Dear reader,
It's taken only three months, but, finally, an update. Some of you may recall that I used to post a new chapter every week or every other week. Alas, those days are now permanently in the past. While I wish I could update more frequently, circumstances (happy, I'm pleased to report) dictate otherwise. I do plan on finishing this story, though Kim and Ron may well be ready to attend their 50th college reunion by the time I wrap up "What's the Alma Mater?" ...
My thanks to Boris Yeltsin, Sentinel103, LoPe21, CajunBear73, Quathis, campy, Eddy13, captainkodak1, shrike176, Katsumara, whitem, JCS1966, Yami boy, Mr. Wzard, TexasDad, RonHeartbreaker, Molloy, Danny-171984, Reader101w, Intrepidwarriors for reviewing and to everyone for reading.
Special thanks to campy for proofing this chapter.
Leave a review and I'll send a reply.
KP © Disney
I.
Kim and Ron were sitting on the couch in the Possibles' living room watching a rerun of Pals when the Kimmunicator beeped.
"What up, Wade?" she asked as her webmaster's image appeared on screen.
"Good news! I've located the Mathter; he's in England. And, before you ask, I've set up a ride for you and Ron. Nakasumi-san was heading to Europe; he said he'd be happy to meet you at Middleton Airport in a half hour."
"As usual, you rock."
Wade replied with a satisfied smile. "I do what I can."
After the call ended, Kim noticed her boyfriend was rubbing his chin.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Looks like a twofer, KP," Ron said.
"How so?" she wondered.
"Not only can we find out whether Mathboy tanked my college apps, you can check out that university near London!"
"You seriously want me to look at Camford?" she responded with surprise.
"Wha? No! Yes. I mean, I just want you to go to the best school you can, Kim. Even if it means we're on opposite sides of the Pacific and you have to drive on the wrong side of the road and drink warm beer!"
Kim cocked an eyebrow before she leaned in and gave him a buss on the cheek. "That's sweet of you. Even if you've got your oceans wrong."
"What do you mean?"
"Europe and the U.S. are separated by the Atlantic."
"Though technically Ronald is right, Kimmie-cub," James said as he walked into the living room. "The Pacific separates North America and the Eurasian landmass, after all."
"Man, why couldn't you be the one grading my geography tests, Mr. Dr. P?" Ron groused.
Kim rolled her eyes at her boyfriend's query, then turned to her father. "So, Dad, you think you could give us a lift to the airport?"
"Another mission?" James asked.
"Wade's tracked down the Mathter," Kim replied.
"The Mathter. Isn't he the villain you think may have interfered with Ronald's applications?"
"The same."
"Maybe I could join you."
Kim and Ron exchanged a panicked look. James smiled with well-developed paternal condescension.
"Now, I know what you're thinking," the elder Possible said.
"You do?" Kim retorted.
"I never touched her!" Ron blurted out.
"Ron!"
"Ronald?"
"Okay, I did, but I've always been a gentleman!" Ron added frantically.
James cocked an eyebrow while Kim turned beet red. After she recovered from her embarrassment, she offered, "Dad, if this were a science sitch, you know you'd be the first one I'd ask along."
"Well, this Mathter villain deals with numbers doesn't he?"
"Well …"
"And mathematics is pure science."
"But …"
"And Ronald's father got to join you on a mission."
"That was different!"
"How so?"
"Uh, Mr. Stoppable is Actuary of the Year." As soon as she had uttered those words, she knew she was beaten. Ron's dad may have crunched numbers with flair, but her father used them to calculate everything from what was needed to create living metal to the perfect cup of egg nog. "Fine. You can come along."
"On one condition!" Ron hurriedly added.
"That I respect Kim's role as mission leader?"
Ron pursed his lips in thought. "Okay, two conditions."
"And what would the other be?"
"No capes!"
II.
"I so cannot believe this," a mortified Kim whispered to her boyfriend as she cast a surreptitious glance at her father, who was absorbed in a technical journal (Rocket Science Weekly: The Rocketry Magazine). True, she was a high school graduate and should have been beyond the childish feeling she was experiencing but, truth be told, she was embarrassed by her dad's sartorial choice for the mission.
"Hey, at least he's not sporting a cape," Ron replied sympathetically.
"No, he's wearing a pocket protector!" she hissed. "He's never worn one of those before. Ever!"
"Hey, at least it's made of Kevlar," Ron offered enthusiastically. "Geek chic rules!"
Kim groaned. There were many things she loved about Ron, but his fashion sense wasn't among them.
III.
