Valerie's house, Next morning
While the house was filled with the smell of pancake and sausages in the process of being cooked, the girls were in the living room with the television on playing morning cartoons; While Valerie's mother was cooking up breakfast for everyone, with some help from Miss Thompson for letting her stay the night to recoup herself, the awkward atmosphere amongst the girls filling the room.
Tanya had spent the rest of the night sleeping on one of the couches, while Miss Thomson took the other; Since the necklace was the cause of the teacher's behavior and actions, Tanya somewhat safely assumed the teacher was harmless, but that remained to be seen. Her guard was up, but her exhaustion claimed her to sleep.
The present morning, Tanya had woken up to the sound of breakfast cooking, while Miss Thompson and Miss Grey were talking about how Miss Thompson would need to find a lawyer to sue her ex husband for gifting her a cursed necklace, and not something that was meant as a parting gift of their marriage.
Now, after the girls had woken up and entered the living room to sit down, and watch some cartoons, both Tanya and Valerie had been sitting on opposite couches; the other girls themselves were giving sideways glances at the two, before minding the cartoon show playing for children.
Tanya stared directly over at Valerie, a tense gaze from her made Valerie uncertain how long it would take to mend her friendship with Tanya; the tension soon broke the moment Tanya sighed, and spoke with a frank tone, "Valerie, you broke my trust, you know that. Right?" she questioned.
Valerie perked a bit up, now that Tanya was talking to her, but nodded somberly; this felt like the same as when her mom or dad would tell her, 'I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed.'
It was easy to feel her parents' anger whenever she earned their ire when she did something bad, misbehaved, or failed a test with an abysmal score, when they knew she was smart enough to do better. It always hurts seeing and hearing her parent's disappointment more than feeling their anger.
With Tanya, she was expressing her disappointment and betrayal of Valerie's friendship with her.
Valerie began wringing her hands as she spoke with Tanya with an apologetic look, "Look, I know I did something awful last night…and I wanted to make up for it! Honest!"
Tanya narrowed her eyes at Valerie, of which Valerie felt she was being pinned down by that stare, it felt like it was a searing gaze that would unravel the weakest adult under it, "Trust is earned back, Valerie, not given. You know that, right?" she questioned back, earning a slow nod from Valerie.
Smiling a bit now, seeing there was a chance to mend her friendship with Tanya, Valerie spoke to her friend with a thin smile, "Thanks, I'll see what I can do to make this right." she responded.
Tanya nodded back stiffly, before softening her gaze and directed her eyes over to Muffy Jenkens, who sat on the same couch as her 'that's right, I was planning on getting her to step out from running for the fourth grade president position…' she thought to herself. It slipped her mind to ask Muffy in the midst of the slumber party…
But then again, now thinking back, it might not have been an appropriate action. The slumber party was supposed to be fun for the girls, albeit in the guise of making Tanya a weredog, but the thought still counted.
Seeing where Tanya were leading to, and Muffy herself shirking a bit back from the intense gaze of Tanya, Valerie perked up and seeing her chance to begin helping Tanya and her presidency she was planning on running for, "Oh, that's right! Muffy, I've been meaning to ask you something since last night!" Valerie spoke to Muffy with a bit more hopeful attitude, letting the atmosphere ease up on the tenseness.
Tanya on the other hand allowed the conversation to flow in this direction, it was better to not dwell too much on last night's incident, and allow Valerie to start making amends by helping Tanya out.
Surprised that the spotlight was now on her, Muffy looked between Tanya and Valerie with a confused look, "Oh, okay…um…like what?" she asked.
Valerie smiled a bit more, as she held out an offering hand gesture, "Well, Tanya is planning on running for fourth grade president, and we were at the time before last night, were planning on asking you to drop out and join us!" she offered.
Muffy glanced between the two again, an uncertain gaze was expressed on her face, before shifting into a relief while palming her chest, "Really!? I mean, I wasn't sure if I could run against James and win, he's well liked and popular amongst everyone!"
