This is a very belated response to CaptainKodak1's request for a second chapter to his marvelous story Where There's a Will. You should read that first to get the gist of the story before reading this. I start mys part of the tale just after Ron is buried in the tunnel, omitting his Edgar Allan Poe style ending.
I receive no compensation for this work. All characters are owned by Disney.
Xxxxxx
Ron slowly roused from the floor of the little alcove he was in. The small room was pitch black, sealed off from the rest of the tunnels in the mine where Dr. Drakken and Shego were digging for gold to fund their nefarious plots. Ron wasn't sure if the gold he'd taken away from Drakken was real or not, but the ruse to make the Mad Blue wanna-be Despot think otherwise certainly panned out and her got away with the goods.
At least for a little while.
He had met up with Kim and showed her the bag of gold but they were immediately confronted by Shego who blasted the roof over their heads. Ron was able to shove Kim out of the way of the falling rocks and dirt, but that also meant that he went backward.
"Equal and opposite reactions," Ron muttered to himself as he dusted off his pants. It suddenly hit him. "Hey, that's a science class thingie; one of Neutron's Logs or something like that."
Ron simply shrugged off the thought. Maybe it was a Fig Newton Log... or Law, or something.
Whatever.
He was still in the dark in a room the size of most people's bedroom closets. If only he had a flashlight or something.
Doh!
The blond boy reached into one of his cargo pants pockets and pulled out the small flashlight that he always carried on missions. How could he forget that.
Well, maybe the humongous headache that was jack-hammering in his skull might be the reason. When the roof partially collapsed, some of it came down upon him, knocking him dizzy for a minute or two. It also didn't do any good to his left lower leg either. His leg was either throbbing to beat the band or feeling completely numb, sometimes both. Something was definitely wrong with it. He couldn't put much weight on the leg without it collapsing like, well like a dirt ceiling hit by one of Shego's plasma blasts, so he lean against the wall for support.
"Heeheeheehee," Ron lightly tittered at the strange thoughts running through his head, then he stopped. "I don't titter," he thought to himself. "Well, not usually. Only when I'm highly embarrassed. And I never get embarrassed so I hardly ever titter."
"Wait. I'm getting distracted here," Ron realized. Being an expert on distractions, he knew when someone was distracted and when they weren't, and he was definitely distracted with these odd thoughts about Sir Isaac Newton and his head and leg hurting and tittering.
Wait. He was getting distracted by thinking about the distractions that were taking him away from something... He just couldn't figure out what. He tried to scratch his head to think... if he could even find his head in the dark...
The dark! That's what he was trying to remedy. But he couldn't scratch his head because something was in his hand. It was thin, about five inches long and round.
His flashlight, of course. He twisted the end with the lens in it and immediately had to shut his eyes; it was so blindingly bright. It also made his head hurt all the more so he cupped his fingers over the lens to cut back on the brightness.
"Rufus. A little help here, Buddy."
A pink blob popped partially up out of the front cargo pocket on Ron's pants, let out a huge yawn and look up at his friend. It suddenly let out with a startled gasp.
"Yeah," Ron lightly chuckled. Yes, chuckling was definitely better than tittering because it didn't hurt his head as much, but that's not the point he wanted to make. "Oh yeah. We're trapped underground with no way out."
"No," Rufus the naked mole rat yelped and and pointed before he scurried up to Ron's shoulder, but continued down to the fist holding the flashlight. He twisted Ron's wrist around and pried open the fingers before grabbing the flashlight that was as long as he was. He shown it at Ron's head and got a better look at what he thought he had seen. A patch of Ron's corn-colored hair was darkened with some kind of liquid; more than likely blood.
"Bleeding," the mole rat chirped.
"Yeah, it feels like my eyes are bleeding with that light shining in 'em," Ron growled as he swiftly shut his eyes and held his other hand up to block the light.
"No. Head bleeding," Rufus said as he tried to point to Ron's scalp but having a hard time doing so while holding onto the flashlight with only one paw.
"My head's bleeding!" Ron yelped in panic and tried to stand up straight, forgetting about his aching leg. A reminder was painfully sent to his brain via his nervous system and his leg gave way again. He fell back against the wall before quickly collapsing to the hard packed dirt floor.
