Mark of Courage

This session will introduce the Uno Family, including the main protagonist of the Nextgen Saga!

Mark of Courage

His name was Cheren Uno. Numbuh 3621 and Supreme Leader of the Kids Next Door. Son of the legendary Nigel Uno and Rachel McKenzie. He had brown hair, his mother's chestnut brown eyes, wore a red jacket with white cuffs, white hints and black pockets, and a white T-shirt underneath it. He also wore a pair of black jeggings and a pair of red rubber shoes with white hints. He was only 9 years old, but already the whole of the Kids Next Door was planted on his shoulders. It was his job to watch after the organization, his job to keep it running. This was what Cheren wanted, more or less. He wanted to care for this organization the same way his mother did. That's why, even now, he sits day and day in his Moonbase office, signing paperwork. Not the most exciting life as an operative, but it's what keeps the organization running.

He was interrupted from his work when a fat, nerdy boy, with a yellow T-shirt, white shoes, and blue shorts and glasses, walked in with a huge stack of papers. "Sir, I need you to deliver these forms for the new mission specs."

"Would it kill you to knock, Numbuh 65.49?" Cheren asked as the nerd just plopped the papers down on his desk. "Sigh, I'll get on it right away." He said begrudgingly, lifting the huge stack and walking out of his office, followed by the nerd.

"Also, Nebula's requesting if she can schedule a meeting with the rest of the Galactic Kid Council this Thursday at 1-"

"Larry, I'm a little busy right now, so can we just-" He was interrupted once more when Danny Jackson came over.

"Sir, Melody sent me up here. She was wondering if you had another helicopter the KNN could borrow. Drunk Philly ruined another one."

"Sure. I'll get back to you on tha-"

"Sir." Mika Strongarm called, running over. "When were you going to fill in those orders for more bikes again?"

"As soon as I finish this-"

"Sir!" Emily Garley yelled, running over. "I need you to fill in those orders for more room at the museum."

"Sure, let me just-"

"Excuse me, Sir!" Lola Stork, of Sector IC, yelled as she approached. "My brother was wonderin' if you had any air fresheners, 'cause he can't stand our mom's smoke?"

"Um, yeah, I think those-"

"Sir, you have to deliver these forms!" Larry whined.

"How do you expect me to squeeze all these priceless artifacts in?" Emily asked.

"We're gonna need that helicopter." Danny said.

"Our bikes are getting rusted!" Mike yelled.

"Come on, dude, you know how Terry gets." Lola whined.

He was soon surrounded by swarms of operatives, all asking and begging for dumb requests. Cheren began to get a headache from all the voices at once. "RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" The leader erupted into burning flames, and all operatives backed away. The flames died down a bit, showing the panting boy's fiery eyes and gritting teeth. The operatives filled with fear. They've never seen their leader like this. He almost looked like he was willing to kill somebody.

Suddenly, a blonde-haired girl with ran over and stood in the flaming boy's way. She had blue eyes, a sleeveless orange shirt and a blue polo shirt with its sleeves folded, a short blue-gray skirt and black tights, and a pair of white rubber shoes with blue hints and a blue headband. "Okay, people, question time's over, everyone get back to their sectors!" The operatives just did as told and cowered away.

She then walked over to her brother, putting a hand on his shoulder as his flames finally vanished. "You okay, Bro?"

"Sigh, yeah… thanks for the save, Aurora. Man, I never thought being leader would mean having to deal with EVERY, SINGLE problem."

"You just need to take a break. Come on, let's get a meatball sandwich."

"Okay…" With that, the two headed for the cafeteria.

Numbuh Zero's Treehouse

An hour passed, and the two were now home, where Cheren and his mother were in the secret underground room of the treehouse, where they were locked in a training battle. Rachel wore a light-blue T-shirt that showed her bellybutton and cleavage, short dark-blue shorts, light blue flip-flops with darker blue straps, and had her blonde hair in a small ponytail.

As the two swung their wooden swords at the other, Cheren flipped over his mother, but Rachel quickly turned and still swung. In a few seconds, Rachel's sword was knocked out of her hands, with Cheren smirking and aiming his sword. Rachel gave her own little smirk and said, "Well, someone's been workin' out."

