Yeah, yeah, yeah… I know. I'm still working on BioniKim, and I STILL need to catch up on responding to reviews. But do you know just how hard it is to say "No" to a cute little plot bunny that is giving you a puppy dog pout? It's Impossible!
Disclaimer: All characters in this story are property of a company which is controlled by a diminutive and sometimes annoying little mouse…
Life, Death, and Life
It was a lazy sunny afternoon in the middle of the summer before Ron and Kim was to go off to college. The two teens had been sunning themselves near Lake Middleton in the shade and were just dozing off when a diminutive device pierced the quietness of the afternoon.
Beep Beep Bee Deep
Slender female fingers reached for the teal colored wrist device that was sitting on the blanket near the two of them, and unceremoniously stuffed the annoying noise-maker underneath the red and white checkered cloth they were lying on. This action didn't stop the insistent tone though.
Beep Beep Bee Deep
Kim pulled her wrist Kimmunicator back out from underneath the blanket, and cracked an eye open to look at the screen just as she pressed the 'connect' button. "This had better be good Wade. I was just able to realize the full potential of Ron's Marinating ways."
An apologetic look came from Wade. "Sorry Kim, but Dr. Director was quite insistent that we meet her in about an hour."
Kim's other eye popped open. "Did you say 'we', Wade?"
"Yup. She wants to see all three of us. In person." The young African American winced as he said the last two words.
Kim sighed. "Fine… We'll be there. I'm guessing we meet at GJ Headquarters?"
"Sort of." Wade said rubbing the back of his neck. "Betty wasn't too specific, but she said to meet them in the back of the main building."
"That is a bit odd, but I guess we'll probably see them once we get there. Let me wake Ron up and we'll pick you up in about 15." Kim said looking over at Ron who was looking as relaxed as she previously had been.
"Oh you don't need to pick me up. I've got my own transportation." Wade said with a smile.
"OK, I know you're too young to have your Drivers License yet, so how are you…"
"You'll see." Wade said interrupting, again with a smile on his face and signed off.
Kim the looked over at her boyfriend and thought to herself, Now how am I going to wake up Sir Marination here. A sly smile crossed her face as Kim had a devilishly good idea, and started to kiss him deeply on the mouth.
After releasing his lips Kim looked at Ron and saw a huge smile on his face, but his eyes were still closed. Huh… time for the Big Guns.
She then leaned into Ron's ear and whispered, "Roooonie… I seem to have lost my top, and I think I hear Daddy coming up the stairs." She then leaned back a few feet, and counted down to herself. "3… 2… 1…"
Ron's eyes flew open and quickly he sat up, launching poor Rufus off his shoulder who had also been in a deep state of Marination. "Kim! Quick! In your closet! No! I'll get in the closet and you stay on the bed! No! Not on the bed… sit at your desk! Yeah! He won't suspect anything!"
His head ping ponged back and forth with a wild look in his eyes, and after a few seconds Ron realized what was going on. Kim was trying very hard not to laugh, and failed miserably by busting out into a full-on belly laugh.
"Bwahahahaha! It's OK Baby… Daddy's not here, and I still have my clothes on." This time. She finished, thinking the last part to herself.
Then there was some angry chittering, and both teens looked down at the foot of the blanket to see Rufus rubbing his head and shaking a paw at Ron. "Sorry Buddy… Blame it on Kim! She's the one who woke me up."
Rufus just crossed his arms and sulked a bit, feeling a slight headache come on.
Still chuckling a little Kim said, "I'm sorry you two, but we just got a call from Wade that we need to meet GJ in an hour, and we're going to meet Wade there as well."
"All three of us?" Ron said while putting various items into the shoulder bag they had used to carry stuff. "Must be something big."
"No doubt." Kim said while standing and straightening her hair out with her fingers. "We can put that extra gear we have in the Sloth, and then get going. It's going to take us about 50 minutes to get there from here."
…x x x x…
Sure enough, 50 minutes later, Kim and Ron arrived at GJ Headquarters.
"Wade said to go around the back and we would meet with Dr. Director there." After pulling into the main parking lot, Kim then angled the car around and started to head towards the rear of the building. "Wade said he would meet us here, but I don't know exactly…"
Suddenly the two heard what sounded like the thrust from their jetpacks, and looked up. Sure enough, there was Wade, and he was strapped to what looked like a modified jetpack that carried him upright in a sitting position.
"Coolio! Looks like Wade has got himself his own transportation now!" Ron then gave Wade a thumbs up, who nodded back in response with a smile.
Wade set himself down in front of the Sloth as Kim brought the car to a stop. After getting out of the car, Kim and Ron looked on, and watched as three mechanical legs sprouted from the bottom of Wades jetpack and settled down. At this point all Wade had to do was unbuckle from the seat and step away from the contraption.
