Operation: FAIL, Part 1

This story will introduce a major side-character for the Seven Lights Saga, and we'll have development for Sector RZ. What, you don't know who those guys are? EXACTLY!!

Now loading…

Kids Next Door mission…

Operation:

F.A.I.L.

Feeling

Absolutely

Incompetent

Lee's

Loading transmission…

Chapter 1: Blue-Haired Maiden

Rozeland Elementary

Normally kids would say "I hate Mondays" at the start of a new week… but none ever thought they'd hate Wednesdays this much. 'Cause no one likes having their school commandeered by crazy people. "PARENT TEACHER ORGANIZATION OF ERADICATING YOUNGSTERS, GIVE these kids a day of school they'll never forget!" exclaimed the PTOOEY's leader, the Principal.

In the gym, a boy was tied to a punching bag as Mad Dad was mercilessly punching the snot out of him. "COME ON, YOU LAZY BRATS! Don't ya know how ta punch?!" He beat away without rest, the other students looking with worry and helplessness. They had no intention of punching their friend, but what could they do?

Meanwhile, Midwestern Mom was occupying the cafeteria, forcing tables of tied-up students to stuff their face in apple pies. "OHHHH YEAH. GRAMMA STUFFUM AIN'T THE ONLY COOK 'ROUND THESE PARTS. Y'all're gonna finish yer pies and be DERN grateful yer mom works this hard!!"

"But I feel siiiiiiick!" a girl moaned.

"DON'T TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME, YOUNG LADY," she smacked her with her purse, "now GET TA EATING!"

In the library, children were tied at tables with iPhones strapped to their eyes, pages of online books scrolling before them. "You kids don't like reading books the old-fashioned way? Fine! You'll read those eBooks until your eyes go blurry!" the Terrible Tutor threatened.

Above the school, Heli-Teacher flew around on her flying chair, keeping watch. "No sign of those KNBrats yet. Guess they're too busy fighting gods or something."

"Then we Parent Teacher Organization will finally have victory!" Principal declared, in the teacher's lounge with the school's real, tied-up teachers.

"I wonder though, Paul… is what we're doing even considered 'evil' anymore?" Heli-Teacher asked via communicator. "I've been doing my research, and a lot of villains these KNBrats face nowadays are really somethin'. It makes us Brotherhooders seem… washed up."

"Oh, quit worrying, Maya! Sure the KND got a lot of superpowers now, but we supervillains still have!-"

"H-Hey! What's going—GAAAAH!"

"Hnn?! Heli-Teacher! What happened?! Where are you-"

A crash was heard across the hall. They all raced to the cafeteria, seeing Heli-Teacher on the floor, having fallen through a hole on the ceiling. Standing above that hole was a shadowed figure alit with flames, and an evil smirk. "Is…Is that-"

The girl jumped down and revealed to be Diwata Uno, joined by the other 4 members of Sector RZ. "Parent Teacher Organization of Washed-up Villains, prepare to be defeated by Kids Next Door's Sector RZ!" exclaimed Numbuh 2.3, Leanne.

"…PHEW." The villains sighed with relief.

"For a second there, I thought it was Sector V!" Mad Dad smiled. "I don' wanna deal with that raccoon chick! You hear what she did to Cuppa Joe the other day? Just for dumping his coffee in the sea??"

"Forget about Sector V! WE'RE the real deal TOO."

"Yeah, so give us back our waffles!" Denny demanded.

"And our pancakes!!" exclaimed Lulu.

"I think you're missing the point." Lee Andrew said.

After Heli-Teacher recovered, Principal announced, "Parent Teacher Organization, SCATTER!"

"Sector RZ, BATTLE stations!" At Leanne's command, the five split up to go after a certain villain.

Mad Dad and Denny engaged in a fist-fight using both their punching gloves. Their fists clashed with equal force, but Mad Dad sent Denny away with a headbutt. "You call that a headbutt?" he retorted, fixing on his football helmet. "I've bashed with bulls who hit harder!" He charged headfirst at the hot-headed parent and sent him flying to the wall with a stronger headbutt from his helmet.

