily, she turned around to keep on her way.

And there, sitting in the middle of the footpath as if it had just manifested out of thin air, was a small, black-and-white cat.

Kuki almost jumped out of her skin.

'Wah! Oh, hey, kitty. What are you doing?'

She got an innocent blink in return.

'Hm.'

Kuki sidestepped the cat, well, tried to anyway, but the cat just moved into her path. It looked up to her, as if trying to catch her eye, then took a few quick catsteps towards the street in the opposite direction to where Kuki needed to go.

The cat looked old, and there were a couple of signs that he'd been in a few fights; a torn ear and a scar running from the middle of his cheek down to his lower jaw showed that he'd had it tough.

'I don't have any food, kitty,' Kuki said more firmly, moving away towards her house. But the cat entwined itself in her legs, and she stumbled over it, barely regaining her balance in time to remain on her feet.

The cat was still looking up at her, like he was expecting something.

'You want me to follow you, kitty-cat?' Kuki said. The cat meowed, as if in response. That was a little creepy.

'Okay, fine. I'll follow you. Where are we going?' She took a step in the direction the cat had stepped before, and it quickly caught up, taking the lead.

She followed the cat down a few streets, all the while fully conscious of how strange it was that she was taking directional advice from a cat. Oh, well. She didn't have to be home for another half an hour.

The cat was, Kuki noticed, not any ordinary cat. It kept to the path, ignoring any and all climbable fences along the way, and every few minutes, it looked back behind it, to check that Kuki was still there. It was treating her like she was its owner.

Kuki had always liked cats. She, where everyone else critisised them for a) Being responsible for the untimely demise of their rabbit, b) their un-affectionate, I'm-in-charge-and-that's-that attitude, or c) claimed that they were "dog people" and therefore couldn't possibly like cats, she instead admired their grace, and dignity, and above all, their huge adoreble-ness. If Kuki ever got a cat, she would probably end up letting run the house.

Then, the cat stopped. Just stopped, and sat down in the middle of the pathway. Kuki had to stumble to avoid stepping on it. She looked at it, then across to the place he'd stopped. The old abandoned house on Jackson street. The one all the kids said was haunted, with the huge tree out the back. It certainly brought a strange feeling out in the pit of Kuki's stomach. Strange, foreboding feelings. Kuki looked down at the cat, wondering why he would bring her to a place like this and not the pet store, or somewhere else where cat food -or any food- was readily available. The cat simply stared back at her, almost expectantly. Well... it seeme to say, aren't you going to go in?

'Uh... sorry, kitty-cat, but I think you must have me mistaken for someone else.'

But the cat still didn't leave. It looked at the house, at her, then with a small mew -a possible 'Alright then, I'll show you,'- it headed off around the side path, towards the back yard of the house.

Kuki had never noticed just how huge the tree out the back was. It towered over her, forcing her to tilt her head right back to take in its whole ginourmous size. But there was something else she hadn't noticed.

The tree was a treehouse. Not just any treehouse, I mean, it had half a cruise ship in it! There were bits and pieces, terraces and little wooden box-shaped rooms, as well as huge timber arches and ramps curling around the beyond-the-reach-of-the-word-thick trunck, and an absolutely massive telescope that Kuki swore could have been used to count the number of red dust particles on Mars. How had she not seen this before? The hugeness of it, how had she missed it? In all her life living here, she must have walked past the house hundreds of times, and yet had no idea that there was a treehouse straight out of a child's imagination right behind it! She thought about it, as confused as she was impressed by it. She hadn't really looked for it, she realised. It hadn't really mattered to her, and she's kind of ignored it altogether. But not anymore.

Oh no, not anymore.

Suddenly, a strange urge to climb the tree washed over Kuki. She wanted to see what it was like on the very top branch. How could you not want to see if a spectacular treehouse like this had a view to match it? She smiled to herself, as she realised that for some reason, she knew that she wasn't leaving this place without first climbing that tree. It was like this was a place that she loved with her whole heart, that this place was tagged with the memories of the childhood she had never known. But, she couldn't possibly know this place, she felt sure. But somewhere, somewhere deep down, she knew that she was just saying that to cover the fact that she knew this place. From this lifetime, or one way, way before it.

The cat had gotten the same idea as her. As she slipped out of her thoughts and back into the backyard, she saw him at her head height, still looking at her with eyes that were all too aware.

'Move over, kitty. I'm coming up with you.'

Kuki had been climing for at least ten minutes, and was barely two-thirds of the way up to the nearest platform of the treehouse. The cat had stopped following her a while back, but she still caught glimpses of him here and there.

The leaves brushed past her face as she again wondered how this could feel so normal. She was at least sixty feet in the air, and she should have been terrified, if not pulling out her cell phone to call the fire department to get her down. But she was perfectly calm. It felt like she was climbing towards something important. Not something scary important, like a school exam, but something good important, like the podium where she would receive her high school diploma. Something like that.

Then, she was there. It came out of nowhere, the balcony had blended in with the tree and evaded her attention until now.

She hauled herself up unto it, sighing deeply. Unfortunately, the view was obstructed by the thick leaves and boughs of the tree swaying in the early evening breeze. She thought vaguely that she should be heading home soon, but it was so cool being up here, she didn't want to leave. She looked down, but couldn't see the full height she'd climbed for, again, the foliage covered it up. The leaves were like a little bubble, a forcefield that covered her from every side.

A little pat-pat turned her head, and she saw the old cat jump up beside her from the branch below. Kuki was slightly unsettled as she realised that the little feline had actually been following her, out of sight, the whole way up. She'd bet anything that if she had had second thoughts about climbing up, that cat would have been right next to her in seconds to say otherwise.

Again, the cat put on its I need you to follow me act, alternating between taking a few steps towards the rest of the treehouse, towards the middle of the tree, and walking back to her and rubbing himself against her affectionately.

'Alright, alright, I'll go with you. This had better be good.' She said, smiling to herself as she realised she was actually seriously talking to the cat.

The inside of the treehouse was even more amazing than the exterior. TVs, couches, huge, metal doors, it was surreal. Like a dream. But that wasn't the thing that shocked her the most.

'Abby?'

A/N: Hey! So, did you like that bit? I'm sorry for the cliffhanger (another one, yes) but I just can't help myself! When I leave a cliffhanger, all through the next day or so until I start writing the next chapter, ideas will just come to me! (Okay, so most of them are terrible or really far-fetched, but some of them work) Anyway, I hope you liked the whole Nigel-cat thing. That's something that I wanted to do right from the start of the story. I just like it. I dunno why. So, that's chapter 19! OMG, that means next week is the twentieth chapter! Yay! And that also means that next chapter will be extra-special, if you know what I'm talking about... ;)