Chapter Six
Ron, Joss, Kate, Olivia, and Dr. Director moved as stealthily as they could in the light of day up to the massive hanger. It could easily house a passenger liner jet, or any number of devious traps that Walter Nelson's twisted mind could come up with. Outside were parked a number of cars, trucks, vans, and a rented bus. "Looks like someone called in the calvary, eh?" Kate asked. "What?" she said as Joss grinned at her.
"Nothin'."
"Okay, so here's the plan. Joss, Olivia... you try to shut down whatever Kim and Walter are working on to block out the sun." Dr. Director said, listening to the steel walls of the hanger in the hopes of hearing anything inside.
"Here." Ron said to Joss. "Take Rufus. He'll watch your back." Rufus hopped from Ron's hand to Joss's shoulder and Ron cast a critical eye on Olivia. "Just in case."
"Ron, Kate, and I will try to distract Kim." Dr. Director continued.
"Even in college, a ninja master, and fighting against Kim, I'm still the distraction." Ron whined. "This so isn't fair." Staring at the wall of the hanger, Ron adjusted his glasses. "Okay, looks clear." he assured everyone.
"Good. Let's go." the Director ordered, quietly opening the door. Each person moved into the room with the utmost of stealth.
"Hey, I smell burgers." Ron whispered, turning around. Before them stood a least a hundred large men dressed in shorts and t-shirts.
"You said it was clear, Stoppable." Kate said, wearing a fake grin and waving politely at the group.
"I said it looked clear!" Ron whispered back.
"Well it doesn't look very clear to me." Kate replied.
Ron checked his glasses again. "Heh... that was the low light setting. Here's x-ray." he said with a sheepish smile. "Kate, did you know you've got the same dimples Kim does?"
Kate glared at him.
"Who are you supposed to be?" asked Mark in his deep voice from the center of the crowd of henchmen.
"My name's Ron!" he smiled confidently. "And these are my angels." he said, gesturing to the women around him.
A sigh could be heard over the intercom as Walter's voice echoed through the hanger. "Company barbecue is now on hold until the intruders are dealt with."
"Aw..." whined Ron, Rufus, and all of the henchmen.
"Ron, get to Kim. You may be the only one that can stop her with your Monkey Powers." Dr. Director said as she and Kate settled into offensive attack stances.
"Uh, yeah... about that..." Ron stammered nervously.
"Go!" the Director shouted at him with an angry eye. "Joss, Olivia... get to Walter!" Joss and Rufus nodded, running off to the side with an uncertain Olivia in tow, and Ron raced off in the opposite direction. "Kate?"
"Yes ma'am?" Kate asked as the crowd of henchmen picked up their charged staffs.
"You take the fifty on the left, I'll take the fifty on the right. Ready?"
Kate grinned. "Absolutely."
Joss, Rufus, and Olivia snuck through a hallway located along the outside wall of the hanger that had blast proof view ports with a view of what Joss would guess was a high tech rocket on a set of stilts and sitting in front of an aircraft catapult. A quick search of the main hanger revealed no guards. "Okay, now how do we shut this thing down, Wade?" Joss asked into her communicator.
"You're going to have to find the launch controls. They'll probably be nearby, but behind a blast shield of some kind." Wade said.
"I know where that is." Olivia said, looking down the hall and avoiding Joss's eyes. "This way."
Joss and Rufus looked at each other suspiciously before following. "How do you know where everythin' is?"
"I helped Walter modify the hanger." Olivia replied, poking her head through the next door and looking around.
"You?" Joss asked, disbelievingly.
"I'm only two points shy of Wade's I.Q, y'know." Olivia said as she turned back to smile before skirting through the door.
"Olivia, wait!" Joss whispered, following Olivia and closing the door behind her. "We've got to stick together." she said, turning. Olivia stood next to a leather chair that spun around as Joss entered.
"Uh oh..." Rufus squeaked.
"It's nice to see you can always count on family." Walter grinned. "Too bad Kim can't say the same."
Joss held up a hand, shielding her eyes from Walter's smile. "Whoa, put it away, cowboy!"
His grin faded and he pushed his gold rimmed glasses up onto the bridge of his nose as he stood. "I really expected more from a Possible, Joss." he said, shaking his head.
"Always pleased to disappoint." Joss replied, looking around the room. There was a doorway to the main hanger section that housed the rocket, the launch control console that Walter and Olivia were standing in front of, and the door behind her. "You don't reckon that plungin' the world into eternal darkness is a bad idea?"
"Kim knows what she's doing." Walter said in full confidence, dropping his toy Diablo in between Joss and himself.
Joss looked down at the toy and narrowed her eyes. "You're making me fight a Diablo? That's not very fair."
"I agree." Walter grinned, pushing a button on his remote.
The mini Diablo stood up on it's own, turning toward Joss. "Rufus, open sesame!" Joss shouted, tossing the mole rate towards the door controls to the main hanger. Rufus struck the button with a 'squeak' and Joss slid forward on her side, her cowboy boot connecting with the slowly growing toy. The blast door slid open just in time for the Diablo to sail through and skitter across the concrete floor to rest beneath the rocket.
Walter's eyes grew wide and his face turned bright red. "No!" he shouted, turning toward Joss as she climbed to her feet. He was mashing buttons on his remote in a panic as he backed up against the control console. "Abort! Abort!"
Joss watched and waited for the Diablo to grow and crush the rocket, but nothing happened. "But, wha...?"
"It's out of range!" Walter laughed in surprise. "You lose, Joss!"
