"I think it's just me on this one Wade." Kim told her friend through the Kimmunicator. "And I don't think it would be a good idea to destroy the servers after all."
"I concur." Wade shook his head. "Whoever designed this thing was pretty good about it... but I'm still better." He beamed with pride and held up a disk. "This should be able to reverse the signal and return all of the affected people still playing to normal. But it has to be inserted physically into their main server." He told her.
"Why can't you just upload it?" Kim asked.
"Their server is locked up tighter than the Pentagon. I'm sending you the disk and faxing you the location of the developer's building." Wade looked down and typed at his keyboard. In a moment a disk popped out of the side of the Kimmunicator and a piece of paper came out the top. "Are you sure you can handle this alone?"
"It's probably better this way, it's easier for one to sneak than two. I'll call you when I save the world Wade." Kim turned off the Kimmunicator and shoved it into her pocket before taking off down the street. The building, as luck would have it, was right in the center of town a few blocks away from her home. She crept up to the outer wall and peaked in through the gate.
Guard were posted outside the main door with assault rifles clutched in their arms. "Geeze, is this place a video game developer or a prison?" Kim muttered to herself. She crept to one side and leapt up, grabbing the top of the wall and hefting herself up. It was slippery thanks to the light rain that was still falling, but the dark clouds suited her purpose here just fine.
She slipped down the other side of the wall and crept toward the guards from the side, slinking along the wall. One of the guards scratches his head and looked to the side, seeing her approach. "Hey, who're..." He didn't have time to finish when Kim charged at them and leapt in a spin. One foot knocking the forward guard unconscious.
She used his head as a springboard to avoid the second guard's gunfire. She whirled through the sir and kicked him in the chest, landing hard on the ground beyond the unconscious guards. She looked up as the alarms started going off and the windows flashed red. She sighed. "Fine, roof it is." She took out her grappling hook and fired it up to the roof, where it latched on.
She zipped rapidly up the side of the building, but several guards rushed out of the front door, spotting her on the wall. "Fire, fire!" they all took aim and opened fire on her.
"Darnit!" Kim leapt away from the wall, clinging to her grapple-gun with one hand as she arched through the air. She landed on the wall again and did a one-handed backflip to avoid the barrage of bullets that hounded her, plunging into the wall with small cloud of debris or breaking through glass windows. "No going up... gotta go in!"
Kim flipped to her feet and leapt away from the wall, doing a forward spin through the air as the bullets trailed right behind her. She came back toward the wall and extended her legs, smashing through one of the windows and slamming into the floor amid shards of broken glass. She rolled to a stop halfway through the room, winding up in a crouching position.
"Ugh... crude... but effective." She stood up straight and looked around. "Now to find out what floor I'm on and get to those servers..."
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Ron slammed his fist into the Possible family's door, staring at it irritably. "Come on, come on already! I'm on a time limit here!" He shouted. Finally the door opened and Kim's mom peered out at him.
"Ron, is something the matter?" She asked.
"I need to talk to Tim and Jim, it's an emergency." Ron told her. Mrs. Possible stepped aside and let him rush in, making his way immediately back to the twins' bedroom, where they were tinkering with another small gadget of theirs. "Hey, Wonder Twins, I need you to help me with that helmet thingy you made. I want to hook up to a game with it." He told them quickly.
"The helmet was for Kim." Tim told him. "What do you want to use it for?" Jim asked.
"Come on, I'm Kim's best friend. Can't you just help me out?" Ron asked. The twins exchanged a glance, then stood up and cleared their throats in unison, staring at him gravely. Ron sighed and shook his head. "Twenty bucks each."
"Deal!" The twins ran up to shake his hands before leading him into Kim's room, where the helmet was sitting by her computer. "It's a simple matter of hooking the helmet up to the computer and running the program you want to hook to the internet with." Tim told him. "Be careful though, this thing can mess with the game's coding for up to 20 virtual feet around your character. If you get caught hacking the authorities could get very, very mad." Tim said. "Big trouble." Jim added.
"I'll take my chances." Ron took a seat in front of the computer, for the first time noticing that Rufus was no longer in his pants pocket. "Rufus?" He looked around in surprise, but didn't see the mole rat anywhere around. He debated whether to go after him or Zita... but he knew the little guy could take care of himself. Zita could need his help now. "Hook me up boys."
"You may feel a slight pinch." Tim said as he slid the helmet onto Ron's head. "Or an electric shock, we're not sure." Jim told him. "We didn't have time to test it before we gave it to Kim." Tim added. Before Ron could protest the helmet was activated and Ron found himself standing in a pixilated glade wearing his normal clothing.
"I'm in... now... imagination alters the virtual reality..." He thought of himself wearing a thick white suit of armor. The space around his body shimmered, and sure enough, reshaped itself into a full suit of armor. "Booyah! Score one for Ron!" He took a step forward... and stumbled, weighed down by the heavy suit of armor. "Ugh... maybe something a little lighter..."
He reshaped his full suit of armor into a more serviceable diamond vest and climbed to his feet. "Now, for a little direction." He concentrated, and a map of the entire game world appeared in front of him, showing the locations of all the characters. He spotted Zita fighting her way through a large forest called the 'Forest of Darkness'.
"And finally... transportation." He held out his hand and concentrated. A large white stallion appeared in front of him, and just for good measure Ron added a horn to its head to make it look like a unicorn. He climbed on it and pointed in the direction of the forest. "Hi-ho Unicron, away!" They took off through the virtual field at an amazing speed, leaving behind everything and everyone they passed.
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Kim crept through the long hallways of the building, referring to the map whenever she could. It didn't help much though; the layout of this floor didn't seem to match any of the floors on the blueprint. Could Wade have gotten a fake blueprint? Did someone actually outwit Wade on the computer? That was a frightening thought.
She scooted into a nearby closet to avoid a cluster of guards as they came down the hall, then lunged to a nearby room with the strange symbol over the door. She leaned against the door and listened as still more guards moved past. "There are just too many of them..." She shook her head and looked around the room she was trapped in.
There were several ceiling high filing cabinets set against one wall, and a row of computers against the other. Kim quirked one eyebrow and walked up to one of the computers, pressing a key to turn off the screen saver. "Let's see what you guys are doing." She did a search on the word 'virus' but came up empty. "Hmm..." She did another search, this time on the word 'subliminal' but this also came up empty.
"What's going on...?" She did another search, this time on the word 'control', this one turned up something. "Ah-hah, I knew it." She clicked into the file... but it turned out to just be a list of the game's control commands. "This is weird... it's almost like the developers had nothing to do with it... but then why the big server and extra security?"
She whirled in surprise as the door to the file room began to open, and a pair of guards walked in.
"Hmm... I could have sworn I heard something in here." One guard scratched his head.
"I told you nobody could get in here when we're on increased alert." The second guard said as they turned to leave. Kim stared down at the door from the top of the filing cabinets, wiping her forehead with one of her sleeves.
"Score one for reflexes." She moved to climb down from the cabinet, but her weight pulled it off balance and it tipped forward. "Uh-oh!" Kim let go and landed in a crouch, doing a backflip to avoid having the filing cabinet land right on top of her. Kim blinked in surprise when she saw a secret passage behind the cabinet.
