Sorry I haven't updated in so long. I would have updated sooner, but my grandpa got pneumonia. Just to warn you, this chapter isn't very good. I didn't edit it well.
Disclaimer: I don't own the KND.
Thank you, so very much, reviewers:
islanddog1- Sorry about the wait, and thanks for reviewing
NinjaSheik-As usual, thank you
Boogirl- I'm glad you like 434. If I continue you will see more of her
macka746- Glad you like Sy and George's history, George is probably one of my favorite characters
-WolfWarrior
Wednesday 12:00 a.m.
Location: Library
Chad groaned. The Elite had finished showing them around the rest of the best. The things new to Chad were some more bedrooms, a lab, some offices, a medical bay, and a library. Now, the Elite had basically locked him and the other Alpha Team wannabees in the library. To talk.
"So, um," he tried to start a conversation, "did anyone lie about their name?" He had no idea how that question connected to their current situation, but from the pointed look George was giving Infinity, it had uncovered something.
"Why am I not surprised?" Maurice was furious at the notion of having Infinity for a teammate, let alone a close friend like the Elite wanted.
Sy resisted the urge to glare. "My mom is nuts. My actual first name is Osiris. And she knows absolutely nothing about Egyptian mythology. She thought Isis was the god of the underworld."
"Wait," said Herbie, "your mom thought Isis was a guy?"
"I was going to be named Isis; even after she knew I was a boy, until my dad convinced her to pick a different name." Several people started laughing.
"Not even I knew that," chuckled George once the laughter had died down.
"How long have you guys been friends, anyway?" asked Virginia, referring to Sy and George.
Sy tried to remember when he had decided to have George become his partner. "Originally I had realized I needed help to have my own spy ring. A wing man so to speak. I chose George for two reasons. One, he is the last person anyone would suspect, and two, that dog that woke up the neighborhood, that only lives a block from his house is mine. George became my partner when we were ten and we eventually became friends."
Cree narrowed her eyes. "How is it you can talk so freely about this? I'm surprised you aren't glowering at us from the corner."
Sy shrugged. "I've been taught that if you never let go of past mistakes, you will never let yourself have a future."
"Doesn't your mom say that?" asked George. Sy scowled.
"Beside the point, my mom does have her moments, even if she is a total kook."
Bartie spoke up for the first time. "You know what I don't understand? How is it that all of us are so relaxed around each other when less than two hours ago we learned that you two," he pointed to Chad and Cree, "did not betray the KND, and that you two," he pointed to George and Sy, "no offense, basically did." The two boys shrugged, showing they had no hard feelings.
"Well," mulled Cree, "I guess we are so used to following the Elite subconsciously we do so automatically. They told us to be friendly, we're being friendly."
"If you ask me I'm done being a puppet," Maurice glared at Sy, who just ignored him.
"I say we prove to the Elite wrong for once," proposed George, "they think that some of us won't get through training. Let's show them their wrong by all of us passing training."
"I agree," Herbie was the most important vote because he was the least likely to get through training. "Let's promise each other that we're going to be the first ever Alpha Team of the Teens Next Door. Nothing is going to stop us. Promise?" Herbie looked around for approval. When his eyes swept over Chad the blonde teen smiled.
"Promise," everyone else echoed Chad, knowing full well what they wee getting into. And they didn't care. The Elite were going to be in for a big surprise, because even with all their animosities, they were not going to give up.
"Look," Cree was solemn, "I'm all gung ho about this, but we need something to make us unique. I do not want to be known as the 'Elite Juniors'.
"She's right," it was Bartie who spoke up, "but all of us are so different, where's our common ground?"
"The Elite found something in common," said Virginia, "their secret keeping. Numbuh 362, Numbuh 60, and Numbuh 86 were high up in the KND. They knew things they couldn't tell anyone. And Sector V was, well, Sector V." Sector V may have been the best, but they were considered uncontrollable. Rumored to go on vigilante missions and have secret passages and caverns riddled around their base, they were shrouded in mystery.
"Um, excuse the metaphor," Herbie was twiddling his thumbs nervously, "but if you think about it the Elite hold all the cards. How about we become the ones who have an extra card up their sleeves?"
"That's… really good Herbie," Maurice said after a small silence, "so, what does everyone else think?"
"I think," Chad grinned, "we've found our common ground."