Rufus somehow survived the fall, clinging onto Ron's mission shirt with his hind claws, but the flashlight fell to the ground and rolled a bit before it ended up pointing at Ron. The mole rat quickly scampered over to pick it up, and in doing so noticed more blood on Ron's left pant leg below the knee. "More bleeding," he said as he narrowed the beam of the adjustable lens and pointed it at the spot on Ron's leg.
"More? More Bleeding!?" Ron incredulously questioned as he checked out the side of his pant leg. "That's just great! I'll probably bleed to death before I die of starvation or thirst... or run out of oxygen. I'm doomed!"
"Uh-uh uh-uh," Rufus barked at the blond boy as he raced up to the collar below Ron's chin and slapped him a few times. "Survive!"
"You're right, Rufus," Ron sighed, coming down from his panic attack. "I gotta patch myself up and get outta here. Kim's out there with Shego and Drakken without any backup."
Xxxxxx
Meanwhile
When Ron had shoved Kim out of the way of the collapsing tunnel, he had tossed her directly into Shego. The two fell into a tangled heap on the dirt floor and neither were very happy about the short trip to the extremely hard packed earth.
"Get off a me Princess!"
"Well, let me put my hands somewhere so I can get up."
"You did not just put your hands on my..."
"Sorry! Quite struggling!"
"Oh My! Don't move you knee like that!"
Kim was finally able to roll off the green and black clad villainess to her feet. Shego got up a little shakily but quickly regained her normal snarky composure. "I didn't know you swung that way, Kimmie. You definitely know just how to rub a girl the right way. What would your boyfriend say?"
"I'm not interested in girls like that," Kim swiftly denied with a very telling blush on her cheeks. "I was just trying to extricate myself."
"Yeah. And cop a feel," Shego angrily growl and lit up her hands. "Tell it to the marines."
"Stop Shego, Don't!" Kim yelled with both hands out to prevent the mint green villainess from firing off another shot. "If you do, you could bring down more of the roof and trap us both!"
That info brought the Pea-Green Meanie up short. Shego extinguished her hands was just about to attack Kim in hand-to-hand combat when she heard...
"SHEGO! I'm in the dark here and you know I'm afraid of the dark!"
Shego let out a resigned sigh before she stood from her karate stance and slyly smiled at the redhead. "Later, Kimmie. I'm contractually obligated to help Dr. D. whenever he calls like that." She quickly disappeared back down the side tunnel from whence she had come.
"Ron," Kim reminded herself and ran over to wall of collapsed dirt. She inspected the blockage and heavily sighed. There was no way she was going to be able to dig him out herself, and she knew that they were deep enough in the mine that she wouldn't be able to get a signal out to call for assistance on the Kimmunicator.
"Hang in there, Ron," Kim softly sent out before she race up the tunnel to call for help.
Xxxxxx
Rufus had bit into Ron's left pant leg just below the knee and torn the material, severing it from the rest of the cargo pants. The little guy then rip the material lengthwise to form two strips of cloth about two feet long. Ron folded the remainder and used it for a compress to cover the leg wound and tied it off with one of the strips. For the head wound, Ron used his handkerchief and secured it with the other strip of cloth. Neither of the dressings were very sterile but at least they would staunch the small flow of blood seeping from them.
"Now, how do we get outta here?" Ron wondered to his little friend.
"Lotus Blade," Rufus hopefully chirped, his tail wagging in anticipation.
"Nah," Ron waived him off. "I don't think doing katas right now would help us move a half a ton of dirt."
"Doh!" Rufus slapped his head at Ron's blond moment. He got his Big Buddy's attention again and said, "Change."
"Change?" the blond boy pondered for a few seconds before it hit him. "Oh yeah. I can change the Lotus Blade into anything I need. When Yori and I were trying to escape from Fukashima and Monkey Fist, I changed into a telephone and a army knife. I guess I should call it."
Ron sat down on the floor of the tiny enclosed space, crossed his legs into the lotus position as best he could with the injury, and called out, "Here magic sword. Come to me." He didn't see it, but Rufus noticed the blue glow started to radiate around his two injuries. Ron held out his hand and waited for the blade to arrive.
And he waited.
A minute went by, and then a second minute passed. Ron sighed, "I guess it's not coming... but... it might take a while since its over in Japan and we're here in Colorado. I mean that's like almost six thousand miles." He turned to his Little Buddy and asked, "How fast do you think the Lotus Blade can travel?"