Tanya gave Muffy a look, before speaking her mind with a thin smile, "Then by all means, join my presidential party. I plan on running a good campaign, I highly doubt James is the same person on the inside, like all politicians." She explained, earning the attention from everyone, "Whatever he may be promising, there's probably only so much he can do that the school board allows, he'll most likely be giving empty promises to all the students at worst."
Later
It was agreed Muffy would join Tanya's party, right before breakfast was finished and ready. While Muffy had quite the popularity, it wouldn't help her in the long run against James.
After the girls began leaving for home, most were picked up by their parents, Tanya presently was still outside standing across from Miss Thompson. The teacher expressed an apologetic smile down at her student. "Look…um…I hope you'll continue being one of my best students, and thank you, again, for taking that necklace off from me."
Tanya eyed her teacher back as she looked up at her with a scrutinizing gaze, "...how much of all that last night, were you under the influence of the necklace?" she questioned, earning a somewhat surprised look from her teacher.
"Oh!" Miss Thompson clasped her hands and wringed them a bit, before answering, "A…lot…really…the necklace always kept whispering words into my mind…." she reached up and massaged her head, "I was partially in control of myself, but if…if I didn't do what the necklace said, it would cause me migraines…" she then looked down at Tanya with worry.
"You…you're not planning on wearing the necklace you took. Are you?" Miss Thompson asked, giving her student a light glare.
Now that she was dressed in her normal attire, Tanya pulled out from her pocket the very necklace that caused Miss Thompson her troubles, "No…not really…there's more to this necklace than your husband probably knew…besides the curse…" she answered, causing Miss Thompson to give her student a curious and confused look.
"Excuse me?" Tanya's teacher questioned, making Tanya look back from the necklace in her hand and back to miss Thompson's face.
Pocketing the still glowing necklace, Tanya spoke back to her teacher with a frank tone, "The jewel on the necklace. It is without a doubt a jade magatama." Tanya started off by explaining, "I know my Japanese history quite well, and I know for a fact Magatamas are not supposed to be cursed." she answered.
Internally, Tanya thought to herself as her teacher thought on that information, "And given this world's supernatural existence, and everything else, there should be more to this necklace itself perhaps…perhaps a deeper history to it, I should find who made it in the first place…"
She was curious as to why a magatama of all things caused the curse.
Miss Thompson cupped her cheek while she rested her elbow into her hand as she formed a thinking pose, "...you're…not wrong…I mean…that necklace was a parting gift my husband gave me while we were in Japan…" she mused, narrowing her eyes at the thought, before shrugging to herself and smiled, "But my, you are really something, always so studious to know other cultures as well!" She expressed her delight towards her student.
Tanya offered her teacher a thin smile, "I like to study, what can I say?" she shrugged back, she would keep an eye on her teacher for the foreseeable future, so see if there were any residual effects of the necklace.
She was for sure not going to wear it herself, and she couldn't trust an adult or the KND with the things, lest another incident of weredogs would run rampant.
But if she could find the maker or seller at the very least of the necklace, perhaps she could find out why or how it was a jade magatama jewel that caused the curse.
Eyeing Miss Thompson once more, Tanya spoke with a curious tone, "Do you perhaps know where your ex husband bought the necklace in Japan?" she asked without batting an eye.
"Oh!" Miss Thomson expressed a delighted smile, "I do, in fact, I even hold the receipt back at home, something…I'm surprised my ex gave it to me…" She mused at the end with a concerned look.
Tanya afforded herself a smirk. That helped immensely to track down the shop that sold the necklace in Japan.
Delightful Mansion, Lenny
Walking in pace with his siblings was easy, keeping them oblivious to his real personality and person was a whole different matter; over the few years, ever since he was defeated along with his siblings at the hands of their adoptive Father and his guerrillas with lasers…Lenny was still puzzled how Father got his hands on such powerful beasts…
Ever since then, Lenny had made due with acting, it was awkward and annoying at first, but he managed to stay undercover of being delightfulized along with his sector; he learned the role over the years, and none have caught on to the facade he showed.