"Kim, I may wear pocket protectors, but are you sure we're in the right place?"
Kim cringed. "You heard?"
James grinned, then put his arm around her. "Don't worry, Kimmie-cub. We each have our assigned roles: As daughter, you're supposed to be embarrassed by your old man. As your old man, I'm supposed to give you cause."
"You are too much, Dad," she said fondly. Then she turned serious. "I have to agree with you. This place so says tourist and not lair."
"Hey, KP!"
She turned to see her boyfriend and Rufus straddling the prime meridian and waving at her.
"Look at us! We're in two time zones! Is this cool or what? And, hey, for a couple of pounds, we can get souvenir tickets!"
"Head in the game, Ron. We're here to bust a bad guy, not fool around."
"Man, you're no fun," he sulked.
Kim came up to him, then whispered into his ear: "Don't worry, we can fool around later."
Ron's eyes opened wide, then he grinned. "Ah-booyah!"
"You know, Ronald may be on to something," James offered, ignoring the flirting going on before him.
"What do you mean, Dad?" Kim asked, immediately shifting back into mission mode.
"If this Mathter fellow is so into numbers and he's here, then it would make sense that the Prime Meridian would somehow factor into his plans."
"But how?"
"You're the villain expert."
Kim walked over to where Ron had been standing. Beneath her feet was a medallion.
"Dad, Ron said your pocket protector was made of Kevlar. Is there anything else I should know?"
"I've been waiting for you to ask!" he said as he withdrew the fashion-offending item from his pocket. With unconcealed pride, he held it aloft. "The plastic sheath is actually a miniature supercomputer using the latest in flexible screen technology. The badge contains a variety of sensors capable of evaluating any point on the EM frequency."
"Meaning?" Ron asked.
"If the Mathter's hiding something, Dad's going to find it," Kim answered approvingly.
IV.
"What's the sitch, Dad?" Kim asked as her father completed his scan of the marker.
"This isn't any ordinary seal," James replied. "It's a highly sophisticated secure cover to a tunnel entrance."
"And why am I not surprised?" Kim observed.
"It's been a while since a villain has hidden a lair in a tourist attraction, KP," Ron said.
"Three and a half years to be exact," she said, recalling one of Team Possible's first big-time missions. "Drakken in Wisconsin."
"Ah, yes, the Cheese Wheel," Ron said fondly as he recalled the ill-fated Cheddar redoubt.
"Mmmm. Cheese!" Rufus agreed.
Kim smirked at her BF and his diminutive pal before she activated her Kimmunicator. "Wade, we have a high-tech door that needs some opening."
"On it," he said with a confident grin, which much to Kim's surprise, soon turned to a frown. "The Mathter's encryption codes are actually pretty good," Wade said. "Too good. He's got some serious math going on here. This is going to take some time."
"Man, if only he was a language villain," Ron said. "Of course then he'd have to change his name to something like the Wordster."
"Not helping," Kim commented.
"Sorry, KP," he said sheepishly.
Kim squeezed his hand to let him know he shouldn't worry, then turned her attention on her father. "What about your pocket protector, Dad? Think it can break the Mathter's code?"
"I don't see why not," he said. Moments later, James's consternation matched Wade's.
"Man, super geniuses zero, bad guy two," Ron said. "Now what?"
"I don't know," answered Kim, who was at a loss.
Rufus cleared his throat. "'Scuse me," he squeaked before he motioned for Kim, Ron, and Doctor Possible to move aside. Wearing a classic deerstalker hat and wielding a large magnifying glass, Rufus carefully examined the seal, studying every detail with great care. Finally, one spot caught his attention. He looked at it every which way, then seemed to reach a conclusion. Laying his tool aside, he jumped on the seal, once, twice, three times before he scurried off the marker, which gently and slowly dropped three inches into the ground before it recessed into the wall of what appeared to be a very deep tunnel.
"Ta da!" the mole rat chirped with a flourish.
"Rufus, my man!" Ron exulted.
"Well, I'm impressed," James said as he nodded his approval.
"Nice work, Rufus," Kim said. "Villain City, here we come."
V.
"Well, well, if it isn't Kim Possible," the Mathter said when he saw her enter the cavernous lair. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"Ron's college applications," she answered.
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't deny it, Math Freak," Kim shot back. "You've gone too far."
"Kimmie-cub!" James exclaimed. "What have your mother and I taught you about calling people names?"
"Sorry, Dad. But nobody messes with my BF's future."
"Funny you should talk about the future, because all you have is a past," the Mathter said as he pointed a device at Kim, Ron, and Mr. Dr. P. "Behold, my temporal displacement ray!"
