RJ and Martin:

Chapter 28: The Predator Is Out

The rays of sunrise slipped through the curtains shielding the bed and hit Martin's face first. He opened his eyes, feeling colder than he had last night.

Well, only his chest area.

He was laying on his back, so he tried his best to tilt his head to look down and smile at his Ronilda. She was still sleeping, her arms hugging him while her bare skin and soft breathing sent him small breezes of love. The angel looked safe and sound with her devil, even the latter still couldn't believe what they went through last night. Positively speaking, the bond tightened in their relationship. Negatively speaking, he wished they did it for a time other than his genetic crisis.

At least it was timelier than it happened to my folks. Martin froze at the thought. Now that this happened, what would follow? He just deflowered a girl whom he truly loved but was still six years younger than him. If it weren't for the SWMC, Martin would have most likely done it if they had managed to keep it up between them for a year. Maybe marriage then? His mother expected grandchildren on the Monkey Year. I'm sure it can wait. It's not like the world is going to end.

He felt Ronilda move. He looked down and saw her opening his eyes. "Morning," he said softly.

She gave him a small smile. "Hi." She blushed. "Sorry I used you for a pillow."

"It's nothing," he reassured her while stroking her smooth hair strands. "Just a shame that it will be a while until the next pleasant night."

"Indeed," she said, biting her lip. Martin frowned when he noticed the small upset expression she was trying to hide in her smiles.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

Ronilda just gave him a look. Right then, the door bursted open. Martin lifted up the bed sheet they shared to make sure that whoever just stepped in would not peak.

"Can't you knock?" Martin shouted when he recognized Gilliard's scent.

"Your curtains are already covering your bed," Gilliard said drily. "I put your clothes on the chair for the trip, RJ. It's going to be cool in Nottingham."

"Right," she nodded. Once Gilliard was out of the chamber, RJ sat up and pushed the curtain open. Martin didn't protest when she took his nightrobe to cover herself. He watched her grab her things and make her way out. Martin wasn't sure what to make out of this. Maybe it's best that she gets her break this weekend.

He got up, took his shower, dressed, and got ready to head to the garage where the other family jet was parked. When he got there, he saw Gilliard and RJs doing their goodbyes to Kronos as he helped them put the two suitcases in the car trunk.

"Have a good trip," he said.

"Same here." Gilliard shook hands with his best friend and got on the driver's seat. Martin hesitated a bit when he faced RJ, but she responded first by kissing him, which he returned.

"Please be safe," she said when they were done.

"I will. Enjoy the convention."

RJ gave him a small nod and held his hand tightly before finally letting go and getting in the passenger seat. Martin looked on as Gilliard drove the car out of the castle and out of sight.

"For two teenagers going to a video game convention, they don't look very excited," Kronos remarked.

"At least they'll have more fun than me," Martin commented.

Close to noon later, on the top of the Minalshari radio tower

The four captives struggled to get out of their bonds, which so far haven't worked in the last countless hours, and the antenna was beeping so loudly, they were certain that most of the city could hear it.

"We have to get out!" Melgo snapped. "Anytime now, the Lorwardians will send in the pods and it doesn't help that the Minalshari is hidden underground! My family, HenchCo, and the civilians will be buried alive!"

"I could send in a call from Global Justice to evacuate the city, but I need to be able to reach my communicator in my pocket!" Will Du failed to reach his pocket.

"I could try using my laser golf ball to get us out, but it's in my back pocket!" Buffy struggled as well.

"Wait, maybe I can reach it." Dr. Possible ran her right hand behind Buffy, causing the latter to laugh a bit when the woman searching through her pocket made her ticklish. Dr. Anne Possible gasped in victory when she held the golf ball in her hands. She accidentally hit the trigger and the golf ball released a laser beam that melted the chain.

"Spanking!" Buffy took her golf ball back once it shut down. "My prototype worked!"

"Hold on," Melgo scowled at her while Will Du began typing on his communicator. "You mean this thing is new and you didn't think it could damage us?"

Melgo got cut off when a large booming sound was heard. The four looked around to see if something exploded somewhere in the city. No smoke was in sight. Another booming sound occurred and Buffy picked up a small fragment that she felt landing on her head. It almost looked... like she was holding an electric piece designed to look like the sky. She looked up and urged the others to see what was going on. The artificial sky dome of the Minalshari was growing cracks that grew in sizes.

"It's happening," Melgo gasped.