"Hoo." He huffed, swinging at the air before taking a seat. "I wish…"

Rachel sat by him on the bench and put an arm around him. "What's wrong, Cherry?"

"Sigh…" Cheren put his face in his hands. "I'm just not sure if I can do it anymore. I've only been leader for a week now and the whole job's stressful as hell. I get too overworked, people are always wanting me to do stuff…"

"You just need to learn to say 'no' once in a while."

"I want to, but I don't wanna let anyone down. But if I did do all that stuff, I'd still probably let everyone down. Sigh… I'm just not cut out for this job."

Rachel thought for a second, then stood up. "Come on. Something I wanna show you." He followed her into a dark room where a light shone on a sword sheathed inside a blue and yellow sheath, sitting atop a small pedestal. Rachel picked it up and pulled the shining sword out of its sheath. "This is the Master Sword. This used to be a weapon, passed down from leader to leader in the Kids Next Door. Of course, it's full power wouldn't work for just anyone. Before I became leader, this was just an old Yield sign. It wouldn't reveal it's true form until held by the descendant of its previous owner. You wanna know why it finally revealed itself to me?"

"Because… you're the descendant?"

"Well, yes… but it's also because I was strong, brave, and I never gave up. I didn't quite know it at first, though, but the sword… kinda already felt it." She sheathed the sword and held it over to her son. "Cheren… you're a great leader, too. You're smart, well-organized, not afraid to be yourself… you wear the Mark of Courage just as well as I did… and you might be able to use this sword one day, too."

Cheren took the sheath and drew the sword, staring at it as he waved it around. "Cool…"

"Hehe, sooner than you might think!" Rachel smiled, taking and putting the sword back, holding the sheath. "But of course, you'll need to relax a little, too."

"Yeah… maybe you're right. Thanks, Mom. I think I will keep trying!"

"That's the spirit! Now why don't you go play videogames with Panini? You deserve to relax."

"If you call Panini relaxing." The Uno boy smirked before running off. (Play Fi's Theme from Zelda: Skyward Sword!)

Rachel smiled in his direction as the sword glowed, and the blue and purple spirit, Fi came out. "Master, I sense much of your traits within him. I calculate a 90% probability he will be worthy of wielding the Master Sword."

"Hehehe, Fi." Rachel chuckled. "You and your obvious predictions. Of course he'll be able to wield the sword. If he was brave enough to take on the duties of babysitting a million kids, I can't think of anyone else. Besides… I see a lot of me in him, too…"

Numbuh 6.13 wrote this next segment, introducing Panini and Francis!

A Day In The Life of Cheren and Aurora

"I'm SO gonna kick your butt!"

"HA! You wish!"

It was another quiet day at the Uno household. Well, as quiet as it could get anyway, what with a certain brown-haired boy and a certain black-haired girl having a Pokémon battle on their DSes on the sofa. I'm not sure that's how you spell their plural, but oh well.

The brown-haired 9-year-old boy, Cheren Uno, smirked as he selected a move with his stylus. "HA! Gallade uses Shadow Blade! Take that, Panini!"

"Why should Ah care when Gothorita uses Psybeam?" The black haired girl, Panini Drilovsky, who was also 9, hissed, tapping said move. Her Pokémon shot out a rainbow colored beam at Cheren's Gallade, making the Pokémon Confused.

Cheren gritted his teeth. "Gr…" His Gallade was down to one health bar, and he didn't have any Potions or Berries on him. Time to switch out. "Gallade, come back! You can do it, Zekrom!"

"Eat dirt, Zekrom!" Panini nearly screeched at her DS as she switched back Gothorita with Reshiram.

From the stairs in the Uno home, a blonde-haired girl and a red-haired boy just sat chatting, between bouts of watching their siblings screech bad words at each other over their Pokémon battle. The blonde – Aurora – simply smirked as Cheren shouted more words of profanity. They were SO lucky their parents were out.

"I can't believe Pan's going crazy over a little Pokémon battle." The red-haired boy commented. His name was Francis Drilovsky, Panini's older brother.

Aurora, now 10 years old like Francis, chuckled. "Cheren and Panini are both Pokémon addicts, so who wouldn't doubt their friendship?"