"You think your pies are any good?" Lulu said to Midwest Mom. "You haven't seen my Pancake Karatay!" Using a 4x4 gun, she fired dough balls in the air and blasted them with a S.P.I.C.E.R., cooking them into pancakes in seconds. As they came down at Midwest Mom, who readied to knock them away with her purse, Lulu shot her with a syrup gun so the steaming pancakes would stick to and scorch her sticky form.

"Aaaaahh! What 'n' tarnation?!"

"Dern tootin'!" With that, Lulu slid butter cups across the floor so Mom would trip and fall.

As Terrible Tutor was trying to pile Diwata with books, the Uno child punched flames in the air to burn any that came. "You know, books are not just spare firewood, young lady! If you knew how much trouble authors went through to get them published, you'd be a little more appreciative!" He suddenly had all the burned papers surround and swallow Diwata, eventually trapping her in a paper ball. She tried to alight with flames, but the papers became too thick.

"Huh huh ha haaaah! Try to catch me, Kids Next Door!" Principal taunted, flying circles above Leanne. Leanne sent her shadow, Ash up to try and catch the villain, but he evasively flew away. "Ha ha ha! You kids are nothing compared to—DUI!" While looking behind, he slammed into a ceiling light and fell.

"Nothing compared to having a useless power." Leanne smirked.

Finally, it was Lee Andrew facing Heli-Teacher. "He may be dumb enough to crash, but I'VE got my eye on you, brat."

"Heh, that may be so." Lee smiled coolly, clutching his G.U.M.Z.O.O.K.A., "but try to keep an eye on hundreds of gumballs coming your way! I've modified this G.U.M.Z.O.O.K.A. to fire three rounds of multi-directional gumballs at once!" Indeed, his weapon's turret was aimed up, down-right, and down-left. "And when my shadow, Damien faces a different way," his shadow aimed to Lee's left, "it's double the triple! Ready, Dami?"

"Um, Lee, are you sure you tested that-?" Leanne tried to say.

"FIRE!" The sextuple round of rapid gumballs bounced furiously around the lunchroom. The tied-up children screamed in agony as they took hits, as did Lulu, Denny, and Leanne, even Lee himself. He was forced to stop firing, but- "WHOA!" Heli-Teacher had him binded in ropes while the others took the other operatives hostage.

"HAHA ha ha!" Heli-Teacher laughed. "You shoulda just stuck with your silly powers, 'cause your weapon's as useless as-"

"HEY, GUUUUYS!" Three familiar, hated villains burst into the room.

"Oh, geez!" Mad Dad cried. "It's the Toiletnator, Dr. Light, and-"

"THE BOX Ghooost! Whose introduction will not be slandered by some drunk guy in underwear!" the blue ghost announced.

"WHAT'RE YOU nitwits DOING HERE?!" Midwestern Mom screamed.

"We heard you were invading a school, so we thought we'd drop in!" Lou perked.

"And we thought we'd help you, with our NEW invention!" Dr. Light smirked.

"BEHOLD!" Box Ghost threw off the curtain covering the device, "Our new box-shaped Toiluminator!" It was a square-shaped toilet with a lightbulb on its back and a helmet hanging above the seat. "Kids must always think about work or school while attending to their defecating desires. The helmet will read their minds to see if they do as such, thus the lightbulb will glow, but when they don't, they get SQUARE-SHAPED SWIRLY!"

"But what if they just have to pee?" Heli-Teacher questioned.

"Um… we couldn't make the helmet stretch that far yet."

"Here! Let me show you how it works!" Toiletnator excitedly plugged the toilet into an outlet. It began to shake uncontrollably as the lightbulb and helmet sparked. "…Uh-oh."

From outside the school, one could see an explosion of water emerge from above where the cafeteria is, and a square-shaped toilet fly beyond the front gates and smash into pieces.