"I just sent the message to GJ. Hopefully they get the message, but we must evacuate the city," Will Du said.

"Attention all civilians!"

They looked on. HenchCo jets were flying around the city, shooting holographic projections of Jack Hench. "Proceed immediately to pack up whatever necessities and head to the tunnel! This is not a drill!"

Melgo frowned when she noticed that the holographic Jack Hench had a background that looked exactly like the convention center of the Minalshari.

"Hench! The doors are all locked! We can't get out!" A female voice shouted off screen.

"Mom!" Melgo gasped.

"The creepy chick must have tricked all of the main rogues into getting locked up in the convention center!" Buffy gasped.

Meanwhile, just outside in the surface world

Martin didn't even have time to find a landing spot when he saw giant pods shooting their way down from the sky and digging their way into the Minalshari's main area. They were trying to dig out the city, or more sadistically, trying to bury it and everyone in it alive.

His parents were in there.

Good thing Gilliard and RJ aren't here to see this, he said, partially relieved. He pushed the red button on the dashboard, unleashing the joystick that accessed the missiles dosed with MMP. Something that he and his parents purposely never used unless it was for a dire emergency.

He yanked it and fired one missile at the nearest giant pod, getting it electrocuted by red bolts. The pod wobbled, clearly weakened on the pressure point, but it didn't fully give in. It still kept digging, but now with the effectiveness of a puppy digging a hole in a backyard.

Martin checked the missile reserve. 23 left. He looked back at the pods. They had to be a double of the amount.

"This could take a while," he sighed as he flew the jet up to have a better areal view.

Meanwhile, in the Fiske Estate

Kronos hummed as he cut the thorns off the roses in the garden. This seemed like one of his ideal when he had the castle all to himself and shaping up the garden was the best way to meditate.

That was, until he heard the distant mud puddle splashing just outside of the castle's barrier. Being a Homo Simius and a healer who spent most of his time alone from his kind, Kronos had managed to develop a sharp hearing. Especially if he was in a place where he was the only one, distant sounds could bounce on the walls to him.

He kept listening. As the walking sound on the mud got louder, he heard the faint sound of metal pounding through the earth. As if the owner was wearing metal on his foot.

Then, he heard it. A horrifying scratching sound of metal on the castle's stone barrier. He could tell that the scratching left a good thickness of three inches through the rock.

The 'visitor' wasn't friendly at all.

He dropped his gardening material and rushed to the garden's stonewall. He searched through the stones until he turned two of them in a counterclockwise patter. A pathway opened up for him and closed once he was in. It was a tunnel that helped the others in the castle connect with one another should the place be invaded. Also, it had a few peeping holes, so Kronos could spy on the intruder. He peaked and saw not one, but three figures. All of them were dressed in black full-body suits with metal protections and helmets that completely shielded their heads and faces. They were so well covered, he couldn't even tell if they were male or female.

"Well?" One of the figures demanded to the other. The figure's voice was female, and judging by how she was the only one with purple colored metal protection, Kronos had to assume she was the leader.

"This is wrong," the second figure said, also with a female voice, while looking at the front of the castle. "The girl is supposed to be in the castle, but I can't find her heat signature anywhere."

"You don't think she left with her boyfriend, do you?" The third figure, also female sounding, asked.

"With all the bounty we have offered by our client, I highly doubt he expected her to be with the other villains while their sanctuary becomes the underworld," the leading figure said.

Kronos gasped. It became clear to him that these three dames were hired by the fiend who had brainwashed RJ. The man must have purposely made sure that the Fiskes and the other villains would be out of the way while the dames came to collect RJ.

What should he do? He couldn't fight off three dames purposely hired to kidnap, they'd most likely be able to subdue him. If he let himself be caught, he would most likely be interrogated.

An idea finally came to him. He made his way through the tunnel until it led him right to the nearest telephone in the hallway. He grabbed the phone and, like any child playing phone calls, he did a fake call.

"Gilliard? It's me, Kronos. Did you manage to catch your train to Scotland? Good. Good." He briefly glanced at the mirror near him. The leading figure must have heard him, since she was clawing her way up the ceiling like an upside down feline. "Oh, is RJ doing well? What you mean, she ran off to wander around the Loch Ness monster?" He faked turning his head as if he had just spotted a mud stain on the nearest Greek vase. He grabbed it... and yanked right at the head of the leading figure before she could strike on him. It barely made a dent on her helmet, but it still made her see stars and she got paralyzed by the cloud of dust that made her suit sting.

