So, sadly, Firecracker's life can't stay sunshine and roses forever. Time for the first major blow….and I think you all know what it is. She's still 12, but let's just say Sector Z all have early birthdays and so are all ten. Or maybe some of them are ten and some are nine.

"RUN FOR IT!" Someone yelled out. The adult villains were used to their meetings sometimes getting sabotaged, but never to this degree. It was utter chaos! There were hamsters running around, fireworks going off and weapons of various types being blasted from seemingly every angle. Some villains tried to fight back, but it was clearly a losing , most of them decided it was time to cut their losses and run for it. They could always reschedule a meeting, but that would be a lot harder if they were in the Kids Next Door's arctic prison.

"Ah, that NEVER gets old!" Numbuh 0.3 said as she stretched a little.

"Sending 'em running or ruining their day?" Numbuh 0.4 cheekily asked.

"Yes," Numbuh 0.3 responded with a laugh.

"We also know a lot of their future plans, which is good too, right?" Numbuh 0.2 commented.

"Indeed," Numbuh 0.1 responded. "With the knowledge we got today, we'll be able to stop their plans if they are even able to put them into effect with all the chaos they caused."

"Dang, seems like you guys almost didn't need me," Numbuh 451 noted with a proud smile.

"Well we learned from the best!" Numbuh 0.3 proudly declared. "Numbuh 1917!"

"Alright, watch it," Numbuh 451 replied as she gave the younger girl a shove.

"I wish he was still around," Numbuh 0.4 said sadly. Sector Z had ended up in what turned out to be Numbuh 1917's final class, with the drill sergeant attempting to run following their graduation ceremony.

"Can…we not talk about decommissioning?" Numbuh 0.5 requested as she looked up at Numbuh 451. No matter what way you looked at it, the older girl's time in the Kids Next Door would be coming to an end in less than a year.

"Um…yeah let's not talk about that right now," Numbuh 451 agreed as she began to rub her arm and look around. The last thing she wanted to think about was how little time she actually had left in the Kids Next Door. As she looked around the destroyed room, she noticed one of her fireworks that she didn't have to set off. However, some of the flames caused from others had lit the fuse…and it was aimed right at Sector Z. "GUYS LOOK OUT!"

"What the-hey!" Sector Z all quickly found themselves getting shoved to the ground as Firecracker jumped in front of them, resulting in the firework exploding directly on top of her.

"FIRECRACKER!" Numbuh 0.2, the first to recover, exclaimed as he rushed over to his older sister figure, who was groaning in pain and clutching the spot she'd gotten hit in. "Are…are you okay?!"

"Does she look okay!?" Numbuh 0.4 snapped as he stood up. "We…we need to get her to the med bay."

"Should we try to carry her?" Numbuh 0.3 asked, for once not thinking with her fists.

"I…I think I can stand," Numbuh 451 grunted out as she struggled to her feet, leaning on her rifle. "Fucking hell, this hurts!" Numbuh 0.2 allowed her to loop an arm around him as they all headed back to their ship.

"Hmm…I think they'll make delightful first test subjects," An unseen watcher declared from the shadows as he allowed himself to laugh. He'd show the Kids Next Door just how insignificant they truly were!

"This fucking sucks. I'm going stir crazy! I need some action!" Numbuh 451 thought to herself as she continued to stare at the ceiling of the Moonbase med bay. Needless to say, catching a firework with her body not only hurt but was going to take what felt like eleventy-billion years to heal! She had explosives to make! Villains to test them on! At least she had some time to catch up on her long backlog of video games she needed to play.

"Sorry again about this," Numbuh 0.2 said as he pressed his fingers together. He and the rest of Sector Z had been visiting their friend constantly, mostly keeping her updated on all the missions they did. While she was jealous, Numbuh 451 wouldn't deny that the stories at least got rid of her boredom for a bit of time.

"I told you, it's not your fault," Numbuh 451 assured her younger friend. "I'm the one who didn't clean up and I could have just as easily gotten out of the way….Cree was right. I am too much of a hero for my own good."

"How is that a bad thing?" Numbuh 0.1 had to ask.

"Because it leads to me being bored out of my mind because I let a firework hit me right in the gut!" Numbuh 451 snapped as she threw her hands in the air. "So, you guys got a new mission or something to tell me about?"

"Actually yeah! We're going to check out a warehouse that is supposedly holding some new weapon Evil Adult Industries is working on," Numbuh 0.3 proudly declared.

"Our mission is to either destroy it or, failing that, steal it or the blueprints," Numbuh 0.1 elaborated.

"Heh. That takes me back," Numbuh 451 admitted with a smile. "You guys better kick ass, you hear?"

"We always do!" Numbuh 0.4 smugly replied as Sector Z headed off. With that, Numbuh 451 decided to try taking a nap, hoping for a fun story when Sector Z returned.

"Numbuh 451…I have something to tell you," Numbuh 100 declared as he entered the med bay. Numbuh 451, who had managed to get a little sleep before giving up and restoring to gaming on one of her consoles, quickly saluted and then noticed the look on Numbuh 100's face.

"Sir, what's wrong?" Numbuh 451 asked, dread already pooling in her stomach.

"It's…it's about Sector Z," Numbuh 100 revealed, deciding to just bite the bullet. "When they were inside the warehouse, something happened that caused the place to go up in flames and-"

"So…they're dead?" Numbuh 451 asked, already trying to keep herself from breaking into tears. They couldn't be dead!

"We're not sure," Numbuh 100 admitted. "We sent a team to search the site but all we found was wreckage. No bodies, no nothing. It was like they just vanished."

"Did you try their trackers?" Numbuh 451 asked. Every operative had to have a tracker on them at all times and those things were pretty much indestructible, so any operative could be found pretty much anywhere.

"Couldn't get a signal," Numbuh 100 replied. "It's so weird too! Just like them, the signal just…vanished. Same with the code module. Signal just…couldn't be found."

"That's…that's impossible," Numbuh 451 pointed out. "You'd have to rewrite someone's DNA to block the code module!"

"That's what the trackers have been saying," Numbuh 100 said with a shake of his head. "We're trying to figure out what's wrong and you have my word we're not going to stop looking."

"Considering how powerful our trackers are and how many people we have, we'll find them. I'll give it a couple hours," Numbuh 451 smugly replied. Operatives sometimes went missing for a couple days. But they'd always be found. There was nothing to worry about!

Hours became days.

Days became weeks.

And Firecracker was getting worried.

Operatives didn't just vanish. Everyone knew that! You couldn't! The Kids Next Door operated all over the world! Someone should have seen them. And even if no one did, they had so many forms of tracking that finding someone should be simple.

So where in the world was Sector Z?!

Firecracker knew that she couldn't devote all her time to finding them. They had search teams for that exact reason. However, that didn't mean she didn't help when nothing was lined up. However, just about every search was turning up a dead end.

"Where are you guys?" She thought one night as she returned home from yet another failed search. Giving idle greetings to her parents, Firecracker noticed something sticking out of the garbage. Curiosity getting the better of her, Firecracker grabbed the papers.

And this time, didn't bother fighting the tears.

Because the papers were five sets of nearly filled out adoption papers. All that was missing was the signatures.

Firecracker charged up the stairs to her room, the papers still clutched in her hands. Once she was in her room, she slumped onto the floor and broke down sobbing. This wasn't fair! She was so close to finally being a real family with Sector Z and then she lost them! If she hadn't been so reckless with that firework, she'd still have them! Sector Z would still be here and they'd be her real little brothers and sisters.

"I lost them…and it's all my fault,"

Next chapter won't be nearly as tragic, I promise.