Cowritten by PuniPuni

Story is also published on AO3

"All right, Bonnie. Here's your new list for this week. Adult and teen activity is at an all-time high since school has started. We're talking about gas stations, strip malls, and even the beach."

Bonnie was handed a paper list of printed instructions. She slowly looked back up at her little brother.

"Albeit your choices for inference are limited, you still have the anonymous communicator to report any activity. Now, go and get your spy work done," Mike finished by waving his hand away from himself.

"I'm on it," Bonnie obeyed.

Bonnie exited her brother's bedroom to go to the front door. She looked around the house, seeing no one in her sight. She then crumbled up the piece of paper she was given to shove it in her purse.

Bonnie quietly exited the house while shutting the door gently behind her. She reached in her purse for a little book, taking the drawing Lizzie made of her uvinea form to gently tape it onto one of the pages next to drawings of Bonnie that Clyde gave her.

"Taking an interest in the arts, Dear?"

Bonnie shot up in the air, turning around quickly to see her grandmother close to her, watering the flowers on the front yard.

"Grandma! I just, well, actually,"

"Your face is red! I only thought Lizzie could do that."

"It's not what it looks like!"

"Your secret is safe with me," her grandmother chuckled.

Bonnie dropped her shoulders. She awkwardly laughed along with her.

"You go see that Clyde, you can go spy on other adults later."

"Thank you, Grandma!" Bonnie acknowledged as she went to shake her hand. She then sprinted to the car.

Bonnie's secret mission to have lunch with Clyde was a success. She arrived at a diner labeled "RB."

She could not contain herself to exit her car and hurriedly walk inside, searching around the restaurant for her best friend.

Eventually, she found the man who was waving at her. She rushed over to sit down across from him at the booth table.

"Clyde!"

"Bonnie!"

Both their faces turned a little pink.

"I ordered us something. Hope you don't mind."

"Oh, you're so polite," Bonnie laughed.

Clyde looked down nervously, restraining himself from giggling. "I need to tell you something."

Bonnie felt herself turn numb.

"I got a gig to paint the entire interior of this place!"

Bonnie quietly squealed. "You did? That's so fantastic!" She went to hold his hand in excitement.

"You know, paint the place with burgers and drinks, that kind of stuff. Going to get a lot of money for it."

A waitress then placed down a single milkshake near the two. She giggled looking at them.

The two realized they were holding hands, immediately tucking their arms behind them.

"What's this?" Bonnie asked.

"What I got for us," he answered.

Bonnie noticed the two striped straws in the glass. She delicately reached for one to take a sip out of. She curiously looked back up at her friend.

"You know, Bonnie, we've been friends for months, and it's easy to say you've become one of my best friends. You support me in all my projects, you get along with my friends, my parents like you…"

Clyde carefully reached for the other straw.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is…" Clyde looked up at Bonnie, their eyes locking at they leaned closer to each other.

"…You got something on your cheek."

Bonnie took herself back to get a napkin to wipe her face.

"That's not what you were going to say…" Bonnie playfully rolled her eyes.

"What I wanted to say was… well… I got a haircut!"

Bonnie chuckled to herself. "Cut it out. I know what you really want to say."

"Y-you do?" Clyde hesitated.

Bonnie leaned forward, gesturing for Clyde to take the other straw from the milkshake.

"Yeah. I'll be your girlfriend."

Clyde froze up so much he remained unblinking with red cheeks. A faint smile came across his face, until he fell back on his side of the booth.

"Clyde? Are you OK?"

He gave her a thumbs up in return.

Lizzie was kicking her feet up on her bed, having a conversation over her new orange phone.

"And then I was flying through the simulation, and the entire island turned into this colorful nightmare of his face. But I defeated him in the end after I escaped. Anyway, how was your day?"Nigel asked over the phone.

"Better than that time those bandits stole all my homework…" Lizzie giggled back.

"…I'm still thinking about the time you bought sunglasses like mine. You looked really cute in them."

