Sorry it's been a while guys. Finals are right around the corner and I only just got the time to actually work on another one of these chapters. Anyways, time for another cute one!...and time to introduce yet another canon character or two.
"Seriously, why did the accidents only start when you joined the Kids Next Door?" Cree questioned her friend as she leaned against the wall of the transport ship they were on. The two girls were being sent to the Arctic Base to inspire some of the cadets, with Numbuh 100 also intending on joining them. Apparently, the goal was to show everyone that even the younger operatives could be some of the best and to not get disheartened by failures.
Which gave Cree all the more time to mock her friend when she, yet again, turned up with bandages covering a limb. This time, it was her right leg.
"Because sometimes, when you are fighting bad guys, you don't exactly have the time to run away from the blast!" Firecracker snapped as she finished redressing her wounds. This time, she had been set after some big villain meeting and, when trying to destroy the base it was being held in, had gotten caught and, in her haste to get away, had set off the explosives…and forgot how close some of them were to where she was. She was lucky she managed to run away. "Not bringing that up when I talk to the cadets."
"You aren't gonna be able to walk by the time you get decommissioned," Cree joked.
"If I can't walk, then I'll just retire, remember?" Firecracker mockingly replied. "If an operative gets crippled, then no decommissioning!"
"Hey! We're almost there!" The pilot called out to the two girls, cutting the conversation off. Upon landing, Numbuh 1917 was waiting for them.
"There's my two biggest successes so far!" He greeted the girls, smile warm and unlike anything the girls were used to seeing from him, not that they didn't mind.
"Heh, and don't you forget it!" Numbuh 451 smugly declared as she crossed her arms. "So where are the cadets?"
"Follow me," Numbuh 1917 said as he motioned for the girls to follow. Both did, looking around as they did.
"Is it just me or does this place feel a lot…smaller than you remember?" Numbuh 11 asked her friend, who shrugged.
"I think it's just because we're bigger," Numbuh 451 replied. "Same thing happened when my parents dragged me back to my old preschool for some fundraiser. Just means we're more awesome if you ask me!" Numbuh 11 cracked a smile as Numbuh 1917 led the two girls into what looked like an auditorium. Several cadets were present, including Bruce, David, Alessandra, Lenny, Constance and the kid who Cree recommended, who turned out to be named Chad, as well as a second recommendation that she had recently placed for another boy named Maurice.
"Listen up!" Numbuh 1917 called out, causing everyone to snap to attention, Numbuhs 11 and Numbuh 451 included. Both girls were in a bit of disbelief at how he still held that command over them. "As you can see, your first two speakers have arrived. Give them both the utmost attention! You might end up working alongside them someday." Almost instantly, just about every kid had stars in their eyes. Numbuhs 11 and 451 were awesome!
"So gonna just start by saying I have nothing prepared for this," Numbuh 451 admitted sheepishly, hands going into her coat pockets to play with the various trinkets she'd picked up last time she wore it. Her parents sometimes referred to her as "a human magpie" with all the stuff she liked to pick up. Usually, she just used it in her explosives, but she also had a big pile on her desk back home. Some of the cadets giggled, prompting Numbuh 451 to continue. "Luckily, I'm so awesome I don't need anything!"
"I also didn't write anything done," Numbuh 11 chimed in. "But that's partly because I wanted you guys to ask us stuff to talk about!" Almost instantly, every cadet's hand shot up. She and Numbuh 451 shared a look. As much as they wanted to pick their recommendations, they didn't want to look too biased. "Uh…you in the back!"
"Is being in the Kids Next Door scary?" The asker, a freckled boy, questioned.
"Gonna be honest-yes," Numbuh 451 admitted, deciding to not beat around the bush. "A lot of missions get really scary sometimes. But at the same time, overcoming those fears feels awesome! Managing to beat an evil adult while scared out of your underwear is awesome!"
"Oh totally!" Numbuh 11 agreed with a nod. "There were so many times I was scared I was going to fail, but when we won it all in the end, I felt like a superhero!" The freckled boy seemed happy with that and sat back down. With that, Numbuh 11 decided to be nice to her friend with her next pick. "Blond boy in the front!"
With a grin, Bruce stood up. "Favorite mission you've ever been on?" Several kids' hands dropped at that, hinting that many of them had a similar question.
"Oh don't make me choose!" Numbuh 451 melodramatically groaned. "There's so many good ones!" While that was true, she also didn't want to say the orphanage mission where she met Sector Z, both because she didn't do most of the work and again, bias.
"Hmm…for me, I think it was my first time stealing from Tasty Taste Ice Cream," Numbuh 11 said after a bit of thinking. "We robbed over fifty trucks before we were caught! I still don't think we've finished going through all of it!"
