A/N: Please note that I still don't own Kim Possible or Ron Stoppable, so I have no rights at all to them as they and all the characters, objects and places associated with the show belong to the Disney Corporation. I still don't make any money from this hobby and I suppose that it's for the best though someday I'd love to get out of the stinking factory. However the characters Wanda Wang and Suzie Chin as well as Maku-san, Major John Grant, Major John Jackson and Judge Q. Hector Snobblestone do belong to me and are creations of my warped mind. So please ask if you want to use them…OK? I've borrowed from other authors with their permission.
Foremost I want to thank again CajunBear73 for his tireless efforts at trying to make these stories readable. His comments in red are usually better than the story itself and one of these days I might include some of them in the comments section. I want to give a shout to Spectre666, Screaming Phoenix, Waveform they review me all the time and provoke me...I uh mean inspire me to do better, enough with the sticks already.
Now for the reviews: Screaming Phoenix, I think Ron has a pretty good idea of what the genius Wade Load can do. Yeah Kim's fighting this and it's gonna be hard. CB, yeah Kim's on the low end of the cycle right now. Ron has support, he's with people that want him to succeed, now as for the Jody Calls, I was going to do a scene of Basic Training, but I thought---nah---'Jody's got your girl and gone, yer left right left'---see I still remember it. Waveform, have you been watching my computer again? Kim does have a shell life, a duo personality. The real one inside that's trying to surface screaming for help and the facade on the outside that no one can crack. The one that was created for her. Joe Stoppingham, I wish it was that easy, why did Ron leave in the first place? In the back of his thick (dangerously thick) skull remains the one thing that he has always worried about, "Am I good enough?" Here he is dating the hottest girl in town, he's a star football player, he saves the world. What's in the back of his mind. "Am I good enough for her?", and when he sees the evidence right in front of his nose he's sure that he's not. Should he just take the abuse that he knows is going to come down on him and have everyone call him the loser that he feels he is? Or does he go and do something with his life? Maybe he should have stayed and caled Mankey out, but in Stoppable's mind he gambled and lost. He had one good throw of the dice and it came up snake eyes. What he didn't know was that somebody loaded the dice. Daccu65, I didn't know that BN was serving snake and lizard burritos...Fun is getting ready. And your memories sound like fun too, roasted officer cadet over a slow fire.
A big thanks to the reviewers I truly appreciate the comments. Now I do have one comment that I need to make. If something like "Is there going to be a sequel" enters your mind and you put that in the review (Yes this actually happened), and that information is included HERE, all that it tells me is that the reader didn't pay attention to the Author's Notes where I do try to let the reader know these kind of things, I'm not that big of a jerk to not let you know if more stuff is coming up.
Therefore let me say right up front 'Separate Lives' is between 'Broken Promise' and 'Once Again'. So it goes 'Winter Adventure' (Christmas of Kim and Ron's junior year), 'A Lasting Love' (Senior Prom…Or about four weeks before Graduation), 'Broken Promise' (Graduation to a month after graduation), and 'Separate Lives' (A month after Graduation till sixty-three months after Graduation). 'Once Again' is placed after that. I pretty much thought that was clear, but I'm just a dumb pipefitter.
For the rest of you I apologize. 99.987% of you already caught on a long time ago and I'm just trying to get the rest up to speed.
So this is the last of the prequel stories and if I ever attempt to do this again, please someone put me out of my misery. Please be patient because it is going to take a while to spin this yarn. It will go over thirty chapters. It will be dark in places. In other places it will be light. Expect drama and adventure with some humor thrown in.
Anyway as most of you know already Kim and Ron have broken up by now. You all should have gotten that....Right? Kim's with Josh and Ron's ....well he's somewhere, but then that's part of the fun. Now what?
Let's find out.
CB, um.... how come your wearing a bomb disposal suit?
ST 103
Separate Lives
Chapter 4
A desolate warehouse. Lowerton, Colorado:
Josh and Kim were here at the warehouse because the master had summoned them. "Miss Possible please sit down.", he told her. She complied and sat with grace on the lone wooden chair in the room.