"Oh Nigie, you're too much! Herbie inspired me!"

"Numbuh 65.3 really shouldn't be giving someone not in the KND any mission specifications. I don't want to see you hurt."

"But Nigie, we never got to go on that date!" Lizzie changed the subject.

Nigel hesitated. "Hmm, you're right. You know, I could take you bowling."

"Bowling…?"

"Yeah. You've never been bowling?"

Lizzie did not know what bowling was supposed to be. "No, never."

"Well, I'll take you. I just got a new ball, and I can show you how it's done."

Lizzie twirled the phone cord passionately. "You're neat."

Nigel giggled sheepishly. She could tell he was blushing from the other end of the phone. "Well, I…"

"Pick me up at four tomorrow?"

"You got it!" Nigel confirmed.

Lizzie hung up the phone, laughing to herself. Nigel was an interesting human.

Numbuh 9L creeped slowly to a chamber in the Dark-Side-Of-The-Moonbase. She was pushing a cart around as to not draw attention to herself. Under a blanket, there was a tracking device she borrowed that had a slowly blinking red light on the screen. She gritted her teeth, digging her nails into the cart handle.

Passing by other operatives, some disguised and some not, she came near a room alone where the blinking became faster. She creeped up to the door, hearing mumbled English from inside.

"Phew, I could use a break," came from the opened automatic door. The blond boy started to walk out holding something, sighing to himself from exhaustion.

"MMMYAAH!"

"Wha—?!"

9L pounced on top of Chad and pushed him to the ground, biting at his football uniform. He threw the object he was holding into the air.

"Get off of me!" Chad barked, failing to grab or kick her off.

"What'd you do to Numbuh Vine?! Huh?! HUH?! Teen traitor!"

"Relax! I'm not a—"

Numbuh 9L bit Chad's ear.

"YEOWWW!"

Chad grabbed 9L's hair and pulled her away. She fell onto the floor.

"What the heck was that?!"

9L growled at Chad, motioning her fingers into a claw-like gesture while lifting her shoulders up. "You're a teen!"

"A teen operative," Chad corrected, annoyed.

9L's shoulders lowered. "Whuh?"

"I'm still in the Kids Next Door!"

"Well… Where's Numbuh Vine?!"

"On Earth, you brat! Last time I saw her, she was playing dress-up with her boyfriend's team! And that really hurt, you know!" Chad went to rub his ear.

9L became startled, doubting Chad. "Boyfriend?!"

"Oh yeah. Vine's dating Numbuh 1, you know, the study subject. It's apart of her whole mission."

9L's befuddled face told Chad everything he needed to know about her response to that fact.

"Anyway, don't go biting other kids. Humans don't do that. Well… most of them don't," Chad mentioned, picking an object to his right. He then walked away from the operative.

9L faced her head down in shame for attacking him, but before he would totally walk off, she stopped him.

"What's that you're holding?"

"Oh, this junk? I got a direct order to fetch this. It's called 'Chester's Happy Headband,' whatever the heck they want that for."

"Nigel was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago!" Lizzie complained. She was staring out the front window.

"Why don't you call him?" Bonnie suggested.

Lizzie sluggishly dragged her face across the window, waiting for any sign of Nigel.

"I'll dial the number for you."

Lizzie continued to stare out the window, peering around for her boyfriend. She felt her shoulder being tapped gently. She looked to her right to see Bonnie handing her the phone. Lizzie clenched it tightly, taking it away from her.

"Hello?" came from the other end.

"Where's Nigie?!" Lizzie yelled. "He was supposed to come over fifteen minutes ago! Is he on another mission?!"

"Yeesh! Relax, girl!" Numbuh 5's voice exclaimed. "Numbuh 5's been wondering where he's been too. Missed an entire mission last night," she sighed while crunching on something.

Lizzie was extremely disappointed in Nigel, but felt security in the fact that he was not only ignoring her.