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Thursday 6:00 a.m.
Location: Gallagher High Track
Before Alpha Team had left, the Elite had told them to meet them Thursday at the high school track at six in the morning.
Bartie watched as the sky slowly started turning lighter shades. Chad had just arrived with Herbie, Sy, and George. Everyone else had walked, himself included. They were all in workout clothes, the Elite had said to wear them, because it was the beginning of training.
"Attention!" barked Patton, obviously the trainer, "run four laps, then stop and stretch." They all started running, no grumbling or complaining. Alpha Team had promised each other they would make it through training, and they were all going to keep their promise.
Bartie sighed. It was going to be a long week.
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Wednesday 9:00 p.m.
Location: Sims Home
Virginia was lying down on her bed. The past week had been exhausting, hours of training and school had drained her. She could get her homework done easily, but getting up early, sneaking out, running a mile, sneaking back in for her morning routine, and going to school was taxing. After school she had to go back to the TND Moonbase for an hour and a half of more training. The other half hour was spent exploring the base.
Then they would go home for dinner and homework. At nine thirty they had to sneak out for even more training. On the weekends training was from one p.m. to six p.m. The Elite trained with them, but the eight breezed through it. To them it was just a long workout.
She was anxious for tonight. The Elite had said they were going to have a final test of sorts. The Elite had challenged them to surprise them during the test.
And she had just the thing.
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10:00 p.m.
Location: Battle Room
George looked in awe at the huge structure he was standing in. The ceiling seemed almost two stories tall, and the floor about that long. It looked a quarter of a mile long. And then it turned a corner.
"What is this place?" asked Sy, his dark brown eyes wide. He had ditched the sunglasses, saying his mom was starting to compliment them.
"We call it the Battle Room," said Hoagie, "the elevator behind you has a door on two sides. One side opens to the starting point and the other opens when you get to the end of the course. In the elevator is four buttons, the first one takes you to the base, the second to the mini-control room." Hoagie pointed up to a huge window that the rest of the Elite were watching out of. "In there you can stop whatever simulation you are going through if anyone gets hurt. Someone always has to be up there if you are running a simulation. The third one takes you here, to the battle room."
"What's the last button for?" asked Chad.
"Emergencies, press it and a keyboard pops out. Type in 'speak' and you'll be patched through to the control room." Hoagie looked up and saw Rachel tapping an invisible watch on her wrist. "Boss lady says to hurry up. Alright, your test is to run through Blitz 1. The first half is an obstacle course. Once one person crosses the red line at the end the run portion begins. Everybody has thirty seconds to sprint seventy-five meters. At the end of the thirty seconds, a wall will come down at the seventy five meter mark. If anyone is caught behind a wall you will lose. There will be six sprints. The last one will have two laser guns shooting at you. Zigzag and you shouldn't be hit. If you are it won't burn, but you might get a bruise."
Hoagie smiled. "Good luck." With that, he was gone. George turned and watched as an obstacle course molded itself from the floor.
"Whoa," Virginia latched onto Bartie's arm. Bartie turned slightly pink and looked away from her. Sy noticed this and rolled his eyes. He wasn't one to tease, even if it would be incredibly easy to do so.
"Ready," Rachel was on the intercom, "set, go!"
They started running, metal plates set upright acting as road blocks. George dodged, looking over his shoulder to see Herbie not far behind him. The pudgy boy looked like he had lost weight and over the last week his fitness had improved greatly. But he still had a ways to go.
Ahead of him, George saw a net about two feet of the ground, stretched from wall to wall. Inwardly groaning, he prepared himself for the military crawl. Dropping to his stomach, he inched up beside Sy.
"I hate this," hissed the twelve year old.
"I hate this," George hissed back. Sy glared at him, he glared back. His friend groaned, George groaned, too. Sy had enough and crawled forward with a sudden burst of speed.
When George was done, he stood up and stretched. His mouth gaped open when he looked at what was in front of him. There was a huge rock wall with eight harnesses dangling at waist height by rope.
None of the others had started on the wall and he jogged up to them, Herbie not far behind him.
"I seriously cannot climb that," Herbie panted.
"You don't have to," Virginia looked at George and he pulled out four metal discs from his pockets. They were explosives, Alpha Team's little surprise for the Elite. He and Virginia had been testing them for the past few days in the lab. Wait, that was wrong. He blew things up and Virginia yelled at him.