In a moment he had a needle in her arm and a couple of minutes later her eyes were drooping as the sedative took hold. "Why did you have to do that?", her boyfriend snarled.
"Be quiet servant.", he shot back, "or do you want to have the girl go Kung Fu on us? I am removing the old chip and replacing it with a new and improved model. With that and adjusting her medication this will work out much better. The new chip is just as capable and is harder to detect. Remember if the Police Agency finds it on her, they will be asking you questions. You have no idea how to reach me except for my cell phone and I can just walk away and you'll have to explain how Miss Possible ended up with drugs in her system, do you really think that they will believe your story about someone who made you drug your girlfriend? Now I must be gone for a few weeks this spring to make things ready for another trap that we are setting for the outsider." Turning back the masked figure extracted the old chip and a few moments later replaced it with a much smaller one. This time he had tied Kim's hair forward and needed no help from the American teenaged boy.
"There, we are finished. That chip should last for two years. We still have to test it for compliance, do you want to wait here or outside since you don't have the stomach to see Miss Possible try to kill herself?", he snapped.
"I'll wait outside if you don't mind sir.", Josh replied, "I never know when the gun is loaded."
"Good choice, you never know when you might get lucky and I forget to unload it.", he laughed.
Ten minutes later there was the sound of a gunshot. Josh, with a knot in his belly, rushed into the over large room cringing, hoping not to see the beautiful redhead on the floor in a pool of blood.
---
MIT:
Justine looked at the filtering that she had put in place. She was not a computer expert, but she knew more about that subject than most people that had their PhD's in her profession. 'Wade was right, that nine foot monster was going to make Possible into some kind of trophy. I don't condone killing, but the next time I see Stoppable I'm going to give him the biggest kiss he ever thought imaginable. If he and Possible ever get together I'll just tell Kimmie that I owed him. I guess I better warn Mike though. Wouldn't be right for Mike to get tossed like that alien did.', she mused, figuring out that she now liked Ronald Stoppable much more.
She picked up the phone and called Felix, "Renton, get your butt over here! We have a problem."
---
Upperton University:
Both former Middleton High School cheerleaders looked beat. "Wow, I thought Possible was rough.", Bonnie commented as she winced, "That new Chinese girl is an animal. I know that I'm going to need some whirlpool time to ease the pain. How long did that practice go anyway.....all week?"
All Tara could do was nod and they dragged themselves out of the torture chamber that used to be called a gym. "What was that girl's name again?", Tara asked.
"I think it was Chin or something, oh yeah, Suzie Chin. She just showed up as a grad student from Stanford or someplace. I think I found a new person to hate.", Bonnie told her.
"Sorta makes you long for the good old days, doesn't it, B?", Tara asked beginning to tear up again.
"Yeah, it does. Come on, don't go down that road again Tara. We have to keep it together for the others.", Bonnie cautioned.
---
Yamanouchi, Japan:
Yori and Hiro finished their evening exercises and had entered a quiet room to meditate. As they both assumed the lotus position another figure entered as well. Both got up and bowed to the Master who decided to join them.
"How was your last mission, honored students?", Maku-san asked
"It was mostly watching and waiting. Has Master Sensei not informed you of the results, Honored Master?", Hirotaka asked, surprised.
"Master Sensei has filled me in on the 'high points' of the mission, but not the specifics. Would you care to enlighten this old man?", he asked
"Honored Master I would think that should be left up to Master Sensei to divulge that information. We are but humble workers, we gather the data. We report directly to him, so it may be in the best interests of all for you to get a complete briefing from our head instructor.", Yori countered.
"Can you at least tell me where the Chosen One is, then?", he forced.
"Master, what we can tell you is this. Stoppable-san is nowhere in the greater Tri-city area near Middleton, Colorado, USA..", Hirotaka informed him.
"Can you guess where he might be?", he questioned.
"Not at this time Master. We have noticed most who knew Ron-san have been searching for him, except for Possible-san. There was some sort of breakup between the Chosen One and his maid.", Yori added.
