Chapter 8: There's Usually A Cost
Kim and Ron looked at each other… their eyes burning with the passion of the challenge. Even as they charged forward, with scowls upon their faces. But inside, they smiled maliciously. The clash happened when their forearms slammed against each other.
"So you're the guy killing criminals huh?"
"Guilty, but not sorry." They pushed away and started to engage in another fist fight.
Kim was going to uppercut Ron straight to the jaw, but the attack was parried and the redhead was met with an elbow to the cheek, then a jab to her ribs. Ron was about to kick her in the leg but she brought her leg up and did a push kick, staggering the ninja.
Twisting herself in the air, Kim kicked Ron in the face, as she was about to strike, she sees the vigilante about to attack her with a spinning back fist to which she ducked easily. She punched him in the stomach twice, a third strike landed on his face. Kim was about to hit him again but her attacking hand was grabbed. She felt herself being pulled closer to her adversary and was met with a head butt. Kim saw and felt the boy leap, using her body. He vaults on top of her and slams her to the ground.
Ron then charged Kim as she got up and was about to give her a flying knee, but she was lucky that the attack actually missed. As she got up, he sweep kicks her back to the ground again and brought his heel onto her stomach. As he rolls out of the way, Kim got up and shot her rappel at Ron, he was able to catch it, but that was what the redhead was counting on.
Kim zips herself towards him and kicks Ron in his chest. As Ron falls to the floor, he sees Kim charging towards him. He digs his boots onto her stomach and kicks her out of the way. They both regain their footing, circling one another… catching their breath before throwing themselves back in combat.
"How could you just kill those people?" Kim asked. If this was a cold blooded killer, how and why would he or other people consider him a hero? Is he sane, does he know what he's doing? Questions like these swirled through her head.
"Simple: one swipe of a blade." Ron answers with brutal honesty, not even a pang of guilt or doubt. He tries to kick her in her hip, but she caught it. Ron leaped and used his other leg to kick her in the face. As the redhead staggers back and Ron gets up from the ground, he throws several shuriken at her, Kim dodges all of them.
'A diversion?' She asks herself. 'Which means…' She instinctively blocked an attack by Ron and threw him towards a skylight where she was about to tackle him through the glass, but her efforts were reversed as Ron picked her up and slammed her through the skylight, causing them both to fall down and slam onto the wooden floors.
The two hacked and coughed as a light coating of dust engulfed the two, attacking their lungs. They crawled away from each other, lying against the wall.
"Let's never do that again either." Ron said to the redhead. He began to move his body slightly, whether for blood circulation or to ease his pain. It didn't matter to him, and it didn't matter to Kim either.
"Deal." She half-heartedly agrees. Using the walls to support themselves, they get back up, knuckles crunching. Kim grabbed his shirt and threw him towards a fragile wooden door, revealing a stairwell. His body crashes onto a ledge. Ron recovers and throws Kim towards a wall. With a palm strike, Ron sends Kim crashing down a flight of stairs, twisting and turning like a wreck. She could only get up onto her knees, crawl towards Ron and resume the fight, yet her body fails her at this endeavor.
She sees the vigilante towering over her. She felt air violently escape her lungs as a kick to her stomach was felt. He looked up to see the eyes of the vigilante showing indifference, apathy. Doesn't even have a care for the world at this point. "You want to be the hero to save this city? Tch… those scumbags don't deserve mercy, just as Espadrille and Chino." Ron says, clearly with a disregard for criminal lives. It didn't matter what he did to them. "Send Hoodie my regards."
He throws out a smoke bomb and dashed out of the area. Leaving a battered and utterly defeated redheaded heroine. She gets up to run after him, but he was no where to be found. She immediately pulls out her Kimmunicator.
"Wade."
"Kim are you alright?" Wade looked at the disheveled face of his friend.
"Yeah, I'm fine. The vigilante… he got away. Can you track him?" She runs up to the skylight they crashed into earlier. Kim ignored the searing pain of the fight.
"No, sorry… I can't pickup any surveillance at this point. But I'll keep looking… why don't you get some rest?"
"Thanks Wade, just keep me posted." She cut the communications and left the building. Normally, she would be in a slightly depressed state and head home somberly. But there is something that could take her out of such an unwanted mood.
Minutes Later:
"Hey Kim." A smile appeared on a certain artist's face but it quickly vanished as he looked at her eyes. It may not have been blackened or bruised enough to merit question, but she had an exhausted look which she covered with a smile.
"Hey Josh, sorry I was a little late, just had a little thing to do at work."
He then voiced his concern. "I can see that… hey if you wanna do this another time, I won't hold it against you."
She gave a light chuckle. "Trust me, I've dealt with worse and I've been waiting for this, so it shouldn't be a problem." He still felt as if he should object, but he wouldn't deny her. If Kim feels like she should do this, why intervene. It's not that he's oblivious about Kim's strength, will and pride, the artist sees it every day. Despite having a small feeling of a need to turn back, he pressed on with her.