"Accidents leading to important discoveries... I guess Ron must be rubbing off on me." Kim shrugged and started to make her way down the passage. She didn't have many other options at this point anyway.
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Ron made his way through the forest, using his mini-map to guide him toward Zita. Soon he heard her through the trees, locked in combat with what looked like a group of troll-like monsters. Her armor was dented and worn, and her blade didn't look as sharp as it once had been, but still she fought on. She was panting heavily though.
"Don't worry Zita, I'm coming!" Ron leapt off of his unicorn and landed beside her, holding out one hand. A small handle appeared in his palm, from which a blue blade of energy slowly materialized. He gripped the handle and held it close to his chest. "Let the Force handle this!"
Ron leapt forward into the pack of trolls, slicing three in half with one swing of his lightsaber. The others swept up behind him, but the handle shimmered slightly only to have a second blade appear out of the back, going right through one of their chests. "I've always wanted to use one of these." Ron grinned, throwing the double-edged lightsaber into the pack of trolls.
Ron moved it about with his hand, slicing through every troll within his twenty foot radius before calling it back and letting the blue energy retreat back into the saber. "The Force wins again." Ron solemnly tucked the handle into his belt, but Zita marched up behind him and shoved him. "Hey, I just saved you!"
"You're a hacker!? That is SO cheating!" Zita yelled at him. "If you want to play the game play it right!" She whirled to march away from him angrily.
"Whoa, hold on, you've got me wrong!" Ron ran to catch up with her. "I'm only hacking to save YOU!"
"This is just a game character Ron, I don't need you to save it." Zita rolled her eyes.
"If it's just a game then turn it off." Ron told her. Zita stared at him for a few moments, then narrowed her eyes.
"I... don't want to."
"You can't, and it's because of some signal thing." Ron explained quickly. "Look I don't get it either, but if you die here, you'll go into a coma... and... and I don't want that to happen." Zita stared at him intently for a few minutes.
"You're serious... aren't you?" Her voice quivered slightly. Ron was about to reply, but they wee interrupted by the clomping of horses hooves moving toward them. They both looked further up the clearing to see a huge black knight galloping toward them. "It's one of the moderators... they must have detected your hacks! Ron, they'll boot you from the game, or worse!"
"Then let's get out of here!" Ron grabbed her hand and pulled her toward his unicorn just beyond the treeline.
"Stop, hacker!" The knight shouted, galloping after them. Ron turned his unicorn and charged through the forest as fast as he could.
"Ron, don't go this way, it leads to-" Zita was cut off when the horse suddenly found its legs swinging in mid air, with a huge patch of forest far below them. "A cliff..."
"Come on imagination, you've never let me down before, don't fail me now..." Ron gripped the unicorn's mane tightly, closing his eyes. He felt the pixels shifting under his touch, soon to solidify into solid steel. He opened his eyes to see a two-seated personal hovercraft beneath them.
"Wow, nice detail work." Zita said admiringly. Ron grabbed the handles and turned on the engine, sending them sailing skyward just before they hit the tree line, snapping the tops of several trees off before they pulled up.
"Now all we have to do is keep you out of harm's way until Kim can fix the problem." Ron yelled back at her.
"No, we can't!" Zita shouted back. "Some groups back in Nefaria were planning to stage a battle, winner take all! There were dozens of players involved! If they go through with that now..." She trailed off. Ron looked back at her. If they went through with it, dozens of those players could wind up in comas, never knowing how real the danger was right now.
"Alright..." Ron sighed. "We'll go save everybody." He turned their hovercraft to take them back toward Nefaria after consulting his mini-map. What was it with the women in his life and saving people? Was he just a hero magnet or something?
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Kim emerged from the small hole into an elevator shaft. With a sigh, she leapt out to grab the cables and slide down to the bottom, since the blueprints stated that the servers were on the bottom floor. Of course, the blueprints hadn't done her any good so far, but the basement still seemed like the most logical place for such an important piece of equipment to be.
She reached the bottom and crept out, emerging into a small room that looked like an admissions office. Several guard sat behind the desk, with one clerk looking ready to take admission slips. Kim ducked down and crept up to her side of the desk, sliding along it toward the clerk.
She poked the top of her head over the top, seeing that the clerk was between herself and the guards' table. The clerk looked down at her and quirked one eyebrow in confusion. In a flash Kim grabbed the edge of the desk and flipped onto her back on top of it, kicking the clerk with both legs. The clerk tumbled back into the table, spanning it and falling to the ground amid wooden splinters, under which the guards' guns were also buried.
Kim leapt over the first guard's punch, landing behind him and back-kicking his stomach into the countertop. The second guard lunged at her, but she rolled to her back and used her legs to send him sailing over her, rolling backward to her feet in order to jump again into a twirl, from which she planted her heel into the third guard's chin, knocking him into the back wall.
Kim straightened up and moved calmly toward the back door, letting the guard on the counter slide to the floor as she made her way down the next hallway. She stopped when she heard a voice from around the nearest turn.
"I gotta admit, this was a pretty good plan." Shego's voice echoed as if from the middle of a big, barren room. "It's hard to believe you were the one to come up with it. Hiring that insider to the company must have spurred along the thinking process."
"Well thank you Shego." Drakken's voice replied enthusiastically.
"And to think, we'd probably have all those geeks under our control by now if you hadn't decided to try to finish that final server yourself." Shego commented.
"A minor setback." Drakken replied. Kim slid up to the edge of the wall and peeked around, to see Drakken pacing around the large warehouse-like room while Shego leaned idly against a server quite like the one that had detonated at the manufacturing plant. The entire wall was lined with the things. "It'll be finished soon enough, and then I will have all the nerds empty the bank accounts of the entire world into one account... mine! And of course... whoever controls the world's money... controls the world!"
"Hallelujah or something." Shego replied drolly. Kim slinked back against the wall, growling to herself. She had to get past them without being seen. If she was spotted they could destroy the servers and send everyone playing the game into a coma... things were so much easier when it was only HER life at stake during big battles.
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The virtual sky was pretty and blue... now if only the real sky would follow suit Ron wouldn't have been quite so miserable lately. The hovercraft streaked through the sky, leaving behind it plumes of dark smoke. At least, the smoke trailed back for 20 feet before dissipating. Apparently stuff Ron imagined couldn't go more than 20 feet from him before it vanished.
"There, it is!" Zita leaned against his back and pointing down at a small village, where two large groups of people were already marching toward each other. "We're already too late!"
"Not yet." Ron replied, taking their vehicle into a nosedive. Zita clung to his back fearfully, but Ron just smirked. The vehicle vanished several feet from the ground, while Ron and Zita floated gently down to the ground between the warring factions. The other players stopped to stare at them in amazement as Ron set down.
"You can make us fly? Why didn't you do that at the cliff instead of making the hovercraft?" Zita asked.
"Hovercraft had more style." Ron replied, looking around at the gathered groups. He cleared his throat and held up his arms. "People of Nefaria, I bring you a message!"
