Delightful Mansion
Tanya glared up at the device in the room she was in. Dressed in one of her new best suits, a pair black dress pants, brown loafers, a white long sleeve blouse, a midnight blue vest that went over her blouse, and a bow tie to finish off the set to look professional for the tonight's job; all was going swimmingly until the Delightful children she would be working with, introduced her to their crowning invention to 'capture' the moment for each kid that attended the party.
Above her, from out of the wall, a refitted enormous camera was erected out on a few poles and joints, while a platform was raised up to it with a stairway for the Delightful Children to man the controls and take photos of each party-goer.
Tanya began seething at herself, at the Delightful children, and to great extent, Mr. Benedict.
From what the Delightful Children had explained, the Neural Suggestion ray would hypnotise the children into becoming Delightfuloids, an almost mirror copy of the Delightful Children themselves; and if that were the case, the implication that the Delightful Children were the end result of the same thing was whole nother matter altogether.
She was not about to let this go under her watch, she agreed to work under 'Father', but there was a limit to what she stooped down to; sure, there were many unruly children that caused havoc against Adult Businesses, but this was just stepping too far to force obedience on children.
Earlier
Ringing the doorbell of Mister Benedict's Mansion, Tanya waited patiently for the door to be answered; a minute or so passed before the door was opened by those Delightful Children, the five of them all smiled at once as they greeted her, "Greetings, you're early by five minutes." They noted.
Tanya offered back a thin smile of her own, as she was gestured by the five children to come in, "It's courteous and well mannered to arrive a bit early for a job." she assured them, while the Delightful children nodded somewhat, and walked alongside Tanya.
"Now-" The Delightful Children started speaking back while Tanya and them walked through the hallways of the mansion, "Father mentioned he already gave you the list of things you'll be needing to do, while we on the other hand, have our own thing going on during the party!" They explained with a bit of odd smirk shared between them.
Tanya 'hmm'ed' in response, before replying back to the children, her gaze drifted to them in a sideways glance, "Ah, so your Father also gave you responsibilities for the parties." she nodded.
The Delightful Children continued to smirk as they spoke with Tanya, giving her a sideways glance as well, "You can say that." They responded, before looking back forward as Tanya and the Delightful Children walked through the hallways.
"Allow us to show you the best part of the party, it's something we worked on to make the night be remembered forever!" The Delightful Children continued speaking.
Tanya lifted a curious brow, while giving the children another sideways glance, "What. Like a photoshoot for the children to take home?" she questioned, that seemed like the appropriate thing for the party to have, and logical one at that, for the Delight Children to word it that way.
While Tanya continued to walk beside them, the Delightful Children curled their lips into a cruel smile while expressing delight on their faces. "Yes! Quite so in fact, and it's right in here!" They chorused as they led Tanya to the room in question.
As the children led Tanya into the aforementioned room, Tanya was greeted to the sight of an oversized looking camera that was erected from out of the far end wall; Tanya frowned a bit as she looked up at the contraption that would be part of the party event, "Behold, the Neural Suggestion Ray camera!" The Delightful children stood in front of Tanya, and gestured at the device behind them.
At that point, a lot of alarm bells ran through Tanya's mind, while at the same time, her expression went unnoticed by most of the Delightful Children as they turned around to fully face their creation…save for the one with the helmet on.
Neither Tanya nor the Delightful Children noticed Lenny's perceptive glance he sent Tanya's way before he turned around with his siblings, "Tonight, every child shall become delightfulized by the end of the party!" The children explained while praising their invention with their hands raised towards the affirmation device, "With this, our Father will be one step closer to conquering the world, and ridding the planet of that rotten KND!" They cheered, all the while missing the seething look Tanya was sending the device.
Just as the Delightful Children turned back around, and Tanya herself reeled her expression back in, Lenny was able to see the minute cutaway that Tanya sent the device, making him narrow his eyes at the girl, before regaining his expression to mimic his siblings. "So, all you need to do, as Father said, is manage the party! Leave this part to us!" The Delightful Children said with smiles.
Offering the children back a thin smile of her own, albeit a tense one, "I see, quite the eventful night." she noted with a terse tone, earning joyous nods from the Delightful Children.
Wringing their hands gleefully, the Delightful Children spoke back to Tanya, "Quite so! Now excuse us, we need to slip into our best suits!" They chorused, before exiting the room, leaving Tanya by herself, fully trusting the evil girl that sacked the KND bases, and took out so many operatives.
Present
Tanya planned on negotiating her contract with Mister Benedict tomorrow, brainwashing children was where she drew the line; hurting them, punishing them, ransacking their treehouses was fine, but this needed to be sabotaged.
Just as she was about to step forward to see about rewiring the device to make it not work, a lispy voice halted her in her tracks, "Who are you with?" The voice called out to her calmly from behind her.
Tanya's eyes narrowed, how had this happened for the second time!? Someone snuck up behind her, she must be slacking hard, for this to happen for anyone to get the jump on her; either they were proficient in stealth, or they had some unnatural ability to stay silent.