"The dust of Hypnos," Kronos bragged to her as she fell on the floor. "Works whenever you have intruders. Don't worry. You'll be de-paralyzed in 12 hours."

"Boss, do you copy? What's going on?" The voice of the second figure said through a speaker somewhere in the leading figure's helmet.

"Make a head start..." The leading figure said. "The girl is in Scotland, near the Loch Ness. Move on and keep her busy until I come back from finishing off some dead meat."

"Copy." The speaker buzzed off. Kronos, confused, ran to the window and saw the paralyzed woman's friends making their way away from the hotel.

"I don't get it," he said baffled. "You found out I tricked you. I paralyzed you and instead of calling for help, you send off your teammates. Why?"

The leading figure started laughing and jumping her body despite her paralyzed state. Kronos looked at her disturbingly as she wriggled like a spineless fish laughing its head off like a maniac. Except this fish kept scratching her metal nails on the floor.

"Knowing human nature, you freaks will give the hint I need to find the girl," she said when she calmed down. "Naturally, once I hand her over to my client and he's through with her, who's to stop me from destroying my greatest nemesis?"

Back at the Minalshari

Melgo banged on the doors of the convention center. Even Dr. Possible tried to pull on the handle.

"It's no use! It's locked!" She turned to Buffy. "Can't you throw exploding golf balls?"

"I can't! The creepy chick took all of them except the prototype one!" Buffy shook her hands.

Will Du got off his communicator. "Global Justice and HenchCo have come with a temporary truce. As we are talking, they are helping evacuate the civilians to one of our underground refugee bases. Also, it appears that a Fiske plane was spotted outside destabilizing the digging pods with missiles!"

BANG! The artificial sky shook even more, only now, bigger debris was falling. Dr. Possible pulled Melgo and Buffy out of the way before a big chunk could hit them.

Banging came from the door. Melgo gasped when she saw her parents, who had spotted her from inside and banged the doors to reach out to her to no avail. "Mom! Dad!"

"Melgo!"

"INCOMING!"

A bunch of monster trucks raced their way in, with Edina and her father Motor Ed on the lead.

"Cuz, move out of the way! Seriously!" Edina shouted.

The group moved out of the way. When the villains trapped inside the convention center realized what was happening, they went to the far other side. Edina, Motor Ed, and the other drivers did a turn and seriously backed up viciously right into the building. The wall broke and the vehicles moved up to let the villains out through the hole.

"Everyone in! Seriously!" Motor Ed shouted. They all listened to him and started climbing up the monster trucks. The drivers helped them get comfortable on the seats. Once everyone was in the monster trucks, Motor Ed straightened his goggles. "Let's bail! Seriously!"

They hit the brakes and drove as fast as they could, dogging the debris that crumbled upon the city. All the villains looked in horror as their one sanctuary was annihilated. Buffy and many of the teenagers gasped at the sight of the mall being destroyed. Melgo hugged her parents desperately when earth fell right onto their apartment. Even Gill and Secretary Magali, who were divorced, held each other tightly when they saw the HenchCo HQ under destruction.

Dr. Possible knew what the villains felt. It was not the first time she saw the world ending, and even though most of the people she was now with during the escape of this crumbling underworld were her daughter's old foe, she could see that they dreaded the safety of their families now that the aliens returned.

The monster trucks managed to make it out. They followed the GJ carriers, who had managed to come and collect all of the refugees. Just then, something fell out of the sky and landed right on top of Edina's monster truck.

"Hairy Hands Junior!" Melgo exclaimed. Drakken wasted no time and kicked the door open, pulling Martin Fiske in. "You OK?"

"No, I just forced my jet to crash-land onto the pods!" Martin exclaimed.

An explosion came from behind, causing a fire that managed to destroy the pods but also guarantee the destruction of the Minalshari.

Later

The refugees had been placed in a safety base just underground, far below the sewage level. GJ was working on providing them food, medication, and protection while Dr. Director and the villains discussed the matter at hand. Just as they had arrived at the base, Kronos had teleported to join his masters and base. They were shocked to find him carrying the body of one of the intruders who tried to break into the Fiske Castle.