Currently as he walked along with his siblings through the Delightful Mansion, his siblings' plot for the upcoming party they were throwing would be holding a special photoshoot part of it, to help the kids 'commemorate' the night.
He, along with his siblings, requested from their father to allow them to use part of his delightfulization chamber schematics to create a lesser version of the invention, to delightfulize everyone at the party. It took a week and a few days, but the Neural Suggestion Ray was finally finished.
He hated that part of his hand was put into making the blasted thing, but for the sake of leaking secrets, sabotaging the worst plans hatched by his siblings and father, to being one of the deepest undercover agent as a delightfulized child, he had to keep the facade up; the only saving graze he was able to put into the Neural Suggestion Ray, while everyone was asleep at night, was sneaking into the room to make adjustments to the creation.
Any and all bright flashes, would render the effects on the children null and void; it was his final piece of the creation, and one he dearly hoped one of Sector V's would find out the cure to the delightfuloidization of everyone at the party tonight.
Lenny's thoughts were soon ceased as he and his siblings entered their father's study, a room where two rectangular pits of fire were situated on the left and right side of the room, a red carpeted walkway leading up to Father's leather chair, of which itself was placed atop a platform with stairs leading up to it.
Father himself had his chair facing his bay windows that looked over the backyard garden, the man smoked from his pipe, the indication being the lit pipe in his hand as he rested his arm on the armrest of his chair.
As Lenny and his siblings approached the bottom of the stairs, he and his siblings took a knee of respect towards Father and waited for him to turn his chair around and face them; silence permeated the room save for the crackling of fire behind him and his siblings, before Father finally spoke in a calm tone, not bothering in the slightest to turn around and look at them, "You'll be having Miss Weber attend the party…she'll be helping with security and staff." he ordered,
Lenny smiled with his siblings, even though with his helmet it went unseen, but it was all part of the act, before speaking with everyone in a generally happy tone, "Thank you Father, we look forward to working with Tanya. It was such a delight to hear how she sacked several KNDork bases! We're sure she will be a fine minion to our cause!" They all chorused as one.
It was easier than one thought, to synchronize his words with his siblings; there was almost a hive mind-like effect the delightfulization caused to his siblings, and for him, he was able to tell ahead of time what they were about to say, think and do, but never the other way around.
And he was glad, otherwise, his cover would have been blown years ago.
The floor underneath Father turned, allowing his leather chair and him to face his delightful children, before he spoke, "Who said anything about being a minion to you?" He asked back, the eyes underneath his silhouette narrowed at his adopted children. "Miss Weber will not be answering to you, she will be working alongside you." Father pointed his free hand at his delightful children.
Lenny bowed his head along with his siblings, before speaking as one, "Apologies, we just assumed we were going to be her bosses."
Father grunted in reply, before speaking after, "Miss Weber has her own priorities, I have mine, and you have yours. Tonight will just be my little job I'm giving her, she needs to earn her pay afterall." he explained.
Lenny looked back up with everyone, and spoke with an eerie but cheerful tone, "Very well Father, We then look forward to working alongside Miss Weber. We're sure she'll be a fine first friend we can accommodate to us in your conquest against those KND brats!" They all chorused with an evil smile.
Father took a puff from his pipe, before taking it out and pointing it at them, "Good, now leave, I have other businesses to call up." he ordered, before his chair turned around, prompting his Delightful children to stand up and walk off to leave.
As Lenny walked with his siblings out the doorway of Father's study, he gained some semblance of what his siblings were thinking about this Tanya Weber; a potential tool for them to ascend to adulthood with her control over coffee, to an actual potential friend amongst other Child villains they hire from time to time.
Even a stray thought passed through Lenny's siblings' minds, of whether they should share their birthday cake with the girl, before quickly squashing it down. The birthday cake was theirs, and not something to share with anyone else.