"Well wherever he is, tell him to get his butt over here or I'm gonna—"

"Hi Lizzie! Do you want some potato chips?" Numbuh 3's sweet voice interrupted over the phone.

"Ugh!" Lizzie growled. She hung up the phone immediately. She then pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Well, where's Nigel?" Bonnie asked gently.

"They don't know."

Bonnie brought her hand up to her chin, slightly concerned. "Poor boy, what if he's in danger and nobody knows?"

"His butt's gonna be in danger if he doesn't come over in the next minute!" Lizzie yelled while pressing herself against the window again.

Bonnie sighed. "Well, when he comes, just make sure he's OK."

"Yeah, yeah…" Lizzie groaned.

Bonnie eventually went from the front room all the way up into her bedroom. She took a moment to look in the mirror, adjusting her earrings and pushing her hair back. In the reflection of the mirror, Bonnie saw Mike staring at her. She yelped in surprise, but quickly rested her hand against her chest with a smile once she noticed it was just him.

"Oh, Mike, you scared me. What're you doing here?"

Bonnie kneeled down to face her little brother, in which she noticed a spider was in his hair. She gulped. "Phil!"

"Bonnie," Mike hissed.

"I mean— Hi there," Bonnie nervously giggled.

"It's very clever of you to know it was me, Bonnie. But you're not clever enough. Tell me, where were you yesterday?"

Bonnie stood up and backed away, placing her hands on her dresser. "I did everything you asked."

Mike slowly creeped to her door, blocking her way of exit. "Yes, but what did you do before that, Bonnie?"

Bonnie turned flustered. "He's my boyfriend now and you can't do anything about it!"

Mike sneered at Bonnie. "You cannot divert your tasks to date some man. Stick to your assignments. Call it off, now," Mike ordered as he reached for the door handle in Bonnie's room.

"WAIT!" Bonnie reached for the door handle to stop Mike from exiting. "Isn't this… a good thing? I get to date a guy? Lizzie's dating Nigel, and if I can teach her about how it works, wouldn't that help her mission?"

Mike hesitated, tilting his head.

"Don't you also want to learn about adult behavior? Isn't this just more intricate spy work?" Bonnie pleaded.

Mike looked away to actually consider Bonnie's plea. Eventually, he released the doorknob. Bonnie sighed in relief.

"Fine, you can date him, but don't forget your main tasks."

Bonnie smiled. "Oh, thank you, thank you, Phil!" She picked up her little brother to spin him around in a hug. "I'll make it all worth while!"

When Mike was released from the hug, he dusted himself off. "Whatever," he mentioned. He watched Bonnie leave her room without stopping her.

"There you are! Where have you been?!" Lizzie complained as Nigel opened her door.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you on the way there."

Nigel, lugging around a heavy bag, wildly explained an intricate story that would serve as an alibi.

"These knights knocked me out and I slept the entire day! They wanted all kids to go the bed at four P.M.! Can you imagine that? And get this, I swung this bag with my bowling ball to knock one of them out! And that's why I arrived so late!" Nigel explained. His large, pleading eyes begged Lizzie for her to believe him.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Please! Why would anyone— let alone a bunch of people dressed as knights— go out of their way to do such a thing?"

"But Lizzie, I'm serious!"

Lizzie continued to dismiss Nigel as he directed her to the bowling place. The subject quickly changed to Lizzie's curiosity for the sport.

Inside the building was large. It had concession stands and even arcade machines. Lizzie realized that this bowling thing was something to be excited about.

"Come on, I'll show you the lane."

The two quickly changed shoes to stop at a bowling lane. Nigel then unzipped his bag to reveal his large bowling ball. It was a pretty but heavy ball with three holes in it.

"So? What's the goal of bowling? Do we kick the ball thingy? Where's the goalie?"

Nigel giggled from Lizzie's obliviousness. "No no no, you see the other people in the different lanes?" Nigel addressed as he pointed toward another bowler. The man sprinted up the line of the lane to roll the ball on the floor. The ball crashed into the pins at the end, knocking them all down.