"Go away st00pid n00b hax0rz!" One of the men in the crowd shouted.
"Uh... what?" Ron looked back at Zita. She just rolled her eyes, so Ron turned back to the gathered players. "Uh... anyway. You can't fight today! If you want to hack each other apart tomorrow, or maybe the day after, go ahead. But not today!"
"We had to set this up weeks in advance." One of the players complained. "We're not stopping just because some stupid hacker tells us to!" The toher players all let out a roar of agreement, forming a tight circle around Ron. Ron gulped and looked around. He could have probably taken them all thanks to his helmet, but it wouldn't be any better if he killed them than if they killed each other.
Ron whirled when he heard a strange hum from behind him. A dark portal opened in thin air, and the black knight from before stepped through. Ron whirled in another direction, but this one was blocked by a white knight. Three more, green blue and red, kept him completely blocked in. Ron looked around at them worriedly.
"You're coming with us for violating the terms of service agreement, Mr. Stoppable." The black knight told him.
"Ron, run away! You can't fight them! They run this game!" Zita shouted from somewhere in the crowd. Ron looked around. Everyone was watching them... so as long as Ron was fighting, they wouldn't fight each other. A distraction until Kim could find a way to stop the signal.
Ron was suddenly clothed in a black leather trench coat and boots, with thick dark shades perched on the end of his nose. He reached up to adjust his glasses, then held out his hand in a beckoning gesture.
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Kim crept along the outside of the storage room, rolling behind one of the servers before Drakken or Shego could see her. She slid along the back wall, looking for a place to insert the disk. She knew every server had to have a software port, if she could just find it.
"You know something Drakken, I don't tell you enough how much I like working with you." Shego said softly.
"Really? You do!?" Drakken exclaimed in delight.
"No, I just wanted to cover up the sound of my footsteps." Shego yelled as a pair of arms closed around Kim from behind. One of her arms wrapped around Kim's throat in a fierce headlock. "I knew you would show up sometime Kim Possible, we've been at this for way too long for you to keep getting the drop on me."
"Then maybe it's time for you to retire!" Kim grabbed her arm and threw her body forward, sending Shego hurtling to the ground. Shego rolled on the ground and wound up in a crouching position as Kim leapt at her again with a sweeping roundhouse kick. Shego leaned back to avoid it, her gloved hands glowing green as she lunged for Kim.
Kim cartwheeled to the side, out into the middle of the room to avoid trashing the servers with their fight. She gasped when a pair of blue arms wrapped around her torso.
"I got her!" Drakken shouted excitedly to Shego with his head right beside Kim's. Kim growled and kicked one of her legs up vertically, slamming it into Drakken's face. "She... got me..." Drakken collapsed to the ground in a daze as Shego pressed the attack again, forcing Kim to leap into a roll as her opponent tore holes in the floor with her energy gloves.
"Sit still you little weasel!" Shego shouted as she punched her fight right into the ground next to Kim's head.
"Even when I'm sitting still you can't hit me!" Kim knees her opponent in the stomach and rolled aside, jumping to her feet and doing a forward flip to slam both feet into Shego's chest.
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Ron whirled as the black knight swung his ax in a huge arc, burying it deep into the ground where Ron had been standing moments before. Ron stomped down on the handle, snapping it off before whirling again and planting a solid kick to the knight's chest, sending him stumbling back. He turned to the others just as they dismounted their horses and approached with weapons out.
"Hey, get in line." Ron thrust his hand forward, and three of the knights were sent flying back into the surrounding crowd. "I'm more of a man-to-man person anyway."
The green knight lunged at him with spear in hand, but Ron easily kicked the point to the side and stepped up to him, punching him in the chest. His fist bounced off of the thick armor, stinging like he'd just punched a brick wall. "Ow! Stupid pain simulating helmet!" Ron exclaimed. The knight took advantage of his distraction go grab him and lift him up, slamming him into the ground. "Okay, that's not fair!"
"What do you know of fair, hacker?" The knight asked darkly. Ron growled as his forearms shimmered for a moment. He then clenched his fists, releasing three blades from the knuckles of each hand. He slashed the blades across the knight's chest, pushing it back before bringing both legs up to shove the knight away and flip to his feet.
"Come on, who else wants some?" Ron grinned, crossing the claws over his chest. All five knights moved to surround him, each one except for the black knight holding their massive weapon in front of them. "What ever happened to one-on-one man-to-man duels?"
"We may PLAY the Middle Ages, but this isn't the Middle Ages kid." The black knight replied.
"Okay, fine." Ron let the claws slide back into his forearms, lowing his arms to his sides. "You want to play mean? Let's play mean! BOOYAH!" He raised his arms, and two large automatic assault rifles appeared in his arms. His screams mingled with the sound of gunfire as the bullets rocketed toward the knights gathered in front of him.
He finally stopped firing, and examined his work. The knights stared at him, then looked down at themselves. There wasn't a scratch on them. "What the..." Ron looked down at the ground, then howled in frustration and threw the guns down. "Stupid twenty foot limit!" He screamed. Suddenly a hand grabbed the back of his neck and slammed him face first into the ground, burying his face into the ground.
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Kim and Shego traded blows with lightning fast precision, each searching for a weakness in the other's defenses. But neither gave an inch, even though both were beginning to tire. Kim grabbed Shego's wrist and pushed it back, sweeping her legs out from under her. Shego fell to her back in a roll, kicking Kim in the face with one foot on her way to her feet.
Shego lunged and kicked Kim in the chest, sending her stumbling back into the one of the massive servers against the wall. A loud 'clunk' rang through the storage room, and Kim looked back fearfully. The server didn't look to be damaged... those trapped inside the game must have still been safe.
Kim sighed in relief and looked at Shego again, who was lunging at her with a fist surrounded by energy. Kim didn't want to move or Shego would doubtlessly damage the server... so she stood and took the punch to the stomach, grunting in pain as the energy burned into her skin. Shego brought her other fist around and punched her in the jaw, sending her hurtling to the floor.
Kim groaned and pushed herself to her hands and knees, shaking from the pain of the wound on her stomach. "Well well... Kim Possible on her knees. That's a welcome sight."
"Then take a picture... because you won't see it again..." Kim lurched to her feet facing Shego, putting her arms up. Shego shook her head and raised her hands, which were again glowing green with energy. Kim looked to the side, her eyes going wide when she found the disk slot on one of the servers. If she could just get the disk in there then everyone in there would be safe.
Shego noticed her glance and smirked. "Think you're going to take out the servers? Not likely, you do and it'll be the ones playing the game who get punished." Shego lunged at Kim suddenly, slamming one fist into her chest hard enough to knock her clear off her feet.
Kim hit the ground and rolled to her feet. Instead of attacking Shego again she lunged for the server, reaching into her pocket for the disk Wade had sent her before. She was almost there, but Shego caught up with her and slammed her leg into Kim's stomach, doubling her over with pain since that was where she was burned before.
