The Numberland Princess

Trouble in Town

 In a dark and sinister lair, a certain tentacled supervillain was getting updated on the current situation by his smallest minions.

"So, the girl's royalty, eh?" Octonaughty smirked. "This is an interesting development."

"What are we gonna do?" asked the blue-masked Terrible Two. "Steal her crown? Ruin her dresses? Heck, maybe we could even take the throne for ourselves!"

"Hey, one thing at a time," said Octonaughty. "Though I've already got several nasty ideas..." He chuckled at the mere thought of what sort of tricks he could pull off.

That night, Octonaughty, the Terrible Twos and the Terrible Twenties snuck out of their lair and through the portal that sat outside the Numberblocks' large house. They ended up in the castle courtyard, and prepared to get inside and plant their tricks.

The Naughtyblocks were about to search for an entrance they could use when a voice caused them all to freeze up. "Ah, you must be Octonaughty and his gang."

Octonaughty turned around to see a tall human man. The supervillain was prepared for a fight, but the man continued with, "Don't worry, I'm not going to arrest you. In fact, I'd like to make a deal with you."

"What kind of deal?" asked an apprehensive Octonaughty.

"It's one where you'll be allowed to spread your chaos all over the kingdom," the man explained. "With the approval of royalty."

---

The next day started out fine. Some Numberblocks came back to explore the town, and by now most of the humans had started to be accustomed to their presence. Conflict only started arising when graffiti was discovered on several walls, each of them depicting 17 of something.

"What? I'd never paint on walls without permission!" Seventeen protested when he was confronted about it. "That graffiti isn't even anywhere close to the quality of my art!" It was true. They did look rather amateurish, as if someone had tried to copy Seventeen's style but not quite succeeded.

Things got worse when Eighteen was apprehended for speeding. He'd (very reluctantly) agreed to obey the speed limits, and though he insisted that one of the signs read 50, when authorities went back to check they saw it read 30 as usual.

Then there was the accident involving Fourteen. He was cruising along the sidewalk on his skateboard when he suddenly lost control and careened right into the street, forcing several drivers to slam their brakes. Thankfully nobody was hurt, but Fourteen was chewed out for being reckless and banned from using his skateboard in the town. A disheartened Fourteen decided to return to Numberland, having no idea how an expert skater such as him could've messed up like that.

Hiding in an alley, Octonaughty and his minions all snickered at the chaos they'd managed to cause so far. The Terrible Twos had been quick in swapping out the speed limit signs, and the Terrible Twenties snatched Fourteen's skateboard when he wasn't looking and quickly greased up its wheels. Now they were searching for their next opportunity to pull a nasty trick.

Eventually they found the animal shelter, which gave Octonaughty a very devious idea. He ordered his minions to stay where they were, and snuck into the shelter through one of the vents, ending up in the room where the animals' cages were kept. What he was about to do would be way too easy for him.

Outside the shelter, a loud crash could be heard, followed by the frantic barking of what sounded like an entire pack of dogs. The madlad had not only ripped all the cages' doors out, but actually torn a hole in the wall for all the dogs to escape out of. The Terrible Twos and Twenties stared at the unfolding chaos with a mix of awe and slight concern for their boss's mental state. It didn't help that he returned to them with a maniacal laugh and pure insanity in his eyes.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Can't wait to see how the humans react to that!"

The other Naughtyblocks stood in awkward silence until the purple-masked Two spoke up. "Octonaughty, we're starting to worry about you."

---

Dogs ran everywhere, with the shelter's staff members desperately trying to gather them together. Some Numberblocks pitched in to help, and an entire afternoon was spent rounding up dogs. When it was all over, the owner of the animal shelter confronted the Numberblocks.

"How did all those cage doors get torn off? And who destroyed part of the wall?" Her accusatory gaze flitted between Eight and the squares who were present.

"Hang on, you think one of us was responsible?" asked Thirty-Six.

"Well it doesn't seem like a human could've done all that," the owner replied. Sixteen stepped forward with anger in her eyes.

"Hey, none of us would ever do something like that!" she defended.

Fifteen realized what must've happened. "This had to have been caused by the Naughtyblocks." After catching the confused stares of some humans, she explained, "They're a group of troublemaking Numberblocks."

"So there are bad Numberblocks out there!" one person exclaimed. "We're not safe with them around!"

"Now, now, we're good at keeping them under control," Eight tried to assure the humans. But this wasn't enough for some folks.

"How many Naughtyblocks are there?"

"How dangerous are they?"
"How do we know you won't start pulling tricks on us?"

The Numberblocks could only stand back and watch the uproar. Humans were starting to turn against them, just as Brooke feared. What would the future of Numberland-Earth relations look like now?

---

Up in the castle, Octonaughty and his minions were relaying the events of today. King Andrew was pleased by the results, but still wasn't quite satisfied. Sure, releasing all those dogs was a pretty big disaster, but something more drastic needed to happen to turn the majority of the public against Numberblocks.

"So, what's next?" asked Octonaughty.

"I may need you to do something bigger than your usual pranks," answered King Andrew.

Octonaughty rubbed his tentacles together in anticipation. "Such as..?"

King Andrew was silent for a few seconds. "You'll see." The Naughtyblocks whispered devilish ideas amongst themselves, blissfully unaware of how far the king would be willing to go in order to have the Numberblocks under his control.