Minutes later…

Aaron and Rhilliane Doblemitz arrived to guide the eight villains onto their S.P.R.A.Y.S.H.I.P.. "When does a TOILET get plugged in ANYWAY?" Heli-Teacher questioned.

"If you ask me, RZ just got lucky." Aaron said to his brother as they climbed in the cockpit. "If those bozos hadn't shown up, they probably wouldn'ta beat them."

"Why'd Cheren call them, anyway? Sector V's just a few miles away, they coulda done it much easier."

"You know, seeing as they're the kids of Sector Z, you woulda expected more from 'em." And with that, Sector RZ watched with negative looks as the guards flew away.

"Well, that'll look great in the mission report." Leanne said sarcastically. "Next time, Lee, just leave the 4x4 to Lulu." She passed her brother without a glance on the way back into school, as did the others. Lee held his head down in shame as he followed Lulu, the carefree girl munching a pancake.

Sector RZ Treehouse

"That test was HAAAAARD." Diwata whined as they returned home tiredly. "Why couldn't we just let those villains stay for a while longer?"

"Toiletnator woulda come, anyway." Leanne noted. "But I heard adult schools make it way worse than us. Relatively."

"Hey Lulu, where's our afterschool hotdogs, I'm starving!" Denny demanded.

"You're only getting a raw one, Denny!!"

"Ooo-ooh! I'll take mine raw!" Diwata jumped. Lulu tossed her a raw hotdog, which she simply singed with firebending and munched away.

Leanne and Lee sat on opposite sides of the couch, elbow rested on the armrest with their head in their hand and one leg lain across the couch. "Next time you wanna try and help, Lee, do it in a fashion that doesn't endanger your fellow operatives?"

"Well, it's not like YOU did much EITHER!" he snapped back. "The Principal only knocked himself out!"

"Still didn't endanger my fellow team." Leanne said with a casual face. "The fact is, modifying weapons just isn't your special skill."

"Well, it woulda helped to get a one-shot about it."

"Sorry, reserving it for someone else." Diwata said.

"It's sure gonna put a dent on our ranking, though." Leanne sighed, folding her arms behind her head. "That makes the 3rd accidental mission success this month. Next to 4 failed missions. Then they send Sectors V or W in our place."

"If those guys are so great, why don't they just send 'em first?? Let THEM mess up!" Diwata whined.

"If those villains are so smart, why can't they keep their evil plans a secret from us?" Lulu questioned.

"Well, it's not like they could." Leanne replied. "Moonbase has a special team of sensory psychicbenders who sense any active evil auras around the world. Then they send some shadowbenders to investigate what this evil aura's doing, then beam the info to Global Command, who then send the nearest or most fitting sector to complete the job. They were also gonna use fearbenders as an interrogation squad, but then we decided that was too cruel."

"How the Kids Next Door has evolved." Denny sighed in mock reflection.

"But compared to what other sectors deal with lately, we've been getting the easy tasks, and failing almost every one. We've got the lowest success rate."

"What?! You mean we're worse than all those sectors no one cares about?!" Lee exclaimed.

"No, just the lowest of the Top 10."

"Dat, dada daaaaa!" Lulu presented a chart revealing the 10 listed sectors.

10. Sector RZ

9. Sector JP

8. KND Bike Hub

7. Sector L

6. Sector Q

5. Sector IC

4. Sector W

3. Sector W7

2. Sector DR

1. Sector V

"The heck does the Bike Hub do?!" questioned Lee.

"They get some pretty awesome stages." Denny said.

"It's still a pretty good rank." Lulu commented.

"Yeah, but back in our parents' day, they had Number 1 spot, with Sector V almost tying." Leanne said sadly. "How could we slump so much?"

"Because Lee keeps messing everything up!" Lulu said perkily.

"What? I do not!"

"Kinda do." Leanne replied. "Remember when you tried to make a real volcano for your science project?"

They recalled the image of their school burning in magma.

"Or Slip Soap Mountain!" Denny perked.