"Turn around, and face me." The lispy male voice demanded, prompting Tanya to do just that, while keeping her guard up.
As she turned around steadily to face the speaker, standing against the door, was undoubtedly one of the Delightful Children, save for his helmet was off and his face was visible for her to see his mouth brace visible; the boy glared back at her while the two of them stared each other down.
Silence permeated between the two for a few seconds, "I've never seen another evil kid glare at an evil device like that…" The boy noted while glaring back at Tanya, and stepped forward, "I'll ask again, who do you really work for?" He pressed Tanya for answers with a narrowed look.
Tanya pursed her lips, before answering the boy, "So far, I work for Mister Benedict, that's who I work for, but I fail to see why I shouldn't be glaring at a device you made to brainwash children." she spat back, while the boy himself lightened his narrowed look.
"Curious…Yet, you work for the evil adults, destroyed KND bases, dispatched so many of their operatives." The boy pointed out, giving Tanya an accusatory glare, "A bit hypocritical to just cry shame for working for evil, the moment you see something you're against." he spat.
Tanya glared back at the boy, "It was easy to destroy those bases, taking out their operatives, there should always be a line, and brainwashing is one of them!" She challenged back, seething at being talked down by this delightful child.
The boy said nothing, but his eyes trailed up at the device that was the source of Tanya's ire, "...I sometimes question who really is more evil these days…" he half-whispered, half spoke, before his eyes snapped back down to Tanya, "Miss Weber…you've already made yourself a target of the KND for life without a doubt, there's no going to them for help, and now you are stuck glaring at a weapon that the Evil Adults would use to subjugate children…you can't just back out of this now, now that you are this deep." He told her with focused eyes glaring at her.
The air became tense between the two, Tanya had indeed climbed the metaphorical ladder of trust the Adults had in her from Werk.Co to Mister Benedict's service.
Without a question, the Adults ran the world, and behind it all, 'Father' ran the show with his Evil Coalition of Adult Villains that punished children.
After another round of silence passed between the two, the boy turned around and placed his football helmet on, "Miss Weber, fair warning, both sides are guilty of terrible things, you had best figure out what game you really want to play between the two." he warned, before leaving the room through the shadows, but not before pausing as he entered the shadows with his silhouette still visible, "Oh, and you'll need to look for the green wires in the wall under the camera…I'd say, you might want to cut them and twist them with the red ones…" he added, before he fully disappeared into the darkness.
The entire room now fell silent with Tanya in it, "...was that a mole?" Was all she questioned, the entire conversation she had with that boy, felt like he worked for both sides and knew how both operated.
It was more than likely that boy was a mole for the KND, but that led to the question, were his siblings in on it too…but weren't they all delightfulized? So many questions ran through Tanya's mind from that one conversation.
Looking back at the Neural Suggestion Ray Camera, and the panel in the wall under it, Tanya pursed her lips in thoughts, "...I suppose sabotage it for now, question that boy later…" she whispered.
Lenny
Once the party began at eight, and children began trickling in into the mansion for their party, Lenny and his siblings greeted each attendee, along with Sector V; while it was good to see Numbuh 1 be the most suspicious of his siblings, the rest of his sector showed some of their own suspicion, but once they entered the main room of the party, everyone split up to party it up…
Save for Numbuh 1. While Miss Devine, his girlfriend, insisted on getting 'Nigie' to stop being a spoil sport and just enjoy the party, Numbuh 1 was stubborn enough to keep his wits about him throughout the party.
Miss Weber of course was managing the staff just fine, and of course was scrutinised by Numbuh 1, before she pushed him away and demanded he let her work.
while Lenny walked around the main ballroom with his siblings to check up on each guest and recommend having their 'picture' taken, he gave an idle glance at Lizzie Devine every now and then.
He wasn't just a mole for the K.N.D., he was a mole for the T.N.D. and the A.N.D.; albeit most operatives in the Adults Next Door were barely in the triple digits across the world, the KND were very picky with what teens they let keep their memories once they reached adulthood.
But thinking back to the topic in mind, Lenny's gaze drifted back to Lizzie Devine as he walked with his siblings towards the back of the ballroom, the direction of the 'photoshoot' room, intel suggests she's an alien; and not just any alien, Lizzie Devine is part of the Galactic Kids Next Door…
Taking his gaze back forward, Lenny internally thought to himself, "Is she perhaps keeping an eye on Nigel Uno?...he is Numbuh zero's child afterall…very curious indeed…" Lenny mused to himself, as he walked up the stair of the platform underneath the 'camera'.
His Delight Siblings smirked as they began configuring the controls, just before a couple of kids entered the room to have their picture taken, here's hoping Miss Weber sabotaged the device…he could have done it himself, but he only had enough time on his own away from his siblings, and the time a lot when he spoke along with Miss Weber was too short of a close call before the others were beginning to wonder where he went off to.
