Unfinished fic

[cpuff]

(This was in the wrong thread so I moved it here, sorry if you’ve already read this…nothing’s changed. Go back to your lives citizens. Also, the link to the ‘newcomer ideas ficcie something’ wouldn’t work for me so I’m posting this here. Is that OK?)

OK, I started a fic like a month or more back, however the way it's going I'm not sure I'm actually going to finish it. It's getting too talky, too out of control and too, well, weird

plus I've started another one with a better structure which I have a good feeling about ;D

but for interest's sake, here's what I've written so far.
I'm not sure if I'll ever finish the darn thing.
read if you want but I warned you!

(I'm gonna hafta double post to put the whole thing on here...please don't kill me!! )


Chapter 1: High Temperatures

The problem with progress is that every-body does it. If it were just the good guys who were able to one-up the bad guys everything would be fine, but villains progress as well and soon the good guys are right back where they started, preventing bad guys from beating them. Bullet-proof vests were invented followed closely by armour piercing bullets. Torpedoes followed destroyer ships and anti-aircraft followed planes. Sooner or later everything becomes obsolete. Cars replace bicycles, television replaces the theater and DVD replaces VHS. Nothing is set in stone. Nothing…

Numbuh 2 of the Kids Next Door lifted his goggles and rubbed his eyes. He was tired. He’d been working all night on a design that he knew was desperately needed by his sector if not the whole organization. A few days ago one of the neighboring sectors had had a run in with one of the KND’s most feared villains; Father.
The reason Father is one of the most dangerous bad guys is because he had found a way to change the age of KND operatives. The KND inventors and mechanics had worked together in order to create a way to prevent Father from changing their forces into adults, or even worse, teenagers. The answer had been the invaluable ‘Birthday-suit’. For a long time it was a booming success in Aging prevention, until a few days ago.
Somehow Father had been able to reconfigure his aging device to penetrate the suit, not only making it ineffective, but actually manipulating the 2X4 technology to speed up the aging effect. The results were catastrophic. Soon after, an emergency meeting was held by the KND top leaders and operatives and all inventors, mechanics and 2X4 designers were contacted and asked to try and find a way to prevent this new threat if not counter it.
Numbuh 2 toyed with his pencil. He had been wracking his brains trying to come up with something. He had made some hopeful discoveries and seemed to be making progress, but he had become deadlocked. Every turn he tried in taking his design further had turned out to be either impossible or too expensive. It is a popular belief that the KND organization had unlimited funds, and to some extent this was indeed so, but all his ideas required NASA technology which he knew was still out of his reach…for the moment. There was a positive side to his lack of progress though, he’d been able to make some discoveries to improve on some KND weapons and gadgets he hadn’t thought of before. But Mostly all he could do to stop himself getting bored with the project was to come up with acronyms for new equipment he hadn’t named yet. He tapped the page with his pencil point. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get any further for the moment. He was tired, frustrated and hungry, all of which was preventing him from concentrating. Eventually he gave up and decided to check the time and see if supper or breakfast was more appropriate.

Before he even passed a window it was clear that night had come and gone. Loud sizzling was coming from the kitchen which could only mean one thing; Numbuh 1 was up.
Most kids are happy to pour themselves a bowl of sugary cereal and collapse in front of the TV until the rest of the world wakes up, but Numbuh 1 liked to get things done properly and refused to get himself into a sugar high before the day had even started. Sure enough, there he was, standing in front of the small and seldom used stove, breaking eggs over a pan and getting half of it on his red and white PJ top. He turned around when Numbuh 2 opened on of the cupboards to get some cereal.
“Oh, good morning. I didn’t know any-one else was up yet.” He said turning back to his mush of eggs.
“I’ve been up all night.” Numbuh 2 answered.
“And you’re having ‘Count Chocula’ for breakfast? You’re going to crash something awful.”
“I don’t care.” Numbuh 2 said splashing milk into the bowl.
“So I take it the design isn’t going too good.” Numbuh 1 said as he scraped his eggs into a plate. It was hard to tell exactly how he was having them. ‘Scrambled’ was one word that came to mind, ‘Flambé’ was another.
“You shouldn’t stress yourself out too badly, there are others also trying to work this situation out. You should exchange notes or something, this isn’t a competition after all. Eggs?”
“I think I’ll pass” Numbuh 2 said pulling a face.
“No? Still I’m sure you’ll get it eventually. Good morning Numbuh 5.”
Numbuh 5 had walked in and was making her way straight for the fridge. “Hey. We got any O.J.?”
“I think we finished it.” Numbuh 1 answered. “There’s eggs if you want.”
She took one look at the plate in the boy’s hands. “Numbuh 5 doesn’t think so.”
He shrugged and started to make his way to the giant TV in what they called their ‘living room’. “You’re loss.”
“Does he have to be so cheery in the mornin’?” Numbuh 5 asked as she popped some bread into the toaster.
“Who’s cheery in the mornin’?” Numbuh 4 asked walking in still half asleep.
“Morning!” Came the rather loud greeting from Numbuh 3 as she skipped into the room past the blinking Numbuh 4.
“What’s for breakfast?!” She asked.
“Toast, cereal, I think there’s some Waffles in the Ice-box but ya gonna hafta heat ‘em up.” Numbuh 5 said slapping some jam on her toast.
“Numbuh 1 made eggs.” Numbuh 2 added as he followed the same path to the TV.
“Ew!” she stuck out her tongue. “We have any Fruit Loops?”
“Waffles for me.” Numbuh 4 said stretching himself.
“Ya gonna hafta make ‘em yourself then.” Numbuh 5 said as she left.
“I’m still asleep here! Ya want me ta burn my hand off?!” He yelled after her.
“Aw, you’ll live.” She called back.
“She’s tryin’ ta do me in!” He grumbled as he opened the fridge to look for the waffles.
“Aww she’s not!” Numbuh 3 said as she dumped half the sugar pot on her cereal.
“Well I don’t see why she couldn’t just toast me a few waffles…if we had any! I mean where are the waffles?!”
Numbuh 3 looked over his shoulder into the heavily stocked racks of Sector V’s fridge.
“Here they are!” She said reaching over and pulling out a rather squashed packet of waffles.
“Great! Ya wanna cook ‘em for me?”
“In your dreams!” She said shoving the packet into his hands and bouncing out of the kitchen in the direction of the others.
“I’ve never met such lazy people in my whole life!” Numbuh 4 muttered as he made his way to the counter to look for the waffle iron.

When things are extremely hectic in your life, all you want is for it to slow down and give you breathing space, yet when things are going slowly all you want is for it to pick up and become more exciting. Now a good question is which is worse? To be exhausted, or to be bored?
For the past few days nothing exciting had happened concerning Sector V. This was great for a day or two but soon the team had become bored. Grown-ups always say things like ‘Children have more imagination than grown-ups’ and ‘Children are great because they can make anything into a game’. I promise you people who say this have never had kids of their own, not because these sayings aren’t true, but because Children also have something else; a very short attention span.
“Man I am sooo bored!” Numbuh 4 said for what seemed like the hundredth time.
“I think you’ve already told me.” Numbuh 5 said flipping thru the TV channels
“Yeah well I’m still bored!”
“Well find somethin’ ta do and don’t bother Numbuh 5 with it!”
“There’s nothin’ to do! Numbuh 2’s busy with his stupid design thingy, Numbuh 1 is off doing leader stuff an’ I have no idea where Numbuh 3 is!”
Numbuh 5 took her eyes off the giant TV screen to look at the young Aussie. He was sitting in the red armchair, glowering at the TV and doing his best to be in a bad mood.
“Why doncha go practice some punches or somethin’?” She suggested.
“What for?! Nothin’ ever happens here any-more anyway! All I’m gonna do is waste my time! Besides,” He stood up on the chair. “I Don’t need to practice.”
Numbuh 5 pulled a face but decided not to say what she thought of this statement.
Numbuh 4 flopped back into his ‘I’m sulky and I want you to know it’ position.
She turned back to the TV.
“…Bu’ tha’s really wo’ et’s all abou’ isn’ et? I mean, music is the universal language in’nt it? I’ve olways wonted to be a singger meself…”
“I’ve olways wonted to be a singger.” Numbuh 1 said copying the cockney accent coming from the TV.
“Hey Numbuh 1.” Numbuh 5 said trying hard to too giggle too much.
“Is this really all that’s playing?” He said sitting down next to her.
“Kinda, unless ya wanna watch one of the food channels or somethin’”
“Ugh! I can’t take this any more!” Numbuh 4 said getting up and stomping out of the room.
“What’s his problem?” Numbuh 1 asked.
“Aw, he’s been moody all day. It’s all this down time, it’s makin’ us all a lil’ crazy.”
“Yes. That’s worrying me a little.” Numbuh 1 said frowning.
“What d’you mean?” She asked sitting up.
“Well,” He turned to look at her. “Don’t you think it’s a little odd that Father finds a way of disabling our Birthday Suits but then lies low and practically disappears? I don’t like it. He’s up to something.”
“Maybe he’s just tryin’ ta make us paranoid?” She suggested sitting back again.
“Could be.” He didn’t look convinced though.
“What ya been doin’?” She asked him to change the subject.
“I’ve been checking the monitors for anything suspicious.” He said sitting back himself.
He was referring to the small room that consisted entirely out of TV screens showing news from around the world he sometimes used for information.
“Anythin’ interesting?”
“Nothing really. Or at least nothing that concerns us.”
They stared at the TV screen as the MTV interview continued.
Numbuh 5 shifted her position uneasily.
She hated it when she couldn’t find anything to say to him and they just sat there in silence.
She glanced in his direction. He didn’t seem uncomfortable though; he just sat and stared at the screen with a rather bored expression.
She sighed silently and turned her own attention back to the dull interview.
“What are ya doing?!” Numbuh 3 asked skipping into the room with one of the many hamsters in the tree-house sitting on her head.
“Being bored and you?” Numbuh 1 said.
“The poor little hamsters have been powering everything for a looong time! I went to the power room to tell them some of them could stop.”
Numbuh sat up. “You did what?”
“Well nothing’s happening now and some of the power goes to the defense missiles riiiight? So I just told those hamsters they didn’t need to power those today.”
She gave him a big grin.
“You switched off the defense system?!”
“No, I just told the hamsters powering it they didn’t need to.”
Numbuh 1 rubbed his temples.
“Any chance they didn’t listen to you?”
“No they were very happy to take a break!”
“Right.” Numbuh 1 got up and started to make for the door.
“What are ya gonna do?” Numbuh 5 asked him.
“Well there’s no point in trying to find them, they’ll be hiding somewhere making themselves scarce so I’m going to have to activate the spare power generators, I mean what were you thinking Numbuh 3!” He turned on her sharply.
“Well nothing’s happening.” She shrugged.
Numbuh 1 opened his mouth as if to say something but decided against it. Instead he turned and walked out of the room.
Numbuh 3 sat down next to Numbuh 5, totally oblivious to the fact that she had just made their leader very mad.
“Ya know you should probably ask before doin’ stuff like that.” Numbuh 5 said.
“Why?”