Kim grunted when Shego kicked her in the face, sending her to her back on the floor. The disk slipped from her hand, landing on the cold metal floor. "It's the end, Kim." Shego brought up her glowing green fist, taking aim right at Kim's face.
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Ron grunted and pushed his face up from the ground, using his imagination to fling the knight on his back to the ground several feet away. Ron climbed to his feet, but the others were already bearing down on him. "Okay... this is getting ridiculous..." He held out his hands and a lightsaber appeared in each one, igniting in both blue and green.
He lunged forward slashing with all his might. The pixels that made up the knights were quickly several in several places, and one by one they vanished into the ground as the game counted them dead. Ron figured since they were moderators they wouldn't be affected by the signal that was affecting everyone else... at least, that was his hope.
When the knights were gone he raised the sabers skyward. "Booyah!" He shouted. A grunt escaped his lips however then he felt something plunge into his stomach. He looked down to see a dagger's hilt sticking out of him. "Boo... crap..." He stumbled and fell to his back, amid cheers from the other gathered players.
"Ron! Move it, move it!" Zita pushed her way through the crowd and ran to Ron's side, kneeling down beside him. "Ron, are you okay!?"
"Sure... it's just a game character..." Ron grunted. "Hurts like the dickens though..."
"Leave him alone, he's just looking for a laugh at our expense like all hackers." One of the other players exclaimed. Others yelled their agreement, but Zita stood and whirled on them angrily.
"Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about. He's not here to toy with us, he wouldn't do that! He's here to save us... from ourselves!" She looked around at all the gathered players. "We're all stuck here... the creators of the game are using us for something, and we all played right into their hands! He came to warn us!" She looked down at him. "He's here to... help me."
Ron gave her a slight smile as she leaned down over him again. "Ron... thank you for coming to my rescue..." She put her hands on his cheeks and lifted his head up, leaning her face down toward his...
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Kim rolled to the side, clutching her stomach painfully as Shego brought her fist down in a straight punch that would go straight through her head. Kim grunted and rolled to the other side quickly, grabbing the disk and using her other hand to push herself down between Shego's legs. She brought her legs up and kicked Shego in the bottom, sending her stumbling forward while Kim rolled to her feet and lurched for the server.
She slammed the disk into the slot, and the server started humming madly. "What was that!?" Shego demanded.
"Just a counter program to your little plot." Kim grinned, holding her burnt and bruised stomach. She really had to start wearing longer sweaters so that her stomach wouldn't be so vulnerable. "All the people you trapped are being freed as we speak, so you'd might as well leave."
Shego stared at her, then looked down at Drakken, who was still unconscious on the floor. "My contract ends when the plans go awry..." She looked at Kim again. "But I think I can throw in a freebie!" She lunged at Kim suddenly, punching her in the face and sending her up against the side of the server. Shego grabbed her around the throat, holding her against the server off the ground.
"Grk..." Kim fought for breath and struggled to loosen Shego's grip, but the older woman held on tightly.
Shego brought back her glowing fist. "Hasta la vista Kimmy!" She brought her fist around to send it into Kim's stomach. But Kim grabbed the server with her legs and moved her body out of the way, letting Shego's hand plunge into the machine. Electricity surged through her body, drawing a shrill scream from her throat.
Kim dropped to the ground, rubbing her neck as Shego twitched, struggling to pull her hand out of the machine. "Maybe next time!" She ran for the exit and down the hall, but stopped when the elevator came down the shaft with the doors opening on the bottom. Six guards had automatic rifles pointed straight at her. Kim raised her hands. "I can explain..."
They lowered their weapons and stepped out, where one of them spoke. "We know Kim, our moderators in the game told us about Ron Stoppable in the game talking about some signal. We decided to investigate and traced it down here. Where's..." He was cut off by an explosion further down the hall from the storage room. Kim and the guards rushed back, but there was nobody there. Just the remains of the detonated server beside its intact brothers.
"They're gone..." Kim muttered. Of course, they always got away. But at least she'd managed to free the people who'd been hypnotized by the game...
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Zita's lips were only inches from his... but Ron's head fell back against the ground, no longer supported by her hands. Ron opened his eyes and saw the players around him had all vanished. Kim must have managed to free them, as he knew she would. "Great timing Kim..." He muttered as he reached up in real life and pulled the helmet off.
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Zita blinked in surprise, suddenly feeling weaker than she ever had before. She tried to stand up from her chair, but she swayed and fell to the ground in a heap, moaning. "Oohhh man... I can barely move..." she groaned. She blinked in surprise when she saw a familiar figure standing in front of her. "Rufus?"
The Naked Mole Rat nodded and held out a drink, which she realized she sorely needed. She took the food and drink that the animal offered to her, eating it bit by bit to restore her lost strength.
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A while later, Zita had been found by Ron and moved to the hospital, where the doctors wanted to make sure she regained her strength properly, along with all of the other people in town who had been affected by the game. Ron was waiting in the lobby for the doctors to tell him he could go visit Zita when Kim walked in, carrying Rufus on her shoulder since he'd refused to rejoin Ron.
"Ron, what is wrong with Rufus exactly? He's been real huffy lately." Kim asked.
"He's mad at me for accidentally leaving him at Zita's..." Ron sighed, cupping his chin in his hands. "I can't do the right thing at all lately..."
"What are you talking about?" Kim sat down beside him, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Kim, I didn't get mugged. I spent all my money on Zita... that's why I couldn't get you a present." He stared at the floor, avoiding her gaze. "You do so much for me, and I couldn't even hold onto my money to get you a gift..."
"Ron... what I said still stands." Kim smiled and squeezed his shoulder. "You're more important than any presents. You're the only person the Possible family has to all of our events. You're like a brother to me. I don't care if you run out of money." She pulled him into a hug. Ron smiled and hugged her back firmly, letting out a sigh.
Rufus sighed and crawled from Kim's shoulder to Ron's, hugging the side of his head. "Can you forgive me too Rufus?" Ron asked. Rufus nodded enthusiastically, giving him an 'oh-yeah!' "Thanks little buddy..." Ron looked up when the doctor approached.
"You can visit her now, but don't stay too long. She needs her rest." The doctor told him.
"Thanks." Ron stood up with Rufus once again on his shoulder, bidding Kim a silent farewell before heading into the back to Zita's room. She was lying in one of the hospital beds in a paper down, looking a bit better than she had the last time Ron saw her. She looked over at him as he entered, giving him a weak smile.
"There's my hero..." She said.
"Not really... Kim's the one who saved everybody. You probably could have taken care of yourselves until she freed you all." Ron walked up to the side of the bed. Zita took his hand in hers, staring up at his eyes.
"That doesn't matter... you're still a hero for coming to help me... and if it wasn't for you, a lot of people would be much worse off, you know that." She gripped one of his hands with both of hers, smiling. "I've never had anyone do all that for me before."
"Well... you know..." Ron muttered nervously. Zita grabbed him by the cheeks and pulled him down, giving him a gentle kiss on the lips. Ron closed his eyes, enjoying the moment while he could. He still felt like a heel for everything he'd done... but somehow she was able to make him feel better with something as simple as a kiss. He was glad he'd gone to help her... because he wouldn't want anyone else kissing him.