"The other two think that RJ is in Scotland," Kronos explained while they observed the 'woman' showing no resistance as she was placed in a cell made of glass far more solid than titanium. "I still don't understand why she let her comrades astray and expects us to give her the answer, but all that I know is that she and her crew were hired to capture RJ and bring her back to her clients."

"I still can't believe the lassie is Possible's offspring and you three didn't even notice it!" Killigan told the Fiskes. All three of them were sitting, unwilling to give out an expression of any sort. Were they confused? Upset? Enraged? Betrayed? Heartbroken? Shocked to learn that the child they grew fond of was their enemy's blood? Martin looked the most speechless.

Killigan turned to Drakken and Shego. "You two knew, didn't you?" He asked roughly.

"Knock it off!" Melgo said defensively. "How could my parents know any of this?"

Drakken tapped his fingers nervously. "Uh... Melgo... There's something that your mother and I need to tell you."

"You guys knew?" Melgo asked drily.

The duo looked nervously at the expecting eyes before turning to Dr. Possible, who gave them an understanding nod.

Shego sighed. "Years ago, we were involved with Team Possible in the fight against the Lorwardians the first time they tried to invade Earth. The public version of the story was that Drew saved the day with his plant powers, end of story. But we lied."

"The truth was that the buffoon, Kim Possible's sidekick, used his monkey power to kill off the Lorwardians," Drakken said.

"You expect me to believe that Stoppable vanquished an entire army?" Monkey Fist said emotionless.

"Actually, it was just two Lorwardians and lots of pods. My plants were able to destroy the pods, but the two aliens, Warhawk and Warmonga, were too hard to challenge directly. Even Possible and Shego could not match them."

"But when they threatened Kimmie, Stoppable stepped up and used his powers to toss them into their crashing ship," Shego said. "He didn't want the public to know he saved the day."

"Why not?" Dr. Director asked.

"Not wanting the credit? Maybe he thought that he might cause fear. After all, he literally picked up two seven-feet-tall aliens with his bare hands glowing blue."

"We still kept in touch after the invasion was over and those kids went in retirement," Drakken nodded. "Respective invitation to our weddings, and initially appointing one another as godparents for the girls. We did see Ronilda a few times when she was a baby... but then there were the news of Dr. James Possible's death in the space station explosion and Ronilda's apparent death to an unexpected disease." He turned to Dr. Possible. "Though I still don't understand why a former neurosurgeon like you went through this."

"Believe me, I regret what I did," Dr. Anne Possible said. "I still don't know the real reason why Kim wanted Ronilda hidden and presumed dead."

"She feared the Fiskes would kill her," Buffy said bluntly.

The Fiskes stared at her. "What?" They said in unison.

"Yeah, the Yamanouchi who posed as the midwife said that Kim Possible went paranoid because of the headlines 'Guess What! The Sensei of Yamanouchi Has Been Murdered By Martin Fiske, His Parents Are Back, And Oh There's A Chance They Might Kill Your Kid If They Find Out She Also Has MMP!'" Buffy shrugged. "Then again, when you think about it, you'd probably do it."

"I don't know anymore..." The Simian Witch groaned.

"I can't tell. Maybe I would have done it if I first knew she was Stoppable's child..." Monkey Fist said hesitated. "But she's nothing like her parents and she had been a bit of a delight in the castle."

"Aw," Dr. Possible said.

Martin got up and cracked his knuckles. Everyone gulped, expecting him to say something negative, until he said: "I am really... going to carve my claws into the aliens' skulls."

"Uh... Is this Martin Fiske?" Edina asked. "I don't recognize him. Seriously."

"Yes, it's true that I usually prefer the family honor over anyone else's opinions..." He then screamed at Edina's face. "BUT I WILL BE SHEDDING BLOOD IF THESE JACKASSES DO ANYTHING TO RONILDA!"

"Huh, it's Stoppable all over again," Shego said.

"So... What now?" Secretary Magali. "We're completely unprepared. We don't know when they will strike next."

"But we know what they want." Kronos turned to the surveillance camera showing the prisoner in her cell. She was sitting rather peacefully on the floor and her helmet head faced the camera.

"She knows we're watching and listening," Dr. Director realized.

"She's after RJ... for reasons other than just what her 'client' wants," Kronos said. "She purposely let her comrades on a wild goose chase and allowed herself to be captured. She must expect to snatch the information she needs on RJ's whereabouts and then break out."

"I'll send in an interrogator," Dr. Director said.

"If you don't mind," Martin walked up to her, "I'll do it myself."