Francis looked outside, observing the sky. "Hey, wanna go outside? I'm tired of listening to them argue."

"Sure. Anywhere's better than here." Aurora agreed.

Francis outstretched his hand formally, bowing as Aurora took it, giggling. The two walked out of the house, hand in hand, before collapsing on the grass in a fit of giggles. Soon, they stopped, and they watched the clouds pass by.

"You looked so silly there, Fran!" Aurora giggled, spreading out her hands and feet on the grass. She looked so carefree. "Like some knight in an old movie!"

Francis laughed before imitating a chivalrous knight voice. "'Tis not a challenge for me, milady, for I am Sir Usely, a knight who is very serious!"

"Sirius is dead!" Aurora managed to choke out in between giggles, and suddenly, both ten-year-olds were laughing like there was no tomorrow.

Suddenly, Francis was silenced, and Aurora wondered why. "Hey, Fran, what's wrong?"

"Well…" Francis murmured, watching as the wind blew the leaves in the tree in Aurora and Cheren's backyard. He was silent for a few moments, before he finally said, "I…I'm worried."

Aurora sat up slightly, training her blue eyes on Francis. "About what?"

"About… leaving the KND…" The boy whispered.

The blonde placed a hand on Francis's shoulder, making his onyx gaze travel up to meet her soft blue gaze. "Francis, you're a nice guy, OK? No one's gonna act like they aren't your friend on your decommissioning day, OK?"

"But, they might judge me because of Panini." Francis's words spilled out, and he covered his mouth in shame because he spoke about his sister like that. Panini had indeed inherited Fanny's hot temper, and it was no challenge to say that Cheren made her Global Commander because of her capabilities.

Aurora coughed loudly. "Hell no! You're a person all on your own, Fran! You're my best friend, and the best guy-friend a girl could ever have! Besides, aren't you happy you got your dad's strictness instead of your mom's temper?"

"I guess you're right." Francis chuckled, remembering the time both his sister and his mother had lost their heads and went crazy on him and his father. It wasn't a pretty sight, mind you. "Come on, I'll treat you to a smoothie."

Aurora pumped her fist up in the air. "Mathematical!" She cried as they both stood up.

"You're watching Adventure Time again, aren't you?" Francis laughed.

Aurora smiled. "How'd you guess, 'Marshall Lee?'"

"I know you better than you think, 'Fionna'!" Francis laughed. The two best friends laughed their heads off, before cringing as Panini's high-pitched voice rang through the air.

"I'LL HAVE REVENGE ON YOU CHEREN, JUST YOU WAIT!"

Then came Cheren's voice. "YOU'RE JUST A SORE LOSER!"

"SAY THAT TO MY FACE!"

"I JUST DID!"

"WHY YOU LITTLE-"

"STOP THE PROFANITY!" Aurora yelled from the backyard, silencing the two. Then, without another word, the Uno girl and the Drilovsky boy both walked away.

We'll end this with a smaller, casual segment debuting the GKND leaders.

Stars

A girl with brown skin, black and white hair, a black tux, black pants, black shoes, and a yellow left eye and black right eye tapped a pencil to her chin, eraser side, pondering thoughts as she stared at the piece of paper on her desk in her room. Her door knocked, and she said, "Come in."

A boy, her younger brother, walked in. The right half of him was white while the left was black, including his hair. He wore a tux with black and white vertical stripes and had black eyes. "Hey, Nebula. Whatcha doin'?" he asked in a Jamaican accent.

"Oh, hi Jerome. Just doing a little homework. Cruddy poetry. I can never think of what to write about."

"Mmmm… what about stars?"

"Stars?"

"Yeah. We live in Star Haven, anyway."

Nebula stood up and looked outside her window at the star-filled space sky, the young Star Kids of Star Haven and Wisps flying about. It was a rather beautiful setting. It was always nighttime where they lived, or at least seemed nighttime, as the dark-blue sky was always filled with bright stars, and the river glinted their reflection. "Hmmm... Sounds kinda cliché, don't it?"

"I guess so. But considering what we do and where we live, it would be kind of typical, wouldn't it."

"Yeah… I guess." Nebula smiled, and decided to write about it.