As you can probably guess by the title of this chapter, the Kids Next Door are going up against the candy-pilfering pirate, Stickybeard! Let's hope that they won't have to walk the plank...especially if they get seasick. It's best not to rock the boat, especially if the captain is the one that gets seasick.

Hopefully Numbuh Two knows how to pilot the Kids Next Door's ship.

Chapter 7: A Sticky Situation

"Hurry up already! I can't wait to get some candy!" exclaimed Numbuh 3. As her teammates could plainly see, she had a sweet tooth...or perhaps more than one.

"We're working on it!" answered Numbuh 2. Sometimes he wondered why Numbuh 3 was so energetic. Maybe she needed to calm down every once in a while so that the other members of Sector V could relax for a change.

She had loved candy ever since her parents had taken her to a candy store for the first time...however, they had taken her to a Rainbow Monkey store long before then. They were rather popular on the market and Numbuh 3 had witnessed a Rainbow Monkey commercial on TV, so her parents decided that maybe she would like one.

They were absolutely correct.

She sure hoped that the candy would taste rather good...it had probably been at that island for a while. How long was it supposed to last?

Personally, she would like to eat some chocolate bars. She simply loved chocolate. Of course, now that she thought of it, it would be pretty nice if it came with milk. Or maybe she could have some chocolate milk. There a reason why people decided to mix them together.

Luckily, it appeared the weather was rather clear. The sun was shining and there weren't any clouds in the sky to blot it out. If it was night and rather stormy, the sea would inevitably be rather treacherous. Where was a lighthouse where they needed it?

Oh wait, there was one up ahead. Now they wouldn't have to worry about crashing into things...assuming that somebody bothered lighting it at night. Was it costing too much money?

Numbuh 3, feeling excited, began to jump up and down. It was like it was her birthday or Christmas.

"Oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy!" shouted Numbuh 3.

"Please be patient Numbuh 3...we're not even sure if we're going to find candy yet..." explained Numbuh One. He sure hoped that he and his team weren't wasting their time. There were adult tyrants out there that needed the Kids Next Door to pay them a visit.

"I hope that the treasure isn't coconut bars." remarked Numbuh 4. He didn't want to end up having an allergic reaction for all his trouble. Last time he had ate coconut bars his lips had swelled up and he resembled some sort of cootie monster.

However, Numbuh 2 quickly noticed something alarming.

"Um...I think we've got trouble..." stated Numbuh 2.

"What is it?" questioned Numbuh One.

"It's Stickybeard!" exclaimed the inventor with astonishment.

"Yarr!" bellowed a familiar-sounding voice.

As the Kids Next Door all knew, Stickybeard was an infamous pirate. But rather than collect gold, Stickybeard collected candy. Due to the fact that he had the tendency to take candy from innocent children (which he considered to be literally like taking candy from a baby), he had come into conflict with the Kids Next Door in the past.

He had also gathered a crew of pirates to join him on his voyages for candy. Apparently, he was not the only one among the adult community that had a sweet tooth. He had stolen candy from movie treasures much to the other adults' annoyance.

This time, it appeared that they were going to have to race him to the treasure. Stickybeard wasn't the type of person that would share candy with others...similar to Heinrich von Marzipan. The joke was on him since the candy tasted like asparagus unless he shared it with someone else...such as Numbuh 5 for instance.

Much like Grandma Stuffum, he was a threat to the Kids Next Door organization...though not as threatening as Father himself. Father was the leader of the adults that they faced for a reason.

"I should have known that he would show up..." remarked Numbuh One. Every time there was candy, Stickybeard was not far behind.

"Stickybeard? I guess there REALLY is candy in that cavern I heard about..." stated Numbuh 5. Perhaps they had come to the right place. Either way, they weren't going to get the treasure without a fight.

"He's coming this way!" exclaimed Numbuh Two.

Already, his crew had raised the sails and they were rowing the boat directly towards them. They were looking forward to engaging battle with their enemies...especially if they were the Kids Next Door.