"It seems that Kim-san has become involved with an individual that she had dated years earlier. Many of her friends do not understand her betrayal of her lover, or his betrayal to her, for the moment it is confusing for us on the outside. We had no orders to intrude, so we only observed Master. Did you wish us to do otherwise?", Hiro asked.
"No, of course I did not wish you intrude or make yourselves more visible to anyone that may have been paying attention to the situation." Maku-san replied.
"Then we have nothing more to add Master, unless Master Sensei authorizes us to do so.", Yori finished.
---
Lowerton, Colorado, USA:
Josh quickly re-entered the nearly bare room and glanced around, hoping to not see Kim Possible on the floor laying in a pool of blood. He looked and was amazed. She still stood, and there was a hole in the opposite wall. The gun she was holding was pointed directly at the hole, but there was no expression on her face.
"Very good Miss Possible, now look around and see Mr. Stoppable…very nice, now aim at him….very nice…now squeeze the trigger", as a bullet went through a picture of her ex-boyfriend. "I'm sure you missed, Miss Possible. Squeeze the trigger until the gun is empty please, and smile while doing so.", he urged.
Five more times came the crashing sound as all the bullets found their target from the smiling redhead.
"Miss Possible, the next time you see Ron Stoppable, it will be your assignment to kill him after you find an appropriate weapon. Please do not disappoint me.", he told her, "Do you understand?"
"Yes sir, I understand that my mission is to terminate Ron Stoppable.", she replied flatly, 'You bitch! You have to kill him now? I wish we were dead. Please God in heaven make this torture end.'
"Very good Miss Possible, please hand me back the gun and return to your seat.", he instructed. He smiled as she did what she had been told what to do.
"So you were worried about the safety of our young assassin, Mr. Mankey? Very good my semi-trusted servant. Since you have exhibited some affection for Miss Possible, I may have other plans later, but for now when she comes to her senses, take her out to lunch. I think that her old favorite spot with Stoppable would be the right place considering how much we have accomplished today.", he laughed, "And make sure you trash talk him, as you Americans say. Just in case he has friends around that are still in contact with him."
"I thought you wanted the honor of killing the loser yourself, master. Wouldn't having Kim kill him break that honor code or whatever it is?", Josh asked.
"Not at all, Miss Possible is also my weapon now as well. It would be a nice twist though I'm not sure how well she could remove his head. We could find out with you servant!", he told Josh sharply, "Take this also, this is her new prescription that her woman's doctor gave her incase anyone asks. Have her keep this in her purse. The drugs should be in your mailbox by the time you return to your apartment." He handed him the paper to show the medications listed.
"Sir, I suppose you are right. I won't argue.", he replied.
"Come on Kim. Let's go out to Bueno Nacho for lunch. I know you're hungry.", he told the redhead.
They left the building with Kim Possible holding onto her boyfriend's arm while still a little unsteady on her feet.
---
Camp Rudder, Florida:
The Captain looked over the men that he was in charge of. Eight and a half weeks of strenuous, no, make that tortuous training and evaluations left those trainees that remained in the class, appear very roughed up. One third of those that been dropped were sent back for re-evaluation. They helped motivate the rest of their peers. Captain Grant was happy. No one had died during this class and most of the injuries were relatively mild only a few torn muscles and joints. Not many broken bones either. The class had been living off MREs for two months. Most had lost nearly forty pounds on the Ranger diet. Considering that they burned off over 8000 calories a day it's a wonder that they all didn't look like living skeletons.
It would be over soon for them. Graduation was coming up and then was the re-assignments. Since the Captain was leaving they were going to let him pick a few recent graduates to go with him. He got to pick them himself and he had his eyes out for about ten men that caught his eye. There was a Spec 4 Brian Wilson, and several PFC's including the one who cooked.
