Alright! About a year has passed since the last chapter and it's time for Firecracker to undertake another mission…and maybe inspire some future legends in the process.
"Are you sure you're up for this one, Numbuh 451?" Numbuh 100 asked Numbuh 451 over her communicator.
"I told you, I'll be fine!" Numbuh 451 snapped back. "Numbuh 451, out." With that, she hung up and focused her eyes back on her target. A local orphanage that the KND had their eyes on for a while was moving the kids in their care to some camp out in the desert via a train. It was no doubt not a good thing and Numbuh 451 had been sent on a sabotage mission. It was going to be dangerous, but Numbuh 451 wasn't worried.
But, unlike her other missions, there was one extra hazard she was going to have to deal with.
The previous day, an explosive test had gone wrong and left Firecracker with a nasty burn on her foot. No matter what, it would likely scar and Firecracker knew that going out while it still hadn't come close to healing wasn't exactly the smartest idea, but she didn't care. It was just a little burn! No sense in waiting when some kids still needed her help.
"I'll rest after I do this," She declared to herself. Once the last chaperone had boarded the train and it began to pull out of the station, Numbuh 451 pulled out a makeshift t-bar and zip lined onto the roof of the caboose of the train. She hissed in pain when she landed, but decided to deal with it once she was safely inside. Doing a quick to make sure no one was inside, Numbuh 451 ducked inside, leaning against the wall. Pulling off her sneaker and sock, Numbuh 451 slowly began to pull back the bandages that had been wrapped around her foot. Her burn scab hadn't reopened again, much to her relief, but she could see that it looked to be on the verge of bursting. She dug some burn cream out of her jacket and began to rub it, being gentle to ensure that she didn't accidentally pop the blisters or scabs herself.
"Are…are you okay?" A voice asked. In an instant, Numbuh 451's hand was on her sniper rifle, aiming it at the voice…which hailed from a now scared five year old girl.
"Uh…sorry?" Numbuh 451 awkwardly offered up. She then pulled her facemask down, allowing her to show an equally awkward smile. "You…you startled me. I didn't know anyone else was in here."
"That's because we were hiding!" Another voice boasted as another five year old, a boy this time, stepped out of the shadows along with three others.
"What are you all doing back here?" Numbuh 451 asked, injury completely forgotten about in favor of these five kids.
"We're planning an escape!" One boy declared. "We're gonna run away from all these jerks!"
"I just wish we could take everyone with us," Another boy sadly noted.
"Don't worry, Lenny!" The girl spoke up. "Once we find help, we'll save everyone!"
"What if I told you that I am the help?" Numbuh 451 said as she turned a little, letting everyone see the Numbuh on her back. "Numbuh 451, Kids Next Door explosives expert and saboteur, at your service."
"You're with the Kids Next Door!?" One boy, Lenny, excitedly asked. "You're here to save the day, right?"
"That's my plan!" Numbuh 451 responded. She then realized that she might be able to make some useful allies out of these kids. Sure, you weren't really supposed to get civilians involved in missions, but Numbuh 451 already had a feeling these weren't normal kids. "But I'm gonna need two things from you guys. First, I'm gonna need your names. Second, I want you to tell me everything about this place."
"I'm Bruce!" One boy quickly declared. "And I'm the boss of our little group!"
"I'm Alessandra!" The girl who had started this whole thing spoke up next.
"Well, they already told you, but I'm Lenny," Lenny chimed in before pointing to the other girl in the group. "That's Constance. She doesn't talk much." Constance merely nodded in response.
"And I'm David," The final boy said. "And you said you wanted to know about this place?"
"It's the worst!" Bruce exclaimed as he threw his hands in the air. "They never let us do anything fun and they keep making us do really hard chores for other adults for that weird green paper!"
"Really?" Numbuh 451 asked. "How long have we been missing this!?"
"Yeah!" Alessandra agreed. "I overheard the meanest lady of them all saying they were gonna make us mine for rock candy so the adults could have it all to themselves!"