“I think I got it!”
Numbuh 4 turned round as his best friend ran into the room waving a piece of blue paper.
“I really think I got it! Ican’tbelieveIdidn’tgetitbeforebutIgotitnow! IjustneedNumbuh1to…!”
Trip.
Crash.
Numbuh 4 rolled his eyes.
Numbuh 2 picked himself up without missing a beat but before he could let lose another string of words Numbuh 4 interrupted him.
“Alright, what did you get?”
“This anti-aging thing!” He said trotting closer and passing Numbuh 4 the blue-print. “See this? All I had to do was re-position it here, reconfigure this and change the power pack so that it…”
“Sorry mate, ya lost me.” Numbuh 4 said handing it back.
“Nevermind. Where’s Numbuh1?”
“In front of the TV last time I saw him.” Numbuh 4 said turning back to his punching bag.
“Well he’s gotta look at it before I can start building it!”
“Think we’ll ever use it?” Numbuh 4 gave the bag a hard jab with his left fist.
“What d’you mean?”
“It’s been so bloody dull around here that’s what I mean!” He gave the bag another punch.
“Aw c’mon, something’ll happen soon.”
“I really hope so! I’m bored outta my mind!”
“Well don’t get too bummed out. You’re gonna be complaining when things heat up.” Numbuh 2 said as he left.
“Right now I really doubt it.” Jab. Jab.

Numbuh 1 scratched something onto the blue print and handed it back to Numbuh 2.
“Tell me what you think.”
Numbuh 2 looked at what Numbuh 1 had changed in the design.
“I never thought of that.” He said scratching his head.
Numbuh 1 grinned.
“So you think it’s ready to be built?”
“If we had more time you could probably have refined it brilliantly Numbuh 2 but time is one thing we haven’t got. The sooner you start building the better.”
“Numbuh 4 doesn’t think anything’s gonna happen for a while.”
“Yes, Numbuh 3 doesn’t think so either and that’s the problem. If something does happen they won’t be prepared for it, so we need that device as soon as possible.”
Numbuh 1 got up.
“And I wasn’t able to use a generator for the defense system as that would make our emergency energy supply too low so we’re a little vulnerable at the moment until those AWOL hamsters show up again.”
“You still mad at Numbuh 3?” Numbuh 2 asked.
“Not really. It’s a pretty normal thing for Numbuh 3 to do if you think about it. No, we need to find something to do otherwise we’re going to go mad. I’ve been trying to think of something but at the moment I’m coming up empty.”
“I still say something’s gonna happen soon. Things are never quiet for a long time without something happening.” Numbuh 2 said. “What about seeing a movie or something? There’s gotta be something showing. We could try sneaking into a grown-up feature.”
“No, there wouldn’t be any point.” Numbuh 1 sighed. “To be honest I’m getting quite fed up myself.”
“Wanna go spy on some teenagers?” Numbuh 2 asked grinning.
“No, I do not want to go spy on Cree.”
“Hey! I didn’t say Cree! Did I say Cree?!”
“No but you were thinking it.”
“Aw what do you know?!” Numbuh 2 said sticking out his tongue and going rather red in the face. “I’m gonna go build this thing so don’t bother me!”
He stomped out of the room.
Numbuh 1 watched him go but didn’t try to stop him. To be honest he was kinda glad to be on his own again. The team was starting to annoy him. They weren’t actually doing anything annoying but the lack of action was making Numbuh 1 uneasy and he was starting to feel a bit of cabin fever.
He leaned against one of the control benches in the control room and stared blankly out the window.
He wondered what his mum was doing.
He shook his head.
If things had gotten so slow that he was wondering what his parents were getting up to then the situation was worse than he had thought.
“Maybe I should phone the Toilinator or something.” He said aloud.
Anything was better than this.

Numbuh 2 was wrong. The longer they waited, the less happened.
And the less that happened the more agitated and paranoid the team became.
One good thing that did come from the lack of action was that Numbuh 2 was pretty quick at building the anti-aging device which he had decided to call the Y.O.U.N.G.R.A.Y., or Youngifying Outrageous Über Thing Happily Rights Aging Youngsters. Soon the prototype was almost completely finished, missing only a few of the safety precautions and a back-up power-pack.
It basically looked like a large gun of sorts with a camera lens fitted to the front. This was because the machine worked like a gun (the length of the barrel technically made it a cannon) but instead of firing physical ammo it fired a kind of light-ray that would be extremely hard and boring to try and explain here.
Numbuh 2 had submitted his design to headquarters who were currently going over the design with their own inventors to see if they could improve on it.
But with that done Numbuh 2 had also erased the only thing keeping him busy and he soon joined the others in complete boredom and routine.
Numbuh 1 was glowering at the TV screen as if trying to burn a hole in it with his eyes.
The team was sitting in front of the Tube and watching a late movie that happened to be playing.
Numbuh 1 wasn’t enjoying himself though.
He was feeling annoyed and agitated. A combination he wasn’t use to and not being use to it just made him more uncomfortable. He was use to being the level-headed one and the fact that there was nothing to keep the rest of the team in order about was irritating him to no end.
This is what he told himself but the fact of the matter was that the lack of action made him nervous, not only because it made him jump at every little sound expecting an attack but also because it made him feel useless which scared him.
“What’s up Numbuh 1?”
“Huh?” He snapped back to reality to see Numbuh 5 looking over at him. She was sharing the blue couch with him with her head resting on the one arm-lean.
“I asked what’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” He lied.
“Numbuh 5 ain’t buying.”
“I said Nothing!” he snapped a little meaner than he had intended.
She blinked at him.
“Fine. No need ta bite my head off.” She said turning back to the TV.
“Well it’s not like it’s any of your business.” He grumbled to himself, unfortunately not soft enough.
“Beg pardon?!”
“I said; it’s not like it’s any of your business!” He said rather loudly, Numbuh 5 was getting on his nerves.
“Geez! What’s your problem?” She said.
“My problem is that you keep sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong!!”
The others had stopped watching the movie and had turned to stare at the argument between the quiet thinker and the cool-headed leader.
Numbuh 5’s jaw dropped.
“Well excuse me! Why are you being such a jerk?!”
Numbuh 1 got up.
“Mind your own beeswax!”
He started to leave.
“Where are ya goin?!” She yelled after him.
“To my room as if it concerned you!!”
“Fine!”
“Fine!!”
She blew a raspberry at him which he returned with just as much enthusiasm.
She turned back to the TV crossing her arms and glaring at the screen.
After a minute or so she realized the others were still staring at her.
“What?!”
They dismally turned back to the screen.
“I don’t like it when they fight.” Numbuh 3 whispered to Numbuh 4.
“Me either.” He replied.
Somehow the movie wasn’t as enjoyable any-more. Eventually Numbuh 5 got up and went to her own room.
“What was all that about?” Numbuh 4 asked once he was sure she couldn’t hear him anymore.
“Numbuh 1’s being mean.” Numbuh 3 said nodding to herself.
“Yeah but why? He’s not like that!”
They exchanged worried glances.
“They’ll be ok again tomorrow.” Numbuh 2 said who was still half watching the TV.
“Ya think so?” Numbuh 3 asked.
“Yeah, they’re probably just tired or something.”
Before the others could say what they thought of this there came a loud crash from upstairs in the control room.
“What was that?!” Numbuh 4 said jumping up.
Numbuh 2 smacked his head.
“The defense system! It’s still not working!!”
“What?!!”
Numbuh 1 came running into the room. “What was that racket?!”
“It came from upstairs!” Numbuh 3 said nervously.
“Right! Numbuh 2, get your new toy…”
“Y.O.U.N.G.R.A.Y.”
“Whatever, just get it! Numbuh 4 and Numbuh 3 you better get your weapons, where’s Numbuh 5?!”
“In her room!” Numbuh 4 yelled as he and Numbuh 3 ran off to the armory.
Numbuh 1 did a 180 and ran down the corridor leading to Numbuh 5’s bead curtain door only to crash into her as she came running in the opposite direction.
“What’s happenin’?!” She asked as he pulled her to her feet.
“I’m not sure but I think the Some-body decided to pay us a visit! Get a weapon, and not your S.P.L.A.N.K.E.R., I have a feeling it won’t be much use!”