"See? Watch how I do it."

Nigel took his large ball with three of his fingers, then ran up to the lane. He slammed the ball down as it glided smoothly to the pins.

"Now you try."

Nigel helped Lizzie grasp the heavy ball between her fingers. Guiding her hands with his, she dropped the ball to glide slowly across the lane. It dragged to the left, only hitting one pin.

"Good, good! You're getting the hang of it!"

Nigel made sure his turn demonstrated to Lizzie how to handle a bowling ball. Lizzie tried again after that, hitting two pins.

"You're picking this up quickly! I'm proud of you!"

Lizzie learned the sport quickly. In a matter of time, her points on the board above them came closer to Nigel's.

"Looks like I'm getting the hang of this, Nigie," Lizzie flirted. "It'd be a shame if I beat you at my first time!"

Nigel laughed playfully. "Not if I get a strike!"

Nigel reached for his bowling ball and held it close to him, measuring how he could perfect the strike. Peering to his side, Lizzie blew a kiss to him which gave her boyfriend goosebumps. He quickly swung the bowling ball without looking, red in the face. He shook out his love when the ball only hit half the pins.

"What?!"

Lizzie giggled. "Guess I win, Nigie."

The couple quickly packed up and changed shoes. Nigel continued to praise Lizzie for her quick execution of learning bowling so fast. When they exited the building, Nigel reached in his pocket for something.

"Hey, I wanted to give you this earlier, but I was late and all… sorry about that." Nigel cupped the item in his hands. "Give me your hand."

Nigel reached for Lizzie's right hand to slide what was a ring onto it. She gasped in excitement.

"Nigie! You shouldn't have! Well, you really should have."

"What do you think?"

"I think it's perfect~!" Lizzie cooed. She went to tightly hug Nigel, which cracked his back. "This is the prettiest ring I've seen!"

"Yeah!" Nigel nervously laughed. "A perfectly normal, decorative ring."

As Nigel walked Lizzie home, he nervously started to reach his hand to hold Lizzie's, making sure no one else was looking at them. They reminisced about the bowling experience they had, despite it being not long ago.

As Lizzie stepped up to her door, Nigel and her could not stop laughing to stall her goodbye. Eventually, the sun was starting to set.

"Goodbye, Lizzie."

"I'll see you later, Nigie."

Nigel's face turned red.

Lizzie looked at Nigel with a loving smile, but her face was not red. "Goodnight."

Wearing a hood and mask, there was a young girl approaching the Delightful Mansion from Down the Lane. She glanced her eyes around frantically.

Gently, the girl approached the door with a gentle knock. She looked behind her, leaning her head down.

The door swung open to her surprise.

"Eep!" she squealed.

"Who is it?" five properly dressed children hissed. "Oh. It's you, Anna Worthington. What could you possibly want?"

"Well, I…"

"We're not interested in donating money to the permanently cold-ridden!"

The Delightful Children reached for the handle to shut the door, but the girl promptly put her foot between them.

"Wait! That's not it! I need your help!"

The door slowly opened once more, revealing curious yet intimidating expressions spreading across the children's faces.

"You're just… super smart children and all… maybe I could get you a say in the school board meeting at City Hall this year!"

The Delightful Children looked at each other, smiling devilishly. "We're listening."

Inviting Anna inside, she took off her hood to reveal herself better to the children in front of her.

"Jimmy's been flirting with that stupid Lizzie girl. He should be spending his time working on his plans to negotiate new rules with the school board!"

"You mean that Elizabeth DeVine girl?" They sneered. "She ruined our birthday last year!" They yelled.

"That was a few months ago."

"WHO CARES?!"

"Is there anything you can do to get him to stop? He's supposed to listen to me!"

"We have our ways. Why don't you take this, and we'll direct you to correcting that James kid of yours."

"That's it? Just a speaker? Don't you guys build robotic thingies for these kinds of plans?"

The Delightful Children started to shove Anna toward their front door.