"I've heard enough," Numbuh 451 declared as she began to rewrap her bandages around her foot. Once it was finished, she put her sock and sneaker back on before using her sniper rifle to get back to her feet. "Tell you kids what. I promise that, by the end of the day, you're all gonna be free!"
"You mean it?" David asked.
"Yeah! Because I'm actually on my way to sabotage whatever's going on here," Numbuh 451 replied. "But…how would you kids like to help me?"
"We get to be Kids Next Door operatives!?" Alessandra eagerly exclaimed.
"Not exactly," Numbuh 451 said with an amused girl. She reminded her a bit of the younger Firecracker. The one who jumped at the chance to join the KND the moment Beau told her about it. She had always wanted to be the Beau to someone, especially since Cree had recently placed her first recommendation into the cadet program. She didn't quite remember the kid's name at the moment but was pretty sure it also started with a C. "But, if you do a good job at helping me, I'll give you a recommendation to join, how's that sound?"
"Let's do it!" Bruce eagerly declared for himself and his friends.
"Alright then! Here's the plan…" Numbuh 451 began as everyone huddled around her.
"C'mon, there's gotta be a radio tower around here or something," Numbuh 451 grumbled, stopping to wipe some sweat off her forehead. For the most part, Numbuh 451 had gotten the five youngsters in on the plan rather quickly and had spent the rest of the time boasting/infodumping about her various missions and creations, explaining each tally mark along her rifle as she did. If anything, she was pretty sure that the kids were more excited with helping her and possibly becoming operatives in their own right. Still, once the train pulled into the station, Numbuh 451 quickly helped everyone sneak off and put things into action. Since she was injured (and regretting her choice to take the job more and more with each step), she opted for the easiest task she had to do-radioing the KND with the location of the camp and requesting for back up. She had left Bruce, Alessandra and Lenny to handle setting up the explosives around the camp while David and Constance were left to lure the adults away and, hopefully, into a trap the six of them had set up before moving into the main camp.
"Hey! Get back here!" Numbuh 451 felt her breath hitch. Thankfully, she quickly realized that the voice wasn't directed at her, but rather at David, who was leading some guards away.
"Good luck kid," Numbuh 451 said mostly to herself. She quickly found a tower and attached her handy dandy KND T.A.B.L.E.T (Talks About Bad Loons Easily Transmitted) to it, hoping she'd get a signal quickly.
"Numbuh 451, is that you?" Numbuh 100's very welcome voice asked.
"Yeah, it's me!" Numbuh 451 responded in a hushed tone as she began to enter commands into the T.A.B.L.E.T's keypad. "Listen, I made it to the camp. Sending you the coordinates now."
"We'll have back up there soon, as well as transports to a safer place for all those kids." Numbuh 100 assured her once the coordinates came through. "How's your mission?"
"Kinda regretting taking it," Numbuh 451 admitted as yet another sharp jolt of pain shot through her leg. "Leg's been really acting up. Gonna be requesting some time off to heal."
"That can be arranged," The Supreme Leader promised the other operative. On top of her injury being pretty nasty from what he saw, Numbuh 451 was one of his best. If he had to give some of the missions she would have gotten to another operative or even sector so that she could recover, that was a sacrifice Numbuh 100 was more than ready to make. "How have you been handling with your injury?"
"On that topic, the train car I boarded turned out to be housing five kids. Kinda roped them into this," Numbuh 451 admitted. "From what I've seen, they've got some real operative potential!"
"That's something I'll judge for myself," Numbuh 100 replied. The conversation was cut off there, however, when two guards stormed into the tent.