Ron was able to return home, brushing off some remnants of glass from the skylight off of his body. He takes off his outfit heads to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge and heads to the bathroom. Before walking inside, he takes a swig of water and rinses his mouth that had the taste of blood lingering about. He spits the water mixed with blood onto the sink and prepares a bath for himself.
He washes off the filth that had pretty much covered him over the course of the day. He sliced through thugs, he fought three burly guys and he fought his classmate aka the great Kim Possible. Nothing wrong with a quick soak, right?
It probably won't be long until the guy who knows his identity contacts him or something else has his attention. As he does he could feel his eyelids becoming heavy and wanting to shut as he fell asleep.
After thirty minutes, his eyes opened slightly just to hear his phone vibrate, he reached out his hand to grab it to see the caller I.D. 'Unknown' it read. He answered the call.
"Hello?" Ron said:
"You were able to blow up the weapons cache. I hope you didn't suffer permanent damage."
"I'm fine. Just got into a scrap with Kim Possible. I don't assume you have a second mission or something happening overnight?" Ron said. He gets up, stretching his muscles and allowing the water to drip down from his body.
"If you want to… what I'm going to ask from you is insane."
"How can it get any more insane? Just curious."
"I may be a hacker with exceptional skills, but I need some things computer-wise."
"But it isn't the 'what', so much as where." Ron predicted.
"Yes, the headquarters of Global Justice will do the trick."
Ron perked up. The contact was talking about breaking into the GJ facility and stealing from them. "This does sound kinda messed up coming from you. How can we rob Global Justice without… I dunno… getting caught?!"
"When school begins Monday, I'll show you both my plan and a little something, as a show of good faith. How about I show you who I really am… and that we're on the same side?"
Ron blinked. The guy was willing to show his identity? He had tried to investigate on his own and drew several conclusions, but what would be the chances that he would be wrong? "You got something for me for the weekend then?"
"I'll leave that up to you. If you want to kill a couple of Jack Hench's men just for fun, I won't hold it against you. Matter of fact, he's hosting a party for his benefactors both legally and illegally… well 'allegedly' at least."
He gets out of the bath and wraps himself with a towel. "I don't suppose you have a way of getting me inside."
"You're going in as a benefactor. There's actually some people about your age who donated too. So you'll be going in as one of them."
"Ok… so I go in as a regular guy. No weapons or ways to escape. Fair enough."
"There might be some weapons there hidden in the estate. This won't be a problem for you, right?" He asked.
"No, it's ok. Guess I can handle this." Ron heads into one of the bedrooms where he would finally be able to rest on the bed instead of the couch as he usually did.
After being supplied with new bedroom sheets and pillows. He took it to his parents room. He would've went into his room, but his old bed became too small for him. Folding his hands behind his back, he looks up to the ceiling.
'Kim's definitely not happy about what happened. She'll do what she can to put me in jail. Oh man… there's even a guy wanting me to break into GJ and for what?! I gotta say, everything isn't turning out how I thought it would be. But this is pretty awesome.' What he knows right now is that Hench will be in his crosshairs, but not tonight.
Patience will be the key, as long as it is.
With Kim
The date had finished for Kim as she went to the front door of her house. She felt a breath of fresh air go through her. Not so much as the date but so much as coming back home. She had a nice time, but it was nice to come back. Even so there was something that couldn't escape her mind.
Her defeat.
She lost to a random guy with a sword, throwing stars and near-mastery of martial arts. It was as if she was fighting Shego, but more homicidal and masculine. Even so, this vigilante doesn't have super powers, training he has but that's about it. Before she could dwell on it any further, she felt a vibration coming from her pocket. It was her phone and it had a message sent to her from Monique, a video.
The video looked to be the new guy about to fight one of the bullies from the D Hall. Monique did say that Ron won the fight, and she believed her. But she never saw it for herself, how did he win?
As the video played, Ron showed the basic needs for combat. That's fine, he also shows technicality and some expertise. He's done something like this before. But it isn't enough to merit suspicion if he's a vigilante. Any person can fight just one guy, depending if they are capable enough. Ron was capable and came off with a win.
'Those scumbags don't deserve mercy.' That thought invaded her head while watching the video. She then wanted to write for a little while.
'I went to fight the vigilante… I lost. I lost so bad. I've faced a lot of bad guys, fought a lot of stuff that just wasn't normal. But this… this is different. After a date, I would probably think about whether I had a good time or not… I mean I did… but it just went back to 'him'. Now Monique sends me a video of Ron fighting a bully and winning. I'm actually surprised that he wasn't caught or sent to detention or something. I know she and Ron became friends already, but I should get to know him too. At least for Monique's sake, she can take care of herself but I don't want her getting hurt.'
Feeling: Tired
To remedy her situation, she decided to take some rest. Maybe until morning she could check on the new guy and see how he likes it here. Maybe what's happening between him and Monique too… as a bonus.
Maybe a Saturday is just what she needs, once everyone gets back into the fray, she'll be ready too.