"Nice ride Wade." Ron said with a smile. "Think I can take it for a spin later?"
"Not until I've got all the bugs completely worked out Ron. It's mostly run by computer, but there's still a few glitches here and there that I can compensate for manually. After that, then… maybe."
"Translation…" Ron said under his breath, "Unlikely."
"Buck up Ron." Kim said putting an arm around his shoulders. "We still have our own jetpacks. Now let's see if we can find Dr. Director."
All three walked the rest of the way to the rear of the building, and as soon as they turned the corner, there was no mistaking where they were to meet with Dr. Director. There was a crowd of about 20 GJ Agents milling around a Semi with a flat bed trailer, and a huge piece of equipment already loaded and strapped down.
When the three got to within about 30 feet of the group, they saw Dr. Director walking around on the flatbed giving orders to various agents. She looked up and saw Kim, Ron and Wade and waved.
"Kim! Over here…" The three walked over beside the trailer as Betty jumped down. "I'm so glad you could all make it before we headed out. We really need your help."
"What's the sitch?" Kim asked while looking at the large piece of equipment, thinking that she had seen it somewhere before.
"We're transporting a very sensitive piece of equipment, and we need you to go along with us." Betty said as she signed a clipboard that was handed to her.
"But it looks like you've got plenty of agents here to help." Kim said with a wave of her hand indicating the 20 some odd GJ Agents.
"Oh they're not coming with us, those agents are going with the decoy truck." Just then a second flatbed Semi rolled up beside the first.
"Ok…" Ron said, "Just in case I missed something earlier, why did you call us?"
"We're the security on the real truck, Ron." Kim said while rolling her eyes a bit, but she also had a smile, knowing that Ron was going to ask that exact question. She then turned to Dr. Director. "So my only questions are, what is being transported, who are you trying to deceive, and where are we going?"
"Remember the Molecular Transducer that you retrieved not too long ago?" Kim nodded. "Well, the scientists here at GJ have improved on the design, and they also scaled it up a little bit."
"More than a little bit." Kim said looking up at the large dish array that was pointing towards the rear of the truck.
"As for who we are deceiving," Betty continued, "It's none other than WWEE."
"Don't you mean us?" Ron said with slight confusion.
"The World Wide Evil Empire, Ron." Kim said while crossing her arms. "Don't you remember Gemini?"
"Oh yeah! The guys with the Fraternity symbols on their uniforms. They were cool." Ron then looked at Dr. Director with narrowed eyes. "But your brother wasn't so cool. He tried to bribe me into joining his organization."
"As to where we're going, it's a highly secured laboratory where more tests can be run with the Molecular Transducer." Betty then got a conspiratorial look on her face and leaned into the three teens. "We also have reason to believe that we have a mole somewhere in GJ, but we aren't sure who."
At the mention of the word 'Mole', Rufus popped his head out of Ron's pocket with a squeak. "Mole Rat?"
"Sorry Rufus." Kim said "The other kind of mole."
"So why did you want Wade to come along?" Ron asked while Rufus scampered up onto his shoulder.
"We needed someone with a working knowledge of the Molecular Transducer in case something went wrong with it during transport." Betty then saw confused looks on both Kim and Ron's faces. "Oh, this is a fully operational unit with it's own power source."
"So when are we ready to head out?" Kim asked.
"I'm just waiting for the fifth member of our team." Betty said.
"Oh no…" Kim said with a worried look on her face.
"He's one of my most trusted agents." Betty continued.
"Oh please no…" Kim muttered.
"You've met and worked with him before, and achieved exemplary results." Dr Director then raised two fingers, placed them in her mouth and gave a shrill whistle.
Sure enough, Will Du came jogging around the front of the truck, and almost stopped cold in his tracks when he saw who was standing with his Commanding Officer. Will slowly walked up to Betty, and he had a slightly confused look on his face.
"Dr. Director?" Will asked, "I thought you said we would have a Special Unit riding with us today. Not… the amateurs, and a child." Will looked down at Wade who glared back up at him.
"You and Kimberly worked well enough together against Duff Killigan," Betty said first looking at Will, then back at Kim, Ron, and Wade. "And I don't see why we can't have the same results this time." She then gave a smile to everyone in the group.
Kim growled a little bit under her breath, and then felt Ron squeeze her hand in silent support.
"So, ama…" Will started to say, "I mean Kim… You and Ron will ride on the trailer, one posted to the rear, the other to the front. You will both have radios to call us in the cab if you see anything strange or out of place on the way." He then handed a radio to each of the teens.
"And I suppose your sitting in the cab." Kim said.
"Of course. I'm driving. Dr. Director and Wade will be with me in the cab as well. The radios you have are hardwired with a single frequency that can only be received by the unit in the cab."