[cpuff]

Running into the control room Numbuh 1 was met with the site of one of the Delightful Children From Down The Lane’s impressive robots. It looked a lot like a giant crab with a bubble dome on top where he could clearly see the five Delightful Children smirking down at him.
“Well hello there Nigel Uno!” The said in unison. Refering to Numbuh 1 by his name was a a habit they often used to get on his nerves.
“What are you doing here you freaks?!” he yelled up at them.
He didn’t really care but he needed some time for Numbuh 2 to arrive with the Y.O.U.N.G.R.A.Y.
“We’re so glad you asked.” They grinned. “Father has bought us a new toy, so we thought we’d come over and show it to you!!”
Numbuh 1 jumped to one side instinctively and saved himself from a blast of emerald light.
He rolled himself back into a crouching position.
The crab-machine had opened a hatch in front to reveal a large round dish that looked a lot like a TV satellite dish. It was wired into the machine but Numbuh 1 couldn’t see what was supplying it with power.
The Delightful Children shot another blast of energy at him but he was ready for it this time and dodged it.
‘Where is Numbuh 2?!’ He thought to himself.
A teddy-bear came flying out of nowhere and smacked against the glass dome.
The Delightful Children turned their attention to Numbuh 3 who was cocking her T.H.U.M.P.E.R. for another shot.
‘Oh no!’ Numbuh 1 jumped to his feet and swung his S.C.AM.P.P. off from his back where he had had it strapped and aimed a shot at the Dome himself. He hadn’t wanted to start a battle so soon but there was no going back now.
Unlike Numbuh 3’s weapon of choice, Numbuh 1’s was much more aggressive, shooting photon blasts instead of just Teddy bears. For this reason he focused on the glass dome rather than the satellite dish itself. He knew that if they could capture the machine and it’s aging ray they could probably find a better way to counter it.
He let forth a round of shots from his S.C.A.M.P.P. leaving a good few scorch marks on the glass dome.
“Trying a pincer attack huh?!” The Children sent a shot in Numbuh 3’s direction.
Luckily Numbuh 3 is a lot faster than most people think and side-rolled out of the way just in time. The wood she had been standing on erupted into lichen and mushrooms as it aged a few years within a matter of seconds.
“Numbuh 3! Where’s Numbuh 2?!” Numbuh 1 asked as he continued to shoot.
“I dunno!” She yelled back sending another teddy flying.
The crab-machine lifted one of its large spider-like legs and brought it crashing down thru the floor a few feet away from Numbuh 1 sending up a spray of splinters, one of which hit a lens in Numbuh 1’s sunglasses.
“Watch those legs Numbuh3!” He yelled at her before jumping back to avoid another shot from the dish.
“What?!”
Another spidery leg came slicing thru the air above her but before it could smash into anything a blast of blue light came from one of the doors cocooning it in mid air in crystal-like rock.
“He said watch the legs Dodo!” Numbuh 4 said running into the room brandishing his F.R.E.E.Z.E. followed closely by Numbuh 5 who let forth a hail of gumballs from her G.L.U.M.P.
“Where’s Numbuh 2?!!” Numbuh 1 yelled in exasperation.
He wasn’t paying attention to the machine as he scanned the room to see if Numbuh 2 had perhaps come in with-out him noticing. But because of this he realized a little too late that a blast from the Delightful’s machine was hurtling straight for him.
With a cry he instinctively flung his arms up in front of his face.
There was a loud impact blast a few centimeters in front of him; he felt the heat on his skin. But it was not him that had been blasted.
He lowered his arms to see the machine had turned towards Numbuh 2 who was standing framed in the doorway with his new cannon resting on one of his shoulders.
“Sorry I’m late guys! Now let’s show these dorks what happens when they get shelfish!”
Numbuh 1 rolled his eyes.
“What just happened?!” The Delightful Children yelled. “Well it doesn’t matter! We’re still gonna make you older than mummy-dust!”
They shot another blast, this time at Numbuh 2.
But he was ready for them and sent forth a blast himself.
A stream of opal light burst from the front of the Y.O.U.N.G.R.A.Y. and smashed into the Delightful’s energy beam which promptly exploded in a blast of orange light.
Numbuh 1 took this as an opportunity and sent a photon blast at the leg Numbuh 4 had frozen a few seconds before.
It shattered into a thousand tiny pieces along with its icy shell.
“Numbuh 4! Take out the other legs! Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 5, keep firing at that glass dome! See if you can break it!”
“No fair!” The Delightful Children yelled.
Each blast the tried to fire was instantly neutralized by a synchronized blast from Numbuh 2.
Numbuh 4 let loose a cascade of freezing energy at the crab-robot’s long legs, each time they were properly frozen over Numbuh 1 took them out with a few blasts of his own.
“So you wanna play rough huh?!” The blue-eyed children growled. “Then who are we to disappoint you? Full Power!!”
A high-pitched humming started to come from the machine’s main body.
A faint green glow could be seen getting brighter thru the dark hatch in which, presumably, the aging device lay.
“Forget salvaging that thing! Fire away! Fire Away!”
Numbuh 1 sent a shower of photon rays at the satellite dish but they merely ricocheted off of it and blasted holes in the wall.
Numbuh 5 and Numbuh 3’s weapons wouldn’t have made a difference so they didn’t even try but focused instead on the glass dome. Numbuh 4 gave it a blast with his F.R.E.E.Z.E. but the minute he had it encased in ice, it began to crack and exploded free again.
“That thing must be drawing in a ton of energy! Numbuh 2 blast it!”
“But..!”
“That’s an order!”
Numbuh 2 knew better than to argue with that statement.
He shot a beam of light at the machine.
It entered the dark hatch-way past the satellite dish.
The humming stopped and for a few seconds the machine merely stood there in silence.
Then a low rumble could be heard which was replaced him an ear-splitting whistle.
“Abort! Abort!” the Delightful’s hit a button on their control panel and the glass dome shot up and thru the roof away from the machine and the KND operatives.
The robot started to vibrate and shake.
“Hit the dirt!” Numbuh 4 yelled.
They slammed themselves onto the floor.
The crab-robot exploded in a ball of light that shone red thru their eyelids as they shielded their faces.
The force that followed shook the entire tree-house and tugged at their hair and their clothes.
It tore floorboards up and tossed them thru the glass of the windows and still the whistling went on.
It became higher and higher and the light kept getting brighter and brighter. Wind was tearing over their skin as it blew away from the blast in a terrible gale.
Some-one screamed.
And then everything was quiet.



that's it for chapter 1. I've finished Chapter 2 and 3 but the rest I'm afraid just isn't happening so good. I'll post them too but I'm gonna wait for a reply first sos I don't break a gajillion forum rules ;D

[flirtykuki101]

i like it it's getting really interesting, uodate it please.

[cpuff]

OK, here's chapter 2. I warn you though, things start unravelling by chapter 3.