They saw hundreds of kids on stretchers to the hospital.

"Heh heh! I still remember that time he tried to make a gum-puffing trombone!" Lulu laughed.

They saw Lee blowing full force into a trombone that puffed an expanding gum, attempting to cover the Food Patrol, but when he sucked in more breath, he sucked the gum straight back and puffed his head, causing him to drift upward.

"Remember when he tried to karate-chop Cheese Shogun, then he slipped, flipped, and chopped his own head??" Diwata exclaimed.

"Or when he tried showing off to Haruka by spinning real fast on those spinny thingies at the park, and he slipped outta his pants!" Denny yelled.

"One time, he made a pencil stand straight on the teacher's chair so he'd sit in it, but when he wanted the apple on his desk, he sat on the chair himself by accident." Leanne followed.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The four members had a great time recollecting.

"Ha ha ha, heh… hey, where did Lee go?" Leanne asked, the four looking around.

"Probably to the bathroom." Denny figured. "Yo Lulu, where's my hotdog?" At this, a frozen hotdog flew and hit his head.

"Tell Miyuki's sister to cut it for ya."

Sector IC Treehouse

"Aaaaa…choo!" Miyuki sneezed, sucking the snot back in. She sat between George and Terry, who were playing a game. "Suki, could you please tone it down…"

"Yaaaaayy!" She skied joyously on her ice path.

Grayson Household

"HA HA HUAH HAH!" cried Ashley Grayson, furiously swinging her Wiimote. "AAAAAHH… YAH!" With a forceful down-thrust, the battle was won. "YEAH! ! Think you're gonna kick MY butt, King Fatblin?? Ashley Sommers RULES Hyrule Warriors 2!"

Her husband, David came in with a disbelieved smirk. "Weren't you over your cutting streak after you cut down that bounce house with an umbrella?"

"Hey if I rest now, I'm gonna lose my edge. I need to keep my arms MOVIN'. MY BLADE FRESH!! I used to be able to cut solid wood with my umbrella!"

"Right." A sweatdrop. "And now we're gettin' kicked out of parties. I'ma go eat fruitcake."

As David walked away, leaving Ashley to swing her virtual blade, she was approached by Lee Andrew. "Hey Mom… can I play?"

"You sure about that, Lee? Last time, I totally smoked you."

"Come on, I can still fight!"

"Yokay. Grab a Wiimote and join in." Lee grabbed the other Wiimote and switched it on, choosing to play as Fi. They picked the Lanayru Desert stage and began fighting their way past Technoblins. Lee was already getting his butt shocked by their electric swords. "You know you have to equip Wooden Shield against them, right?"

"Fi's made outta diamonds, she should handle it!" he yelled aggravated.

"Not in this game. It's like how in Mario & Sonic when Eggman runs faster than-" A crashing sound. "…You fail."

Lee threw his controller on the floor and plopped on the couch. Ashley slayed the 30 Technoblins real quick before sitting beside him. "Did something happen today, Lee?"

"I messed up another mission." He replied angrily. "Just like the last one. And a few before that. And all the others do is make fun of me. Why am I so bad at everything? I'm only half as good at shadowbending as Leanne, and look how much Haruka's improving at her healing. Other operatives keep saying… how we make Sector Z look bad. And it's because of me…"

"I don't really care that you fail, Lee. Except in school, maybe. But failing is a part of life, everyone does it. Doesn't matter how often. And one day, your friends will accept that."

"Sure. But until then, I'd rather hang with Sector W7."

"Aw, Lee. Just try to make amends with them, play some games or somethin'. Even if they always beat you, at least you have someone to play with."

"…" Without a word, Lee slowly trekked back to the treehouse.

"Siiigh, well that's enough Zelda. …Maybe I'll play some Yoshi's Story."