Joss set her gaze on the remote in Walter's hand. "Rufus, get the Diablo!" she shouted and he scurried out the door towards the toy.
Walter spun, slamming his fist heavily down on a large, red button on the control console, beginning a sixty second timer. "Sixty! Sixty seconds to launch!" he laughed. "You're little naked friend is going to be cooked like a sausage in one minute!"
Joss ran towards him and dug the pointed toe of her boot into his shin, causing him to drop the remote and hop around in agony, yelling incoherent obscenities. "There's few words I didn't know." Joss grinned, scooping up the remote and running out the door.
"Ah! What are you doing?!" Walter asked, running after her.
Olivia calmly looked out the door, watching after Joss and her brother. She turned back to the timer. Fifty seconds. Shaking her head and smiling to herself, she pressed the launch button again. Nothing. The button was stuck, mashed into it's housing by Walter's fist. "Uh oh."
Ron quickly left the Director and Kate to battle Walter's henchmen, backing through a door that led directly into the main hanger section. Illuminated by overhead emergency lighting, Ron noted a massive rocket that was lined up with the bay door at one end of the hanger. Shiny black with a huge green and yellow KP symbol etched into the side, the rocket was sleek, and stylish. "Well, at least it'll look good when it destroys the world."
"Y'think?" Kim asked from behind him. "I thought the emblem was a little much."
Ron hit the floor hard as Kim tossed him forward and he skidded to a stop. "KP, come on..." he laughed nervously, turning over onto his back. "It's me. It's your Ron!"
"Sorry, Ron. No moodulator or MRM this time. With you and your pathetic monkey powers out of the way, I own the night!" Kim grinned. "And the night is about to get very, very long." Kim cut downward with the katana and Ron rolled to the side and onto his feet.
"What about the rest of the world?" Ron asked. "What about your parents?" He dodged a swipe of the katana, scrambling away. "What about your Nana?"
"Nana?" Kim asked, looking puzzled for a moment. "Who cares?!" she shouted, thrusting the katana forward, just past Ron's face. She swiped to the side, causing Ron to duck and the few blonde hairs that always stuck up in the back fell to the floor.
A door opened on the other side of the hanger and a mini Diablo came flying through it, sliding and tumbling along the floor to rest beneath the rocket. Ron and Kim looked at each other, pausing to consider the implications of the thing growing and Kim began to run towards it, Ron following after.
"Suddenly, red klaxons sounded and a large digital timer lit up above the rocket, shining sixty second into the dim room. Kim stopped and spun with an outstretched arm, catching Ron in the neck and sending him sliding to a stop at the rear of the rocket. "I always thought you were holding back, Ron. Now I see that Bonnie and Barkin were right." Kim taunted. "Small and weak. Wasn't that what Barkin called you?" she asked with a grin, walking up to him.
Ron lifted his head and could feel the growing heat from the rocket's engines on his face. He rolled to the side to see Rufus scurrying towards the Diablo with Joss and Walter following him. Kim brought the katana down again, striking the floor. "Come on, Kim! Snap out of it!" Ron shouted, reaching for the Diablo. He lifted the toy up, blocking Kim's next strike.
Kim kicked the Diablo away and put her boot on the side of Ron's head, pressing down. "I should have known you weren't worth my time, Ron." she grinned as Ron grabbed her foot, struggling. He was trying not to look into Kim's yellow eyes, trying not to hear the words he knew... he thought the real Kim wouldn't mean. He watched as Walter tackled Joss, sending the Diablo remote skittering across the floor towards the toy itself.
"Ten seconds remaining." the voice over the intercom warned. Walter stood in an effort to get to the Diablo and Joss grabbed his foot, knocking him to the floor.
"Kim, the rodent!" Walter shouted, pointing at Rufus, who was a few feet from the toy and it's remote.
Kim hissed, narrowing her eyes at the naked mole rat. She took a deep breath, and calmly began to sing. "Rock-a-bye Rufus, in the tree top... When the wind blows..." she continued in a remarkably sweet voice and Rufus slid to a stop, curling up and snoring only inches away from the remote. "The cradle has dropped."
"Five seconds..." the intercom warned again.
Kim used Ron as a spring board, back flipping behind the catapult as the rocket engines began to push against the foot thick, heat shielded, steel plate. Ron rolled to the side and covered his head as the rocket shot forward, filling the hanger with smoke and exhaust. The main hanger door blew apart as the rocket punched through it and climbed into the sky.
Ron remained on the floor. Despite the high pitched ringing that throbbed in his head, he noticed Kate and the Director rush through the door behind him. Joss was on her knees, shouting into her communicator and wiping her eyes. Rufus was shaking his head in confusion as he woke up, searching for the Diablo and it's controller. Kim was walking towards Ron, katana raised in two hands, being careful to avoid the sunlight that was flooding the room.
"My heart is pure..." Ron whispered to himself, propping himself up on his hands and knees.
Kim laughed. "Pure, Ron? You're a killer. You haven't been pure since graduation." she smiled. "Especially not since our first week of college." she said, bringing the katana down.
"Let's just see..." Ron said, rolling over and holding his hand out. Joss and Walter dived to the side as a length of blue glowing steel tore its way through the side of the hanger, coming to rest in Ron's hands in time to parry Kim's cleaving strike.
Ron rolled out from under Kim, shrugged off his smoldering jacket, and held the Lotus Blade at the ready. With determination in his eyes, Ron smiled. "Can I have this dance?"