"But what if it rains?" Ron said, looking at a clear blue sky. "We'll be soaked."
Will let out a heavy sigh as if he were talking with a group of 5 year-olds who didn't understand what he was saying. "We are only driving for approximately 10 miles. I highly doubt it will rain in that time."
"You know, "Ron said, "In Phoenix Arizona a Monsoon Storm can come out of nowhere and dump a half inch of rain in 10 minutes."
"But we aren't in Arizona Ron." Kim said while leading her boyfriend to the rear of the truck so they could climb on. "We're in Colorado."
"Contact us on the radio when you're set, and then we'll take off!" Will hollered and watched as Kim waved a hand before the two used the small ladder on the rear of the trailer to get up onto the flatbed.
The decoy truck had taken off about 5 minutes earlier so as to put some distance between the two vehicles, and it was only a matter of a few more minutes, and the truck with the real cargo left GJ.
…x x x x…
The entire trip was to last only about 15 to 20 minutes, and about half way through Kim called back to her partner and boyfriend. "How you doing back there Ron?"
"I'm the King of the World!" Was the response and Kim smiled, knowing almost exactly what he was doing.
Sure enough, Ron was standing on the top of the Transducer, holding onto a couple loose ends of rope that were securely anchored to the flatbed. He and Rufus had huge smiles on their faces as the wind slammed into them.
Suddenly Ron heard the toot of a horn behind him, and he turned around to see an old convertible sports car, and a very cute girl driving with long blond hair. She smiled at him and waved. Ron smiled back and returned the wave, watching her as she changed lanes to pass on the left. It was a four-lane highway, so it was perfectly safe to do so.
The well-endowed blond girl slowly pulled up along side the truck, and she kept looking over at Ron, then back at the road. Of course Ron being a guy, he didn't mind looking at a pretty girl in a convertible, especially the way her long blond hair was being blown around her from the wind. Suddenly the girl blew Ron a kiss, waved goodbye, and accelerated away, passing the slower truck.
"Nice girl." Ron said, and Rufus nodded his head in agreement.
He then looked down at his feet to get back into a good position to keep an eye out for anything, and Ron saw a shadow that didn't belong to either him or Rufus. He ducked just in time to miss being hit with a glowing Energy Stick, as it was swung by a man in a WWEE uniform.
Ron rolled out of the way as Rufus leaped to his own safety on the top of the Transducer. The WWEE agent then tried to kick him in the side, which Ron was able to deflect with a block, and then he was able to roll into a standing position.
Remembering the radio, Ron took it from his belt while keeping an eye on his attacker, and pressed the button. "Kim! We have…"
A well placed strike knocked the radio from his hand, but Ron was unaware that Kim was also in a battle with two other WWEE agents who were able to get on the truck as well. Just as Ron was about to make a move on his attacker, the truck started to slow with the distinctive sound of a Jake Brake. Brr-rr-rr-rr-rr! The sudden slowing caused Ron to lose his footing, and he tumbled off the transducer and onto the flatbed. The WWEE agent jumped after him landing right beside Ron.
Just as Ron's attacker started to press him against the large dish of the Transducer, the sound of a helicopter could be heard landing not far from the truck.
"Kim!" Ron yelled out. "Are you…"
Then Ron saw a group of six WWEE Agents, each wielding an Energy Stick, walking along side the truck with Kim in the middle, her hands handcuffed behind her back. Ron could tell that Kim wasn't taken easily as all but one of the guys in red had a black eye. The one without had what appeared to be a broken and bloody nose.
Three other WWEE agents followed them with Dr. Director, Will, and Wade in tow. Will had his head hung low, sporting a black eye as well, yet Dr. Director held her head high, and not a mark on her, just a torn sleeve. Wade appeared to be unhurt, just a little freaked.
Then Ron heard and recognized a voice speaking loudly over the helicopter's engine as it wound down. "Good job Agents! I knew if we distracted at least one of them, we could take the vehicle!" It was Gemini.
Gemini then looked towards the front of the truck and smiled. "And I have you to thank for that distraction, my dear." The same blond girl from the convertible walked up to the group as she zipped up the front of her WWEE uniform. She then winked at Ron, making him drop his head in shame.
"Ron… How could you…" The scathing words came from none other than his girlfriend, and she wasn't too happy with him at the moment.
"Keep them all separated so they can't launch a counter offensive." Gemini ordered. Kim was moved over near the helicopter, Dr. Director and Will were kept near the side of the truck, and Wade and Ron were moved to a few yards directly from the end of the flatbed. Two WWEE agents were now watching Ron and Wade with Energy Sticks, two more were watching Dr. Director and Will, and about ten were now around Kim, as she was the most dangerous of them all.