"What could you possibly do with a mic?"

With an evil grin on each of their faces, the Delightful Children looked at each other again. Shutting the door back on Anna, they started to laugh.

"Yes, what can we do with a mic?"

"No vital signs of life detected. No vital signs of life detected. No—"

Mrs. DeVine smashed the ring into pieces. She sighed. "That Nigel boy's got another thing coming if he thinks he can bring his 2x4 tech in this house!"

"Was that some sort of spyware?!" Mr. DeVine gasped.

"I think so. My poor baby's going to be heartbroken when she finds out. It seems she really liked that ring."

"Say, Honey, speaking of technology, I think my eyes need some checking. Everything seems so… yellow today."

"Really? I thought it was my new glasses!" Mrs. DeVine mentioned as she took them off. "Hey Mom, are you having trouble with your vision too?" she shouted to the living room from the kitchen.

"I can see just fine, but everything's yellow," the grandmother replied.

The couple sighed. "All right, somebody call Dave to come and repair our eyes."

"I already did. He should have been here by now."

"What are you talking about?" Lizzie asked as she came into the kitchen. "Everything's

yellow in my eyes. And is that my ring?!" she gasped.

"Honey, your boyfriend gave you spyware."

Lizzie sneered as she heard a faint mumble of "No. Vital. Signs." from a piece of the ring. She pounded her fist on it without looking to shut it up.

"I shouldn't expect anymore surprises from anything in the KND!" Lizzie complained.

As Lizzie was walking off, a slow knock came from the door.

"Oh, that's probably Dave right now! I'm sure he has a quirky, scientific explanation for the yellow thing," Lizzie playfully joked.

Upon opening the door, Lizzie saw hooves. When she looked up, there was an animal's face staring at her. They both squealed. Lizzie immediately slammed the door in front of her, backing up to it.

"THERE'S A LONG NECKED SPOTTED HORSE OUTSIDE!"

Out from the window, the creature peeked inside the family house. It gave a low and sad grunt.

"Lizzie, Darling, that's a giraffe," Mrs. DeVine corrected.

"Yeah, that's the word for it."

Bonnie and Mike made their way downstairs to see what all the fuss was about. "What was that screaming? Is everything all right?" Bonnie gasped.

"Oh, there's just a giraffe outside." Mrs. DeVine casually answered.

"A WHAT?!"

"Do you think he went through a giraff-ic jam to get here?" Mr. DeVine laughed.

The family then crowded by the window.

"Am I seeing that right?" The grandmother squinted, adjusting her glasses.

"We're looking at the same thing!" Mrs. DeVine affirmed.

"Did it escape a zoo?" Bonnie almost whispered.

As the family went rambling, Mike tried to jump up to see the animal. He gave up trying, annoyed. Seeing the door was unguarded, he went to reach for the knob above him. Grabbing it gently, the door creaked open. The family watched the giraffe's ear twitch, then dash toward the open door.

"No no no!" the adults burst.

The giraffe used its ossicones to push the door open to enter inside.

"Get out of here!" Mrs. DeVine yelled. With her family hiding behind her, she grabbed a broom and held it up to the giraffe. The animal cowered by lowering its neck.

Mike ran up to the animal then held his hands up, coming between the animal and his mother.

"What are you doing? Mike, Baby, get away from that thing!"

Mike shook his head. He pointed to the giraffe, then his mouth.

"What, what's wrong with your mouth?"

Mike face-palmed.

Bonnie chimed in. "No, he's saying…"

"Dave!" They all shouted in unison.

The giraffe nodded its head.

"How did he turn into a giraffe?!" Lizzie questioned. "Did he get some sort of new disguise?"

Dave grunted.

"Yeesh, you almost went neck-and-neck with him! Haha!" Mr. DeVine laughed again.

The family came closer to the giraffe. Mike went to get a box of Rainbow Munchies. He held out a handful to the ungulate. Dave gladly munched on them.

