Look I'm not sayin' it again.

The Lazarus Factor

Chapter 12 - Kim vs. 100 Ninjas

"A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions." - Anonymous

            The car containing the three teenagers stopped a couple blocks from the factory.  The factory was one of the only industrial businesses to survive Middleton's ruralization.  The small town had originally relied on the factories and steel mills for its livelihood, but as times changed the factories became obsolete and Middleton evolved into a more residential area.  The Gromer Factory, however, had kept going by providing cheaper priced metals to small businesses and by drawing on a rather extensive private fund.  A few years ago its slow downward spiral had almost reached its end when a private owner purchased the whole factory.  The factory no longer sold metals, but the machinery could still be heard running.

            The buyers, of course, were the Zenryoku.  Hiring themselves out as assassins and bodyguards kept the clan very wealthy and they purchased the factory, using the machinery to make weapons for their army of followers.  The factory was divided into two buildings.  One held the equipment to melt and shape the metal while the other housed cutting and welding machines.

            "I can't pinpoint the rosary's exact location," Ron was saying to Kim and Yori, "so we'll have to check both buildings."

            "We'll check out that one," Kim pointed to the melting building, "You take the other one."

            "All right," Ron answered, "but if you see Keys DON'T try to take him alone.  Even with only half the rosary he'll already be crazy powerful."  Kim nodded and headed silently for the factory building with Yori.  Kim had gotten Yori with her on purpose before Ron could say anything.  Though she was slightly nervous about being alone with Ron it was more for the Japanese girl's benefit.  Yori was a mess of nerves around Ron, and Kim could only imagine the state she'd be in if she were alone with him.

            Creeping carefully up to the building, Kim and Yori used grappling hooks to climb to the roof, inching their way to a skylight to try and see inside.  Below, in the building, they could see a large group of ninja training and talking below.  The building was filled with machines, mostly for melting metal.  The pieces of steel were dropped into a heated pit.  Above the pit, a machine produced a gel that fell into the pit.  The gel was flammable and could burn for quite awhile before evaporating.  This kept the metal in a liquid state.

            "There's a window over on that side of the building," Yori whispered, pointing, "We could get to the upper catwalk from there."

            "Sounds good," Kim answered, "the walk goes all the way around.  We should be able to tell if Keys and the rosary are here from up there."

            "No need to hunt for me," Kim and Yori whirled around at the new voice behind them, "I'm right here."  Standing behind them was the man called William Keys.  He was about 6'2'' with dark brown hair and a thin beard.  He was obviously not Asian and had an American accent.  His outfit was the same as the other ninjas' except that it was white with different Japanese symbols adorning the collar and sleeves.

            Kim recovered quickly, jumping straight up while whipping around she aimed a kick at the man's head.  Unfortunately, instead of connecting with Keys' skull, she found her ankle grabbed by a hand.  In one movement, almost too quick for the eye to see, Keys caught her kick and slammed his fist into her gut, knocking the wind out of her, all while she was still in mid-air.  Kim hung limply from her leg, trying to catch her breath while Yori reached behind her, unsheathing two daggers and leaping at Keys.  Still holding Kim by her leg, Keys dodged Yori's attack, spinning around and kicking one of the daggers away.

            Kim reached up, trying to get a hold of Keys' arm, only to be slammed into the roof, disorienting her again.  Yori gripped her remaining dagger and attacked him again.  Keys moved to the side, grabbing Yori's wrist and flipping her over, she slammed onto the roof, the dagger clattered across the metal surface.  She tried to rise, but found a foot pressed into her throat, pinning her to the roof.  Looking up she found herself staring into the smirking face of William Keys, half of the rosary draped around his wrist.

            "Well now," he smiled, "I know who the redhead is.  Kim Possible, fighter of crime, but I don't recall ever seeing you before."

            "You better worry about me," Kim coughed, trying to catch her breath, "just give me a minute and I'll kick your..."

            "Yes, yes," Keys interrupted, "I have nothing to learn from you.  Why don't you go play with my friends downstairs."  He suddenly swung Kim over his head, slamming her into the skylight, sending her crashing down towards the floor below.