His simple excuse was he needed to go number 2 real bad to his brothers and sisters, and all suspicion was gone and the awkwardness from the conversation was left there; none of them went to the bathroom together, and none of them took a bath together, it was the few things everyone did alone, beside dress themselves alone into clean clothes.
Speaking with the others, they all chorused as one, "Greetings! We do hope you had a great time! And to commemorate this event, allow us to snap a photo of you! You'll want to savor this moment, for it will be your last!" They all said, while Bruce held the button device that would make the Neural suggestion ray snap its beam at the unknowing victim.
Eggbert, the odd looking boy that he was, looked up in confusion, "uh…what was that?" he asked, his tone uncertain and confused at the Delightful children's wording.
Before Eggbert said anything else, Bruce thumbed the camera's button, and a flash went off, brightening the room up; as the flash disappeared, Eggbert was still himself and not delightfulized.
"Grrr. What!?" The Delightful children shouted in anger, expressing annoyance that the kid below was not delightfulized, all the while Eggbert shrugged and walked off, allowing another set of kids to walk in and get their picture taken
"Cheese!" the boy and girl said.
"Hmmm." The Delightful children said while Bruce held the control button up and thumbed the button, another flash went off before all was normal again, showing again no delightfulization of the kids below. "That's not right!" They all shouted and glared while the random boy and girl skipped up to enjoy the rest of the night.
While his siblings raised a fuss over how their invention wasn't doing its job, and perhaps they had missed a step in creating the device, internally, Lenny mused to himself. "Miss Weber…I do hope you stick working with Father…it'd help make my job easier to sabotage my siblings and father's plans…"
Tanya was definitely an oddity, out of the many children and teens he's known; from evil to good, all have an agenda against the other side, but what was Tanya Weber's end goal? What was she expecting to do if she was planning on working for Father the entire time, before she knew about the brainwashing…
"I'm pretty sure she'd also be against the KND more too, knowing their decommissioning rule…" Lenny continued to think, while Bruce continued to try and delightfulize each kid that came in to get their picture taken; it started to get old by the time Numbuh 3 and 4 came to get their picture taken and left, with his brothers and sisters crying out in frustration.
"That's it!" He spoke with the others while Bruce threw down his control button, all of them glared at the camera jutting out of the wall, "This night is ruined, Sebastian, start the fireworks up, get this night over with already!" The Delightful children raised their arms up in frustration after calling for their butler to get the pyrotechnics started.
From the corner of the room, Their new butler sighed and walked off, "Very well, Sirs and Madams." He responded, expressing an apathetic look on his face, before leaving the room, having been there the whole time.
Tanya
Standing outside with everyone else, since the staff were allowed to watch the show as well, she watched the fireworks fly up into the air and explode into fine works of artistic explosions; from making smiley faces into the air to making palm tree looking sparks, to big explosions that rocked the ground and air, it was all well quite good.
Within her vision, Tanya could see sector V and that Lizzie Devine girl stood out on the driveway with the many other children, all attention was paid towards the festive explosions. She was of course given the suspicious treatment from them, but she cared not for their opinion.
Before long, a set of footsteps in the grass alerted Tanya to someone's presence coming to her right; before long, that same delightful boy from before walked up beside her but kept his gaze upwards towards the sky; his helmet was off, while he wore a set of posh pajamas, his arms were folded behind his back while he stared up at the fireworks.
After a round of a few seconds passed, the boy finally spoke, "We never got acquainted, did we?" he inquired.
Bringing her eyes forward to watch the fireworks, but keeping her peripherals open to keep the boy in her eyesight, Tanya spoke in a frank tone, "No. Your father never introduced me to you or your siblings individually. At least, not yet." she answered.
"Hmm…you can call me Lenny." He introduced himself, "Miss Weber, have you figured out what you plan on saying to my Father tomorrow?" he followed up asking, keeping a concentrated look up at the fireworks.
What was this boy's angle? She'd have to find out where he was going with this, "Yes…why do you ask?" she inquired, narrowing her eyes while giving him a sideways glance.
Lenny didn't bother to look at her, but continued to speak, "Just thinking…" he answered, before slowly bringing his attention to give her a straight look, "Miss Weber…it would be wise to never fully trust the KND…nor the Evil Adults…be careful how you tread in the future…coffee powers or not." he warned.
Silence reigned between the two, save for the fireworks, before Lenny started to head back in towards the front doors of the Delightful Mansion; Tanya watched the boy leave and enter his home. Without a doubt, that was a mole, and by the sounds of things, he was playing both sides for a third party group.
Tanya brought her attention back to the ongoing fireworks. The matter of working under Mr. Benedict had become a whole lot more complicated, beside the brainwashing part; the mere thought made her want to break his limbs over it, but the man was supposed to be the big bad to the Kids Next Door.
She has never seen the man fight yet.
This whole world was just insane to the ninth degree, the moment she was born, everything was beyond her imagination.
Should she keep working under the man, gain his trust, before finally supersede him and toss him out? Leave and try to work on her own?