THE END
"I concur." Wade shook his head. "Whoever designed this thing was pretty good about it... but I'm still better." He beamed with pride and held up a disk. "This should be able to reverse the signal and return all of the affected people still playing to normal. But it has to be inserted physically into their main server." He told her.
"Why can't you just upload it?" Kim asked.
"Their server is locked up tighter than the Pentagon. I'm sending you the disk and faxing you the location of the developer's building." Wade looked down and typed at his keyboard. In a moment a disk popped out of the side of the Kimmunicator and a piece of paper came out the top. "Are you sure you can handle this alone?"
"It's probably better this way, it's easier for one to sneak than two. I'll call you when I save the world Wade." Kim turned off the Kimmunicator and shoved it into her pocket before taking off down the street. The building, as luck would have it, was right in the center of town a few blocks away from her home. She crept up to the outer wall and peaked in through the gate.
Guard were posted outside the main door with assault rifles clutched in their arms. "Geeze, is this place a video game developer or a prison?" Kim muttered to herself. She crept to one side and leapt up, grabbing the top of the wall and hefting herself up. It was slippery thanks to the light rain that was still falling, but the dark clouds suited her purpose here just fine.
She slipped down the other side of the wall and crept toward the guards from the side, slinking along the wall. One of the guards scratches his head and looked to the side, seeing her approach. "Hey, who're..." He didn't have time to finish when Kim charged at them and leapt in a spin. One foot knocking the forward guard unconscious.
She used his head as a springboard to avoid the second guard's gunfire. She whirled through the sir and kicked him in the chest, landing hard on the ground beyond the unconscious guards. She looked up as the alarms started going off and the windows flashed red. She sighed. "Fine, roof it is." She took out her grappling hook and fired it up to the roof, where it latched on.
She zipped rapidly up the side of the building, but several guards rushed out of the front door, spotting her on the wall. "Fire, fire!" they all took aim and opened fire on her.
"Darnit!" Kim leapt away from the wall, clinging to her grapple-gun with one hand as she arched through the air. She landed on the wall again and did a one-handed backflip to avoid the barrage of bullets that hounded her, plunging into the wall with small cloud of debris or breaking through glass windows. "No going up... gotta go in!"
Kim flipped to her feet and leapt away from the wall, doing a forward spin through the air as the bullets trailed right behind her. She came back toward the wall and extended her legs, smashing through one of the windows and slamming into the floor amid shards of broken glass. She rolled to a stop halfway through the room, winding up in a crouching position.
"Ugh... crude... but effective." She stood up straight and looked around. "Now to find out what floor I'm on and get to those servers..."
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Ron slammed his fist into the Possible family's door, staring at it irritably. "Come on, come on already! I'm on a time limit here!" He shouted. Finally the door opened and Kim's mom peered out at him.
"Ron, is something the matter?" She asked.
"I need to talk to Tim and Jim, it's an emergency." Ron told her. Mrs. Possible stepped aside and let him rush in, making his way immediately back to the twins' bedroom, where they were tinkering with another small gadget of theirs. "Hey, Wonder Twins, I need you to help me with that helmet thingy you made. I want to hook up to a game with it." He told them quickly.
"The helmet was for Kim." Tim told him. "What do you want to use it for?" Jim asked.
"Come on, I'm Kim's best friend. Can't you just help me out?" Ron asked. The twins exchanged a glance, then stood up and cleared their throats in unison, staring at him gravely. Ron sighed and shook his head. "Twenty bucks each."
"Deal!" The twins ran up to shake his hands before leading him into Kim's room, where the helmet was sitting by her computer. "It's a simple matter of hooking the helmet up to the computer and running the program you want to hook to the internet with." Tim told him. "Be careful though, this thing can mess with the game's coding for up to 20 virtual feet around your character. If you get caught hacking the authorities could get very, very mad." Tim said. "Big trouble." Jim added.
"I'll take my chances." Ron took a seat in front of the computer, for the first time noticing that Rufus was no longer in his pants pocket. "Rufus?" He looked around in surprise, but didn't see the mole rat anywhere around. He debated whether to go after him or Zita... but he knew the little guy could take care of himself. Zita could need his help now. "Hook me up boys."
"You may feel a slight pinch." Tim said as he slid the helmet onto Ron's head. "Or an electric shock, we're not sure." Jim told him. "We didn't have time to test it before we gave it to Kim." Tim added. Before Ron could protest the helmet was activated and Ron found himself standing in a pixilated glade wearing his normal clothing.
"I'm in... now... imagination alters the virtual reality..." He thought of himself wearing a thick white suit of armor. The space around his body shimmered, and sure enough, reshaped itself into a full suit of armor. "Booyah! Score one for Ron!" He took a step forward... and stumbled, weighed down by the heavy suit of armor. "Ugh... maybe something a little lighter..."
He reshaped his full suit of armor into a more serviceable diamond vest and climbed to his feet. "Now, for a little direction." He concentrated, and a map of the entire game world appeared in front of him, showing the locations of all the characters. He spotted Zita fighting her way through a large forest called the 'Forest of Darkness'.
"And finally... transportation." He held out his hand and concentrated. A large white stallion appeared in front of him, and just for good measure Ron added a horn to its head to make it look like a unicorn. He climbed on it and pointed in the direction of the forest. "Hi-ho Unicron, away!" They took off through the virtual field at an amazing speed, leaving behind everything and everyone they passed.
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Kim crept through the long hallways of the building, referring to the map whenever she could. It didn't help much though; the layout of this floor didn't seem to match any of the floors on the blueprint. Could Wade have gotten a fake blueprint? Did someone actually outwit Wade on the computer? That was a frightening thought.
She scooted into a nearby closet to avoid a cluster of guards as they came down the hall, then lunged to a nearby room with the strange symbol over the door. She leaned against the door and listened as still more guards moved past. "There are just too many of them..." She shook her head and looked around the room she was trapped in.
There were several ceiling high filing cabinets set against one wall, and a row of computers against the other. Kim quirked one eyebrow and walked up to one of the computers, pressing a key to turn off the screen saver. "Let's see what you guys are doing." She did a search on the word 'virus' but came up empty. "Hmm..." She did another search, this time on the word 'subliminal' but this also came up empty.
"What's going on...?" She did another search, this time on the word 'control', this one turned up something. "Ah-hah, I knew it." She clicked into the file... but it turned out to just be a list of the game's control commands. "This is weird... it's almost like the developers had nothing to do with it... but then why the big server and extra security?"
She whirled in surprise as the door to the file room began to open, and a pair of guards walked in.
"Hmm... I could have sworn I heard something in here." One guard scratched his head.
"I told you nobody could get in here when we're on increased alert." The second guard said as they turned to leave. Kim stared down at the door from the top of the filing cabinets, wiping her forehead with one of her sleeves.
"Score one for reflexes." She moved to climb down from the cabinet, but her weight pulled it off balance and it tipped forward. "Uh-oh!" Kim let go and landed in a crouch, doing a backflip to avoid having the filing cabinet land right on top of her. Kim blinked in surprise when she saw a secret passage behind the cabinet.