            "NOOO!!!" Yori cried out in anger, trying to push Keys off her.  Keys only smiled.

            "You, however," he leaned down toward her, "you can tell me something."

            Kim frantically grabbed for her grappling hook as she fell, firing it at the first target she caught sight of.  The hook caught the railing of a stairway, the line straining as Kim's weight pulled against it.  Kim swung to the right, hoping to catch herself on the side of the stairway.  However, the line caught against a thin edge of machinery and the weight on the other end snapped the line in two.  Kim fell again, crashing into a table and rolling a few feet before finally coming to a stop.  She pushed herself painfully, up to her knees.  Looking up she found herself surrounded by an army of ninjas.

            Up on the roof Keys still had Yori pinned to the ground.  Leaning over slightly he grinned at the helpless girl.

            "Now that I've gotten rid of the unwelcome company," he smirked, "let's have a little talk."  Yori looked up at his face, the image of Kim falling through the skylight flashed through her mind as a dark hatred began creeping around her brain, exploding suddenly into a white, hot rage.  Keys barely noticed a wave of blackness flash across her eyes before she suddenly grabbed the foot that was holding her down, and tossed him across the roof.

            Keys got up quickly, confused.  The power of the rosary gave him power, speed, and agility well above a normal person's, yet he hadn't seen the attack coming.  Looking up he was amazed at Yori running towards him at a speed a normal human could never match.  He caught the punch she threw, feeling the blow much more than he should have, and using all the speed the rosary beads gave him, threw out his hand, grabbing Yori's head.  Yori screamed as something like electricity jolted through her body.  She fell to the ground, breathing heavily as she tried to get her legs to move.  Kneeling down in front of her, Keys placed his hands on either side of her head.

            "Well, if you won't talk to me," he said with mock disappointment, "I'll just have to look myself."  Yori suddenly felt as if someone was slowly pushing a red, hot needle into her brain.  Memories came boiling to the surface, playing out like movies on the surface of her mind.  She tried to force them down, to hide them, but the needle only pushed deeper causing waves of agony to spread throughout her body.  It seemed like an eternity before the burning stopped and Keys removed his hands, letting her slump to the roof in a heap.

            "So," he smiled, "an ancient cult that guards this 'Lotus Blade'.  Fascinating."  He rose, walking around Yori's huddled form as he continued.  "And this boy who wields the sword, Ron.  You seem to have some rather deep, and rather confused, feelings for him."  Yori cursed herself for letting him get to those thoughts.  "You know, with half the rosary AND this sword, it seems your Ron would have no trouble defeating me," he smiled menacingly down at Yori, "but with your help, I think I may have a plan."  Grabbing Yori by the ankle he walked off toward the edge of the roof.

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            Meanwhile, down in the warehouse, Kim slowly got to her feet, watching the ninja slowly advance toward her.  She quickly looked around, memorizing her surroundings.  Noticing a spot in the crowd that was slightly thinner, she suddenly ran towards it.  She didn't try to fight the ninjas since that would just get her surrounded.  Instead she simply flung wild blows at them as she passed that would either knock them over, or force them to avoid it, giving her time to get out of reach.  Breaking through the outside she ran towards a narrow catwalk that ran between two rows of machines.

            The narrow bridge forced the ninja to travel in single file.  Kim used this to her advantage, fighting one ninja at a time and knocking them backwards into the ones behind them.  She knew that this was a temporary solution though, so she wasn't too surprised when some of the ninja started making their way around to the other side of the catwalk and others even started scaling the machines.    Kicking another ninja backwards, she turned and ran toward the other end of the walk before the ninja could trap her on it.

            Reaching behind her, she pulled the buttons off of her back pockets and giving them a slight squeeze, stuck them to the sides of machines on either side of the catwalk.  After a couple seconds, just as the ninja started to pass them, the buttons suddenly squirted a liquid into the air that immediately turned into a thick gas.  Kim ran off the catwalk and turned around to see ninja stumble out of the cloud covering their eyes.  It wasn't anything fatal, but their eyes would be killing them for quite awhile.