Chapter 2: Deserted towns

“Numbuh1! Hey! Numbuh 1!”
Numbuh 1 slowly opened his eyes.
He was lying on his back which he thought was a little strange. What was more there was something extremely bright above him hurting his eyes.
After a few seconds he realized it was the sun.
He shut his eyes and groaned. He brought up a hand against his head which was hurting.
“You’re Ok!”
He opened his eyes again but this time turned to look at who was speaking.
Numbuh 2 was looming over him
Numbuh 4 was resting on his friend’s shoulder and staring down at him as well.
“He’s Ok girls!” Numbuh 2 called over his other shoulder.
“What happened?” Numbuh 1 asked pushing himself up onto his elbows.
“No idea mate. Numbuh 2 shoots, the machine goes boom, we black out and wake up here.”
“Numbuh 1 are you ok?!” Numbuh 3 trotted closer along with Numbuh 5.
“I think so. My head hurts a little though…wait a minute!” he sat up. “What do you mean ‘We woke up here’?!”
“Look around mate!” Numbuh 4 said standing back a little.
Numbuh 1 finally took in the landscape and it was clear that they were a very long way from home.
They were standing in what looked to be a large valley made up of tiny hills and large boulders, the kind that looked like they had fallen off a large mountain even though there weren’t any-mountains for miles around. The ground was made up of rough soil of a red-brown colour with a few bursts of yellowish grass poking up here and there. But it wasn’t the grass of manicured lawns; it was long, wild grass that consisted of weeds and any other vegetation that was tough enough to grow there. The sky was the white that you usually found on a very late morning or an early afternoon. The sun was shining with an extreme purpose on its mind, which was to scorch anything on the earth below. Numbuh 1 was suddenly aware of how hot he was and how uncomfortable and sticky his sweater suddenly felt.
The rest of the landscape was obscured by the hills, or rather dunes, but in the distance one could almost see an outline of what could’ve been cliffs.
“Where on earth are we?” Numbuh 1 asked to the universe in general.
“We were just wonderin’ that ourselves.” Numbuh 5 said.
“What happened Numbuh 2?” Numbuh 1 asked getting to his feet.
“You’re asking me?!”
“Well, you’re the mechanical genius here.”
Numbuh 2 rubbed his chin.
“I think the blast from my Y.O.U.N.G.R.A.Y. counter-acted with the Delightful Dork’s aging machine.”
“Meaning what exactly?”
“Well it either means we blasted the whole world to bits,”
“Or?” Numbuh 1 asked calmly.
“Or…” Numbuh 2 laughed nervously. “There’s a sliiiight possibility the blast sent us into another dimension. Ah ha ha…”
“WHAT?!” Numbuh 4 gawked at him.
Numbuh 5 whistled to herself.
“Numbuh 2 what did you do?!!” Numbuh 4 screamed.
“It’s not my fault!!”
“Whaddya mean it’s not your fault?!! Who’s fault is it then?!!”
“Calm down Numbuh 4.” Numbuh 1 said.
“No I will NOT calm down!!” He said turning on Numbuh 1. “Tapioca-for-Brains here just zapped us into a sci-fi movie!! And you want me to calm down??!!”
“How was I to know something like this would happen?!”
“You’re SUPPOSE ta know! That’s why you’re the inventor! This is all. Your. Fault!!” Numbuh 4 had drawn himself up as tall as he could to look Numbuh 2 in the eye and punctuated each word with a prod at his teammate’s chest.
“Numbuh 4, it is not Numbuh 2’s fault. If any-one’s it’s my fault. I was the one who ordered him to shoot in the first place, so if you could kindly stop yelling maybe we can figure out where to go from here.” Numbuh 1 said sternly.
“Yeah but…” Numbuh 4 stopped. It was one thing to yell at Numbuh 2, but to yell at Numbuh 1 was something completely different. Besides, he knew his leader was right.
“What’re we gonna do Numbuh1?” Numbuh 5 asked.
“I’m scared.” Numbuh 3 added tearing up.
“Now every-body just calm down and let’s think about this.” Numbuh 1 said.
“Man this is just like that Planet of the Apes movie!” Numbuh 2 said.
“What if some angry monkeys come out and catch us and force us to do horrible chores like clip their toe-nails?! Or giant insect people! With 60 legs and a billion eyes and large pincers and…”
“Shuddup Numbuh 2!” Numbuh 5 snapped.
“Hey! Don’t tell me ta shuddup! You shuddup!”
“What did I just say?!” Numbuh 1 said.
The others quieted down waiting for Numbuh 1 to tell them his next move.
But instead of letting forth with his usual string of instructions, Numbuh 1 merely stood there with his head slightly cocked to one side.
The others waited patiently but still all Numbuh 1 did was stand there noiselessly. One would expect a slight wind to tug at his clothes for effect, but the wind was deciding to be difficult and remained absent.
Eventually Numbuh 4 couldn’t take it any more.
“Uh, Numbuh wo…”
“Shush!” Numbuh 1 shot up a finger but other than that continued to stand silently.
After a few moments he finally spoke.
“I can hear the ocean.”
There was a smack as Numbuh 4’s hand hit Numbuh 4’s head.
“That’s what you were listening to?! Geez! Why doncha warn us the next time you decide to take in the tran..trankw…” He stopped as his forehead furrowed up with concentration.
“Tranquility?” Numbuh 5 guessed.
“That’s it! Why doncha warn us the next time you decide to take in the tran-qui-li-ty of nature huh?!” Numbuh 4 crossed his arms partly to show he was irked and partly to show he had just accomplished a great deal of thinking.
“For your information I was not simply listening to Mother Nature,” Numbuh 1 said patiently.
“Looked like it ta me.”
“If we’re stuck here, and it seems for the moment that we are, we’re going to have to decide what to do. We can’t stay here in the middle of nowhere, we need to try and find a town or something. Now,” He pointed. “The ocean is that way. We have two choices; either we go towards it hoping to find a fishing village or, we go that way and hope we find something further off.”
“Ya sure we’ll find somethin’?” Numbuh 5 asked cocking an eyebrow.
She couldn’t see his eyes but could feel them dart momentarily to a rather upset Numbuh 3.
“Of course.” He said. “There’s always people somewhere. We just have to decide where we want to go.”
“What do you wanna do Numbuh 1?” Numbuh 2 asked.
Numbuh 1 thought for a moment. “Well, I personally would say we should head inland.”
“You think there’d be people there?” Numbuh 3 sniffed, she was clearly scared.
Numbuh 1 couldn’t force himself to lie to her.
“I just think that it’d be safer. We don’t know anything about that ocean. It might be low tide, it might be high tide, the waves might be a lot bigger than we expect, we might walk for longer than we expected and we all know how the sea can get at night.”
The others nodded.
The Californian Sea back home was dangerous enough by day but by night is was a monster, there was a reason surfers came to California beach and it wasn’t just to catch a tan.
“So we go inland.” Numbuh 5 said.
“Looks like it.” Numbuh 1 nodded.
“Well then, we better get goin’.” Numbuh 2 said starting to walk.
“You sure we’ll find some-one?” Numbuh 3 asked again as she fell in step behind him.
“Sure we will!” Numbuh 4 said trotting after her to keep up. “You’ll see! We’ll probably end up in a giant city or somethin’!”
“Like Tokyo?!”
“Uh…sure! Whateva!”
Numbuh 5 and Numbuh 1 brought up the rear.
“I’m frying, d’you think this heat will lift?” He asked her as a way of conversation. The argument in front of the TV was still all too fresh in his mind.
“Dunno. Numbuh 5 ain’t been here before.” She shrugged.
“Ya sure we’re gonna find some-one?” She asked softly turning to look at him. She knew she was echoing Numbuh 3’s words but she also knew that Numbuh 1 usually gave her a straight answer instead of just trying to make her feel better.
“I’m not sure.” Numbuh 1 almost choked on the words. He hated not being sure about something, especially if the team was counting on him.
“I hope Numbuh 2 did just send us thru a dimension thing. I’d hate ta think the trouble Numbuh 5 would get inta if her Momma found out we blew up the world.”
Numbuh 1 merely nodded.

“Are we theeeeere yet?!” Numbuh 3 moaned.
“How should I know!” Numbuh 4 asked throwing his arms in the air.
“We’ve been walking for hoooouuurs!” She continued. She long ago stopped being scared as tiredness and heat took over from nervousness.
“Actually it’s only been 3 hours.” Numbuh 2 said.
Numbuh 3 gave one of the most pathetic girly wails she could muster.
“Cryin’ ain’t gonna solve anythin’!” Numbuh 4 growled at her.
“Easy for you to say!” She said crossly. “At least you can take off your jacket.”
“Firstly, it’s a hoodie not a jacket, and B, You can take your sweater off if you’re hot! Duh!”
“WHAT?!”
The others stopped for a few minutes as Numbuh 3 proceeded to try and remove Numbuh 4’s head from his shoulders.
“How ya doin’ guys?” Numbuh 2 asked Numbuh 5 and Numbuh 1 while the other two wrestled in the dust.
“A little hot.” Numbuh 5 said removing her hat and fanning herself with it.
“Mm.” Numbuh 1 said.
“You Ok Numbuh 1?”
“What?!” He looked up.
“I asked if you were Ok.”
“What? Oh! Yes. Yes I’m fine. I think the heat’s getting to me a little.” He smiled.
“I think we better pull ‘em off each other.” Numbuh 5 said replacing her hat.
“Yes. Right. Ok you two break it!” Numbuh 1 called.
“She started it!”
“Did not!”
“I said one innocent thing and you went nutso!”
“Did not!”
“Did too!”
“Hey! Cut it out!” Numbuh 2 walked over and picked Numbuh 3 off of Numbuh 4.
“She’s out of her mind!” Numbuh 4 said pointing accusingly at her.
“Bakabakashii! !” She yelled back sticking out her tongue at him.
“Care ta repeat that?!”
“Chill!” Numbuh 5 said stepping in between them. “Now look, we’re all hot, we’re all tired and we’re all goin’ a little crazy and we don’t need you two makin’ it any worse! So Numbuh 3, ignore him, and Numbuh 4, keep your comments to yourself!”
That seemed to settle the argument although the two of them continued to pull faces at each other for quite a while as they trudged on.
The sun was sitting a lot lower in the sky than it had been but this simply meant that it had gone from scalding hot to merely baking you alive slowly.
The landscape had changed little as they had moved, this was partly because the landscape was more or less the same in every direction for miles and because, despite the fact that they had been walking a long time, they had not really gotten as far as it felt. Every time they climbed up a tall hill they could make out a distant shimmer as the sun sparkled off the ocean.
They slid down the side of yet another hill.
The cliffs seemed to have disappeared but every now and again Numbuh 5 thought she could see a vague outline of where they were suppose to be.
Numbuh 4 had tied his hoodie around his middle, his white T-shirt he wore underneath was stained with the reddish sand. Numbuh 3 had rolled up her sleeves as she had nothing under her sweater. Numbuh 2 seemed to merely be bearing with the heat.
Numbuh 1 hadn’t done anything either.
He wasn’t thinking about anything much.
Oh of course there was the usual hum of thoughts in his head. A sort of static discharge he always carried with him and which erupted into lightning storms when under stress and in need of a plan. But apart from the dull trillings of things like ‘where is the team. Are they all here? Are they all safe?’ and ‘Is anything coming? Is any-one following us? Is any-body there?’ and, strangely, the song ‘Beds are burning’ by Midnight Oil, he wasn’t actually thinking about anything. Though somewhere, at the back of his mind, something else was buzzing very softly. But whatever it was, he wasn’t paying attention to it.
He was merely walking forward in a rather mechanical way.
Every now and then he’d change direction slightly so that they would move a little more west or a little more North.
“Hey! There’s something sparkly over there!’ Numbuh 3 said suddenly.
“Aw, who cares?!” Numbuh 4 said. “It’s just the sea again.”
“No it’s not. The sea’s over there.” Numbuh 2 pointed in the opposite direction.
“So what’s that then?” Numbuh 4 said staring at the slight shimmer in the late afternoon sun.
“Ya better look at this Numbuh 1.” Numbuh 5 said as she also stared.
Numbuh 1 came to stand next to her and squinted at it.
He lifted his sunglasses up onto his forehead and looked again.
He blinked and replaced them on his nose.
“It looks a lot like a sort of town to me.” He said.
“A shiny town?” Numbuh 4 asked.
“It’s just reflecting the sun.” Numbuh 2 said. “The roofs are probably metallic so the sun reflects off of them, like a mirror.”
“If you say so.” Numbuh 4 shrugged.
“Yay! We found some-one!” Numbuh 3 said smiling one of her extremely wide smiles.
“A lotta some-ones.” Numbuh 5 commented.
The town was defiantly a town in the sense that none of the buildings were over 3 storeys high, but it stretched out very far like a city would. As if a lot of people had grouped themselves together in order to fill up the embarrassing amount of empty desert.
“D’you think they’re nice?” Numbuh 3 asked after she calmed down a little.
“Who cares?! C’mon! The least we can find is a bit a shade!” Numbuh 4 trotted ahead of the group in the direction of the mass of houses.
“Strange place for a town.” Numbuh 2 muttered to himself as he followed the two running figures of Numbuh 3 and Numbuh 4. “No river, no farms, no agriculture, no visible water-supply…”
“Numbuh 5’s really missing her G.LU.M.P.” Numbuh 5 sighed.
She turned to look at Numbuh 1 who was still staring at the view with a slight air of uninterest.
“Ya sure you’re…”
“I’m fine.” He interrupted her. “I’m tired, hot and hungry, but I’m fine.”
He started walking.
She watched him for a few minutes.
“Alright, if ya sure.”
She followed after him.

