As the door opened, a spacious room speckled with soda cans and bags of chips revealed itself. It held the cozy atmosphere of a family, the tone of laughter still vibrating off the walls. Spot dab in the middle of this stood a worn old couch, and on its cushions sat a very young, very pregnant women.

She looked up from the thick piece of paper she had been so concentrated on and allowed a delighted grin to spread across her face, motioning the two newcomers over to her.

"Hey Numbah Infinity, you finally got off your lazy butt and brought me my new recruit!"

Instantly Nigel tensed and let his hand fall on the weapon attached to his waist, hesitating only when he saw the teenagers' impossibly swollen belly. Baffled, he glanced at his superior, and not surprisingly his mouth had dipped into an irritated frown. In a low whisper, he asked in a frenzy, "What's a TEENAGER doing here, Numbah Infinity?"

Ignoring Nigels paranoia, the operative cleared his throat and spoke so formally anyone listening would have assumed he was speaking to a business partner instead of an old friend. "These things DO take time, Numbah 72. Regardless, he's here now. Meet our new representative of Earth, Numbah 1."

She held out a hand for assistance, and Numbah Infinity gently helped her to her feet. After steadying herself, she graced the small, bald boy with a warm smile and offered him her hand.

"Welcome aboard, Numbah 1. Refer to me as Numbah 72 if you want, but my names Alison Wilgus. How was your trip?"

Still slightly winded from the false alarm, and now thoroughly embarrassed at his obvious mistake and disrespect at a superior, he accepted the handshake and saluted stiffly, "Thank you Numbah 72, sir. My name is Nigel Uno. The trip went smoothly with no complications; I'm very excited to be here."

"Good, good. You should be!" Slowly, and with a bit of struggle, she sat herself back down on the couch and sank into its pillows as if exhausted. She flashed Numbah Infinity a coy pout, and whimpered in a tone that rang "I'm-asking-you-to-do-this-but-you-really-have-no-choice".

"Numbah Infinity..." She began, "My poor little feet are so sore, and I'm SO tired...will you be a dear and put them on the coffee table for me?"

One of the proud leaders of the Galactic Kids Next Door stood still, his left eye giving off a slight twitch. Despite this, however, he picked up his comrades swollen ankle, and one by one placed them on the table in front of her.With a peaceful sigh and a smile, she thanked him, and as her eyes gleamed suspiciously, added slyly, "You can rub them too, if you want..."

"Numbah 72!"

Alison fell into a fit of giggles at the sound of his horrorification, and patted the seat next to her, averting her attention to the very confused recruit before her.

"Take a load off Numbah 1, you've had a big trip. Just make yourself at home."

"Ah, thank you. I guess it has been a long day." He sat next to her, trying desperately not to gawk at her and all her pregnant glory, having never seen a women with child before.

"The second operative from Earth to join the Galactic fight against adulthood. You have a lot to live up to kid."

"Excuse me, "second" operative?" Having earned his attention, Nigel looked to her curiously, "But I thought I was the first representative Earths ever had."

"Well, in case you didn't notice, I'm kind of from Earth too!" Alison chuckled, "Though there is some truth to what you say. You are the first representative earths ever had. I, however, am the first operative they've ever had. Actually, I'm more of a co-founder of the GKND. Which is only befitting, I think, considering I created the KND to begin with..."

"YOU created the Kids Next Door!?"

Laying her hands on her belly, she grinned proudly, "Yup! You might of heard of The Book of KND, I heard it got pretty popular. Well, once upon a time, that was my diary. I wrote some of the very first standards of the KND in there, some of my first adventures too…that feels so long ago now. My friends and I made the first KND Tree House. I can't really take credit for Moon Base though, since Numbah Infinity pretty much did that without our help, but I was there when it happened."

"This...this is incredible! I can't believe I'm actually talking to the creator of the Kids Next Door! I mean, because of you, kids everywhere stand a fighting chance against adult tyranny!" Despite himself, Nigel began bouncing up and down on the springy sofa, his excitement causing his words to become quick and messy.

His happiness didn't seem contagious, however, as Alisons eyes suddenly dimmed, staring mindlessly at her tummy.

"Kids didn't always HAVE to fight adult tyranny...the Kids Next Door was something that shouldn't have had to exist..." She breathed a deep sigh, receiving a comforting hand on her shoulder from Numbah Infinity. She looked at him kindly and gave his hand a light squeeze.

"I had better get back to base. Your team is still around, correct?"

"Yeah, they're around here somewhere. See you later Numbah Infinity."

"Take care, Numbah 72. Goodbye Numbah 1, you'll be given the day to settle in but you'll be called into Registry tomorrow. Good day to you both."

"Yes Numbah Infinity, sir. I'll be sure to be ready."

He all but ignored Nigels response as he let the doors close behind him, leaving the room in momentary silence.