"Accidents leading to important discoveries... I guess Ron must be rubbing off on me." Kim shrugged and started to make her way down the passage. She didn't have many other options at this point anyway.
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Ron made his way through the forest, using his mini-map to guide him toward Zita. Soon he heard her through the trees, locked in combat with what looked like a group of troll-like monsters. Her armor was dented and worn, and her blade didn't look as sharp as it once had been, but still she fought on. She was panting heavily though.
"Don't worry Zita, I'm coming!" Ron leapt off of his unicorn and landed beside her, holding out one hand. A small handle appeared in his palm, from which a blue blade of energy slowly materialized. He gripped the handle and held it close to his chest. "Let the Force handle this!"
Ron leapt forward into the pack of trolls, slicing three in half with one swing of his lightsaber. The others swept up behind him, but the handle shimmered slightly only to have a second blade appear out of the back, going right through one of their chests. "I've always wanted to use one of these." Ron grinned, throwing the double-edged lightsaber into the pack of trolls.
Ron moved it about with his hand, slicing through every troll within his twenty foot radius before calling it back and letting the blue energy retreat back into the saber. "The Force wins again." Ron solemnly tucked the handle into his belt, but Zita marched up behind him and shoved him. "Hey, I just saved you!"
"You're a hacker!? That is SO cheating!" Zita yelled at him. "If you want to play the game play it right!" She whirled to march away from him angrily.
"Whoa, hold on, you've got me wrong!" Ron ran to catch up with her. "I'm only hacking to save YOU!"
"This is just a game character Ron, I don't need you to save it." Zita rolled her eyes.
"If it's just a game then turn it off." Ron told her. Zita stared at him for a few moments, then narrowed her eyes.
"I... don't want to."
"You can't, and it's because of some signal thing." Ron explained quickly. "Look I don't get it either, but if you die here, you'll go into a coma... and... and I don't want that to happen." Zita stared at him intently for a few minutes.
"You're serious... aren't you?" Her voice quivered slightly. Ron was about to reply, but they wee interrupted by the clomping of horses hooves moving toward them. They both looked further up the clearing to see a huge black knight galloping toward them. "It's one of the moderators... they must have detected your hacks! Ron, they'll boot you from the game, or worse!"
"Then let's get out of here!" Ron grabbed her hand and pulled her toward his unicorn just beyond the treeline.
"Stop, hacker!" The knight shouted, galloping after them. Ron turned his unicorn and charged through the forest as fast as he could.
"Ron, don't go this way, it leads to-" Zita was cut off when the horse suddenly found its legs swinging in mid air, with a huge patch of forest far below them. "A cliff..."
"Come on imagination, you've never let me down before, don't fail me now..." Ron gripped the unicorn's mane tightly, closing his eyes. He felt the pixels shifting under his touch, soon to solidify into solid steel. He opened his eyes to see a two-seated personal hovercraft beneath them.
"Wow, nice detail work." Zita said admiringly. Ron grabbed the handles and turned on the engine, sending them sailing skyward just before they hit the tree line, snapping the tops of several trees off before they pulled up.
"Now all we have to do is keep you out of harm's way until Kim can fix the problem." Ron yelled back at her.
"No, we can't!" Zita shouted back. "Some groups back in Nefaria were planning to stage a battle, winner take all! There were dozens of players involved! If they go through with that now..." She trailed off. Ron looked back at her. If they went through with it, dozens of those players could wind up in comas, never knowing how real the danger was right now.
"Alright..." Ron sighed. "We'll go save everybody." He turned their hovercraft to take them back toward Nefaria after consulting his mini-map. What was it with the women in his life and saving people? Was he just a hero magnet or something?
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Kim emerged from the small hole into an elevator shaft. With a sigh, she leapt out to grab the cables and slide down to the bottom, since the blueprints stated that the servers were on the bottom floor. Of course, the blueprints hadn't done her any good so far, but the basement still seemed like the most logical place for such an important piece of equipment to be.
She reached the bottom and crept out, emerging into a small room that looked like an admissions office. Several guard sat behind the desk, with one clerk looking ready to take admission slips. Kim ducked down and crept up to her side of the desk, sliding along it toward the clerk.
She poked the top of her head over the top, seeing that the clerk was between herself and the guards' table. The clerk looked down at her and quirked one eyebrow in confusion. In a flash Kim grabbed the edge of the desk and flipped onto her back on top of it, kicking the clerk with both legs. The clerk tumbled back into the table, spanning it and falling to the ground amid wooden splinters, under which the guards' guns were also buried.
Kim leapt over the first guard's punch, landing behind him and back-kicking his stomach into the countertop. The second guard lunged at her, but she rolled to her back and used her legs to send him sailing over her, rolling backward to her feet in order to jump again into a twirl, from which she planted her heel into the third guard's chin, knocking him into the back wall.
Kim straightened up and moved calmly toward the back door, letting the guard on the counter slide to the floor as she made her way down the next hallway. She stopped when she heard a voice from around the nearest turn.
"I gotta admit, this was a pretty good plan." Shego's voice echoed as if from the middle of a big, barren room. "It's hard to believe you were the one to come up with it. Hiring that insider to the company must have spurred along the thinking process."
"Well thank you Shego." Drakken's voice replied enthusiastically.
"And to think, we'd probably have all those geeks under our control by now if you hadn't decided to try to finish that final server yourself." Shego commented.
"A minor setback." Drakken replied. Kim slid up to the edge of the wall and peeked around, to see Drakken pacing around the large warehouse-like room while Shego leaned idly against a server quite like the one that had detonated at the manufacturing plant. The entire wall was lined with the things. "It'll be finished soon enough, and then I will have all the nerds empty the bank accounts of the entire world into one account... mine! And of course... whoever controls the world's money... controls the world!"
"Hallelujah or something." Shego replied drolly. Kim slinked back against the wall, growling to herself. She had to get past them without being seen. If she was spotted they could destroy the servers and send everyone playing the game into a coma... things were so much easier when it was only HER life at stake during big battles.
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The virtual sky was pretty and blue... now if only the real sky would follow suit Ron wouldn't have been quite so miserable lately. The hovercraft streaked through the sky, leaving behind it plumes of dark smoke. At least, the smoke trailed back for 20 feet before dissipating. Apparently stuff Ron imagined couldn't go more than 20 feet from him before it vanished.
"There, it is!" Zita leaned against his back and pointing down at a small village, where two large groups of people were already marching toward each other. "We're already too late!"
"Not yet." Ron replied, taking their vehicle into a nosedive. Zita clung to his back fearfully, but Ron just smirked. The vehicle vanished several feet from the ground, while Ron and Zita floated gently down to the ground between the warring factions. The other players stopped to stare at them in amazement as Ron set down.
"You can make us fly? Why didn't you do that at the cliff instead of making the hovercraft?" Zita asked.
"Hovercraft had more style." Ron replied, looking around at the gathered groups. He cleared his throat and held up his arms. "People of Nefaria, I bring you a message!"