All towns and cities are busy, but this one was like movement concentrated. The streets were extremely narrow and it was hard to see anything except the bustle of moving people, all of them at least a good deal higher than the kids who were trying to get to a more relaxed part of town.
Although calling the settlement a town was a bit off. All the buildings were made up of what appeared to be scrap metal, but not the kind you would get if you stripped a car. The scrap metal the houses where built of was heavy stuff, almost like armour plating riveted together with bolts the size of your fist. Every house they passed was a different shape, as if they had all wanted to be square some time long ago but gave up trying and fell into whatever heap they could without collapsing in on themselves. Every way they turned they were faced with rust encrusted walls and sharp corners of chunks of metal that stuck out at odd angles. The whole town seemed to be made out of alleyways and the population tried to use them as national roads causing an extreme claustrophobic effect.
The crowd became thicker and thicker as they tried pushing their way thru the mass of people while trying not to get trodden on.
Numbuh 5 squeezed past a lady with something large and unseen wrapped in newspaper only to bump into a large man who was carrying a plastic bag full of metal pipes in each hand giving him a gorilla like appearance.
“This is crazy!” She said as she picked herself up for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Something soft and hot gripped her hand and curled its fingers around it.
Too shocked to cry out she simple spun round only to come face to face with Numbuh 1.
She opened her mouth to say something when he interrupted;
“We’re going to get lost in this throng if we carry on like this. We need to stick together.”
She nodded. She seemed to have lost her voice somewhere and was quickly searching for it while she regained her composure. Even now she could feel her cheeks burning with blood.
If Numbuh 1 noticed he didn’t say anything.
“Take hold of Numbuh 2’s hand and I’ll take Numbuh 3’s. Numbuh 4, you take her other hand.”
“Eh?!”
“Take Numbuh 3’s other hand.”
Numbuh 3 stuck her left hand out for him to grab. Numbuh 4 mumblingly did so.
So they snaked their way thru the continual flood of people. After a few minutes the crowd seemed to thin out a little and they could move without getting crushed between three or more other people.
“We have to try and find somewhere we can stop and rest.” Numbuh 1 said half to himself.
“What about there?!” Numbuh 2 said pointing with his free hand.
There was a small squat building (for lack of a better word) in front of them. It was a little smaller than some of the others around it but it had a sign above the door with the word ‘Mechanic’ welded into it.
“A mechanic? Why?” Numbuh 4 asked.
“Ya can always trust a mechanic!” Numbuh 2 insisted.
“You just wanna have a look at what he’s got in there!” Numbuh 4 teased.
“I think we should go inside.” Numbuh 3 said. “It’ll be cooler in there and it doesn’t look like there are many people inside!”
This was true.
“Ok. But if it looks like trouble we make tracks understood?”
The others nodded.
They pushed open the metallic door and walked into the cool darkness.
After the blinding light from outside it was hard to make anything out in the sudden blackness of the mechanic’s shop.
One thing was for certain though, there was no mechanic there.
“Empty?” Numbuh 4 looked around.
“He’s probably in the back.” Numbuh 2 said.
“hello-o?!” Numbuh 1 called. “Is any-body here?!”
There was a rummaging noise from behind a curtain that hung from one of the walls.
“Listen, we don’t mean to intrude,” Numbuh 1 called with a courtesy he rarely used with any-one over 13. “but we were just wondering…”
The curtain was thrust aside as two young boys stampeded thru the hidden doorway, each with some sort of hardware under an arm.
They crashed their way thru the store and disappeared through the front door and out into the heat outside.
They were closely followed by what could only be the shop’s mechanic.
“Hey! Come back here ya looters!! That’s my stuff!!”
He couldn’t have been older than 20 but towered taller than your average young man.
“Uhm…excuse me but we…” Numbuh 1 began.
“Not now kid!” The mechanic yelled pushing past him and stopping in the doorway.
“I’ll have your hides for this!!” He called after the thieves. “Just you wait you…you…”
He stopped as something occurred to him.
He spun around to stare at the 5 children.
“…no way…”
“We…we’re sorry if we’re interrupting but…” Numbuh 1 tried again.
The figure stepped away from the door so that he was no longer a mere silhouette framed by the afternoon sun.
He stared unbelievingly at them.
They stared back as they finally realized what they were looking at.
The young man lifted his golden-yellow goggles and rubbed his eyes before replacing them on his face.
“ No way!” He said again.

[flirtykuki101]

wow amazing chapter' i love when 3/4 fight like that it looks like everyone had a bad case of additude. can you draw a picture of numbahs three and four fighting like thy did in the story i could just picture it in my head. id really like that please thank ya, love ya , see ya!

[Numbuh 1024]

Good. The only problem was with

“Does he have to be so cheery in the mornin’?” Numbuh asked as she popped some bread into the toaster.

. Say the numbuh.

[cpuff]

Doh! >< Sorry, will fix
as for drawing the scene, sure! as soon as my stupid penpad gets fixed! *chucks it thru window*

but let's finish this now so I can focus on the one I'm actually writing shall we?