Alison studied him, as if expecting something. He was small, he had no hair and if his background information was correct he would remain bald for the rest of his life. His sweater was suitable enough, but she made the decision to get him some long pants, for surely Earth was much warmer than this distant place.

Then she smiled at him as though he'd just given her a gift. Here before her was a little piece of Earth, a little boy who went to Earth school, who felt Earth wind, who swam in Earth rivers or oceans or whatever it was kids swam in these days. She would have been envious of him if he hadn't had the unfortunate situation of adult tyranny to deal with.

"Numbah 1...do you know what adulthood is? You know it's a disease?"

Startled by her sudden question, Nigel gave a quick nod, "Yes, sort of. They mentioned something about it before I left."

"Would you like to learn more about it?"

"I-well, I mean, yes, of course I do."

She let herself sink even further into the sofas warm embrace, looking not to Nigel but ahead of her, as if watching the story unroll as she spoke it.

"Earth wasn't infected at one point...things were very different then. You consider 18 to be the age of adulthood, right?"

He nodded.

"Do you know why that's the age of adulthood?"

"Well...no, I guess not..."

"Because for the typical human, that's when the disease becomes fully active. When Earth wasn't infected, when I lived there, a person didn't really count their age after 17, because that's when our bodies stopped developing. We lived much, much longer than the average human does now, so there wasn't really any point in counting. When the first signs of infection showed up though, people started noticing that their bodies began to grow even after they turned 17. Somehow, the disease flipped our ageing process. We used to grow old from the inside out. Our bodies stayed young, and when our organs grew too tired to work for us anymore, we died. Our organs were strong though and lasted a long time. Our bodies, however..."

Alison examined her hand, twisting and turning it like she had never seen it before. She'd close it into a fist, tensing up her arm, and then let if fall back into relaxation.

Turning to Nigel, she looked at his transfixed face with eyes that soaked up her words.

"They're not very tough at all. Pretty frail, actually. Our bones can be broken easily, and we can even get paralyzed without much effort. Now their even more vulnerable since the disease. Humans become less agile as they grow older, they lose most of their strength, their skin sags, and even their hearing and sight suffer in some cases."

"There's a reason humans now-a-days are so obsessed with youth, Numbah 1. Somewhere in their conscious, they know that what's happening to them isn't right. It's not NATURAL. Our bodies just aren't supposed to that, they're not..."

She paused, settling herself and looking apologetically to Nigel, "Sorry, I'm ranting, aren't I?"

Still entranced, his answer was hesitated before he quickly replied, "No no, not at all! I'm quite interested actually!" He relaxed against the pillows behind him, letting the knowledge sink in. "Wow...so there basically used to be no adulthood..."

Alison shook her head, "No, not quite. Adulthood is more of a state of mind if anything else. I was lucky enough to not become infected. I'm 17, and I can act silly sometimes, but make no mistakes I am an adult. Adulthood is not a stage where you put down kids and want to make everything easier for you. It's when you gain full emotional maturity, when you realize how connected everyone is, and how you're just a tiny, tiny part of a very big deal. Adulthood is..." She rubbed her belly with flushed cheeks, her eyes suddenly a bright and vibrant contrast to their once dull appearance.

"When you're ready to give up your life completely and dedicated it to something much smaller than you, to live solely for that one something until the day you die."

Nigel stared at her, and as he did this he began to think of his friends. He wondered what they were doing at that moment, and he wondered, vaguely, if any of them could give up everything that revolves around them and live for just one thing. He also realized at that time, that he himself couldn't. Not yet, anyway.

"Numbah 72..."

"Hmmm?"

"Why weren't you infected?"

She picked up a bowl next her, filled with round Cheese Balls and covered in chocolate syrup. Though she offered some to Nigel, he politely declined, resisting the urge to make a grossed out face. Shrugging, she plopped a couple into her mouth and munched before finally answering him.

"That's a good question. Just lucky, I suppose...I was only about, oh, say 6 or 7 when the infection began to spread. It really only affected those who were fully grown at first. Of course, then those people gave birth to new kids, who were then born with the disease already in their body. Some people had a natural immunity to it. No real explanation as to why. As long as you weren't born with it, you were pretty much safe as long as you were young enough. If you were born with it though, the disease was pretty much submissive for about 13 years before showing activity. And so the term teenager was born. The first stages of the disease."

"Don't get me wrong though. There are still cases where the disease stays submissive way past 13. That's why KND is able to have some teenage operatives; their infection just hasn't been triggered yet. You're infected too, you know. We looked into your profile though. According to research, your infection is in such a deep submission that it's not expected to activate in a long, long time. If I had to guess, I'd say about your mid-forties or so. It's one of the reasons we picked you."

"Oh..." A varied mixture of emotions tugged at him, shouting above each other to gain his attention.

