Today's installment of Crossover and Out was inspired by what I believe to be the greatest-ever episode of The Twilight Zone.
My thanks to everyone who reviewed Chapter 1: charizardag, Meca Vegata, Acaykath, AtomicFire, Pharoah Rutin Tutin, Quathis, NotTheCrimpMaster, Desslock3, Seamus Dubh, pinkymint, Mr. Wizard, , King in Yellow, Josh84, GargoyleSama, whitem, Molloy, Mattk and Danny-171984. My thanks also to all who are reading.
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If you saw it on KP, it belongs to Disney. I honestly don't know who owns the rights to The Twilight Zone – it's definitely your humble author.
I.
Everything had gone Ron Stoppable's way since his senior year of high school. He and Kim had realized they were in love. His grades improved. He became a football hero. Sure, there'd been that little hiccup of the Warlordians invading Earth right during graduation. But in the end he'd helped Kim defeat the obnoxious aliens, saving the world yet again, and earning the right to a summer of fun with his bon-diggity BFGF. That fall, the two teens headed off to college. At the end of their freshman year, Ron proposed to Kim. They were married one week after their graduation. Two years later, they were the proud parents of tweebs of their own, Kim was working for Global Justice and Ron was a junior executive on the move at Smarty Mart.
So, submitted, for your consideration: Ron Stoppable was a lucky man. No, he was a badically lucky man. But his luck is about to change as he flies home via … the Twilight Zone.
II.
"Another Slurpster?" the stewardess asked.
"Don't mind if I do!" Ron said cheerily. He was in an excellent mood, having just had a great meeting with Martin Smarty at the CEO's Cape Cod mansion. Now, he was heading home to his family in Middleton.
Ron took the drink from the attendant. He sipped at the beverage as he flipped through the latest issue of Gamer's World. Ron may have been a rising young executive, but he still loved his video games.
After reading an article on the upcoming release of Zombie Mayhem Ex Eye Eye, he lay down the magazine and looked out the window.
His blood ran cold.
There, on the wing of the aircraft, was a monkey.
The small creature looked at Ron, then began pacing the wing.
Ron lost no time in pressing the call button. The stewardess quickly appeared.
"May I help you?" she asked.
"Look!" Ron said. "Out there!"
The woman peered out Ron's window and saw the wing; beyond was a cerulean sky dotted by clouds.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but I don't see anything," the woman said.
Ron looked out the window. There was no monkey. He laughed nervously. "My bad. I must be running short on sleep."
"Don't worry, Sir," the attendant said. "Perhaps you should take a nap."
"A nap. Yeah, badical idea."
Ron reached up, turned off the light, closed his eyes, and quickly fell asleep.
When he woke up he stretched and looked out the window. The monkey had returned. It was smiling at him. And it was pulling at a bolt.
"Bad monkey! Bad monkey!" Ron cried out.
The stewardess quickly returned. "Sir, are you okay?"
"It's back!" Ron exclaimed. "Look!"
The attendant leaned over and looked out to see a simian-free wing. Ron looked out, too. Much to his shock, the monkey was gone. He turned to the woman, who was now looking at him with concern. "Must have been something I ate," he mumbled.
Ron took up his magazine again, but found it hard to concentrate. He knew he shouldn't look out the window. Finally, however, temptation got the better of him and he took a peak.
The monkey had removed a bolt from the wing and was beginning to pull at another.
"Aiiieeee!" Ron cried out. "He's pulling apart the wing!"
The stewardess rushed over, looked out, and saw nothing. "Sir, perhaps I should see if there's a doctor on board."
"A doctor? What, you think I'm making this up? Nuh huh," Ron protested. "I'm telling you, there was a monkey out there and he's removing bolts from the wing."
"Sir, I don't see any missing bolts," the woman said.
Ron peered out. The woman was right. The bolts were in all place. Ron looked back at the attendant, then at the wing, then back at the attendant. "Heh heh," he chuckled, wishing he was somewhere else.
The attendant wandered forward and Ron closed his eyes, thinking of Kim and their children. "Happy thoughts, think happy thoughts," he told himself. He was startled when he heard a tapping on the window.
There, much to his horror, was the monkey, its face pressed up against the plastic pane. Ron screamed.
III.
"I'm telling you, KP," Ron insisted. "There was a monkey on the wing and he was pulling bolts out. He was trying to kill us!"
"Ron," Kim said as she gently laid a hand on his shoulder. "It'll be okay. Let's go with these nice men; they'll help you."
"You don't believe me! After everything we've been through!"
"Ron, I so want to, but nobody else saw anything," Kim said in a pained voice. "I just want you to be okay."
"There was a monkey out there, Kim," Ron insisted, shrugging off the men. "A bad monkey."
Kim considered what Ron had told her. He'd always been weird, but crazy? The idea seemed ferociously wrong.
"Wait right here," she said.
Kim hurried back to the plane and asked the mechanic if she might join him in performing the aircraft's post-flight check. Recognizing the one-time teen hero, he agreed. They clambered up onto the wing -- and were stunned by what they found. Bolts were missing. And even more disturbing, one of the metal plates had been curled up. As if someone had been peeling it off …