"Why are you an animal?" Lizzie asked.

The giraffe shook his head. He tried to speak, but the only noise that came out of his mouth was a low huff.

"Guess you can't answer that."

Dave then reached for Lizzie's shirt to bite it, pulling her closer to him.

"HEY! What do you think you're doing?!" Lizzie protested. "Don't you dare pull me like that!"

Dave gestured his head and long neck toward the door hurriedly.

"No! Why would I go out there?!"

As Lizzie continued to protest and argue, the giraffe started to sneer in annoyance.

Eventually interrupting her, he picked her up by the shirt to swing her onto his back.

"HEY!"

The animal then dashed out of the door before any of Lizzie's family members could say anything.

The giraffe galloped through the street. Lizzie screamed in fear, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

The giraffe slid into traffic. Cars started to honk at them. Lizzie felt dreadfully embarrassed, and the giraffe felt tremendously horrified. It used its back legs to kick the car behind it, causing more alarms to go off. It scared him enough to run off faster. All Lizzie could do was hold on for dear life and scream.

Lizzie noticed that the ungulate dashed in the direction of the Sector V treehouse. "What? Why are you taking me there?" Lizzie lashed.

The animal grunted, frustrated in its lack of voice.

Approaching the yard of the Uno household, the giraffe stopped in its tracks to bend its neck down. Lizzie slid off.

"What? What do you expect me to do?"

The giraffe gestured its head up the treehouse, then to the sky.

"Wait, you want me to what?"

Dave bent his neck down to gently rest his muzzle under Lizzie's chin. He moved her head to look up at the moon.

"The Moonbase!" Lizzie gasped. "You need to go up there!"

The giraffe finally nodded.

As Lizzie headed up inside the treehouse, she quickly searched the rooms to find any sort of hangar. There were no signs of any Kids Next Door operatives present.

"Here it is!" Lizzie cheered as she found the hangar. It was Numbuh 2's room. She shoved herself inside the closest ship that could take her to the moon.

"Come on, you did this before," Lizzie hurriedly breathed as she wired the controls to the ship.

Outside the treehouse, the giraffe saw a poorly steered ship land harshly in front of him. Out came Lizzie, waving her arm to gesture the giraffe to come inside. "COME ON!" she shouted. It was more hurried than aggressive.

The animal lifted his front leg, but then stepped back. He gave a measly honk then turned around.

"What?! Where are you going?!"

On the lawn, the giraffe looked in and around the grass. Eventually, there was a squeak that came from the green. The giraffe gently reached his snout down to pick up the animal with his jaw.

"Wha-?!"

Dave slowly came into the ship with a screaming tokay gecko in his mouth. He dropped it onto the control pad.

"Any more of your friends you want to bring along?" Lizzie sarcastically remarked.

The giraffe answered by using his mouth to shut the rocket door closed.

"Let's get out of here!"

Lizzie slammed the start button and watched as the animals frantically tried to stay stable in the ship. The rocket burst into the atmosphere. "HANG ON!" Lizzie screamed as she held onto the giraffe's neck. The gecko flew back but grabbed onto one of Lizzie's pigtails.

As the vehicle entered the atmosphere, Lizzie felt a sense of connection. She smiled faintly. This was closer to home. It relaxed her despite the animal screams entering her ears.

As the vehicle entered space, they passed a group of 2x4 vehicles with animals inside. It seemed to Lizzie that every operative turned into an animal. As she was looking around at the vehicles, the giraffe moved his head under Lizzie's arm to direct the steering wheel away from them. The ship steered behind the moon.

"Oh, that's right…" Lizzie mentioned.

As they approached the Dark-Side-Of-The-Moonbase, a large beam reached out to them to grab them. They were then pulled into the base.

The base's hangar was dark. All three were quiet. Lizzie's impatience started to take a toll on her.

The girl kicked the ship door open. She could not see anything clearer.

"Hello?!" Lizzie yelled. "Is anybody here?!"