"My friends." He said suddenly, "What about them? How long do they have?"

Alison shook her head at him again, "I don't know, but even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

"Well why not!?" He demanded, regaining his old, irritated voice that used to come to him so often.

"It'd be like telling you when they were to die. There's some things you don't wanna know about loved ones, Numbah 1. It doesn't matter now anyway, there's nothing you can do to stop it besides what you're doing right now. Just treasure the memory of them, Nigel. They're the best things you'll ever have. They're the only..."

Tears welled up in her eyes as her voice began to break. In an attempt to stop herself, she placed a hand over her mouth, but it was in vain. A sob came just the same, her shoulders shaking; her cheeks wet and blotched up. A shocked Nigel just sat staring at her, unsure how to react. He finally opted for a gentle pat on the shoulder, the sort of awkward physical contact that was born between strangers in circumstances such as this. She wiped the tears from her eyes and motioned over to a stand near Nigel, where a box of tissues sat waiting to relieve her. Obediently, he gave them to her, and she carefully dapped herself dry and, turning away from him out of courtesy, blew her nose.

"Sorry..." She mumbled, tossing the used tissue onto the coffee table, "I've been kind of emotional lately."

"Oh, no, it's all right." He smiled kindly to her, unable to mask the pity in his gaze.

She smiled back at him, though it was a pathetic attempt compared to what she'd given him earlier. For the third time that night, she sighed. Lightly drumming her fingers along her stomach, she quietly confessed to him a sort of secret that she had tried to forget.

"I miss them..." A sniffle, and then she continued, "I miss my friends. I miss my teammates..."

Nigel remained quiet, not sure how to comfort her when he himself was dealing with the same problem. She let her head fall back onto the couch, staring up to the intricate designs on the ceilings.

"They're gone by now, no doubt about it...they got infected, and I still don't know how. It wasn't too long after we built Moon base. John helped design it, you know. He was like the technician of our team. He was so smart, I mean he could do anything, make a weapon out of anything. The ships you guys used to make trips to Moonbase, Numbah Infinity helped to make the trip so short, but John did everything else. He was so smart Numbah 1..."

He nodded, remembering his own smart friend at home, "Yeah, I know what you mean..."

Running a hand through her hair, she sniffled again, gulping down any tears that threatened to escape from her again.

"He's the whole reason we even found the Galactic. He always believed we weren't the only living things, that there were others far away. He invented some kind of machine...I can't for the life of me remember it now, but it beeped constantly, it was the most annoying little thing...John said it sent out messages to space. I thought he was being dumb, but I was wrong. Numbah Infinity found us, not in time to stop the disease but at least he found us."

"I was with Numbah Infinity when my team got infected, actually. I was up at Moon base with him, going over plans for GKND. At the time we didn't really have much of a transmission system set up. The gang was supposed to meet us though, and when they didn't show up, I…" She glanced down shamefully, "Well, I was kind of mad at them to be honest. I was going to yell at them if they decided to show up. Finally we went back to Earth to see what was up, and...um..."

She took a long drag of air, trying to calm herself. She didn't need to continue though, instead, Nigel softly finished the story for her.

"And when you arrived, you found out that your team had been attacked and infected."

Alison nodded, grateful for his quick pick up, "They didn't remember anything, and all the research in the world found nothing."

"Mmm..." Nigel rested his chin in the crook of his fist, drifting into thought before she interrupted him once again.

"It will be different this time, Numbah 1. We're going to find the cure and the cause of this disease. We're going to stop this before your friends even get the chance to think that their old. Or, well..."

She smiled faintly, "You will, at least. I can't very well fight with a baby on my hip. You're my replacement Numbah 1. They started looking for you the minute they found out I was having a baby. I saw you once, actually. Before you found out they were watching you. When I saw you, I felt safe and relaxed, like it was ok for me to leave the team now. They're an experienced, strong group. I couldn't be more proud of them."

This time, it was she who placed her hand on Nigels shoulder, looking him in the eye with a shine that hadn't been there a moment, "You'll be a fine addition to the team. You'll make people proud, Numbah 1. It might be tough at first, and definitely different, but you'll get on your feet eventually. Just don't mess up, or I'll sentence you to babysitting every chance I get!"

Nigels eyes gaped at her, shimmering at the touching words she expressed to him. It was his turn to smile up at her, determination flaring his spirit. He saluted her.

"Numbah 72, sir, I won't let you down."

She smiled. Then laughed. Then shook her head, and then laughed some more. "I know you won't, Numbah 1."

A spark flew past her eyes, and a grin crawled across her chin. Batting her eyes, and using the same pout she used on Numbah Infinity, she asked with the sweetness of a little girl who was up to no good, "Numbah 1...will you go to the kitchen and make me a snack?"