Gemini walked right up into Betty Director's face. "So… Little Sister… I take something else from you. Funny how that always seems to happen." Betty said nothing and just sneered at her older twin.
…x x x x…
"Wade…" Ron whispered out the side of his mouth. "On three…"
"Huh?" Wade wasn't quite sure what was going on, and then he saw Ron mouthing numbers as he counted down. Three… Two… One…
"Now!" Ron quickly whipped around with a low kick sending the WWEE agent behind him sprawling. Then using a Monkey Kung Fu move, Ron leaped over the fallen agent and grabbed the Energy Stick that was dropped.
Wade wasn't sure what else to do, so he just stomped on the foot of the agent behind him, making the man yell out in pain while hopping on one foot and dropping his weapon as well.
The agent Ron had felled was starting to get up, and Ron quickly zapped him in the side with the Energy Stick, knocking him unconscious. He then looked over to see how Dr. Director and Will were doing, and they too had dropped their respective guards and were now holding onto weapons. Then he checked on Wade, who wasn't doing so well. Wade was on his back trying to hold off the WWEE agent as the glowing stick was getting closer to his face.
Ron let out a war cry that made Wade's attacker look up, just in time to receive one of the business ends of his weapon right in the chest.
"Ron! Wade! On me!" It was Betty Director that was calling out orders now. Wade and Ron quickly joined with Dr. Director and Will, and advanced towards the ten agents who were still around Kim.
"FREEZE!" Gemini bellowed, pointing his robotic hand towards the group of four. They all scattered just in time as two small rockets shot from Gemini's hand and exploded where they had just been standing.
"Flank him!" Betty Director yelled out, and her and Will attacked Gemini from one side, while Ron and Wade… well, just Ron really… attacked him from the other.
Gemini decided to fire on his sister first, but that was a mistake as Ron took the opportunity to leap at him. The small rocket flew harmlessly away from Will and Betty, but it blew up as it hit one set of the wheels near the back of the flatbed holding the Transducer. The truck bed lurched to one side, causing the Transducer to shift to the lower edge.
Both Betty and Gemini's eyes went wide at seeing this turn of events, as neither wanted to see the Transducer damaged.
"Secure the Transducer!" Gemini yelled at the remaining agents, who were the ones watching Kim. Five of them left to do as Gemini ordered, and then Ron could see Kim standing between the remaining five agents. He then saw sparks fly behind Kim's back as something severed the handcuffs, freeing her hands.
Her wrist Kimmunicator… Ron thought to himself. Go Wade!
The remaining 5 agents were no match for Kim as she performed flawless strikes of what Ron had come to recognize as numbers 6 and 7 of Kim's 16 styles of Kung Fu. As the last one fell, she was breathing hard, but smiling.
All five were then able to regroup just as they heard a loud screech as the Transducer started to shift again. The five WWEE agents Gemini had ordered to secure the Transducer were on the opposite side holding onto straps, trying to keep it from sliding off the truck and crashing to the ground. Then a new sound came to everyone's ears. It was a low hum that was gradually building both in volume and intensity.
"The Transducer's been activated!" Betty yelled. "Wade! Ron! Get over there and shut that thing off! The panel is on the other side where the WWEE agents are!"
Gemini had decided he had enough of fighting, and ran back to the helicopter. Just as he was beginning the start-up procedures, he heard his sister's voice. "Not this time… Big Brother."
Gemini looked over and saw the muzzle of an energy weapon pointing directly at him.
…x x x x…
Both Ron and Wade ran towards the Transducer, but were stopped by the female agent just as they were approaching the damaged trailer, and she held an Energy Stick.
"No funny business! Got it?" She yelled over the whine of the machine as it continued to build up energy to fire.
"N… no problem!" Ron shouted back. "We just want to shut if off before…"
"Look out!" One of the Agents holding a strap yelled, and the Transducer shifted again as it started to gain momentum towards the edge. "It's going to fall!"
Ron, Wade, and the female agent turned to run to the far side of the truck, but just as they turned, the Transducer fired it's beam, and directly hit Ron, Wade, and the female WWEE agent. The only thing left of them were three scorch marks on the ground, and smoke rising from each spot.
"Nooooo! Roooonnn! Waaaade!" Kim wailed and ran over to the blackened spots of grass and dirt. She fell to her knees and rocked back and forth, holding onto herself as she continued to cry for the loss of her boyfriend Ron, and her good friend Wade Load.
All Betty could do was wrap her arms around the grieving teenager's shoulders as she continued to cry and wail in grief. "They're gone Betty… They're gone…" Will stood behind the two women, holding onto a restrained Gemini, and tears fell down his cheeks as well.
To be continued…
BTW, this story is going to be loosely based on a specific episode of a well-known TV series. The first to guess it gets 1 million virtual points.