Chapter One:

Nigel Uno, a.k.a. Numbuh One, Galactic Level Operative of the Kids Next Door was VERY SLOWLY making his way to bed at the ungodly hour of 5:43:21 AM. He had stayed up much later than his teammates to go over some new intelligence information. The morning briefing would be difficult to say the least. Not to say that they hadn't ALL been difficult since…

Numbuh One remembered the day he had come home from his initial assignment with the Galactic Kids Next Door. He was over the moon to be back, to see his family and especially to re-unite with Sector V. He had been given the best assignment ever (to his mind)! He was back to tell his old team that they had all been selected to remain active duty operatives past the de-commissioning age of thirteen and that they would, as a team form a new sector – Sector T.V.

As new teen sectors were needed the operatives who qualified as complete units would have their sectors re-named to include the original code letter plus 'T' for Teen. If only select operatives from a given sector were to meet the criteria, then they would be assigned to join any nearby teen sector in need of assistance. As covert Teen ops they would have new and more challenging missions, and the training would be tough. Numbuh One had been sent back to lead his team to greatness once again! His arrival had been carefully timed to be only a few days prior to the scheduled decommissioning of the illustrious Sector V.

The days and weeks flew by in a blur, but all the members of Sector T.V. had a drive to succeed in their training that few could boast of, and added to the loyalty they showed each other that made them nearly unstoppable. As each one reached the age of thirteen, they were given more and more information and increased training and the missions that the team was assigned grew more difficult and dangerous. One particular mission that was transmitted when the five friends were just sixteen proved to be disastrous. Numbuh one shuddered at the memory, it was still so fresh to him even seven months later. He was the Leader, the responsible one, the one supposed to keep them all safe! Yet he had failed. Failed Hoagie, failed Abby, failed Wally and somehow most of all he had failed Kuki.

She had been the one impacted the hardest by the mission's end. He blinked back sudden tears that sprang to his eyes for all his friends in spite of himself. Hoagie had lost his best friend that day; even Abby couldn't make up for that loss no matter how she tried. And Abby herself, had lost a boy she looked at as her little brother, her pain was real too. Nigel had lost a dear friend, one that he had only just gotten back, and an irreplaceable ally in combat. Kuki had lost more than the others combined. She had lost her friend, her companion, her crush (no – her love), and in that deprivation more slipped from her grasp than the outward missing pieces could show. Slowly over the months after the mission Kuki had lost her smile, her laugh, her vivacity, and the sector watched helplessly as even her will to live seemed to ebb. Nigel had taken precautions of course. She would NOT slip away. She would NOT be permitted to hurt herself. Every possible means of harm had to be monitored, and Kuki had to be monitored around the clock so she would never sink so far into depression that they could loose her too. He would die before he allowed another teammate to fall on his watch!

Nigel's thoughts turned inevitably to his lost comrade Wally. Headstrong, reckless and often thoughtless, Wally could be difficult to put up with. However he had never been difficult for any of his team to love. They somehow saw past his faults, recognized his strengths and accepted him for his true self, just as he did for them. Wally was unmatched in his combat skills, he could outfight any foe. He had also shown over the past couple of years that he was not nearly as dense as he had seemed in his childhood. He had simply been too preoccupied with other things at the time to bother about being or acting smart. The team knew that without fail they could rely on him no matter what. His reckless streak had occasionally put him in harms way, but he managed to fight his way out of most of his scrapes.

He protected his team ferociously, but none more so than Kuki. She was his special project. He told himself that he was just being a good friend and teammate and that any of the others would do the same, but truthfully it was his own needs as much as hers he served in protecting her. She was essential to the very core of his being – more vital to him than anything or anyone. To forfeit her safety (or worse her life) would have been tantamount to demanding that the near seventeen year old boy stop the beat of his own heart.

Now Nigel would have to get up (in just a couple of hours) and give his team the latest devastating news…the search for Numbuh Four had officially been called off by order of both Global and Galactic High Command. He had failed once again because in spite of his efforts to convince them otherwise, the Commanding Operatives had ruled against his petition to continue the search. Nigel had traveled personally to BOTH bases to make his case, but even considering Numbuh Ones' rank, reputation, and position they found no cause to continue the search. The ruling was like a final nail in Wally's coffin, they were all supposed to move on, to act as though he had never been lost or even existed at all.

The biggest fear in Nigel's mind now was that this development would send Kuki over the edge. He would have to re-double her surveillance, and keep everyone on high alert in case she did snap. This could be the one last pain that would finally break her spirit entirely. Just as he began mulling over the options in his mind of how to keep her safe (as Wally would have done), Nigel heard a sound from the vicinity of the main room. It sounded as though there was someone moving around in the inky dark of the room. But who?