She loaded the game on her Wii U II and chose the first level. The happy, casual music played as Ashley made Yoshi hop through in this kid-friendly game. "…GAAAH! DAMMIT YOSHI, I wanted you to eat the SHY GUY, NOT THE FRUIT! AAAAAAAHH!" She slammed her controller on the floor. "Stinkin' lousy Virtual Console remake of N64! Available at the Wii Store for only $4.99!!"

A picture of the Yoshi's Story cover was shown. Virtual Console! It's a few microbytes worse than the original!

Remakes suuuuuck!

Sector RZ Treehouse

"HELLOOOO? Guys? …" Lee called around the living room confusedly. He then found a note on the couch. "'Dear Lee, went to get more food. Woulda asked you to come, but you probly need cool-down time. Love, Leanne.' …Right." Tossed it away. He then plopped on the couch and grabbed the remote. "Wonder if anything decent's on."

He pushed the button, and immediately the treehouse flashed red, Lee jumping at the screeching alarm. Numbuh 65.49 appeared onscreen. "This is Moonbase calling Sector RZ, do you copy?"

"Uhhhh… this is Sector RZ. What's the emergency?"

"Numbuh 3.2, where is the rest of your sector? I at least need to brief the Sector Leader."

"Look, the others are out, just pass me the message. Leanne's my sister, I'll get it to her."

"Sigh, look all our shadowbenders are busy, so we needed someone to infiltrate this weird base we've just picked up in Black Acropolis, Alaska. We've determined it's the same base Dr. Eggman used 20 years ago, but there's suddenly been activity in there again. I'm sending you the mission specs, so get 'em to 2.3 as soon as possible. And DON'T mess this up!"

The transmission ended as Lee rolled his eyes, and the tiny strip of paper began to print off. He took the specs and was about to go find Leanne… until he stopped to look at them himself. After today's mess-up, they probably wouldn't bring him anyway. Would serve them right if he brought back info all by himself. …

Black Acropolis, Alaska

Lee's S.C.A.M.P.E.R. was speeding quick across the snowy skies, swerving uncontrollably. "Ugh, I can't make out a thing! Why is it so dark?!"

"Maybe because you forgot to turn on headlights, Master." Damien said.

"…" Lee blushed, "Oh, right, hehehe." He turned them on. "Phew. Now I can see that mountain—AAAAAAH!"

His S.C.A.M.P.E.R. crashed the very tip of the mountain and sent his ship flipping, bouncing furiously across the ground until it stopped completely and sent him flying out. He landed and scraped across the snow before helping himself up, holding his head. "Owwww."

He couldn't make out anything in this blizzard. Just endless white, wherever he looked. He would never notice the duo of shadows lurking up behind him. Shadows that were growing bigger as they were hopping closer. Lee shuddered for warmth as he trudged across the snow, hoping he landed close to this base. But his journey wouldn't be a peaceful one before the shadows tackled him. "AAAAHH!"

"Look, Donna! We got 'im, we got 'im!" jumped a brown-haired boy in a green coat and hood.

"Yeah! We did, Sonny!" cheered a twin girl in a light-yellow coat.

"Ow, ow!" Lee yelped as the twins jumped on. "The heck are you, get off me!"

"We're the Ice Climbers!" They jumped off, letting Lee stand. "I'm Sonny!"

"And I'M Donna!"

"AND TOGETHER WE'RE… THE ICE CLIMBERS!"

"You just said that." Lee sweat-dropped.

"We were exploring the snow!-" Sonny began.

"-when a chilly wind blow!" Donna followed.

"And a weird ship-"

"-fell down below!"

"WE CAUGHT A SKY YETI!"

"I am not!! My name is Lee and I'm from Sector RZ. I'm on a mission to research some mysterious base."

"Your name is Leeee?" Donna queried.

"From Sector R-Zeeeee?" sang Sonny.

"IT RHYMES!"

"WOULD YOU KNOCK IT OFF?! Anyway, I think I know you guys. Sector IC's parents were friends with your parents. But I thought you lived in Iceland."

"Sure we do!" sang Donna.

"We go everywhere!" followed Sonny.

"'CAUSE WE'RE EXPLORERS OF ICE!"