Chapter 3: Enter the players

You could’ve cut the tension in the air with a knife. And it needn’t even be a sharp knife. You could’ve cut the tension in the air with a butter knife!
Sector V stared as one person at the young man as their brains tried to process the reality of what was standing in front of them. This was turning out to be a difficult task. Perhaps it would be easier to understand why if I describe the young mechanic;
He was tall. Not so tall as to be towering but a lot taller than a normal person of his age would be. As for age he was around his late teens. This didn’t matter to the 5 kids though; to a child of 10 any-one older than 14 was ancient and any-one you couldn’t look in the eye was enormous. At the age of 10 this includes a very large amount of people in the world so the mechanic’s age and tallness was unimportant to them. It was not the reason they were gawking at him in any case.
He was wearing a pair of brown jeans that looked as if they had gotten a good workout. On his feet he wore a pair of black Doc Martins that were also obviously chosen because of their toughness and not because they were fashionable. A little higher, he was wearing a sheepskin jacket that had that battered look you only got if you worked in it a lot or if you had laid it on a train-track for about a week. Underneath it a sky-blue jersey could be seen. Darker spots of wool in specific places suggested oil stains that had refused to come out no matter how many washes they had had to endure.
His face was young looking, had he not been so tall you could’ve easily guessed him to be younger than he was. Half of his face was obscured by the pair of golden-yellow lensed goggles he had over his eyes. But even with this as an obstacle it was obvious that he was quite handsome. He had a brown ‘poor-boy’ cap on his head but this did little to hide his hair which hadn’t seen a pair of scissors for quite some time as it hang loosely against the back of his neck. It wasn’t exactly brunette in colour, it had a slight reddish tint to it making it more auburn.
All in all he would’ve looked like any normal person you’d meet in the street. It wasn’t that he looked strange that made the Kids next Door team stare, it was that he looked very familiar. Extremely familiar.
Numbuh 1 swallowed to try and get his mouth working again.
“…” was all he could manage.
“…W-what…w-w-where…?” The young man stuttered. He coughed and tried again. His voice was a rich baritone and would’ve been quite friendly if it wasn’t coming out so choked.
“What…are you doing here?” He finally got out, rather lamely.
There was a pause.
“What the heck is going ON?!!” Numbuh 4 suddenly burst out.
The young man blinked at him.
“Who the heck are you and why on earth do you look just like Numbuh 2?!!”
“He…he doesn’t look just like me…” Numbuh 2 said “I…I mean he’s too old to look just like me…I mean…”
“Open your eyes Numbuh 2!!” Numbuh 4 yelled. “You coulda been twins!!”
“Not exactly.” Numbuh 5 said still staring transfixed. “Considerin’ what a twins is”
“Ex..excuse me.” The young man said. “I know I’m dreaming cuz things like this don’t happen in real life…”
“Want me ta hit you?!!” Numbuh 4 threatened.
“…But are you…” He swallowed. “You wouldn’t happen to be…S-sector V…would you?”
There was a long and uncomfortable pause. Eventually Numbuh 1 realized that some-one had better take control of the situation quickly before things got ugly.
“Y-yes. Yes. We are Sector V of the Kids Next Door.” He said trying to sound a lot more stable than he felt. “But who are you, and how did you know who we are? We are new here and we haven’t spoken to….” He stopped as he realized the mechanic wasn’t listening to a word he was saying.
He was staring at Numbuh 1 as if the boy was made out of solid gold.
He tried to speak and instead made a noise like a gerbil being trodden on.
“Nige.” He finallycroaked.
His face broke into a smile. “Nigel Uno.”
He looked like he was about to hug him.
Numbuh 1 cleared his throat for about the umpteenth time.
“Who, who are you?”
The young man sighed but the smile remained.
“A long time ago I was called Numbuh 2…Now I’m just Hoagie.” He grinned. “Hoagie P. Gilligan! There use to be a Jnr. there but now I’m the only one.”
“Cods wallop!!” Numbuh 4 yelled. “You can’t be Numbuh 2 because Numbuh 2’s Numbuh 2 right Numbuh 2?!”
“er…” Numbuh 2 stared rather worriedly at his much-older mirror image.
“Now hold on one cotton pickin’ minute!” Numbuh 5 interjected. “We can sort this out easy.”
She walked forward and stared hard at the mechanic as if she was trying to nail him to the wall with her eyes.
He flinched under he gaze.
Eventually she spoke.
“Exciting situation huh?” She said.
He blinked at her uncertainly.
“Yeah.” he replied. “I’m quite beside myself.”
There was a pause.
The older boy burst into a fit of giggles. “Get it?! ‘Quite beside myself’? C’mon that was funny!”
“He’s Numbuh 2 alright!” Numbuh 5 said grinning to herself.
“Are ya kidding? I never say dumb stuff like that!”
“Wait a minute! This don’t make sense!” Numbuh 4 said. “How can he be Numbuh 2 if Numbuh 2 is standin’ right here? And How can he be old if Numbuh 2’s 10?!”
“Now hold on, lets all just calm down for a minute.” Numbuh 1 said.
They went quiet. Numbuh 1 brought his hands together in a prayer position and took a deep breath.
“Numbuh 2…” he said.
“Yeah Numbuh 1?” The younger boy replied.
Numbuh 1 paused. “Is there any possibility that your Y.O.U.N.G.R.A.Y. might have something to do with this?”
Numbuh 2 thought for a bit.
“When we first woke up you said that the explosion either destroyed the world, which is obviously not true, or it may have sent us into another dimension. Is there a possibility it might have sent us to another time period?”
Numbuh 2 scratched his head. “Ya know, I wouldn’t be surprised. Now that you mention it it’s probably the best explanation there is. I mean, two machines, each designed to deal with age changing over-heat and explode. It’s possible they reacted with each other and cause a rift in the space-time continuum.”
“What’s all that mean in normal English?!” Numbuh 4 asked. He was getting frustrated.
“It means we traveled in time.” Numbuh 1 said.
“You serious?!” Numbuh 3 squeaked.
“Time travel?” Hoagie said squatting down on one knee in order to look them in the eye. “I suppose it could be done.”
“It wasn’t ‘done’ it was an accident!” Numbuh 4 snapped at him.
“How exactly?” Hoagie asked turning to Numbuh 2.
“Long story.” Numbuh 5 rolled her eyes.
“I’d like to hear it.” He said. “Who knows. Maybe I can help?”
“Oh yeah?” sneered Numbuh 4. “How?”
Hoagie gave him an annoyed look. “Oh I dunno, maybe because I’ve been building stuff since I was 4 and I’ve had 15 years of experience since then!”
“Can’t we eat something first?” Numbuh 3 wailed.
“You’re hungry?” Hoagie asked.
They nodded eagerly.
“Well why didn’t you say so?” He straightened up into the heavens. “C’mon, we can go ta my place and ya can tell me what happened and I can feed ya!”
The others turned to Numbuh 1.
“I think that’s a great idea.” He said.

If there is one thing that can be said about the universe it’s this; it is never out of tune, off-balance or out of time. It also never misses a cue.
“ Hello?! Hoagie are you still here?” Came a call from the door way as some-one walked into the mechanic’s shop.
The figure walked towards the older Hoagie with a slight bounce in its heels.
“I thought you said you were going home after you finished…” It stopped and looked down at the 5 pairs of eyes.
“Eh?”
Hoagie scratched the back of his head in a nervous manner.
“Nice timing.” He grinned at her.
She put her head to one side and blinked at them.
“Woah!” Numbuh 4 said with a slight laugh.
The girl was almost a whole head shorter than Hoagie but what she lacked in height she made up for in looks.
Her hair was ebony black and hung sleek and long to her hips. She had high cheek bones in her face. Here eyes were dark and slanted exaggerating her eyelashes to look a lot longer than they were. She was wearing an emerald green sweater whose sleeves only came up to her elbows. It was also short-cut and left her stomach open. Her hips were hugged by a pair of tight black ¾ pants that stopped above her knees. She was wearing what could loosely be called sneakers, but in the same way a shark could loosely be called a fish or the Amazon could loosely be called a river.
“Hi!” Numbuh 3 piped up.
“Hello!” The girl replied smiling.
“Er…Kuki…This is…uhm…” Hoagie stopped. How do you introduce your younger self to some-one?
“This is us.” He tried and almost immediately regretted it. A lamer introduction there never was.
The older Kuki didn’t seem to notice though.
“Oh.” She said.
“’Oh’? That’s it?!” Numbuh 5 nearly yelled.
“How old are you?” She asked hunching down.
“We’re 10.” Numbuh 1 said.
“Woah.” Numbuh 4 said again but stopped when Numbuh 5 gave him a surreptitious jab in the ribs.
“Ten?” She grinned. “Wow that was long ago.”
She straightened up.
“They visiting?”
“No.” Hoagie blinked. “They’re apparently stuck here. We were about to go back to my place so we can figure out what we’re gonna do.”
“You’re taking them all to your place?” She asked.
“Yeah. Why?”
“It’s just that your place is starting to turn into the local coffee-house.” She grinned. “It’s gonna get crowded.”
“Why? Who else hangs out there?” Numbuh 2 asked turning to his older self.
“All of us!” Kuki smiled.
“It’s just because I’ve got the biggest place.” Hoagie grumbled.
“Speaking of which, why are all the buildings here…” Numbuh 1 began but was interrupted once again.
“Well is he here or not?!” Some-one else walked into the room.
“Were you waiting?” Kuki said turning to him.
“Of course! Ya said you were just gonna check if Hoagie’s…what’s goin’ on here?”
He walked up and stood next to Kuki.
“Look what Hoagie found.” She said.
“What the heck?” He stared at them
Numbuh 1 wished they could just get on over to this older Hoagie’s home. He was getting sick of all these stares.
This time it was Wally’s turn.
A little taller than Kuki but no-where near Hoagie’s height, he stood before them with a rather confused expression on his face.
He was wearing a sleeveless Air-tech top, white with an orange band design across his chest. He was wearing a pair of industrial jeans so thick they could’ve stood up by themselves. Somewhere underneath them was a pair of grey shoes that looked suspiciously like skater shoes with orange laces. He had a grey and blue wrist band around his left wrist. There was also something else.
“Hey! I got an earring!” Numbuh 4 blurted out grinning.
The older Wally absent-mindedly fingered his left ear.
“You got an…what?” This was clearly taking him much longer to understand than the others.
Eventually the penny dropped.
“Holy mother of indecent obsession!!” He yelled.
“Now he gets it.” Hoagie rolled his eyes.
“Hoagie what did you do?!!”
“Me?! What makes ya think I had anything to do with…!”
“You’re always fooling around with stuff you shouldn’t!!”
“And that automatically makes this my fault?!”
Numbuh 1 was watching this with some amusement. It seems little had changed between the two friends.
But enough was enough.
“Excuse me. I’d hate to interrupt this little…” we waved his hand trying to find the right word. “…drama, but I really think we should try and get moving and I’m not just saying this because I’m hungry. Although that fact is putting some weight on the urgency of the matter.” He added.
The air frosted over as Wally’s gaze came to rest on him. Numbuh 1 could almost feel it boring into him.
“Please?” He added.
“What,” said Wally “is he doing here?”
The burst of violent energy he had displayed against Hoagie was gone and had been replaced by a quiet, icy fury. The kind that made small animals run for shelter.
“Me?” Numbuh 1 gave what he hoped to be an innocent grin. “Well…I’m the leader, aren’t I? I mean, where Sector V goes I go. Simple enough.”
The stare continued.
“Wally…” Hoagie tried.
Wally spun to face him.
“Oh well done.” He nearly spat in a whisper. “Bravo.”
“Wally, I’m tellin’ ya I didn’t…”
“Save it. I don’t care.”
“Now wait a minute.” Numbuh 1 said. “Num..that is…Hoagie didn’t have anything to do with us being here. Well he did…sort of…well not him I mean…”
“No-one asked you!!” Wally suddenly yelled making the boy jump.
“Who asked you for your advice?!! Who do you think you are showing up here?!! You have no place here so why don’t you hop on back to wherever the hell you came from?!!”
“Hey! Keep your mouth shut earring-boy!” Numbuh 4 yelled at his older self. “Leave Numbuh 1 alone!”
The older Wally was still glaring at Numbuh 1. He then spun around and stomped out of the shop without another word. Before he disappeared out the door they got a glimpse of the back of his head where a decently lengthed ponytail was tied.
There was a prolonged silence after he left.
“Oh dear.” The older Kuki breathed.
“You OK Numbuh 1?” Numbuh 5 asked looking over to where their leader still stood rooted to the spot.
He nodded but didn’t say anything.
“What the heck is that guy’s problem?!” Numbuh 4 growled.
“I’ll go talk to him.” Kuki said following the way he had gone.
“I’ll meet ya at my house.” Hoagie said.
“I’ll see you all later then.” She smiled and nodded goodbye. “Ja ne.”
“Is he…always like that?” Numbuh 2 asked.
“He’s been under stress lately.” Hoagie sighed.
“So.” He said turning to them and smiling as if nothing happened. “Should we get going?”