"Dunno?" Rufus shrugged.
"Welllll," Ron thought about it and remembered a term paper he had just handed in not long ago for one of his classes, "the speed of sound is around seven hundred and sixty eight miles per hour, give or take; Depending on the altitude traveled and barometric pressure and all that." He pulled his calculator out of a cargo pocket and started to enter in the data.
Ron briefly wondered why he didn't carry a first aid kit in one of the pockets since he always seemed to need one, but was carrying a calculator when he really didn't like math to begin with. But then he realized he was getting distracted again.
"Let's see. The Lotus Blade didn't break the sound barrier when I called it in Japan... but it probably didn't have enough time to get to up its top speed since it only traveled less than a half a mile. But it was going kinda fast when it zipped by me and crashed into the building." He unconsciously winced at the thought of the destroyed wall. He shook off the distracting thought. "It definitely wouldn't just go poof and appear on the other side of the globe. Now, if it traveled at the speed of sound, it would take..." he punched in a few more numbers and gasped, "...over seven and a half hours?! I'll suffocate before then!"
"Ho'boy," Rufus groaned before he got an idea. He climbed up the freshly fallen dirt to the roof line and started to dig. After a minute he emerged from the little tunnel he'd bore and declared, "Ta Da!"
"Way to go, Rufus," Ron cheered as he sprang to his feet, and immediately fell back to the ground because of his injured leg. "Maaaan, I gotta remember my injuries. But at least you got us some fresh air coming in here since you're a mole rat and know how to dig a tunnel."
He glanced around his earthen cell and let out a sigh. "I guess there's nothing to do but wait. It'd be great if my MMP would kick in and it had a healing power." He arranged himself in the lotus position again and closed his eyes. Again, he didn't notice it, but Rufus was sure that his Big Buddy's body was glowing with the Mystical Monkey aura.
Xxxxxx
"Right in here, guys," Kim called to the three man crew that had just arrived. She had spent over two long hour nervously, anxiously pacing the mine entrance waiting for them to get there. She knew Ron and Rufus were in there, trapped but alive. Wade had commandeered a satellite with ground penetrating radar and picked up their location. They couldn't move very far in the enclosed space, but at least they were alive. Wade's scan also picked up two other signatures deeper in the mine. Those two were probably Dr. Drakken and Shego but they appeared to be lost in the maze of tunnels further in. Well, she'd worry about those two later. Wade was keeping track of them and would try to let Kim know if they were getting close. Right now she had just one thing on her mind.
Get Ron out.
The three men, with Kim's help and guidance, started hauling large timbers into the vertical shaft to shore up the roof before trying to dig. It took another hour before the bracing was properly in place and the men exited the tunnel to get their digging equipment. As they were retrieving their tools they heard a double sonic boom before they were shocked to see a fast moving blue glow streak by them into the tunnel.
Purely on instinct, Kim dove out of the way in front of the pile of rubble as it practically exploded. Luckily, the timbers held up and Kim saw the entire blockage was gone. Inside she saw Ron sitting there, in the lotus position, his face registering shock at what'd just happened.
"Ahhh, hi KP," Ron mutter in surprise to see her just standing outside where there had been a wall of dirt and rock only a moment ago.
"Hi yourself," Kim called back, still a bit out of it after almost being blown over by... something. She saw a blue glowing sword embedded in the wall behind Ron's head and a few strands of his cowlick slowly drifting down beside him. The sword had obviously just missed his head, but gave him a bit of a haircut. "What just happened, and what's with the sword?"
"Wellll," Ron anxiously rubbed the back of his neck as he warily peered at the buried weapon and then back at her. He wasn't sure if he should tell his girlfriend about the magic sword or not. The Yamanouchi school was supposed to be the big secret, not the sword specifically. But the sword and the school were kinda intertwined so he wasn't really sure. "I kinda got trapped in here and I was hurt," he indicated the bloody patchwork first aid that Rufus had administered, "and I called on the only help I could think of."
It was definitely time for one of distractions to pay off instead of distracting himself, so he asked, "Where are Drakken and Shego?"
