OK everybody, here's another one of those 'Strange and Unusual' fics … Just hope it's not too weird…
Disclaimer: I don't own any characters involved in this story, and I am not responsible for any mental instability of any readers after this story is read…
Shades of Ron
Ron woke up the next morning after another mission in which he and Kim had thwarted another of Dr. Drakken's whacked schemes. It was a strange mission, at least as far as mission's usually go for the two of them. As per usual, he had played the Distraction to its usual perfection. But what was strange about the whole thing, is his last memory of the mission.
He had obviously gotten hurt while performing his normal duties, as he remembered lying down on the floor, feeling… what was he feeling? Tired? No, not really. Hurt? No, not that either. Maybe… Ron really wasn't quite sure how the mission ended, but there was one thing in his memory that brought forth a grin to his face… Kim looking down on him.
His red headed green-eyed friend of many years was leaning over with a look of concern, yet something else that he couldn't quite figure out. It wasn't sadness, yet it wasn't a joyous façade that covered her features. Though he did notice that there was a hint of… dread? It was very strange indeed.
The only thing Kim had said to him was "Everything's going to be OK Ron."
Shaking his head to get these strange thoughts out of his blond covered noggin Ron proceeded to get ready for school. It was a Friday, and he was actually looking forward to this day, because it was Pizza Day in the cafeteria. Yeah, it tasted like cheese covered cardboard, but like he always said, cheese covered cardboard, is still cheese. And of course his little Mole Rat buddy Rufus agreed.
But on this particular Friday, Ron didn't get to have his cheese covered cardboard, because Wade had beeped Kim for a quick mission right before lunch.
"Aww Mann!" Was heard echoing throughout the school after the familiar 4 beeps that the MHS student body had come to recognize immediately. So in a rush, Ron and Kim went outside the school to catch another experimental aircraft of strange design from none other than Global Justice.
Wade had told Kim that the two of them should be done with the mission in time for their next classes, so they should be able to get something to eat on their way to take care of the most recent villain du juor. In fact, it was Francis Lehrman, playing his alter ego Frugal Lucre. The bad thing was, was all they had to eat was GJ Rations, which were only slightly better than Cafeteria food.
This time Lucre was attempting to purchase lapel mounted laser weapons that were on special in the local Smarty Mart. Four for 10 Dollars, Aisle 28, next to the MeZod shirts.
The Money Saving Maestro almost made it through checkout when Kim and Ron showed up. It was a quick slam-bam-thank-you-ma'am mission, but something had gone wrong with one of the lasers, which was accidentally activated when Ron had tackled Francis when he tried to blast his way through the front doors after the security system had slammed them shut.
Ron took a full blast from one of the lasers on the side of his neck, severing one of his carotid arteries. Before passing out from loss of blood, Ron could have sworn that he heard Kim say "Oh no… not again."
…x x x x…
Snapping his head up from a pool of drool on his desk, Ron couldn't believe that he had fallen asleep again in Ms. Whisp's Algebra class. This time his head was jumbled with so many different memories of what had occurred during the last mission, that he could feel a slight headache coming on.
Ms. Whisp was handing out another pop quiz that he just stared at dumbly for most of the class time, and ended up just writing down any numbers that came to mind as answers. When he handed in the quiz with only seconds to spare before the class bell, the teacher did a cursory glance at Ron's paper and just shook her head side to side, knowing that this would be another 'F' for Ron Stoppable.
The next class in Ron's schedule was a Study Hall, and it was one of the few classes that he had without Kim. In fact, Kim's next class was a can-of-corn for her, as it was Phys. Ed. So instead of studying, like he should have been, Ron excused himself to go find Kim in the gymnasium, and hopefully ask her some questions about the last mission.
There were so many memory gaps that he shouldn't have since the mission was just a few hours ago. "It's almost as if… my memories are… incomplete." Ron mumbled to himself as he pushed his way through the doors leading into the gym.
Just as Ron walked onto the wooden floor, he knew something wasn't quite right. There wasn't anyone there. With a narrowed brow Ron scanned the entire court looking everywhere for… anyone.
"Maybe they're having class outside." Ron mumbled, and then mentally chastised himself for talking to himself once again.
Then Ron heard someone in the equipment room as he passed by, and stopped to peer inside. Far back in one corner Ron thought he saw movement, and just before he could call out to whoever was in there, they just… disappeared.
