"TEEN, or the Teenage Extranormal Emergency Network, is a clandestine organization with its roots in the secret Legion of Newsboys Act passed during the second World War. Although, it should be noted, the concept of the organization is supported in various capacities throughout history such as the team led by Tom Edison Jr. in the late nineteenth century and stretching all the way back to the True Children's Crusade—"
Rex cut her off, "Let's try and keep it to more recent history, 512."
Agent 512 blushed. "Yessir. The so-called newsboys were a group of children that started out as a morale-building youth organization meant to focus on home front war efforts such as paper drives and rationing. Through accident and necessity, the legion eventually grew into an effective 'spy smashing' organization several thousand strong working against the German fourth column."
"Children fought Nazis in World War II?" Elly asked. The skepticism was thick in her voice.
"Nazi sympathizers and covert agents, to be more precise, Ms. Mourning," Agent 512 said, seeming not to notice the disbelief in Elly's tone. "By their very nature, these tended to be the weird, the occult, the fringe of Nazi efforts, and the 'newsboys' found themselves in the unique situation of dealing with threats that most adults would have discounted as impossible at best and insane at the least. Because of their willingness to deal with the bizarre, the newsboys saved the nation, and the world, many times over."
"I find this very difficult to believe," Saturday said. Elly nodded along with her.
"So say the girls whose fathers were kidnapped by flying robots," Rex growled. "Why don't you just listen and absorb, then when we tell you what happened to your dads, you can make a final decision on whether this entire complex of agents is crazy or not. Keep going, 512."
"After the war, the legion had made a frankly astonishing number of contacts nationwide, amassed a significant fortune from various sources such as Incan and Nazi gold, and had confiscated warehouses of weird technology and occult items. As the Cold War ramped up and the paranoia of the 1950s gave birth to all manner of mad scientists, dispossessed mystics, and would-be world beaters, the legion saw that they'd have to go entirely underground to handle the volume of new threats."
Agent 512 glanced nervously at Rex, who nodded at her to continue. "They used their influence and abilities to erase their existence from the historical record, more or less, and TEEN was born. TEEN exists entirely separate from all the clandestine espionage organizations of the world and, in many ways, above them, beside them, inside them. TEEN's mandate is to handle threats adults would consider too fantastical or ridiculous, yet are nevertheless omega level threats of epically dangerous proportions."
Hea bounced on her toes. "Ooooo, gimme some examples!"
"The Occult Vendetta, The Venus Needs Bubblegum Conspiracy, the Bell Bottom League, the threat of our nefarious counterpart PUNK. I could go on and on," 512 said.
"I've never heard of any of that," Hea said.
Rex grinned. "That's because we're good at our jobs."
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