"They're somewhere still in the mine," Kim answered with a hitch of the thumb down the side tunnel as she finally regained her senses and leapt onto her boyfriend that she'd missed so much over the last few hours, knocking him to the floor and laying a big wet one on his lips.
After two minutes, Kim finally relented and checked Ron's head injury. There was plenty of the red stuff on the handkerchief and in his hair, but she couldn't find the wound. "Ahhh, Ron? Where are you cut? There's plenty of blood up here but I can't find where it came from."
"I dunno," Ron shrugged. "Rufus was the one who bandaged me up."
Kim check his lower left leg and, after carefully lifting the ad lib bandage, couldn't find a corresponding cut, gash or scrape to match the bloody cover. "There's nothing down here either." She helped him to his feet.
"Hmmm," Ron pondered as he bounced on the leg and felt that it wouldn't collapse on him like it had done before. "I dunno, KP," Ron reiterated. "I guess the MMP does have a healing power." He yanked the Lotus Blade out of the place it had embedded itself into and checked it over. There wasn't a scratch on it. "And I guess I can tell you that the Lotus Blade is sorta connected to my Mystical Monkey Powers. They kinda go hand-in-hand."
Before Kim could question her boyfriend any further, the three workmen excitedly ran up to the two teens. Ron quickly hid the sword behind his back as one of them asked, "Are you two alright? What was that?"
"Something zoomed passed us and came in here," another of the men enthused.
"I'm not really sure what it was," Kim tentatively said, looking to Ron for help with a feasible explanation, and not getting any. "But whatever it was, it came in here and knocked down the wall freeing Ron. Thanks for the help, guys."
"It was nothing, Miss Possible," the first man said in relief since the trapped person was free and the crisis was over. "You helped us that one time when our mine tunnel collapsed." He and his cronies got ready to leave.
"It was no big," Kim waived off. "Anyone could've used one of the ventilation fans as a boring tool to dig you out." The men said their good-byes and left.
As Kim turned to once again confront her boyfriend about the sword and possible healing abilities with his MMP, she heard two voices coming their way.
"I'm sure it's the other way, Shego. And you know what kind of sense of direction I have."
"Yeah I know. And that's why we're going this way, Dr. D. We've been going round in circles for the last three hours because of your directions. Now it's my turn to lead."
"And you're leading yourself right into jail," Kim slyly said as she stepped out of the little alcove that Ron had been trapped in.
"What are you still doing around here, Princess?" Shego begged in surprise before an evil grin graced her face. "Or are you still trying to dig your boy toy out from under all the rubble?"
Ron stepped out beside her, still hiding the Lotus Blade behind his back. "You'd be surprised what us boy toys can do, Shego."
"So you got out," the green villainess snapped back. "Big whoop. But you can't do anything to us. We haven't violated any laws and you have the bag of gold we dug up." She pointed to said bag tied to Kim's hip.
"Actually," Kim said as she took a stance, ready for action, "you've violated two laws. This mine is post as a no trespassing area and the gold that you just admitted you dug up belongs to the owner of the mine. That's grand theft."
"Is that all," Shego snarled as she ignited her hands. "Well let's just add assault and battery to the charges." She was highly agitated after being lost in the stupid mine with Drakken and her last nerve was quickly fraying after finding out that Ron was still okay. Shego forgot Kim's warning about maybe causing another tunnel collapse and launched a few plasma balls at the teen couple.
Kim was about to dodge the plasma but Ron suddenly stepped in front of her with a shield.
A shield that was glowing a light shade of blue.
The green plasma energy splashed against the glimmering defensive barrier and ricocheted back at the terrible two. Drakken was knocked on his butt by the return volley and Shego was kicked to the wall of the tunnel and rendered senseless.
Kim turned to her boyfriend in shock and gratitude. She was grateful that Ron took down Shego and Drakken but she was slightly shocked that he even stood up to the pair. Normally he would run away in terror.
"What just happened, Ron?" Kim questioned. "And where did that shield come from?"
"I..." Ron stumbled for an explanation as he tried to hide the shield behind his back. "I really can't tell you, KP. I was sworn to secrecy."