"WhostealKNDships." Sonny said fast.

Lee sweat-dropped. "That explains it. Look, maybe you guys can help. There's a base somewhere around here and I have to see what it's about. I don't suppose you guys…"

"A base, you say?" Sonny asked.

"We'll LEAD the way!"

"But you'll go OUR way."

"THE ICE CLIMBER way!"

"Uhhhh…"

Before he knew it, Lee was frozen as the Ice Climbers rode him like a sled across the snows. "YEEEAH!" Over a trench. "YEEAH!" Between two boulders. "YEEAH!" Over a loop. "WHOO-OOOAAAA." Down a very steep mountain.

But soon enough, they came to a very calm halt. Sonny and Donna hopped off and broke Lee's ice cube with their wooden hammers. "Huhuhuhu. Brilliantly done. …" The blizzards began to clear as Lee walked forward, overlooking the dark, dim base from atop a hill. Searchlights were active and skimming around, but it didn't look very populace. "Okay, stay here, you two. I'ma go see what's up."

Using his Shadow Veil, Lee was easily able to sneak around the vacant base. There were some old Eggman robots still on guard, but sneaking by them was no hassle as Lee made it to the base's center. The first thing he noticed was a girl sat cross-legged inside a glass capsule, a calm, but worried look on her face. She wore a dress of yellow and blue stripes, a white bow on her chest, and brown Greek sandals with white feathers at their base. What really stood out was her ocean-blue, elbow-length hair, pointed ears, and blood-red eyes.

Lee then saw the back of a chubby man in a white coat. With his brown hair, slight beard, glasses, and maniacal expression, Lee recognized him as Professor Bob. "Nn he ha ha. Finally." He rubbed his hands evilly. "After 5 months, my new Weatherator is almost ready to activate! Those Kids Next Door had the gall to trap me inside a freezing base for 20 years and not bring me cocoa?! Well, once my device is completed, they can ALL freeze, in my ETERNAL BLIZZARD!"

Lee exchanged a nod with his shadow. Damien took their M.A.R.B.L.E.s and flew down the hall and threw the explosives around to fill the hall with smoke. "HUH?! What's going on back there?!" Professor Bob was quick to act, not seeing Lee behind his control panel. Bob searched around, but Damien was quick to evade his sight, slyly tying his shoelaces together. "Those lousy robots are gonna- WAAAH!" He tripped.

"Hehehehehehe!" Damien cackled.

The blue-haired girl gasped when Lee ran up to her capsule. "Stand back!" She backed against the cell, still very worried. Lee threw a M.A.R.B.L.E. and blew the glass open. Alarms immediately began to blare across the base. "Come on!" Lee took her hand and began to dash across the hall.

As Professor Bob tried to untie his laces, the two zipped by him. He jumped to his feet- "STOP THEM- WHOOA!" and fell.

Robots appeared and blasted lasers at their feet, Lee hurriedly dodging while pulling the girl along. "Once we get to the yard, we'll be good from there."

They made it to the outer yard and ran for a wall on their left, evading the searchlights' machineguns as they sunk in Shadow Veil and slithered up the wall. They simply ran across the roof afterward as Lee searched around for the Ice Climbers. "There they are!" The duo was building snow sculptures of their selves standing victoriously atop Lee's body.

Lee Shadow Veiled them to the outer fence and hurried up the slope. "I'm back." Lee huffed, releasing the girl. At this time, the clouds had cleared away, letting in the sunny sky.

"HE DID IT HE DID IT!" Both jumped. "Whaddid he do?" Donna asked.

"I rescued this girl!" He smiled proudly.

"WHAT GIRL?"

"…" Lee turned around, finding small, empty footprints. "..! HEY!" The mysterious girl was rushing across the snowfield at whipping speed. "WHOA she's fast!!"

"Super FAST, SUPER FAST!" The Climbers hopped around joyously. "Like Sonic!" said Sonny.

"Come on, let's go after her!"