"Not fully sure if this one counts, but probably that spree of sabotaging Evil Adult Industry factories I went on about a year ago." Numbuh 451 finally said. "Made the adults so scared of me they thought my goggles were my eyes! They still call me the Red Eyed Bomber!"
"Ooooo!" Several kids gushed. Satisfied, Bruce sat down.
"Boy in the second row!" Numbuh 451 called out, deciding to return her friend's favor. Maurice stood up.
"I guess this is kinda the reverse of the last one but do you guys have a least favorite mission?" He asked. This one wasn't nearly as hard for Numbuh 451, who let out a groan as the memory came back to her with a vengeance.
"I had to sabotage a massive stink bomb that the Teen Ninjas wanted to use to ruin a popular kids place," She said as the horrible memory of the aftermath came back to her. "I did…but I could not get the smell out of my anything for like a month. It smelled so bad."
"We had to walk around with air fresheners when hanging out with her," Numbuh 11 joked, prompting Numbuh 451 to take a swing at her, which resulted in just about every cadet bursting into laughter.
"Alright, fine, what's your answer?" Numbuh 451 snapped at her friend, who promptly groaned as well.
"Definitely the time my Sector and I went to the gum volcanos and I fell into one of them," Numbuh 11 admitted. "Let me tell you, gum haircuts are the worst."
"But what mattered was that you both successfully finished those missions. You powered through it all. And that is what makes a strong Kids Next Door operative," A voice came from the entrance of the room. Everyone was in awe as Numbuh 100 walked in. Sometimes, Numbuh 451 couldn't believe that he wasn't much older than her. Apparently, he became Supreme Leader as the previous one turned traitor over a year before his 13th birthday over getting a deal from the adults and left everyone scrambling to find a successor. Numbuh 100 had been the (un)lucky winner of the Tag game that was run and, even though many had their doubts, proved himself rather capable so far. While he did rely on assistants to help him figure stuff out at first, he did seem to have it under control now.
"Numbuh 100! Go to see you sir!" Numbuh 451 greeted the supreme leader with a salute, prompting Numbuh 11 to do the same.
"At ease, you two," Numbuh 100 assured the two girls. "Numbuh 1917 tells me that the cadets are looking like a fine group. You agree?"
"Completely," Numbuh 11 said firmly. Numbuh 451 merely nodded. "Been asking us a lot of questions."
"As far as I'm concerned, natural curiosity is something that a Kids Next Door operative should always strive to have," Numbuh 100 proudly said, causing several of the kids to perk up. "So don't let up, cadets! Some day, you might even be Supreme Leader yourself!"
"Really?!" Chad eagerly asked. Several other kids looked interested in the idea, but not as much as him.
"Really," Numbuh 100 firmly said. Admittedly, he wouldn't mind handing the position over to one of these kids right now. After all, he was probably way too young to be Supreme Leader, but the Kids Next Door needed one. And he would spare these kids until the time came. Besides, he didn't want to kill their innocence too quickly.
But first, it looked like he and the girls still had a lot of questions.
"So how's training?" Firecracker asked her new friends. She and Cree had been dragged off by their respective recommendations almost as soon as everyone got dismissed.
"It's so cool!" Alessandra gushed. "I learned so many different ways to fight!"
"We all did!" Bruce chimed in.
"I think the 2x4 text is a lot cooler!" David piped up. This quickly devolved into all the kids shouting about everything they'd been learning about, causing both older girls to chuckle.
"Alright, alright! We get it!" Cree spoke up, causing everyone to settle down. "Now, one at a time, what do you think you all want to do when you become real Kids Next Door agents?"
"Well, Numbuh 1917 said he thinks we'd all make an awesome Sector, so I wanna do that!" Bruce piped up as he gestured to his orphanage mates, who were all nodding. "I'd be the Sector Leader! I'm already leader anyways!"
"I'd be a spy, like Firecracker!" Alessandra proudly declared as she mimed a few fighting poses and causing Firecracker to nearly tear up as her heart swelled with pride.
"I think Constance would be our pilot!" Lenny spoke up for his friend, who nodded in agreement. "As for me? I think I'd be a good combat expert."
"Then I guess I'd be the 2x4 guy," David sheepishly replied.
"I don't know what I'm gonna do to start, but I'm building my way up to Supreme Leader!" Chad proudly declared. I know I can do it! I'll be the best there ever is!"
"Well, you'll have to compete with Numbuh 11 and me," Numbuh 451 smugly teased the cadet as she ruffled his hair. Chad grumbled out noises of protests, but didn't do anything other than shoving her hand away.
"Uh, I don't really know what I want to do, but I want it to be important," Maurice chimed in.
"It's alright to not know what you want to do," Cree assured the younger boy. Maurice smiled at her.
"Still, I see big things coming for all of you," Firecracker promised all seven kids, who were now all smiling.
Life was good.
I promise that the angst is coming. But it's more fun to build up to because it will make it all the more painful when it does come.