It looked like they were in for a fight. Unfortunately, Stickybeard had a much larger crew than they did. Numbuh 5 wondered why he had so much candy in his beard. Maybe he should shave it sooner or later.

Sure, they could probably try to flee instead of staying and fighting...but then they might have to miss out on getting the candy treasure. Stickybeard wouldn't leave behind so much as a Reese's Peanut Butter cup. He was just that greedy for candy.

"Well well well, if it isn't the meddlesome Kids Next Door! I should have known ye would try to stop me from pillaging!" bellowed Stickybeard.

As usual, he was riding the Sweet Victory, a large pirate ship that had multiple cannons and an entire pirate crew. It also contained several different treasure chests containing candy.

"So you're here for the candy too, aren't you?" asked Numbuh 5. It looks like they were going to be squaring off yet again. Some people she simply couldn't get along with.

"Yes! And there's nothing ye can do to stop me!" exclaimed Stickybeard. Between him and his pirate crew he was sure that they would be able to pull off the victory. His ship WAS called the "Sweet Victory" after all.

"You're not stopping us from getting candy this time!" bellowed one of the pirates.

"Don't you already have candy already?" questioned Numbuh 2. He probably had enough candy at this point to feed a thousand children...not like he would share it with them.

"Ye can never have enough candy!" bellowed the pirate captain with a sweet tooth.

"I'm with you there!" exclaimed Numbuh 3.

"Open fire!" ordered Stickybeard, pointing his finger at the Kids Next Door's ship.

"On it, captain!" nodded Chewy. Maybe if they were lucky they would be able to score a victory over the Kids Next Door. Unfortunately, it was difficult to do so with Numbuh 5 on their side. To be honest, he wouldn't be surprised if Numbuh 5 knew more about candy than Stickybeard did.

Immediately, the pirate ship fired several cannonballs at Sector V. Unsurprisingly, the cannonballs were jawbreakers...and they would potentially break the ship if enough of them hit it. Alternatively they would actually break the Kids Next Door's jaws and they would have to visit the Kids Next Door infirmary.

Sector V was going to have to fight back. Otherwise they would most likely need to head to the Moon Base for repairs...which meant no candy.

Fortunately, they happened to have weapons of their own. They wouldn't want to be caught offguard in case their treehouse was ever under attack. It had been attacked many times before in the past.

Immediately, they decided to return the favor and shoot the ship with relish sauce.

Quickly, the pirates were splattered with relish.

"Ugh! Get it off us!" exclaimed the pirates. This was disgusting to them, though of course Numbuh Two probably wouldn't mind too much if he were in that situation since he liked eating hot dogs.

Frantically, they attempted to wash themselves off. Some of them even jumped overboard to do so...forcing the rest of Stickybeard's crew to haul them back up so they didn't end up getting swept away by the waves.

"Calm down! We're not getting candy if we panic!" warned Stickybeard. Back when he was a cabin boy on another pirate ship, he quickly learned that he needed to remain calm and not to do anything hasty.

The pirates settled themselves down. Stickybeard did have a point. Running around in circles wasn't going to be useful.

Once again, they continued attacking the KND's ship.

The KND were forced to take evasive maneuvers to ensure that they didn't end up getting shot.

"It's a good thing I inherited my pilot skills from my father..." stated Numbuh Two.

"I assume his name is Hoagie Gilligan Sr., is he not?" inquired Numbuh One.

"How'd you know?" asked the chubby boy.

"Your name was a dead giveaway." pointed out the leader of Sector V.

"Oh, right." remembered Numbuh Two. HIS name was Hoagie Gilligan Jr. Of course his father's name would be Hoagie Gilligan Sr. It wouldn't be anything else.

On the other hand, Tommy was not named after his father at all despite the fact that he was Numbuh Two's younger brother. Perhaps he was named after Number Two's uncle instead?

Fortunately, they were able to avoid being hit by Stickybeard's gumballs, Numbuh Two WAS a decent pilot.

"Darn it! Maybe we need to work on our aim a bit more..." remarked Stickybeard.

Stickybeard's pirates began to reload. Already, Stickybeard was starting to get impatient.

