"Ok, Wade," she said quietly, slipping behind a tree in the deserted park, "what's going on?" He looked at her with such a solemn expression that she sat down, readying herself for the worst.
"According to my scans, the earthquake wasn't natural."
"Yeah, I figured that much," Kim said wryly.
"Yeah, well, like the others it seems to have been restricted to the school and school grounds. There weren't even any aftershocks in the nearby neighborhoods." Kim looked back toward the school.
"So...any idea on what's causing it?" she knew she had sworn of the "saving the world" thing, but this was hitting too close to home.
"That's just it... I still can't find any cause. The epicenter was in the same hall you were in. The tectonic readings I have don't show any fault lines...they didn't even register the quake!"
"Your sensors didn't find ANYTHING?" Kim asked skeptically.
"Not that I can see. I..." a beep was heard from off screen and Wade turned away for a moment. He continued to talk, though his head was no longer in the picture. "Kim, I just got some data about activity..."
"Movement? The quake?" Kim cut in.
"No...deeper. Pressure is building inside the Earth's crust...and..." he came back on screen and typed some commands into his machine.
"Pressure?" Kim interrupted as he worked, "Like a volcano?" She remembered all the disaster movies that had come out a few years ago about volcanoes that demolished unsuspecting towns.
"No, Kim, not like a volcano..." he finally looked at her, his expression solemn. "These readings are almost identical, although weaker, to the ones I got from..." he paused, unwilling to continue.
"What!?" Kim almost shouted, tired of being kept in suspense.
"They're like the ones I got from the phoenix." As the implications of his words sank in, Kim's blood drained from her face.
"No." the word was whispered, but Wade understood all the emotions that had gone into it. Dread, anger, and...of course, anguish. If the phoenix had survived, if the world was still in peril, then Ron's sacrifice had been in vain.
"Kim...KIM!" Wade had to repeat himself a couple times before Kim heard him. She blinked dumbly at him, her mind too caught up in reliving the agony of Ron's death to fully function. "Kim, listen to me. We don't know what's going on yet. Don't go all zombie on me again! I'm going to run more tests, see if you can get Rufus to contact the...Kirrnans?... to find out if they know anything, and I want you to get some sleep." Kim came out of her semi-trance at that.
"What? I don't think so! I can help...I can..." Wade cut her off.
"Kim, if something's going down I'm going to need you rested and ready to fight. There's nothing you can do right now, so get yourself some sleep, recharge your batteries." Rufus had poked his head out of his bag at the mention of his name and now crawled up Kim's arm to look into the Kimmunicator.
"Huh?" he wasn't sure what was going on, but he wanted to help if something was wrong.
"Rufus. Can you contact your brother? We need to know if his people know anything about the earthquake...and the phoenix." Rufus' eyes widened. Wasn't the phoenix dead? What was going on? But he nodded and hopped back down to his bag, rummaging around to find his little comlink. Kim sighed.
"All right. Catch ya later." The screen went blank and Kim picked up Rufus in his bag and headed home. As she entered the house, she wondered where everybody was. The glare from the TV drew her attention and she veered toward the family room. Her parents were asleep on the couch, the tweebs snuggled together on the floor. Kim smiled and turned off the television, leaving her family asleep. At least SOMEBODY was having a night free of care. She crept quietly up the stairs to her room, shutting the door behind her.
"Ok, Rufus, do your thing." She wasn't going to sleep until she found out a little more. He was still rustling around and she feared for a moment that he had lost it, but he grinned at her and held up his comlink in triumph. He messed with some buttons on it and it emitted a loud squeal. Both Kim and Rufus put their hands over their ears, which caused Rufus to drop the comlink. The noise stopped and a voice could be heard on the other end.
"Hello?" rufus grabbed the device and started chittering away madly. Kim watched, hoping the being on the other end...Blaze?... could understand his mumblings.
"Ok." He looked up at Kim and held out the comlink.
"What?" He rolled his eyes. "They want to talk to me?" He nodded vigorously and she took the tiny machine between to fingers. She looked at it dubiously, then shrugged.
"Hello?" she asked tentatively.
"Kim Possible?" she wasn't sure if the voice belonged to Blaze or the chairman, but it was a Kirrnan who spoke well, and she sighed in relief.
"Yes. I'm here."