'Man is he gonna go far, all he has to do is not get hurt or killed in the next few days. That Loosee' kid sure showed everyone when Hobbs got hurt. On their fourth run through the Queen, one of the RI's ripped into him about leaving Hobbs behind, trying to get him to make a decision. The kid's solution: pick Hobbs up and carry him through the course. What really surprised everyone was when the kid got some of the other trainees to help him get the much larger man over the obstacles. Leadership, that's what's going to make the difference as a Ranger. Loosee' has the leadership qualities, the athleticism and the skill set to make him a truly great soldier. All he has to do is survive, then he's mine.', he rubbed his hands evilly at the thought of the good food that he could make and the skills the kid had displayed in the field.
---
Middleton, Colorado:
"Hey Ned, why don't you give us some of those nasty Nacos that Kim's former loser boyfriend came up with. They're lowlife food, but we might as well have some since we're at a lowlife fast food place.", Josh Mankey said with a laugh.
With that Ned reached out and slapped Josh right across the face.
"Why did you do that, you geek?", Josh shouted.
"Because you're an obnoxious jerk, Mankey! If you want to take this outside then let's go.", Ned snarled.
"I ought to kick your butt Ned, but I have a better idea. I'll just sue you instead.", he yelled pulling Kim out of the restaurant roughly.
From all across the Bueno Nacho restaurant, there was a roaring applause. A quiet slim figure stood up and followed them outside. She made her way to the apartment complex that she knew that they would come back to in time. All she had to do was wait.
---
Washington, D.C.:
In the shadows, a small lithe creature waited until the guard passed. It moved with the silence of a shadow itself. Moments later, before the guard returned, it was inside. It finally found the office that it needed and quickly opened the door. Once inside it made use of the passwords and began check on files. 'Nothing here. It was a wild goose chase and a waste of time and the very real chance of being caught. I hate those guys. They are gonna pay and not just money.', the green eyed villainess snarled to herself.
Twenty minutes later she was in the air flying low over the Potomac River making sure that she avoided the advanced radar that covered this part of the United States. Occasionally she checked her sensors to make sure that she wasn't being tailed by fighter aircraft. Shego didn't want an air to air missile up her tail pipe..
---
Global Justice Headquarters:
Wade Load watched his former team leader, Kim Possible, enter his office. "Please sit down Kim.", he asked, "This is just a scanning device. We found some abnormalities in your blood work during your physical. So we're going to check your medication and I'm going to put this on you to make that everything is OK. Now has there been a change in any medication Kim?", he asked.
"Oh yes, I guess I forgot to tell the nurse. I have a new 'woman's' doctor and she changed my BC pills. I was having trouble with some things you know. She thinks this will fix it. I've been pretty irregular lately, a lot of female athletes are that way from time to time. Do you want a copy of the prescription Wade?", she asked her old friend.
"If you don't mind Kim. That's Global Justice's policy when certain parts of someone's physicals deviate from the baseline.", Wade explained.
"OK Wade I have the paper in my purse, but I can give you a package of the pills to test just in case.", she responded.
"Thanks Kim, I sure appreciate it. I'm sorry for troubling you.", he told her.
Wade looked at the display on the device that he had placed on her. "Looks like you're good to go here too Kim. You want to go down to the cafeteria for lunch, I'm hungry and been going since 5 AM.", he asked.
"Sure Wade, I'll meet you in cafeteria 4-D in an hour.", she told him as she left.
---
Upperton University:
"Hey babe how ya doing?", Josh asked Tara as he tried to put his arms around her in the hallway as she was trying to get to her next class.
"Drop dead you jerk!", she responded.
"Hey what did I do?", he asked sweetly.
"You broke up two people that I love very much. Don't ever talk to me again!", she spat.
Josh reached to grab her arm. "But baby I thought we could talk about it. You know, us and past times. Maybe go out for dinner and a movie, just like you used to enjoy.", he continued.
"Like I said Mankey, drop dead!", she snapped as she slapped him across the face.
Casually, he turned away and walked off. 'Man how can it get so wrong? She used to love me. Maybe after Stoppable comes back and Kim kills him, Tara will come back to me.'