"Hurry up already! We're sitting geese until we're ready to fire again!" demanded the pirate captain.

"Yes, captain!" nodded one of the crewmates. They wouldn't want to make the ship vulnerable. What if other candy pirates decided to pillage THEIR ship?

Unfortunately for the pirates, Numbuh Two was paying attention to the crew and he noticed what was going on.

"It looks like they're reloading..." noted Numbuh Two. It looked like they wouldn't be shot at for a while.

"Then now's our time to counterattack! Fire!" bellowed Numbuh One.

Immediately, the five of them began to attack Stickybeard's ship.

Eventually, it began to sink.

Stickybeard's one eye widened in shock when he noticed what was happening.

It looked like the Kids Next Door had beaten him...again.

"Noooo! We're sinking!" bellowed one of the pirates.

"Curse ye!" bellowed Stickybeard to Sector V. Now he was going to have to build another ship...and save candy hunting for another day. At least he would be able to salvage the candy so that he could gorge on it later. Or maybe he would simply hide it somewhere where nobody would be able to find it.

Fortunately for Stickybeard and his crew, they had brought rowboats.

"Ye win this time, Kids Next Door! But I won't stop until I've found more candy treasure!" exclaimed Stickybeard.

"We love candy treasure!" bellowed Stickybeard's crew.

Immediately, Stickybeard and his pirate crew rowed their boats away. It seemed inevitable that they would face off again someday...but it looked like they wouldn't have to worry about Stickybeard and the rest of the Sweet Victory for a while. Besides, the Kids Next Door had other villains to deal with as well.

"I think Stickybeard should eat sweets less often." remarked Numbuh Three.

"Yeah...the guy's a total addict...though I will admit that I love sweets too." agreed Numbuh Five.

Shortly afterwards, the five of them reached their destination.

Immediately, they began to dig up where the treasure supposedly was.

As it turned out, there was a treasure chest full of candy.

"Alright, we did it!" exclaimed Numbuh Three.

For some strange reason, a lot of it was saltwater candy...but Numbuh Three wasn't complaining.

"Yum!" bellowed the girl.

"Good job, team. I think we should probably share this with some of our other recruits though..." answered Numbuh One.

"Yeah, you've got a good point there." nodded Numbuh Two. He already ate enough candy as it was.

"I know! Why don't we give some to Phineas and Ferb? They've been building a lot of different things for our organization..." suggested Numbuh Four.

"That's a good idea, Numbuh Four! Why not let them have some?" questioned Numbuh Five.

A few hours later...

"Hey, Ferb, it looks like someone's knocking on the door to our treehouse!" exclaimed Phineas.

"It's probably another KND agent." noted Ferb.

Phineas decided to investigate.

As it turned out, it was some sort of package.

Phineas quickly opened it.

As it turned out, it was a bag of candy.

"Alright! The Kids Next Door sent us candy!" exclaimed Phineas.

"Awesome!" shouted Isabella.

"I wonder which members of the KND decided to send it to us." said Baljeet.

Buford decided to check the label.

"Apparently, Sector V sent it to us." answered Buford.

Immediately, the five of them began to munch on the candy.

It was quite delicious...though they wondered why roughly half of it was saltwater candy.

"Alright, I think we're stuffed." said Phineas.

"That was delicious." complimented Ferb.

"I'm so glad that Sector V sent it to us!" exclaimed Isabella.

"So am I, actually." nodded Baljeet.

"Let's go build another invention now, shall we?" inquired Buford.

"Shouldn't we brush our teeth first?" asked Phineas.

"Can't we do that after we build an invention?" asked the bully.

"You have a point. I don't think it will take long." nodded the boy. They were able to build a building way faster than a typical construction worker.

Immediately, the five of them began to go build something...preferably something that the KND could use.

However, as they began to do so, they did not realize that they were being watched...

...by someone who did not have good intentions for them.

Well, it looks like Stickybeard isn't going to be pestering Sector V for a while. In the next chapter, Phineas and Ferb are going to fight another evil adult...I'll give you a hint, what can candy give you?