            Her celebration was cut short as the ninja started jumping over the smoke, and the ones who had gone around the walk started closing in on her.  'I'd better think of something else real quick,' she thought as she noticed some of them picking up the weapons they had been training with, 'or I'm going to end up dead.'  She started laying into the ninjas nearest her, hitting them as hard as she could, not bothering to make sure they stayed down before moving on to the next.

            She remembered something one of her trainers had said.  'Fighting a group of foes is much different than fighting a single one.  Groups get in each other's way, groups are more easy to distract with wild movements.'  He had explained to her that it was better to create chaos than to try and be careful.  Taking that advice to heart, she took every opportunity to flip and kick ninjas into their comrades.  It wouldn't last long though.  The ninjas knew how to work as a team and they would get around her diversions eventually.  They suddenly broke off the attack, backing away from her.

            Looking around, Kim noticed that the ninja with weapons were moving into a flanking pattern around her; they were setting up for the kill.  Kim glanced around desperately for an escape when her eyes fell on the melting pit with the flammable gel leaking into it.  A plan quickly formed in her mind as she ran towards the pit, barely dodging the ninjas who tried to stop her.  She jumped over a worktable filled with tools and other things, grabbing a pair of gloves as she went.  The gloves were made of asbestos, thick and heavy, they came down over her forearms when she put them on.

            She knew that a pair of asbestos gloves would HAVE to be around the fire pit, it was only common sense.  Slipping on the heavy gloves, she vaulted up onto the gel machine.  At the top there was a hole where a mixer stirred the gel, keeping it loose enough to pour.  Dipping her gloved hands into the gel, Kim then jumped down beside the fire pit and plunged her hands into the flames.  The gel on the gloves ignited in a flash.  She could feel the heat on her hands, almost too much to handle, but the gloves did not burn.

            The ninja chasing her suddenly stopped, looking wide-eyed at the girl standing in front of them, her hands twin balls of flame.  Kim didn't give them time to recover.  'Create chaos'.  The flames flared and sparked as she rushed into the group of ninja, slamming the nearest one in the chest.  There was a small burst of flame as she hit him, his clothes catching on fire.  He fell to the ground frantically trying to put the flames out.  Kim attacked the next, throwing blows every which way, trying to incapacitate as many as she could.

            It seemed her plan was working when she suddenly was hit in the gut, sending her flying back.  She slid across the floor, catching herself before she fell into the melting pit.  The ninjas had retrieved steel staffs from the arsenal that was lying around the room.  One had managed to catch Kim in the stomach, sending her flying.  She quickly rose, watching as the ninja inched toward her, causing her to back up slightly until her foot suddenly struck a heavy chain lying on the ground.

            Grabbing the chain, she swung it into the stream of gel pouring from the mixer.  The gel splashed onto the chain, spraying down its length until it hit the flames on Kim's hands.  The liquid all along the chain instantly ignited coating it in fire.  Kim wasted no time in striking at the ninjas with the weapon, knocking them over, leaving their clothes to catch the flames.  The crowd around her quickly began to dissipate as they backed up or fell over, rolling around, trying to put out the flames that licked at their clothing.

            Taking advantage of their momentary hesitation, Kim ran for the ladder of a catwalk.  She jumped onto it, still holding the flaming chain.  She reached the walk and turned to see the remaining ninja running after her.  She started to swing the chain again and the ninja hesitated, expecting a renewed attack.  Instead, she released the chain, letting it fly out over the floor.  Everything seemed to slow down as the ninja watched the fiery chain sail over them.  Suddenly their eyes went wide as they saw the chain fall towards the vat of gel.  Kim turned and dove out a window as the flame-covered chain ignited the gel, causing the machine to explode.  Kim tumbled to the ground below.

            'Well,' she thought, rising and tossing the flaming gloves to the side, 'THAT was a little too close.  Now, I've got to find Yori and..'  She stopped herself in mid-sentence.  'No,' she thought fiercely, 'I've got to find Ron first.  He's the only one with a chance of beating Keys.'  Unfortunately she hadn't landed in a particularly private place.  She had dropped out into the middle of the factory grounds and her presence had already attracted several guards.  Kim backed up against the wall, unlike the previous group, these ninja were already well armed.  The one in front unsheathed his sword and lunged at her.

Next: It all ends.