Good times, good times.
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Maurice was handed a disc by George.
"When Virginia counts to three press the red button and throw this at the middle of the wall." Maurice nodded examining the thing. Then he heard Virginia.
"One, two, three!" he pressed the button and threw the disc. It was followed by three others, all of them hitting their mark. All four exploded, creating a lot of smoke.
When the smoke cleared, Maurice looked at the condition of the wall. It had been shortened to a height of about two feet.
"Think you can get over that?" Chad asked Herbie sarcastically. The brunette smiled and stepped over the, uh, fence. "Well, that answers that question."
After some more obstacles, Maurice stopped at the red line to wait for the others. When everyone had caught up with him, he stepped over the line. Immediately, they all started sprinting.
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Herbie was starting to tire. He was in the second sprint section. He knew he shouldn't have started so fast.
But he couldn't give up. Everyone was counting on him. He couldn't let them down.
He couldn't.
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Cree was frantically weaving in an effort to dodge the lasers. She only had fifteen meters to go.
In one last burst of energy, she skidded to a halt in the elevator. Chad and Maurice were already there. Behind her she heard a wall slam shut.
"They're all through," Maurice reassured her.
"I've got the time," panted Chad, looking at his watch, "they have twenty seconds." Bartie and Sy entered the elevator, Sy promptly sliding down the wall to sit on the floor.
"Ten seconds," Virginia and George rushed in.
"Five," Herbie started sprinting, ten meters away.
"Four."
"Three."
"Two," Herbie slid into the elevator.
"One!" the door closed, shutting them inside. Silence descended upon the room. Then they erupted in cheers.
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10:30 p.m.
Location: Mini-control Room
"They passed," Kuki squealed happily.
Nigel nodded. "Yes, let's give them a break and go home."
"I am fine with that," agreed Rachel, "but first, an ultimatum."
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10:45 p.m.
Location: Break Room
"I'm going to get right to the point," Rachel was addressing the eight Alpha Team hopefuls. "So," asked Rachel, "do you want to become the first Alpha Team?"
The eight trainees looked at each other and smiled.
"Of course," they said in unison. Rachel grinned.
"Good, tomorrow come up to the base with Hoagie and bring stuff to put in your rooms. Also, bring some workout clothes. You'll have a break from exercise, but we all have to stay in shape. Good night."
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Thursday 4:30 p.m.
Location: Break Room
The Elite were relaxing while Alpha Team was still getting acquainted with the base.
"I say we give 'em the mission today," said Hoagie.
"We haven't even told them their posts yet," protested Patton. Their argument was interrupted by a huge boom echoing through the base.
"George!!" screamed Virginia.
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5:00 p.m.
Location: Break Room
"You all know that there are sixteen leaders in the TND," began Rachel, "we are here to tell you who are what based on their skills and specialties. Some are obvious. Cree, your job is as the Head Therapist. Make sure no one goes crazy."
Cree looked at George's smoke stained face. "What if they're already crazy?"
Rachel rolled her eyes. "Patton is the Head Trainer, Kuki is the Head of the Hospital, and Bartie is the Head Guard. Herbie, you are in control of the library. You will record the history of the TND and such. Fanny will retake her post as Head of Decommissioning and Hoagie will be the Head of Technology. George you will be the Head of Science. You will deal more with chemicals and gasses.
"Virginia, you are the Head of Safety. Make sure Hoagie and George don't blow us up. Maurice your experience as a teen spy makes you perfect to lead our Kid-Teen Relations effort. Chad since you are good with computers, you'll be the Head of Information. Basically, you will be our lead hacker. Wally is our combat expert and Nigel will study enemy tactics and became our lead strategist.
"Sy, your post will be Head of Interrogation. Abby will lead the spy network. I, unfortunately, was voted into the role of Supreme Leader. If anyone has any objections, please speak up." When everyone was silent, Rachel scowled. "Fine, you win, any questions?"
"Yeah," said Maurice, "what's our first mission?" Rachel's frown turned upside down into a predatory grin.
"We're going to bring back Sector Z."
If you want more, the poll is still up on my profile. I already have a good idea for the sequel, and it would be much longer than this. Bye for now.
-WolfWarrior