"Uh, in case Doctor P here doesn't understand what you're talking about …"
James arched an eyebrow. "It's obviously a device to manipulate time."
"Exactly!"
"Wait a minute," Ron said waving his hand. "You're a math villain, not a time villain."
"So?"
"Every villain has his shtick, right KP?"
Kim nodded. "Ron has a point, Mathter. This is kind of breaking with tradition."
"The other villains are not going to be happy when they hear you've been messing with the code," Ron noted.
"Well, in his defense," James said, "Since we measure time with numbers and it can be expressed mathematically, one could argue that he's still playing by the rules …"
Kim shot her father a withering look.
"… Or not."
"Rules or no rules, it's time for you to go back to the future! Farewell, Kim Possible!" With a dramatic flourish, the Mathter pressed a button on the temporal displacement ray.
Ron looked around. "Huh. The past looks just like the present. Although maybe I should say the future since the present hasn't happened yet and—"
Kim rolled her eyes. "Ron, we haven't gone anywhere."
"Looks like your time ray has timed out," James said with a chuckle.
"But the numbers … they all added up …" The Mathter tucked the ray under his arm and pulled his mePad from his utility belt. He was furiously reviewing calculations on his device as Kim approached.
"I'll take that," she said as she took the temporal displacement ray away and handed it to her father, who eagerly accepted the villain tech.
"Brackets!" the Mathter cursed as he watched James begin to examine the ray.
"Now spill: what did you do to Ron's apps?" Kim demanded.
"I still don't know what you're talking about," the Mathter responded.
"Ron hasn't received a single acceptance letter."
"So, your booooyyyyfriend isn't college material. Boo hoo."
"Don't diss the BF," Kim said menacingly. "Ron's grades and extracurriculars were good enough that he should have gotten in somewhere."
"So you say," the villain said dismissively.
"Ronald also hasn't received any rejections," James offered.
"Which means somebody had to have sabotaged his chances," Kim said. "We've done the math and you're the most likely suspect."
"Sorry, dude, but all of the other villains have alibis. The Ronman's not going to be a college man and it's your fault."
"While I would enjoy telling you that I did exact revenge for your interference with my Infinity Dome by subtracting college from your academic equation, I haven't really given you much thought since our last encounter. Your father, on the other hand …"
"No messing with my boyfriend or my boyfriend's father!" Kim snapped as she grabbed a fistful of the Mathter's uniform.
"Kim …" her father cautioned.
"Not now, Dad. I'm busting the bad guy."
"And I'm very proud of you for doing that. However, he may be telling the truth."
She spun around. "What do you mean?"
"I've been thinking about Ronald's applications," he said as he turned to face Ron. "I recall you carrying a large stack of them into our family room. You printed them."
"Yeah, I did."
"So even if the Mathter removed all electronic traces of you, your paperwork shouldn't have been lost. Some school, somewhere, must have received it and kept it on file."
"You've got a point, Dad." Kim pursed her lips in thought. An unwelcome, but based on past experience plausible, explanation of her boyfriend's application dilemma presented itself. "I hate to ask this, Ron, but you did mail your applications, didn't you?"
"Yes," he said defensively.
"And you put postage on the envelopes?"
"Yes," he added peevishly before he softened and conceded, "Well, Rufus, did when he saw I was about to send them off without stamps."
Kim cocked a knowing eyebrow and released the Mathter.
"Hey, wait a second, if Math Dude here didn't the put the kibosh on my college apps, what happened?" Ron asked.
"It really doesn't matter," the Mathter said as he triumphantly entered some quick calculations into his mePad, "because it's past time for you to go ... back … in … time."
"Hey, that's cheating!" Ron protested. "You can't use a remote!"
"What did you expect, boy?" the Mathter quipped. "I'm a villain!"
"Who's going down," Kim growled as she lunged at him. Unfortunately, while she was fast, she wasn't fast enough – her foe was able to press an icon on his mePad before she tackled him to the ground. She brought him down hard, rolled, sprang to her feet, and scrambled for the tablet, which had gone flying when the Mather made contact with the floor.
As all of this unfolded, Kim's father felt the temporal displacement ray vibrate and looked down in fascination as a crimson beam shot forth from its muzzle. The beam quickly dispersed into a field that much to the Mathter's delight enveloped first James, then Ron, Rufus, and finally Kim. Before the villain could gloat, however, the beam also enveloped him. Then, a brilliant flash washed over the lair and they were all gone.
TBC …