Lenny withheld the urge to roll his eyes, 'I supposed nothing will change with them.' He thought to himself as he walked with his siblings.
Sector V Tree house
Returning to the base was a simple affair, getting up just as well for Abigail and Kuki. for the boys, they too returned to base to sleep in their respective rooms the treehouse offered them. So now, in the morning after, with everyone awake in the morning, everyone was relaxing in the chillzone room.
With a sizable wrap around couch that offered enough space for twelve or more operatives, and a jumbo screen television huge enough for eight splitscreen games to be played, Sector V enjoyed their morning ranging from eating a bowl of rainbow monkey marshmallow cereal, to watching the television that was airing four cartoon shows at once.
A real peak efficiency of enjoying the weekend as most KND operatives would call it.
Nothing was said yet between everyone, of what they did or saw last night, and Nigel didn't press for questions so early in the morning, but he did request a debrief around noon.
With Nigel sitting at the center, Wallabee and Hoagie to his right and the girls to his left, he was left to ponder about the rumors circulating about those Delightful Children hosting some sort of party at their mansion.
As if answering his internal thoughts, the nearby mailbox he installed into the side of the wall, dinged as its flag stood up showing it was just now given mail through its system.
"Looks like we got mail." Hoagie remarked, while looking over at the mail box as Nigel got off from the couch to retrieve the mail from the mailbox.
"Hm…probably an invite to that Delightful party." Abigail added, she herself looked over at Nigel as he approached the mailbox and opened it up. "Been hearing other kids have been getting them Friday." she finished saying, while keeping a chill tone.
Nigel himself furrowed his brow in suspicion, and used the nearby safety tongs to pull the piece of paper inside the box and took it out for all to see, "You're right…" Nigel said, as everyone looked over at him as he held the paper out for all to see, "An invitation to the delightful mansion for the party they are throwing."
"Well-" Abigail motioned with her hand for Nigel to read it, "-What's it say? Numbuh 5 knows we'll be attending it, who knows what those Delight Dorks are planning!" she said, earning a nod from Wallabee as he punched his fist.
Wallabee smirked and spoke with a prideful tone, "Yeah, last time we went there, we beat Father!" he added.
Nigel shook his head, "Not quite beat him completely, Numbuh 4, but we won the fight against him." He was still glad he wasn't an adult anymore, he was still wondering to this day why the decommissioning squad hadn't tried to hunt him down at the time. The KND module that everyone sticks their boogers into, is supposed to know whenever someone reaches the age of thirteen.
And he had long surpassed the age of thirteen when those Delightful Children hit him with the age-ifying cigar, and turned him into an adult.
"Now let's see here…" Nigel began reading the paper, "Yeah, it pretty much says we're invited." he lowered the parchment so that he could face his teammates, "Alright, here's the plan, everyone needs to partner up for this, but seeing as how there's only five us here…" he sighed while palming his forehead of who he knew he'd have to call up.
Kuki smiled as she watched Nigel lament that he'd be out of a partner, "Oh relax, Lizzie said she was sorry, right?" she asked, referencing the last time Lizzie Devine almost brainwashed Nigel with the Boyfriend helmet.
"Well, yeah!" Nigel exclaimed with a shake of his head, and annoyed tone, "But I don't know if she'll take this mission seriously!" He added.
"Hmm." Abigail hummed, before she pointed at Nigel, "Well, you better call her now, we all need to go home to get our best suits for this shindig." she warned him.
Slipping his hand off from his head Nigel nodded in agreement, "Right." he agreed, before walking off to leave, "Let's all meet back here at seven p.m. sharp, the party is supposed to begin at eight, leaving us a good time to prepare!" he ordered, as he left the room.
Once he was gone from sight, Wallabee looked over at his friend Hoagie and spoke with an annoyed tone, "I still don't know why he tolerates Lizzie." he shook his head.
"Meh." Hoagie shrugged with his arms and hand, before responding back to Wallabee, "Who knows, she's his girlfriend, not ours." he carelessly noted.