"Looks like that's my cue!" Numbuh 451 declared as she grabbed the T.A.B.L.E.T before swinging the butt of her rifle at one of the guards. Setting off one of her many explosives was asking to get even more injured and Numbuh 451 wasn't that trigger happy. The guard was knocked back from the hit, but the other guard swung his leg, catching Numbuh 451's own injured leg and rather hard at that. The younger girl cried out in pain, tears threatening to spill. She could feel blood oozing from her now opened wound. Still, she wasn't one to give up, now deciding that the risk was worth it. Taking aim, she fired her rifle, hoping the explosive attached to it would hit something. It did blow up the tent and take out the men, but also caused her rifle to fly out of her hand. As she tried to crawl towards it, someone else grabbed her from behind.
"I should have known you meddling Kids Next Door would try to ruin my rock candy mining scheme!" A voice hissed from behind Numbuh 451. A voice she knew fairly well.
"Chester…" She hissed back as she turned to see the man, dressed like a mine overseer. Chester was willing to do just about anything to make money and exploiting kids just so happened to be his favorite way to do it. Several operatives and sectors, Sector V included, had been sent to dismantle one of Chester's schemes if they ended up on the KND's radar. Which they usually did.
"I don't know what you did, but I'm going to make you work in the deepest rock candy mine I have!" Chester declared, only causing Numbuh 451 to struggle harder. She then noticed that, out of the corner of her eye, Bruce was giving her a thumbs up. That caused Numbuh 451 to smirk under the mask. It was go time!.
"The funny thing is?" Numbuh 451 began as she pulled a detonator out of her pocket, not letting Chester see it. "I haven't done anything. It was all thanks to some helpers of mine…but I'm about to do something right NOW!" With that, she slammed her finger down on the button as hard as she could. Within seconds, Chester's camp was looking closer to the Fourth of July. Any guards who hadn't been led into the pit trap that had been dug were quickly overwhelmed by all the explosives. The kids, who had yet to be led into the mines all cheered as they realized what was happening.
"My mines!" Chester wailed as he looked over the damage, hoping something was still salvageable. Numbuh 451 quickly took advantage of his dismay, using her good leg to give Chester a good kick in between his legs, swiftly downing the man.
"Numbuh 451!" Alessandra exclaimed as she ran over with her friends, Lenny and David helping their older friend back to her feet while Constance retrieved her rifle. "Are you okay?"
"...Yeah, I am," Numbuh 451 said after a few seconds. She wasn't fully sure she would call this mission her best ever, but it was now certainly one of her favorites. "And let me just say this-you've all got some solid KND careers ahead of you."
"Ow ow ow!" Numbuh 451 whined. Her burns were so much worse than she thought! The Kids Next Door had arrived soon after Numbuh 451 had downed Chester and, much to everyone's shock, the kids she'd recruited led the operative both to their fellow orphans and the guards they'd managed to trap. Just about everyone was impressed by how these kids pulled off the bulk of what should have been Numbuh 451's mission. Not that she wasn't given credit, of course. If she hadn't set everything up the way she did, who knows how things would have turned out?
"Did you get kicked or something?" The medical operative tending to her asked, snapping her back to her thoughts.
"Yes, actually," Numbuh 451 said, a bit sharper than she would have liked. Still, she was injured and deserved a little slack. The operative finished dressing her wounds before heading off to tend to some of the orphans. Numbuh 451 just leaned back on the stretcher, completely and utterly drained.
"Gotta say, Numbuh 451, you have quite the eye for talent," Numbuh 100 admitted as he walked over to his injured operative.
"So you like them?" She asked, a tired smile gracing her face.
"Like them?" Numbuh 100 let out a hearty laugh. "Those kids could be the greatest operatives in Kids Next Door history! They're a bunch of untrained five year olds and yet they did pretty much all the heavy lifting!"
"Hey, I helped!" Numbuh 451 snapped before letting herself smile again. "But I'm glad we agree. I see a bright future for those guys."
"As do I," Numbuh 100 agreed with a nod before heading off. Numbuh 451 decided to finally rest, satisfied with her day and making a mental note to remember to mark her rifle when she didn't feel like doing something else would make her foot fall off.
Oh hey Sector Z! Didn't forget about you!