Operation: S.O.R.R.Y. ch. 2

Numbuh 4 grinned and said, “Well, looks like I’ve made my point.  NEVER mess with Numbuh 4’s slum—”  Before he could finish, Numbuh 3 had grabbed hold of him and was hitting him as hard as she could, all the while screaming and crying like a dying animal.  He managed to get loose just in time to hear her scream, “I HATE YOU!  I HATE YOU!  I HATE YOU!  I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, YOU MEANIE!”

She tore off to her room, sobbing uncontrollably.  Upon her exit, Nigel, Hoagie and Abby turned to Wally with truly furious looks on their faces.  He shrunk back in anticipation of the worst.

“WHAT IN GOD’S NAME IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” Nigel screamed.  “Do you have any idea what you just did?!”

“Yeah!  I just took care of a blasted annoyance is what I did!”

“Blasted annoyance?!”  Hoagie yelled.  “Numbuh 3 loves those Rainbow Monkeys!  She loves them like they’re her babies or something, and you go and do THAT?”

“Well, she wouldn’t leave me alone!  I was trying to get some sleep, dreaming about that PlayCube—”

“WHO CARES ABOUT THE PLAYCUBE?  How can you be so selfish?” Abby said.

“Oh, tell me you didn’t just say that, Numbuh 5!”

“What?  About you being selfish?”

“No!  ‘Who cares about the PlayCube?’  Are you NUTS?  This thing’s the most amazing system to come along since…”

“DON’T YOU GET IT?  ARE YOU THAT DENSE?” Nigel yelled.  “You just destroyed something near and dear to Numbuh 3!  How…how…”  He couldn’t even finish as he was too angry to even think straight.

“Hey, I can make it up to her!  Do you want me to dress up like that Rainbow Monkey, like I did with Huggikins?  I can do that!”

Hoagie turned to him and said, “It’s not going to be that easy, Numbuh 4.  What happened with Mr. Huggikins was an accident, I’ll give you that.  What you just did is something you can’t just fix by dressing up in a costume.  This is something you’ll have to fix on your own.”

“We can’t help you on this one,” Abby sighed.

“But…but, guys!  What do you want me to do?” Wally asked.

Nigel looked back at him and said, “That’s your problem, Numbuh 4.  Not ours.”  The three of them returned to their rooms and left Wally there in the main room of the treehouse.  He stayed there throughout the night, muttering about how it wasn’t his fault…it was hers.  If she hadn’t shown me that Rainbow Monkey…

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Monday.  A new day.  Hopefully Kuki’s forgotten all about it.  A trip to the breakfast table, however, was enough to convince him otherwise.

As he approached the table, he saw Numbuh 3 sitting there eating some Rainbow Munchies.  He grabbed some waffles and sat down beside her, but before his butt hit the chair, she had risen and walked out of the room.  

Crud, he thought to himself.  She’s still mad.

Just then, the alarm cut short his train of thought as Numbuh 1 shouted, “Kids Next Door…BATTLE STATIONS!”

The quintet readied themselves for attack, this time from Knightbrace.  They had the upper hand early in the battle, but he had a trick up his sleeve—a brand new sticky dental floss.  In a flash, he had the entire treehouse covered in the stuff, and everyone but Numbuh 4 had become entangled in it.

Knightbrace laughed and said, “Stuck like plaque!  Now it’s time for your checkup!”

“Not if I have anything to say about it!” Numbuh 4 yelled as he took down the villain with a rough tackle.  Soon he had Knightbrace by the collar and his nose in his face as he said, “Not today!  You do NOT want to be here today!”

“And why is that?” Knightbrace asked.

“Let’s just say I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

The villain was puzzled as he asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Numbuh 2 said, “There’s a new gaming system coming out tomorrow…”

“Oh yeah!  The PlayCube, right?”

“Yeah,” Numbuh 5 answered.  “But I don’t think that’s what he meant.”

“Huh?”

Abby turned to Kuki and said, “Tell him.”  Numbuh 3 pointed at Wally and began to cry as she said, “That meanie ruined one of my Rainbow Monkeys!”

“Which one?” Nightbrace asked.

“The rarest one of all—the Silver Gold-Plated Bronzified Rainbow Monkey!”

Nightbrace stared at Wally with a look of shock and disgust.  Then he broke the silence with a cry of, “WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?”

Wally stared blankly at him and said, “What?”

“You heard me!  Do you have any idea how rare and valuable that one is?!  There’s only about five in the world and you just destroyed it?!”

“Well…she was…”

“There’s no excuse for that!  You just wait until I tell the other villains about this!”  With that, Nightbrace took his leave and untied the four in the process.

Hoagie got up and said to Wally, “Nice going, genius.  Even the villains hate you.”  Before he gave Numbuh 4 a chance to respond, the four walked out and left him alone.

Great, he thought.  Alone with my thoughts again.  Well, I can think of the PlayCube.  So he did, but his enthusiasm was starting to wane.  His conscience was getting the better of him, and he really didn’t like it.

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Later that night, Wally had a dream.

He was back in the treehouse two nights ago, arguing with Kuki over the Rainbow Monkey.  He had just thrown it out of the window and was waiting for her to come and look out into the night.

But she wasn’t there.  He waited and waited, but she never came.  Then he heard her voice…but it was coming from outside.  Below him.

He peered out the window to see that the doll had transformed somehow into a small plush likeness of Numbuh 3.  She was saying, “Why, Wally?  Why?  I thought you cared about me.”

“I do!” he answered.

“Then why did you throw me away?”

Before he could answer, an approaching car made its presence known and flattened the doll with a sickening crunch.  Wally screamed in horror as he awoke, engulfed in a prolonged crying jag.

“Oh crud…what have I done?”