The streets were a lot quieter than they had been when the gang had first made their way to Hoagie’s shop. For one thing they didn’t need to hold hands to keep track of each other. However something strange was happening all the same.
Of the people they passed in the street, almost every single one stopped and turned to watch them walk past. Some of them looked shocked, others slightly interested, and some almost sad, the way some-one looked when their favourite fish has been found belly-up in its aquarium. It was beginning to make Numbuh 4 a little paranoid.
“Why’re they staring at us?”
“Ignore them.” Hoagie said. “And don’t stop walking.”
“Don’t worry Numbuh 4” Numbuh 3 said encouragingly.
“It’s jus’ freakin’ me out a little.” He muttered as he kicked a stone in the dirt road.
Numbuh 5 was using the walk as an opportunity to look around at the sad excuse for a town. It really was a dismal place and no mistake. The question was why?
If this was the future then surely it should be a bit more…futuristic. If some-one had told her yesterday that this was what the future was going to look like she would’ve laughed at them. Every-one knew the future was full of tall buildings and flying cars and robots and corporate take-over. It wasn’t suppose to look like a rusted version of Gilligan’s Island. Where was the chrome? Where were the flashing buttons? Where were the giant police mechs?
They passed a young lady who stopped walking to watch them walk by. Numbuh 5 could feel her staring at them all the way down the street.
She shivered.
“Numbuh 5 don’t like this much either.” She said.
“Maybe they think we’re dressed a little old fashioned or somethin’” Numbuh 2 said.
“Nah, it ain’t that.” She shook her head. “Somethin’s wrong here.”
“Yes indeed…” Numbuh 1 muttered behind them, however it was obvious he wasn’t talking about the same thing as they were.
“Something wrong Numbuh 1?” Numbuh 2 asked.
“Hmm? Oh. Nothing.”
“Ya been actin’ weird all day.” Numbuh 5 said slowing her pace to walk next to him. “Ya sure you’re OK?”
Numbuh 1 was quiet for a little while.
“Something’s been bothering me.” He finally said.
“Was it that…I mean, was it Wally?” Numbuh 2 asked.
Numbuh 1 shook his head. “No. it started before that.” He cocked his head. “It’s hard to explain.”
“Try us.” Numbuh 5 said.
“Well. You know when you have a dream, and in this dream you are doing things but in the back of your mind you are aware that something is wrong?”
He bit his lip.
“Like…something bad is going to happen and although in real life you would never be able to know it in those circumstances but in the dream you know it as a certainty?”
Numbuh 2 was staring at him with a rather desperate expression. He wanted to understand, but it was clear that he was lost.
“Ya mean, like impendin’ doom kinda stuff?” Numbuh 5 tried.
Numbuh 1 thought for a bit.
“No. Maybe. I don’t know.”
“Well don’t let it get to ya, whatever it is. Ya probably just outta place here or somthin’.” She smiled at him.
He gave her a lopsided grin back.
“What are you three mutterin’ back there?” Numbuh 4 turned around.
“Just complaining about how hungry we are!” Numbuh 2 said with a convincing wail.
“Well ya can stop. We’re here.” Hoagie said turning to a building that looked no different from any of the other they had passed.
“How can you tell?” Numbuh 3 said trotting closer as he started to unlock the door.
He frowned at the lock as he jiggled the key.
“It’s unlocked.” He shrugged and pushed the door open. “Musta forgotten to lock it again.”

If the Mechanic’s shop was the prelude then Hoagie’s house was the main feature. The whole place was cluttered with what could only be called ‘stuff’. Mechanical and digital machinery was lying absolutely every-where. It was obvious some attempt had been made to create order but it was failing miserably. Against one of the walls a large assortment of what looked liked scrap metal falling over itself. Against another there was an assortment of custom-made weapons mounted on the wall. The rest of the room was subjected to random bits and pieces, some large and clunky, others small and intricate.
In the middle of the room there were 2 couches facing each other and a low table between them. The table was half hidden by pieces of machinery and half-finished blue-prints. There was a door leading into a passage which most likely led to the rest of the house. All in all it looked like the aftermath of a hardware store bombing.
“Nice place.” Numbuh 2 grinned approvingly.
“Thought you’d like it.” Hoagie said walking in.
He walked over to the table and simply pushed the things on it off to make some space.
“Make yourselves at home while I go and see if there’s anything edible.” He said.
“Ya gonna leave us innocent kids here with all this lethal weaponry?” Numbuh 4 asked cocking and eyebrow.
“Yeah. So?”
“Just asking.”
Hoagie grinned and walked out of the room into the passage. “I’ll be right back.”
He left the room.
‘They have no idea what they’ve gotten themselves into.’ He thought to himself as he made his way down the passage and into the kitchen.
‘Still, thank goodness they found me. Who knows what coulda happened if they’d run into one of Fa…”
The sight that met him in the Kitchen was like walking into a solid marble wall.
Standing in his kitchen was a person.
Dressed in a navy suit, with sensible brown shoes, a red tie, and a white shirt under the navy jacket, the intruder was dressed in something between a school uniform and a business suit. The uniform was unmistakable.
It was one of Father’s henchmen.
A girl, or rather, young woman.
She currently had her back to him and was busy undoing her hair, which was tied back into a conservative bun with red elastic.
She hadn’t seen him.
He reached into the back pocket of his jeans where he kept a small, sharp, and potentially deadly little gadget he had affectionately dubbed the B.L.A.D.E (Badly Lacerates Any Damn Enemy).
She finally got her hair undone and shook her head to let it fall loosely around her shoulders.
Hoagie pulled out his weapon.
She must have sensed him standing there because she turned around to face him.
She stared at him as he stood with his B.L.A.D.E. at the ready.
“Bad time?” She asked and smiled.
Hoagie lowered his weapon.
“Geez, ya nearly gave me a heart attack Abby!” He said breathing a sigh of relief.
She laughed. “That ain’t the best ‘welcome back’ I’ve gotten from ya. Then again ain’t the worst either.”
She walked over and gave him a squeeze as a hello.
He hugged her back. She’d been away a lot longer than usual and he’d been getting worried.
God Her hair smelled good!
She stepped back and smiled at him.
“What were you doing for so long?” He asked.
She turned to the counter and started to fiddle with the kettle which had already boiled.
“Father’s been keepin’ an eye on his drones a lot more than usual and I had a hard time slippin’ away without attractin’ attention.”
“They suspecting you?” He asked worriedly.
She shook her head as she poured the hot water into a coffee mug.
“Nah, They got no clue who I am.” She stirred the black liquid with a spoon and turned to him. “Abby’s too good fo’ that.”
“Still.” Hoagie muttered. “This Secret Agent stuff always gets me worked up.”
“Some-one’s gotta do it.” She shrugged. “’Sides, We gotta know what ol’ fire-balls is up to don’t we? Who gonna tell us if not me?”
Hoagie mumbled something but she didn’t catch it.
“Stop grumblin’.” She took a sip from her coffee. “At least I actually do come home once in a while. Some of the others never leave and do their reports over the wire.” She grinned rather evilly.
“Would ya like that?”
He pulled a face at her.
“You shouldn’t become too reckless.” He said.
She shrugged. “When ya got nuthin’ ya got nuthin’ ta lose.”
Hoagie wanted to say:
That’s not true and you know it. Besides you’ve got plenty to lose! Or to be more accurate I’ve got plenty to lose! Because if anything happened to you I’d be crushed because you’re my confidante and best friend and you’re beautiful and smart and I love you!
“Whatever.” He said instead.
There was a brief silence.
“So.” She said smiling thru the steam as it swirled in front of her face. “What you been up to?”
“Well…” he said.
“Excuse me, Hoagie?”
Hoagie spun around so fast he nearly broke his own spine.
Numbuh 1 had walked into the kitchen.
“I’m sorry but I think you should come back. Numbuh 2 and Numbuh 4 are busy taking down the weapons on the walls and I shudder to think what they’re going to get up to if we just leave them.”
Hoagie could feel his skin crawl.
“Oh hello.” Numbuh 1 said seeing Abby for the first time.
Hoagie almost didn’t dare turn around.
Abby had gone white as a sheet.
“Um, are you OK?” Numbuh 1 asked.
The coffee mug smashed on the floor.
Abby covered her mouth with her hands.
“Abby are you OK?” Hoagie asked walking closer.
“I’m ok.” She said. Her shoulders were shaking and tears were swelling up in her eyes.
“I’m ok.” She said again. “I just. I need to go change.”
“Abby…”
“I’m fine.” She said in a broken voice. Before Hoagie could protest again she pushed past him and hurried down the passage as fast as she could.
“Was that Numbuh 5?” Numbuh 1 asked as he stared in the direction she had gone.
“Yeah.” Hoagie sighed.
“Is she ok?” Numbuh 1 looked worried.
“Yeah.” Hoagie said again.
He walked over to what looked like a large metallic cupboard wired to the back of the wall.
Hoagie opened it and pulled out some frozen leftovers.
“She looked pretty upset.” Numbuh 1 ventured.
“She was just shocked that’s all.” Hoagie said unconvincingly.
He scraped a large plate of what looked like cat puke into a pan. He turned to a black machine which was most likely a stove. A turn of a dial sent the top of it bursting into flames. He put the pan on top of it.
“Shouldn’t you be checking on those two?” He said.
“What?”
“You said they were fooling around with my stuff.”
“Oh yes! Yes, I should probably go sort them out.” Numbuh 1 took the hint and left.
Hoagie sloshed the off-white mush around the pan.
He knew Abby would be upset about this. More upset than any of the others, she had the perfect reason after all. He just hoped she could deal with it. He was gonna need her.