What in the… Ron thought to himself and went back to the corner where he thought he had seen someone. What he found was a corner of the room that was strangely bare. There were large shelves that covered both intersecting walls of the corner, but there was enough space between the corners of the shelves for someone to squeeze past. Once he was back in the tight confines of the corner, Ron was basically penned in by the walls and the ends of the two shelves. Not noticing that one of his shoelaces had come untied, when Ron turned around to squeeze back out of the small space, he lost balance and put his hand out to steady himself. "Whoa…" His hand came into contact with what appeared to be a box of kneepads for Lacross, but the box didn't move. Instead, a hidden panel in the side of the box pressed in, and Ron felt a small breeze on the back of his neck.
There on one side of the corner was a small doorway, again just big enough for a person to squeeze through, which he did. Ron was so distracted by this strange egress from the Equipment Room that he didn't even hear Rufus' squeaks of protest.
After walking just a few feet down a dimly lit narrow hallway, there was an equally narrow and dimly lit set of stairs heading downwards. Placing his hands on the rough-hewn walls, Ron descended the stairs for what seemed like at least 10 minutes.
Finally the stairs came to a stop, and his feet stepped on what sounded and felt like a metal walkway, or catwalk. The lighting was a bit brighter here, but all Ron could make out was the metal walkway and a single railing on one side. Opposite of the railing was a cement wall, which was what the walkway was attached to, but on the other side of the handrail it was pitch black. Ron leaned over to see if he could make out anything, and a wave of dizziness passed over him, making him lean up against the cement wall.
What is this place? He thought to himself, and then Ron saw on one end of the catwalk what appeared to be a room of some kind with bright light spilling out of the doorway.
While placing a hand on the cement wall, Ron quietly made his way towards the brightly-lit room. Looking down at his pocket to see if Rufus was seeing what he was looking at, Ron noticed that his pet seemed to be sound asleep in his pocket.
That's strange… He thought to himself. Rufus would normally be as curious as me in a situation like this.
Ron stopped just before he reached the door when he heard a voice that he immediately recognized. It was Kim's!
"Wade… I know I shouldn't be down here, but I wanted to talk to you in person about this. I think something is wrong with this Ron."
Ron leaned back a bit in consternation at Kim's choice of words. This Ron?
"I had a feeling something might happen sooner or later Kim," Wade said, "And I think it was because of the extremely short time between Rons after your last mission."
By now Ron's head was swimming. What are they talking about? "This Ron"? "Short time between Rons?"
Wade spoke again. "I need to check out a few things to make sure we don't have anymore glitches like this Kim."
Then Ron heard a loud snap, and the walkway he had just been on immediately started to get brighter. Down below the walkway he saw large banks of lighting coming on in rows. Each row was turning on sequentially, and moving up to where he was.
With a confused look on his face, Ron followed the lighting as each row lit, and when the row right in front of him illuminated, Ron jumped back against the cement wall with a look of terror on his face. The rows of lights were illuminating alcoves that contained a person, and that person in each alcove was… him!
Ron's jaw dropped in horror as the lighting continued on up at least 10 more rows, and then he looked down each row that led away from his position. Each row seemingly went on forever!
There must be HUNDREDS of… me. Ron thought with both shock and awe.
Then Ron heard movement back in the room where he had heard Kim and Wades' voice. He turned around just in time to see the two face to face as they exited the room, and both Kim and Wade said only two words before everything went black for him.
"Oh snap."
…x x x x…
Ron awoke the next morning with the worst headache. He stumbled down to the kitchen holding onto his head. Immediately he saw both of his parents sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast.
"Ronald, you look terrible this morning." His mother said. "Are you feeling OK?"
"I… I think so mom. I didn't sleep very well. I kept having really weird dreams." While rubbing at his dry and itchy eyes, Ron heard another voice that he immediately recognized as Kim's.
"Ron…" Kim said, "Maybe you should take the day off from school. You weren't looking too good after that last mission we had."
"Huh?" Ron's eyebrows narrowed in confusion. "But I thought our last mission was only a few hours ago?"
"Ron Honey…" His Mom said, "You must have took a pretty good hit to your noggin. Maybe Kim is right and you should stay home and rest."
"Uh huh… rest." Rufus chirped from the table with a smile, after swallowing a bite of a Breakfast Naco.
Jean then wrote on a small notepad and tore out the paper, handing it to Kim. "Here Kimmie… This is a note excusing Ron from school today."
This really served to confuse Ron even more. "But wait… Isn't today Saturday?"
Ron never noticed the small glances between Kim and his parents, and Kim quickly spoke up. "Wow, you really did hit your head. Today is Friday Ron, and tomorrow is Saturday. You should feel lucky for getting a long weekend."
"Yeah, having a long weekend from school is great Kim… But you know what really tanks?" Kim raised an eyebrow questioningly. "I'm gonna miss Pizza Day in the cafeteria!"
The end…
Yeah, this is what you get when one of those 'Strange and Unusual' Plot Bunnies come knocking on your door. I shouldn't have even answered it.