"Go away st00pid n00b hax0rz!" One of the men in the crowd shouted.
"Uh... what?" Ron looked back at Zita. She just rolled her eyes, so Ron turned back to the gathered players. "Uh... anyway. You can't fight today! If you want to hack each other apart tomorrow, or maybe the day after, go ahead. But not today!"
"We had to set this up weeks in advance." One of the players complained. "We're not stopping just because some stupid hacker tells us to!" The toher players all let out a roar of agreement, forming a tight circle around Ron. Ron gulped and looked around. He could have probably taken them all thanks to his helmet, but it wouldn't be any better if he killed them than if they killed each other.
Ron whirled when he heard a strange hum from behind him. A dark portal opened in thin air, and the black knight from before stepped through. Ron whirled in another direction, but this one was blocked by a white knight. Three more, green blue and red, kept him completely blocked in. Ron looked around at them worriedly.
"You're coming with us for violating the terms of service agreement, Mr. Stoppable." The black knight told him.
"Ron, run away! You can't fight them! They run this game!" Zita shouted from somewhere in the crowd. Ron looked around. Everyone was watching them... so as long as Ron was fighting, they wouldn't fight each other. A distraction until Kim could find a way to stop the signal.
Ron was suddenly clothed in a black leather trench coat and boots, with thick dark shades perched on the end of his nose. He reached up to adjust his glasses, then held out his hand in a beckoning gesture.
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Kim crept along the outside of the storage room, rolling behind one of the servers before Drakken or Shego could see her. She slid along the back wall, looking for a place to insert the disk. She knew every server had to have a software port, if she could just find it.
"You know something Drakken, I don't tell you enough how much I like working with you." Shego said softly.
"Really? You do!?" Drakken exclaimed in delight.
"No, I just wanted to cover up the sound of my footsteps." Shego yelled as a pair of arms closed around Kim from behind. One of her arms wrapped around Kim's throat in a fierce headlock. "I knew you would show up sometime Kim Possible, we've been at this for way too long for you to keep getting the drop on me."
"Then maybe it's time for you to retire!" Kim grabbed her arm and threw her body forward, sending Shego hurtling to the ground. Shego rolled on the ground and wound up in a crouching position as Kim leapt at her again with a sweeping roundhouse kick. Shego leaned back to avoid it, her gloved hands glowing green as she lunged for Kim.
Kim cartwheeled to the side, out into the middle of the room to avoid trashing the servers with their fight. She gasped when a pair of blue arms wrapped around her torso.
"I got her!" Drakken shouted excitedly to Shego with his head right beside Kim's. Kim growled and kicked one of her legs up vertically, slamming it into Drakken's face. "She... got me..." Drakken collapsed to the ground in a daze as Shego pressed the attack again, forcing Kim to leap into a roll as her opponent tore holes in the floor with her energy gloves.
"Sit still you little weasel!" Shego shouted as she punched her fight right into the ground next to Kim's head.
"Even when I'm sitting still you can't hit me!" Kim knees her opponent in the stomach and rolled aside, jumping to her feet and doing a forward flip to slam both feet into Shego's chest.
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Ron whirled as the black knight swung his ax in a huge arc, burying it deep into the ground where Ron had been standing moments before. Ron stomped down on the handle, snapping it off before whirling again and planting a solid kick to the knight's chest, sending him stumbling back. He turned to the others just as they dismounted their horses and approached with weapons out.
"Hey, get in line." Ron thrust his hand forward, and three of the knights were sent flying back into the surrounding crowd. "I'm more of a man-to-man person anyway."
The green knight lunged at him with spear in hand, but Ron easily kicked the point to the side and stepped up to him, punching him in the chest. His fist bounced off of the thick armor, stinging like he'd just punched a brick wall. "Ow! Stupid pain simulating helmet!" Ron exclaimed. The knight took advantage of his distraction go grab him and lift him up, slamming him into the ground. "Okay, that's not fair!"
"What do you know of fair, hacker?" The knight asked darkly. Ron growled as his forearms shimmered for a moment. He then clenched his fists, releasing three blades from the knuckles of each hand. He slashed the blades across the knight's chest, pushing it back before bringing both legs up to shove the knight away and flip to his feet.
"Come on, who else wants some?" Ron grinned, crossing the claws over his chest. All five knights moved to surround him, each one except for the black knight holding their massive weapon in front of them. "What ever happened to one-on-one man-to-man duels?"
"We may PLAY the Middle Ages, but this isn't the Middle Ages kid." The black knight replied.
"Okay, fine." Ron let the claws slide back into his forearms, lowing his arms to his sides. "You want to play mean? Let's play mean! BOOYAH!" He raised his arms, and two large automatic assault rifles appeared in his arms. His screams mingled with the sound of gunfire as the bullets rocketed toward the knights gathered in front of him.
He finally stopped firing, and examined his work. The knights stared at him, then looked down at themselves. There wasn't a scratch on them. "What the..." Ron looked down at the ground, then howled in frustration and threw the guns down. "Stupid twenty foot limit!" He screamed. Suddenly a hand grabbed the back of his neck and slammed him face first into the ground, burying his face into the ground.
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Kim and Shego traded blows with lightning fast precision, each searching for a weakness in the other's defenses. But neither gave an inch, even though both were beginning to tire. Kim grabbed Shego's wrist and pushed it back, sweeping her legs out from under her. Shego fell to her back in a roll, kicking Kim in the face with one foot on her way to her feet.
Shego lunged and kicked Kim in the chest, sending her stumbling back into the one of the massive servers against the wall. A loud 'clunk' rang through the storage room, and Kim looked back fearfully. The server didn't look to be damaged... those trapped inside the game must have still been safe.
Kim sighed in relief and looked at Shego again, who was lunging at her with a fist surrounded by energy. Kim didn't want to move or Shego would doubtlessly damage the server... so she stood and took the punch to the stomach, grunting in pain as the energy burned into her skin. Shego brought her other fist around and punched her in the jaw, sending her hurtling to the floor.
Kim groaned and pushed herself to her hands and knees, shaking from the pain of the wound on her stomach. "Well well... Kim Possible on her knees. That's a welcome sight."
"Then take a picture... because you won't see it again..." Kim lurched to her feet facing Shego, putting her arms up. Shego shook her head and raised her hands, which were again glowing green with energy. Kim looked to the side, her eyes going wide when she found the disk slot on one of the servers. If she could just get the disk in there then everyone in there would be safe.
Shego noticed her glance and smirked. "Think you're going to take out the servers? Not likely, you do and it'll be the ones playing the game who get punished." Shego lunged at Kim suddenly, slamming one fist into her chest hard enough to knock her clear off her feet.
Kim hit the ground and rolled to her feet. Instead of attacking Shego again she lunged for the server, reaching into her pocket for the disk Wade had sent her before. She was almost there, but Shego caught up with her and slammed her leg into Kim's stomach, doubling her over with pain since that was where she was burned before.
Kim grunted when Shego kicked her in the face, sending her to her back on the floor. The disk slipped from her hand, landing on the cold metal floor. "It's the end, Kim." Shego brought up her glowing green fist, taking aim right at Kim's face.