The lights flashed on above her. Lizzie was surrounded by human disguised operatives facing their weapons at her.

"FREEZE! You cannot bring unidentified organisms into this base!" one of them stated.

Lizzie backed up away from them. She bumped into the giraffe's legs.

"But—"

"VINE!"

Lizzie heard a familiar voice from the crowd. She stood on her toes to see where it was coming from.

"Stop! Everybody, stop!"a girl shouted. Operatives started to hesitantly lower their weapons.

"Vine! It's been ages!"the young girl beamed as she pushed through the crowd. She went up to Lizzie to hug her.

"Numbuh 9L," Lizzie acknowledged.

"What are you doing with Earth animals in here?!" 9L questioned harshly. "…They're so cute!" she changed her tone. She started to hug the giraffe's leg.

"Numbuh 9L, you don't understand! I'm pretty sure they're 74.239 and 71.562! They somehow turned into animals!"

The other human disguised operatives started to look at each other and talk amongst themselves.

"Let me see this! What is going on here?"

Lizzie gasped to see Numbuh Infinity in the crowd with a large weapon in his hand. He pointed it at the girls. Lizzie raised their hands up.

The giraffe went around them to block them from Infinity. The gecko climbed up his neck to stand on his muzzle. They gave the boy aggressive expressions.

"Numbuh Vine, you cannot bring Earth organisms into this base. They shall be disposed of immediately."

The gecko and giraffe squeaked as the mammal quickly hid behind the girls and lowered his head.

"Didn't you hear me?!" Lizzie hissed. "They're 74.239 and 71.562!"

Infinity lowered his weapon. He seemed dissatisfied. "Is there any way you can prove this claim?"

The other operatives lifted their weapons.

"I…" Lizzie had no definite way to prove to him that it was the truth.

"Vine, are you sure it's them…?" 9L whispered faintly to Lizzie. The giraffe and gecko gave her puppy-eyes.

Lizzie thought for a moment to find a way to prove this to them. "As we arrived here, we saw a bunch of animals in 2x4 vehicles! They were strapped in their seats! Every operative was turned into an animal somehow!"

The giraffe nodded his head in agreement.

However, some of the human disguised operatives started to giggle. Lizzie's face turned red from embarrassment.

"I don't find your stories humorous, Numbuh Vine."

"It's true! Why don't you go see for yourself?"

"I don't find it believable that every operative had transformed into a different species from their original human state. And Numbuh 9L, come over here. This is none of your concern to be involved in. We shall terminate them now."

Numbuh 9L drooped as she trudged away from Lizzie. "Sorry, Vine," she whispered.

Lizzie clenched her fists. Steam could have came out of her ears.

"WHY DOES NOBODY BELIEVE ME AROUND HERE?!" she roared while closing her eyes. "Why do you insist it's not them?! Couldn't you take five seconds to check the space between Earth and the moon to see what I'm talking about?! Why do you have to kill everything?!"

The operatives gasped.

"What now?!" Lizzie raged. Her eyes were a bit wet.

"It's really them!" one of the operatives shouted. The rest dropped their weapons to run toward them. Lizzie squinted until she realized they were back to their human selves. She looked at her hands. The view was not so yellow anymore.

"Numbuh 74.239! Numbuh 71.562! Are you OK?" 9L asked.

Lizzie turned around to see the two operatives. 74.239 and 71.562 had transformed back.

"My neck…" the red haired boy whined.

"My face…" the boy with glasses groaned.

"Well then…" Infinity acknowledged. "Numbuh Vine was right, but I'm curious as to why this transformation happened."

"I can explain!" both 74.239 and 71.562 blurted.

"No, I will!" the boy with glasses insisted.

"Nuh uh! I will!" the boy with red hair chided.

The two boys continued to bicker about who was going to tell their story first. It gave 9L and a few of the other nurses enough time to check their vitals. They found nothing wrong after the transformation, except for their attitude.

"Settle down! Come with me, and we can discuss this matter professionally," Numbuh Infinity advised.