He turned to walk away when he walked into another old girlfriend. "Hey Bon-Bon, what about dinner tonight?", he asked not realizing she had just witnessed the whole preceding episode in the hallway.
In a heartbeat, her arms were around him. 'Ahhh, this is much better!', he mused until a moment later he felt her knee smack into his groin with a great deal of force. He was kneeling over in agony when the former cheerleader drove her elbow down into the back of his neck dropping him to the floor, where Josh was now writhing in pain. There were tears forming in his eyes while he was trying to get them to uncross.
Bonnie leaned forward and snarled, "Josh Mankey, listen to me Monkey boy....you have hurt three very good friends of mine. Stay away from Tara. Let's not go through this ever again, do you understand me? No one, but no one rips on Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable but me. Do you understand you little dweeb? Oh, and you might want to put some ice on that, or they'll be the size of basketballs by this time tomorrow."
After she left, Josh found the strength to stand, got up and left the campus. A few hours later he was feeling much better. But then most people have that much booze in them, would not be feeling much in the way of pain either.
Walking back to the apartment Josh couldn't care less about the cold. He hardly even noticed the snow that was coming down almost horizontally with a fierce wind pushing it along. Seeing an unfamiliar form in the street light he could tell it was feminine. He hoped she was a looker, but at this point he really didn't care. 'Heck it could be the lunch lady from high school for all I care right now.' , he mused wickedly.
He reached out and grabbed what he could first. "Oh hi.", she said, "You must be cute guy that all the girls are talking about around the apartment complex."
"Yea, I guess I am at that. The name's Bosch...I mean Josh.", he slurred.
"Hi Josh, my name is Linda Lang. The guys call me Sleazy Linda.", she gushed, "Have you ever dated a Chinese girl, Josh?"
"Well I guess I'm going to get to, now.", he smiled, "Here give me a kiss and then we can talk about 'us'."
"Sure.", she told him as she nuzzled close. She reached up and grabbed him by the side of the neck. Josh dropped to the ground for the second time in less that eight hours.
"Sleazy Linda?", another feminine voice laughed from the shadows, "Oh wait till Sensei hear's that one. He'll spew his sake all over the place." Just then Suzie Chin appeared.
"OK then Sue, what are we going to do with the pervert?", Wanda Wang asked.
"We could leave him out here to freeze to death.", Suzie suggested hopefully.
"Sensei was specific: No scalp taking...I mean no homicides until we find out what happened between Ron-san and Kim-san.", Wanda reminded her teammate.
"OK, I guess it was a bit too much to ask. A nice simple way of getting rid of a nuisance if you ask me. OK then what should we do with the 'boytoy' then?", Sue responded.
"Let's stay out here with him for awhile and make sure he gets nice and cold. Then we'll drag him up to his apartment, ring the doorbell and leave. By the time Possible-san gets him inside we will be gone and it will take hours before he warms up. With luck, he may catch pneumonia and stop bothering the women on campus for a few weeks.", 'Wanda' suggested.
"OK, how about we leave him in a dark spot while we can get a cup of tea at the cafe up the street. No need for us to be uncomfortable too.", Sue replied.
"Sounds good to me, but you have to buy, I forgot my money.", 'Wanda' told her.
"When don't you forget your money, sister.", Sue replied as she made quick work of moving Josh into a quiet place where he wouldn't be disturbed for a while.
When they returned nearly an hour later, the snow had begun to accumulate on the quiet artist. A few minutes later a shivering Josh Mankey was half carried into his dwelling as a redhead quietly drew a hot bath for him.
---
Camp Rudder, Florida:
It was the last training mission for the current crop of Ranger Trainees. The last exercise, they put everything they could into the last burst before graduation. It was a night exercise now, and a very confusing one at that for the trainees. PFC Loosee' was leading like he had on several occasions. The team had completed the hardest part of the mission and were moving to the extraction point. They were being pursued and were engaged in a running gun battle called a fire fight. The PFC had split his small force. The main contingent was bringing in the object. The small remaining force was keeping the pursuers at bay. Then it happened, the leader stepped in a hole. He grunted as his knee twisted at an odd angle. The hiss in his voice stopped the others as he hit the ground hard.