"Leeet's GO!" Both took Lee's hands and created an ice path to ski at great speed. They tried their best to catch up to this girl, but in time, all they could make out was a shrinking blue dot. "Whoa, she is fast!" Sonny frowned.

"REALLY fast!" gasped Donna.

"I THINK SHE MAY BE THE FASTEST THING ALIIIIIVE!" the twins sang.

"It doesn't MATTER how fast she is, we gotta ask her why she was in that base!"

"Uhhh… it might matter now." Sonny pointed. In 10 more seconds, the girl was out of sight.

"Siiiigh… darn. Well, so much for not messing up a rescue."

"Awwww you rescued her, didn't ya?" Sonny said comfortingly.

"Yeah! Be PROOOOUUD!"

"Heheh… yeah, I guess you're right." He smiled. "Well, let's get back to my S.C.A.M.P.E.R.. Runaway or not, that's one less kid held against her will!"

They eventually made it back to the snowy field where the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. was in sight. "Hey, that's…" The blue-haired girl was rushing from the field on their right, going straight for the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.. "HEY! !" Lee tried to get there first, but she was already inside and roaring the engines to life. He could only stop and gasp for breath as his ship flew beyond the horizon. "GREAT." He plopped on the snow. "There goes Leanne's S.C.A.M.P.E.R.. What was that girl's problem?!"

"Ohhhhh. Poor Lee-Lee." Sonny frowned.

"I know! You can use our S.C.A.M.P.E.R.!" perked Donna.

"Huh? You guys?"

"Well, sure! We said we steal KND ships!" Sonny smiled.

"Because it's FUUUN!" Donna cheered.

"And convenient when ya need one." Son winked.

"And we can come, too! You live in someplace snowy?"

"No, I… live in Rozeland."

"Oh, LAAA-AAAME. Just drop us off in Iceland." Son sighed.

"We'll just go sledding down Oil Ice Mountain!"

"Well… okay… Hopefully Leanne won't realize her real S.C.A.M.P.E.R.'s missing."

Sector RZ Treehouse

After dropping the Ice Climbers at home, Lee returned to Sector RZ, parking the S.C.A.M.P.E.R. in its place like nothing happened. "THERE you are." Leanne immediately greeted when Lee entered the living room. The others were watching TV. "Where have you been, Lee?? Moonbase called and said they sent you mission specs!"

"All taken care of!" he stated proudly, planting the specs in her hand. "Just saved a kid from a crazy adult in Alaska! Yo Den, anything good on?" He walked to the couch.

"Well, they're playing Casper again, not that Halloween's coming anytime soon."

Leanne skimmed the specs. "Lee, it says you were supposed to study the base and bring back info, did you?"

"Well, not exactly, but this kid was trapped there and I saved her, then I, uh, brought her home! Heheh."

"So where does she live?" she asked with a suspicious glare.

"…New Jersey."

"Incoming transmission from Moonbase." Their show was interrupted when Cheren's face appeared onscreen.

"Sector RZ, our flight radars show one of your ships flying in the middle of Pacific Ocean and just, crashing. We've also picked up a ship belonging to Sector IC inside your hangar. Care to explain?"

"…" Everyone's glares were focused on Lee. "Eh heh heh…" Lee scratched his head. "Okay, so maybe I didn't bring her to New Jersey…"

"Siiiiigh. Well, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to mark you guys for letting your ship fall to unauthorized use. And for taking the ship of another sector without permission. Watch yourselves, guys. And bring IC's ship back." Transmission ended.

"Lee, you don't even have a S.C.A.M.P.E.R., whose did you take?" Leanne asked.

"Yours. I knew the passcode."

"Well, did you remember to reset the passcode after you landed??"

"…Oh."

"Siiiiigh. Halright, guess we'll take Sector IC's back. Lulu, follow me in yours so I have a ride back. Just stay here Lee, we won't have time for any sidetrips." With that, they marched to the hangar, leaving Lee behind. The boy returned to the couch and slumped in depression.