Operation: N.A.U.G.H.T.Y.

"Operation: N.A.U.G.H.T.Y." (short for "Operation: Ninnies Almost Undo Greatest Holiday This Year") is a special half-hour Christmas episode of the Cartoon Network original series Codename: Kids Next Door.

Synopsis
The story, which is shown as a Marvel-style comic book, opens at Santa Claus's workshop, where the elves are all singing as they work on the toys. However, one elf named Wintergreen (a parody of Wolverine) refuses to sing along, saying he is only here to keep an eye on things. Just then, there is a knock on the door and one of the elves goes to answer it, only to get hit by a tranquilizer dart. The intruders, who appear to be the operatives of Kids Next Door's Sector V, shoot all of the elves with the tranquilizer darts and take the secret passageway that leads to what appears to be Santa's sleigh. Santa gets out of his "sleigh", demanding to know what the intruders are doing here, but he too is tranquilized.

After the title sequence, we see KND Sector V returning from a mission. Numbuh 3 points out that she picked up the last gift she had to buy while on the mission, and it is a very special present for Numbuh 4. Numbuh 4 is anxious to know what it is, but Numbuh 3 tells him he has to wait for them to exchange gifts tomorrow. Unfortunately, though, it is implied that Numbuh 4 has not bothered to buy gifts for Numbuh 3 or any of his friends, since he thinks that is Santa's job. Numbuh 3 points out that real friends give gifts to each other too, but to her disappointment, Numbuh 1 and Numbuh 5 then reveal they haven't bothered to buy any gifts for her either.

When the Kids return to the site of their treehouse, they find that the entire place has been stolen, much to Numbuh 1's dismay. When Numbuh 1 demands to know who could have done this, Wintergreen shows up, introducing himself as their "worst Nightmare Before Christmas" and demanding that Numbuh 3 hand over her package. Mistakenly believing that Sector V is the group of intruders who have stolen Santa's Reindeer machine, Wintergreen attacks them, accompanied by his group, the Elfa Strike Squad - Nutcracker (a parody of Nightcrawler), Snowangel (based on Storm and Snowbird, though the name is also a reference to Archangel), and Coniferous (a parody of Colossus).

After quite a few minutes of brawling between the two groups, Wintergreen takes Numbuh 3 down with the Squad's ultimate ability - the "Twelve Days of Christmas Attack". But after taking the gift box from Numbuh 3, Wintergreen opens it to find that it is, in fact, a Secret Santa Surprise Reindeer Monkey. (Numbuh 4, needless to say, is rather displeased to learn that Numbuh 3's gift for him is a Rainbow Monkey, but Numbuh 5 points out that it's still better than him not getting Numbuh 3 anything.) Snowangel points out that the Secret Santa Surprise Reindeer Monkey is sold only at the Rainbow Monkey Superstore, where Sector V has spent the whole day doing Christmas shopping (that was the mission they were returning from). This leads Winterbolt to realize that Sector V, in fact, are not the intruders who showed up at the North Pole earlier.

Back at the North Pole, the actual intruders, the Delightful Children From Down the Lane, have now removed their disguises and taken Santa Claus hostage. Despite Santa being well aware that they are evil brats, the Delightful Children insist that they are good, well-behaved children, and they intend to "prove it" by making sure they get all of Santa's presents while all the actual good children get coal. The narrator (who talks like Stan Lee) explains at this point that Santa uses his Reindeer machine (which resembles the traditional sleigh) to transport presents to the homes of good children and coal to the homes of bad children. Unfortunately, now that the Delightful Children have taken control of the machine, they use it so that all the good children's presents are switched out with coal and transported to the Delightful Mansion, despite Santa warning them not to do this.

As the Delightful Children cackle with delight over the success of their plan, Sector V and the Elfa Strike Squad show up. But before either of them can go after the villainous kids, they are suddenly confronted by a substitute teacher named Edna Jucation, who has been employed to help the Delightful Children eliminate Christmas (because she hates that nobody cares about "Substitute Teachers Day"). Edna sends out her minions, the Faculty Four (an obvious parody of the Fantastic Four) - Mr. Physically Fitastic (a parody of Mr. Fantastic), Unintelligible Tutor (a parody of the Invisible Woman), Thesaurus Rex (a parody of The Thing), and the Human Text (a parody of the Human Torch) - to attack the good guys. The Elfa Strike Squad takes on the Faculty Four, telling Sector V to go after the Delightful Children.

Upon reaching the Reindeer system, however, Sector V finds that the Delightful Children, as a result of stealing all the good children's presents, have mutated into furry green creatures resembling the Grinch and are now begging for Sector V's help. The Kids Next Door promptly drag them away from the machine, which turns them back to their regular forms, and have them tied up alongside the defeated Faculty 4 and Edna. Unfortunately, Numbuh 3, furious that her friends forgot to get her anything, takes control of the machine herself and uses it to steal presents from all the good children, in the same way the Delightful Children did.

Numbuh 4, needless to say, is horrified to see that the girl he has a crush on is doing such a heinous act. Santa shows up and tells Numbuh 4 that there is only one way he can save his friend and sends him to do it. Numbuh 4 approaches the now-Grinchlike Numbuh 3, saying he has gotten her a present - a box of the French fries he was snacking on at the beginning of the episode. Upon seeing this, Numbuh 3 is so delighted that she returns to her normal form and embraces him. Santa promptly takes control of the Reindeer system and tells Sector V that they'd better get back to their homes so they can open their presents, but not before forgiving Numbuh 3 for her actions. Numbuh 1 then asks Wintergreen what they did with the treehouse, and it is then shown that the treehouse, decorated with Christmas lights, is now placed in front of an ice-skating rink.

Trivia

 * When the Faculty Four is defeated, Edna briefly threatens to call "the Arbor-Day Avengers" for backup; the name is obviously a reference to another Marvel Comics superhero team, the Avengers.
 * The subplot of Numbuh 3 trying to steal all the good children's presents and Numbuh 4 being the one to stop her is based on the plot of the X-Men story arc The Dark Phoenix Saga, in which Jean Grey (a.k.a. Phoenix) was driven mad with power, and her lover, Cyclops, had to bring her to her senses.

Availability
The episode was made available on the Cartoon Network Christmas 3 DVD, released by Warner Home Video on October 3, 2006.