The others looked. Ron snapped his fingers and pointed at four of his men and waved his hand in a circular motion. They moved out like and oiled machine. The evaluator nodded, 'Good, setting up security'. The PFC then pulled out an Ace Bandage out of his ruck and started to wrap his knee up. One of the others quickly took over.
The evaluator looked at the leader, "Son you got enough points to graduate, what are you going to do?"
"It won't be fair to the others if I wimp out. I gotta go and try to finish.", he told him.
The leader looked at the remaining team members, "OK, if I don't keep up, you leave me. That's an order. You got it? I mean it. The mission is more important than one guy. What would you do in a real situation? Now help me up.", he ordered.
The leader tried a few limping steps and snapped his fingers again. The security returned and he pointed. They took off at a jog, keeping the opposing force at a distance. For the rest of the night they moved until they were out of ammunition. By Four AM the smaller force was at their pickup point and were in the process of being extracted.
From the moment that he twisted the knee the rest of that night was a true agony for the leader of the unit. Several times he had stumbled and fallen. His teammates finally took his ruck like he had done several times during training, for others. When they got off the chopper at the end, the medics had to cut his uniform pants from his leg because the knee was so swollen. At the debriefing his leg continued to swell. At the end of it they were told that they had passed the course.
Ron hung his head. Captain Grant came up along side the PFC. "How you doing son?, he asked.
"I'm sorry I messed up sir. I really screwed up out there. If I hadn't gotten hurt we could have beaten the fastest time in the last three years. I guess I'll have to start all over again. I thought that I had it too.", he told the officer.
"Son, you got hurt. Then you checked yourself out after you made sure security was setup while you were in pain and began to treat yourself. Then the evaluator tells you that you had passed, but you worried about the team, not about yourself. So the mission was a success. Plus you got a few guys, that though they had the skill set to become good Soldiers and Rangers, step up and finally become team players. Therefore, you did what a bunch of us couldn't do. That makes you a leader, PFC. That makes you a Soldier and that's what's going to make you a Ranger. You passed the course. Right now, I'm sending you in for treatment. I'll see you at the hospital. I want to know a couple of things. First do you have any friends or family coming to graduation? Second, how about coming out to Ft. Lewis with me? I'm being transferred there and I'm allowed to bring ten guys with me.", Grant told the PFC.
"Sir, I'm an orphan with no friends and I don't have a girl. I would love to be stationed at Ft. Lewis.", he replied.
"Good then, now can I have the honor of placing your Ranger tab on you at graduation?", Grant asked.
"Sir, you mean I really passed?", he asked.
"Yes son, you really did. Good job. Get fixed up and lets get ready to have some fun out in the Northwest.", he laughed slapping the younger man on the shoulder.
The meat wagon took the PFC off.
---
Fort Benning, Georgia:
"Gentlemen, repeat after me, the United States Army Ranger Creed.", the Senior NCO stated
"Recognizing that I volunteered as a Ranger, fully knowing the hazards of my chosen profession....."
.
.Acknowledging the fact that a Ranger is a more elite soldier who arrives at the cutting edge of battle by land, sea, or air, I accept the fact that as a Ranger my country expects me to move further, faster and fight harder than any other soldier.
.
"Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude to fight onto the Ranger objective and complete the mission, though I be the lone survivor."
"Welcome aboard Rangers!", he shouted
"Rangers lead the way! All the way!", all members responded.
'I made it! Damn, I really made it! I was able to do it without all their help. Maybe I can find my place in the world now.', he smiled.
"Come on buddy, let's go get a beer.", one of the older graduates asked him.
"I can't have a beer Ike, I'm only eighteen, I won't be nineteen for a few more weeks.", he replied, "But I can have a soda."
"Come on RTL let's party anyway, you're buying.", a couple of new Rangers laughed as they pulled him along.
Well it looks like things are moving along nicely now. See ya next time.
ST-103