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Ron grunted and pushed his face up from the ground, using his imagination to fling the knight on his back to the ground several feet away. Ron climbed to his feet, but the others were already bearing down on him. "Okay... this is getting ridiculous..." He held out his hands and a lightsaber appeared in each one, igniting in both blue and green.
He lunged forward slashing with all his might. The pixels that made up the knights were quickly several in several places, and one by one they vanished into the ground as the game counted them dead. Ron figured since they were moderators they wouldn't be affected by the signal that was affecting everyone else... at least, that was his hope.
When the knights were gone he raised the sabers skyward. "Booyah!" He shouted. A grunt escaped his lips however then he felt something plunge into his stomach. He looked down to see a dagger's hilt sticking out of him. "Boo... crap..." He stumbled and fell to his back, amid cheers from the other gathered players.
"Ron! Move it, move it!" Zita pushed her way through the crowd and ran to Ron's side, kneeling down beside him. "Ron, are you okay!?"
"Sure... it's just a game character..." Ron grunted. "Hurts like the dickens though..."
"Leave him alone, he's just looking for a laugh at our expense like all hackers." One of the other players exclaimed. Others yelled their agreement, but Zita stood and whirled on them angrily.
"Shut up! You don't know what you're talking about. He's not here to toy with us, he wouldn't do that! He's here to save us... from ourselves!" She looked around at all the gathered players. "We're all stuck here... the creators of the game are using us for something, and we all played right into their hands! He came to warn us!" She looked down at him. "He's here to... help me."
Ron gave her a slight smile as she leaned down over him again. "Ron... thank you for coming to my rescue..." She put her hands on his cheeks and lifted his head up, leaning her face down toward his...
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Kim rolled to the side, clutching her stomach painfully as Shego brought her fist down in a straight punch that would go straight through her head. Kim grunted and rolled to the other side quickly, grabbing the disk and using her other hand to push herself down between Shego's legs. She brought her legs up and kicked Shego in the bottom, sending her stumbling forward while Kim rolled to her feet and lurched for the server.
She slammed the disk into the slot, and the server started humming madly. "What was that!?" Shego demanded.
"Just a counter program to your little plot." Kim grinned, holding her burnt and bruised stomach. She really had to start wearing longer sweaters so that her stomach wouldn't be so vulnerable. "All the people you trapped are being freed as we speak, so you'd might as well leave."
Shego stared at her, then looked down at Drakken, who was still unconscious on the floor. "My contract ends when the plans go awry..." She looked at Kim again. "But I think I can throw in a freebie!" She lunged at Kim suddenly, punching her in the face and sending her up against the side of the server. Shego grabbed her around the throat, holding her against the server off the ground.
"Grk..." Kim fought for breath and struggled to loosen Shego's grip, but the older woman held on tightly.
Shego brought back her glowing fist. "Hasta la vista Kimmy!" She brought her fist around to send it into Kim's stomach. But Kim grabbed the server with her legs and moved her body out of the way, letting Shego's hand plunge into the machine. Electricity surged through her body, drawing a shrill scream from her throat.
Kim dropped to the ground, rubbing her neck as Shego twitched, struggling to pull her hand out of the machine. "Maybe next time!" She ran for the exit and down the hall, but stopped when the elevator came down the shaft with the doors opening on the bottom. Six guards had automatic rifles pointed straight at her. Kim raised her hands. "I can explain..."
They lowered their weapons and stepped out, where one of them spoke. "We know Kim, our moderators in the game told us about Ron Stoppable in the game talking about some signal. We decided to investigate and traced it down here. Where's..." He was cut off by an explosion further down the hall from the storage room. Kim and the guards rushed back, but there was nobody there. Just the remains of the detonated server beside its intact brothers.
"They're gone..." Kim muttered. Of course, they always got away. But at least she'd managed to free the people who'd been hypnotized by the game...
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Zita's lips were only inches from his... but Ron's head fell back against the ground, no longer supported by her hands. Ron opened his eyes and saw the players around him had all vanished. Kim must have managed to free them, as he knew she would. "Great timing Kim..." He muttered as he reached up in real life and pulled the helmet off.
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Zita blinked in surprise, suddenly feeling weaker than she ever had before. She tried to stand up from her chair, but she swayed and fell to the ground in a heap, moaning. "Oohhh man... I can barely move..." she groaned. She blinked in surprise when she saw a familiar figure standing in front of her. "Rufus?"
The Naked Mole Rat nodded and held out a drink, which she realized she sorely needed. She took the food and drink that the animal offered to her, eating it bit by bit to restore her lost strength.
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A while later, Zita had been found by Ron and moved to the hospital, where the doctors wanted to make sure she regained her strength properly, along with all of the other people in town who had been affected by the game. Ron was waiting in the lobby for the doctors to tell him he could go visit Zita when Kim walked in, carrying Rufus on her shoulder since he'd refused to rejoin Ron.
"Ron, what is wrong with Rufus exactly? He's been real huffy lately." Kim asked.
"He's mad at me for accidentally leaving him at Zita's..." Ron sighed, cupping his chin in his hands. "I can't do the right thing at all lately..."
"What are you talking about?" Kim sat down beside him, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Kim, I didn't get mugged. I spent all my money on Zita... that's why I couldn't get you a present." He stared at the floor, avoiding her gaze. "You do so much for me, and I couldn't even hold onto my money to get you a gift..."
"Ron... what I said still stands." Kim smiled and squeezed his shoulder. "You're more important than any presents. You're the only person the Possible family has to all of our events. You're like a brother to me. I don't care if you run out of money." She pulled him into a hug. Ron smiled and hugged her back firmly, letting out a sigh.
Rufus sighed and crawled from Kim's shoulder to Ron's, hugging the side of his head. "Can you forgive me too Rufus?" Ron asked. Rufus nodded enthusiastically, giving him an 'oh-yeah!' "Thanks little buddy..." Ron looked up when the doctor approached.
"You can visit her now, but don't stay too long. She needs her rest." The doctor told him.
"Thanks." Ron stood up with Rufus once again on his shoulder, bidding Kim a silent farewell before heading into the back to Zita's room. She was lying in one of the hospital beds in a paper down, looking a bit better than she had the last time Ron saw her. She looked over at him as he entered, giving him a weak smile.
"There's my hero..." She said.
"Not really... Kim's the one who saved everybody. You probably could have taken care of yourselves until she freed you all." Ron walked up to the side of the bed. Zita took his hand in hers, staring up at his eyes.
"That doesn't matter... you're still a hero for coming to help me... and if it wasn't for you, a lot of people would be much worse off, you know that." She gripped one of his hands with both of hers, smiling. "I've never had anyone do all that for me before."
"Well... you know..." Ron muttered nervously. Zita grabbed him by the cheeks and pulled him down, giving him a gentle kiss on the lips. Ron closed his eyes, enjoying the moment while he could. He still felt like a heel for everything he'd done... but somehow she was able to make him feel better with something as simple as a kiss. He was glad he'd gone to help her... because he wouldn't want anyone else kissing him.
THE END