[cpuff]

When he re-entered the sad excuse for a living room Numbuh 1 was busy squaring off with an annoyed Numbuh 4.
“I don’t care!” he was saying. “It’s not yours, we didn’t build it and you have no idea how it works! Besides you’re not exactly the careful type! May I remind you of the large patched-up wall back home?!”
“You’re not my mom Numbuh 1! Besides you forget I’m the weapons expert!”
“I highly doubt that the word ‘expert’ applies to you Numbuh 4!”
“C’mon guys don’t fight!” Numbuh 3 was pleading.
“We weren’t gonna fire any of it Numbuh 1, promise!” Numbuh 2 was shifting around nervously.
“You’re just itching for a fight that’s your problem!” Numbuh 4 stuck his tongue out.
“Not true!” Numbuh 1 stuck his tongue out in return.
“Is so!”
“Ok ok enough!” Hoagie stepped in between them.
“You’re acting like a group of toddlers! Cut it out!”
Numbuh 4 opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and closed it again.
Hoagie sighed and collapsed onto a couch next to Numbuh 3.
“We’re sorry Mr. Hoagie.” She said.
“No it’s ok.” He waved it off. “I understand. You’re hungry, tired, and probably feeling completely out of place.”
“That’s not even half of it!” Numbuh 2 said sitting down on the other couch.
Hoagie smiled.
“Well, I can feed you, and put you up for the night, but I’m afraid all I can do for your little ‘displacement syndrome’ is try and explain things a little. I’m sure there’s stuff you’d like to know right?”
“What? Like, what’re the next few year’s lotto numbers and stuff?” Numbuh 4 asked.
“Actually,” Numbuh 1 sat down too and adjusted his sunglasses. “I have quite a few things I’d like to get answers to if you don’t mind, and they do not include lottery numbers.”
Hoagie adjusted himself in his seat.
“Ok. Shoot.”
“Firstly, I think we should know exactly what time period we are in. We’re all ten here. How old are you?”
“I’m 19.”
“No kidding?!” Numbuh 4 blinked.
“It’s not that old!” Hoagie rolled his eyes.
“It’s ancient mate!” Numbuh 4 flashed a grin.
“So this is more or less 9 years in the future?” Numbuh 1 asked trying to get back on subject.
Hoagie shrugged.
“Ok.” Numbuh 1 said. “Secondly, where are we exactly?”
“Well I dunno why you wanna know, but we’re in the middle of the Red Desert formerly California.”
“Formerly?” Numbuh 5 cocked an eyebrow
“Which is what I wanted to ask next.” Numbuh 1 nodded. “Why is this town made up entirely of rusted shacks? What happened to this place?”
There was a knock at the door.
“Yeah?” Hoagie called.
The door opened and Kuki walked in followed closely by a sour looking Wally.
“Moshi moshi!” She smiled. “We decided to drop by and say Hi, Right?” The last word was directed towards the blonde boy behind her.
He sniffed which was possibly a yes.
“Well you picked a fine time for it. I was about to give the history lesson.” Hoagie said.
“Wha?” Numbuh 4 pulled a face. If there was one subject he hated more than English it was history.
“He means he’s gonna tell us what happened.” Numbuh 5 smiled.
“By the way Abby’s home.” Hoagie said.
“She is?” Wally said, snapping out of his sulk for a moment.
“I am?” Numbuh 5 asked worriedly.
“She’s just getting changed. And yes, she’s already met our guests if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Uh oh. Should I go talk to her?” Kuki looked worried.
“No. Why don’t you help me instead? I might forget some stuff telling these guys what’s what here.”
Wally sat at the far end of the table, sitting himself down on the floor. He was obviously still upset with Numbuh 1, although why was still unclear.
Kuki positioned herself next to him, despite there being room on either of the two couches. Numbuh 1 was watching them wondering why on earth Wally would be so angry with him. It was only because of this that he noticed the young man slip his hand behind Kuki’s back and place his hand around her waist.
‘Well well.’ Numbuh 1 thought to himself as he tried hard not to smile too much.
“Did I miss anything?”
Abby walked into the room having gained her composure.
“Not really.” Hoagie said. “I was just about to fill them in on current events.”
Numbuh 1 turned to look at Abby to see if she really was Ok with them being there.
He was suddenly very thankful that his eyes were hidden behind his shades because he could feel them grow as they fell on the grown up Abby.
Her tuxedo get-up hadn’t done her justice at all.
She was wearing a long-sleeved white T-shirt with a blue sleeveless over it. Both of them were cut short at her waist exposing her stomach much the same way as Kuki. The difference was where as Kuki had a model-thin build Abby’s figure was almost perfectly hourglass in shape. She was wearing a black pair of ¾ ski-pants also similar to Kuki, expect hers had a white line running down the outside of each leg. She was wearing white sneakers, but instead of laces they had straps that Xed across the shoe. Her hair was loose, as it had been when Numbuh 1 had walked in on her, however he only now noticed just how good it looked. Her black locks tumbled across her shoulders with only one or two stray strands falling into her face which caused her to brush them aside and hook them behind her ears. Small dangly earrings could be seen, each of which supported a tiny 5 on the end. On top of her head sat her red cap. But it too was different somehow. Instead of pulling it down and hiding her face she had it perched high on her head, accenting her features. Perched on her cap was a pair of sunglasses, clearly there as an accessory and not because she ever used them.
Numbuh 1 was quite alarmed to feel his cheeks starting to flare up. He shook his head.
‘It’s Numbuh 5.’ He said to himself, hoping this would dampen the situation a bit. ‘It’s just Numbuh 5’
Somehow this didn’t seem to help much. All it did was remind him that this was Numbuh 5 which just made him uncomfortable. He decided to try and focus on Hoagie instead.
“Well like I was about to say,” Hoagie said. “It’s a long story and I’m not too sure you guys are gonna like it.”
“We’re gonna find out sooner or later.” Numbuh 2 said.
“Well then,” Hoagie said as Abby sat down next to him. “I guess I should start at the beginning.”


and that's all she wrote...

[flirtykuki101]

WOW that is an incredible chapter keep going please.

[cpuff]

I'm afraid that's it for now. The fic's turned into a real monster (considering everything I still have to write for it) at the moment I'm writing another, smaller, less monstrous sized fic that I should actually finish. Not to say I'll never finish this one, Just not very soon I'm afraid ^^;

[poppyseeds]

okie dokes...well tell us when you do get bak to this one. its real good!^_^

[ffx2player]

WAAAH!!! It's getting good now! Just finish this one after you finish the other one, 'k? Oh, BTW, I was going to post this last night, but the server closed on me! =(

[cpuff]

Man I hate it when that happens! ><
I would like to finish it yes. I just wasn't sure if it would be well recieved (it is rather weird isn't it? )

[ffx2player]

No! It's awsome, thought stimulating too!

[poppyseeds]

yup yup its pretty good stuff!
the descriptions you gave of the characters were very good...when i got off the internet last night i went straight to my white paper and started drawing older-everybuddy lol