The boys stopped complaining and stomped along to follow Infinity. They could not help sticking their tongues out at each other, though.

"Gee Vine, you were right. I'm sorry about that," 9L apologized. "But I'm so happy to see you! Want to come to the observatory? I want to hear all about Earth!"

Lizzie easily lost all of her irritation when she was given this offer. She smiled. "Yeah! Let's go!"

"And my family is fully operational. They look like they belong to me, too!"

"That's incredible! So they talk and act like real humans?"

"You can't tell the difference! …Well except for Nigel. He was so close to guessing when he first met them, but I brought him back on his feet. That boy is so paranoid that he probably thinks someone's try to kill him any moment!" Lizzie complained as she crossed her arms and pouted.

"Nigel?" 9L asked innocently as she kicked her feet while sitting in the observatory couch. She had to pretend that she did not overhear a conversation Numbuh 274 and Aleph Zero had while Lizzie was on Earth.

"Oh, that's Numbuh 1. I'm testing his loyalty. And guess what?"

"What?" 9L bluffed again. She also remembered what Numbuh 274 told her about their relationship.

"He's my boyfriend! Hehehe!" Lizzie laughed. She put her hand on 9L's shoulder as she chuckled.

"Your boyfriend~?" 9L smirked. "So you like this Nigel boy? Are humans that cute?"

"Pssh," Lizzie giggled again. She covered her mouth with her hand. "Of course I don't like him!"

9L's attitude changed from pretend curiosity to real curiosity. "What? Why don't you like him? Isn't that kind of… lying?"

Lizzie gave a sidelong glance to 9L. "'Lying' isn't the right word for this. This is a mission. You could call me being a human 'lying' but it's just not telling him I'm an uvinea."

"What do you mean?"

"You said it yourself when we first met. I have a really important mission. It's a lot of work to be a regular girl, you know!"

9L wanted to voice her disagreement, but she did not have the energy to do so. Lizzie was already annoyed from the animal incident, plus, Lizzie had experience and orders on Earth which 9L did not have.

9L looked up into the stars, avoiding eye contact with Lizzie. "All right then. If it's important for the GKND, then I really have no say…"

"Hehe, you should see Numbuh 1. He's bald."

"Girls," came from behind the two in the observatory. They both turned around to see Infinity, 74.239, and 71.562. "We need to return you to Earth, Numbuh Vine. Come along now," Infinity gestured by waving his hand inwards.

Lizzie rolled her eyes playfully as she hopped off the couch. Her fellow operative followed.

"I told your family through Mike where you were," 74.239 mentioned. "You saved our butts back there. They could have splattered us into fragments of fibrous tissues!"

"Does this mean I get a 'thank you'?"

74.239 sneered at Lizzie. "Barely."

The girl pouted. "What about that Sector V rocket we took to get here?"

"We'll take care of it," 71.562 mentioned as they walked off. 9L watched them as their conversation dissipated to her ears. She turned around.

"And you, Numbuh 9L," Infinity stopped by putting his hand on her shoulder. "There is a special task for you that needs to be done."

"Aww! I don't wanna clean the hallways again!" the girl groaned.

"It is not that. Specifically, this is something that might cure your homesickness."

9L shot up after hearing that. She placed her arms on Infinity's shoulders while jumping up and down. "Do I get to go home? Do I? Do I?" she bubbled.

"Not quite," Infinity delicately pressed her shoulder down with one of his hands. "There is a device we have taken from an evil adult that has been dubbed 'Chester's Happy Headband.' I believe you've stumbled across this device before on accident with Numbuh 274."

9L lowered her head and blushed in embarrassment. She remembered when she bit him.

"We want you to be the first galactic operative to test this device. Do you think you're up to this task?"

9L was not sure about how her homesickness and this human device were correlated, but she did not question Infinity. She was only excited to find out what she would take part in. She nodded frantically. "Yeah, yeah!"

Infinity smiled at her. "Good."