"Secrecy, huh?" Kim coyly begged. She and Ron had no secrets between them, at least not after the 'secret borrowing' incident earlier that year. But she knew that Ron wouldn't divulge a secret to save his life. After all, he knew a few of her secrets, like her love of Cuddle Buddies, and he hadn't divulged any of them. If he'd been sworn to not tell about something, she could live with that. For a while at least. She'd eventually find out one way or another. "Okay Ron. I let you have that one."
"Thanks KP," Ron sighed a huge sigh of relief before he thought of something. He motioned over to Drakken and Shego and asked, "But what are we gonna do about them?" He willed the Lotus Blade into the form of a multi-blade pocket knife and stuck it in his pocket when Kim was distracted by noises coming at them from the entrance to the tunnel.
Just then a troop of Global Justice agents rushed in carrying picks and shovels, lead by Dr. Betty Director herself. "Kimberly," the mono-optic leader slyly said as she slowed down and walked over to the couple. "We heard that Ronald was trapped and that you needed help. We got here as fast as we could."
"Thank you for coming, but as you can see," Kim smiled at the woman and her crew, "Ron's safe and Drakken and Shego are apprehended."
"I should have known," Dr. Director laughed as she motioned for her men to take the two villains into custody. "At least we can detain those two."
"Can't you do more than detain them?" Ron asked in confusion. "I mean, detention never lasts very long at school. Couldn't you lock them up and maybe, I-don't-know, throw away the key so they never get out again?"
"I'll see what we can do," Betty laughed at Ron's misunderstanding as she accepted the bag of gold from the redhead. As she she turned to leave, she said over her shoulder, "Thanks for the collar and the evidence."
As Kim and Ron started to leave the tunnel, hopefully for the last time, Kim asked, "So you really can't tell me anything about the sword or the shield? And by the way, where did they disappear to?"
"I really wish I could tell you KP," Ron said before he was interrupted when Rufus scampered out of his pocket home and up to Ron's shoulder. The mole rat started chattering to his Big Buddy. Ron answered, "But the Lotus Blade came from you-know-where. And we can talk about you-know-where."
Rufus squeaked and chittered again for a minute and Ron nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right. I guess they aren't connected that much."
"Connected," Kim murmured before she made the connection. "Are you talking about that Yamanouchi school you went to a few years ago and the... Lotus Blade, you called it?"
"Ahhh, yeah," Ron said in surprise. "How'd you guess?"
"Well, the lotus blossom is most associated with Japan and the Yamanouchi school is located there," Kim reasoned as they exited the mine. They saw one of G.J.'s transport hover ships near the entrance with an agent waving them over. It was obvious that Dr. Director had set up a ride home for capturing Shego and Drakken. They entered the ship and sat in the back as the agent/pilot moved to the cockpit. Now that they were alone again, Kim continued her thoughts.
"Now, since you'd mentioned that the sword may be somehow connected to your Mystical Monkey Powers, that means that the sword may have some mystical powers of its own. And since you blocked Shego's blasts with a shield instead of the sword, that proves my point. Your magic transmuted the sword into a shield. They both had the same blue aura."
"Yeah, you hit the nail on the head," Ron groaned, his actions being so overtly obvious to his girlfriend. "The sword has magical powers and it's kinda connected to Yamanouchi. I can change its form by using my MMP. The sword was originally owned by the founder of the school and it's been kept there all these years."
"So I take it that Yamanouchi isn't your typical high school," Kim deduced from their discussion. "What is it then? Some kind of martial arts school that brought you there because you gained your Mystical Monkey Powers?"
"Ahhh, welllll," Ron nervously hemmed and hawed, anxiously rubbing the back of his neck trying to come up with an answer that wasn't a lie but still kept the secret he was sworn to keep.
"That's okay, Ron," Kim genially said as she patted his leg to comfort his anxiety. "Your secret is safe with me. But you might want to contact the principal there and let him or her know that I guessed correctly about the school... just to make sure you're not in any trouble."
"I'll try to contact Sensei."
They fell into a comfortable silence with Kim leaning back into Ron's loving embrace. After a few minutes of cuddling, Kim finally had to ask, "Ron. Why did you step in front of me to deflect Shego's plasma blasts? You know I would've dodged her shots and fought her."
"Well," Ron carefully considered his answer, "it's like this. I know you could've taken Shego on, but I've been thinking that it's time for me to step up my game and help out. After all, as I've been telling you over the last few days with my homework and such...
"Where there's a will..."
-30-