"My brother has told me there is a fear that the...the phoenix we battled was not vanquished after all, is this correct?"
"I'm afraid so. Wade has some readings that he says match those given out by the phoenix." There was silence on the other end of the line, and Kim waited for his reply anxiously. Blaze answered.
"I have consulted with the council and our historians. They agree that the evil one may not have been destroyed as we had thought. Since it was not trapped with our magics, but killed by your technology, we are unsure as to what truly happened. The histories do give us this information, though... the evil one was using a human, Monkey Fist, wasn't it? as its corporeal form. Your blast may have only injured it enough to force it to abandon this form, hence returning Monkey Fist alive, to escape into a pure energy state, in which it could have survived."
"But...if it could survive, especially after taking such a beating, why couldn't our phoenix, Shioa...Ron...likewise survive?" Kim asked, frustrated. Blaze was silent again and she nearly growled with impatience.
"Um...we have conferred again and we have come to a conclusion."
"Blaze, I think I liked you better when you barely mumbled words like Rufus." Kim sighed. She wasn't sure, but she thought she heard a little laugh before Blaze cleared his throat again.
"I must speak as tradition and formality require," he replied with no little irony. "Anyway," he said, slipping into a less formal tone that he had become accustomed to hearing with Kim, "we think that Shioa was unable to survive the blast because of its inherent goodness."
"I don't get it." Kim said, puzzled.
"Well, the evil being could draw energy and strength from our planet...also it could dispense of its host in order to escape the blast itself. The host would have been in danger, and it was pure luck that Monkey Fist survived...he did survive?" Blaze couldn't recall, as he had been more interested in learning the American lifestyle and getting to know his brother.
"Um, yeah. Though I think he's still laid up in the prison hospital wing."
"As I thought. Shioa, on the other hand, was good. He would not harm our planet by drawing its resources to him, and he would not risk his host to save himself. If he believed that he could survive the blast, he would have tried to shelter your friend. In the end, it was proven to be the wrong choice." The sadness in Blaze's voice gave away how close he had become to Ron in the short time he had known him.
"Ok...so what can we do about it?" Kim didn't want to talk about Ron anymore. She had searched every avenue left to her, and none remained open...Ron was never coming back.
"Our scientists have been developing a device, one that was not finished a few weeks ago, but should be operational within twenty-four hours, which can fixate on energy and, by sending an opposing current through it, neutralize that energy. In short, it should be able to destroy the creature."
"Well, here's hoping." Kim said goodbye and gave the comlink back to Rufus, who chatted some more with his brother. She sat on her bed, lost in thought, until fatigue caught up with her and she fell asleep.
"Aw, man!" Kim rolled her eyes at her little brother's complaint. The whole family, excluding Kim, of course, had ended up sleeping all night in the living room. Now they were rushing to get to work and school on time and the twins were complaining about the aches in their necks. Kim passed into the kitchen, grabbing a muffin on her way out.
"Kim, wait!" she paused at the doorway and turned back to face her mom, a questioning look on her face. "Your school was cancelled today, it was on the news...something about an earthquake?" Her mom sounded confused, but Kim didn't have time to explain it to her.
"Ok, thanks, mom!" she continued out the door, heading towards Bueno Nacho. Blaze had contacted Rufus early that morning and informed him that the device was ready. He had promised to deliver it himself, but he wanted some nacos to take back with him. As she reached the restaurant, she didn't see any sign of the Kirrnan prince, so she ordered some food for Rufus, and some extra for Blaze, and sat down to wait. She hadn't heard from Wade, yet, and she had to controll the urge to beep him every few minutes to get an update.
"Ta-da!" Kim looked up to see Blaze enter the building holding what looked like a CD player above his head. Rufus squeaked and hopped down, rushing over to his brother.
"Hey, Blaze." Kim smiled at him and helped the two back up onto the table. Both Rufus and Blaze immediately dug into the food with gusto and Kim shook her head. "Um, guys? Gu-uys?" They looked up in some annoyance. "Yeah, look, I know your food is important to you, but could we have an explanation of this device first?" Blaze grinned sheepishly.
"Ok." The weapon was actually rather simple to operate...it had only two buttons. The first button, a pretty blue one, was to be used to find the frequencies and polarizations of an energy source...in this case the phoenix. The second button, a vivid fuchsia, was for sending the opposing energy into the source and destroying it. Just as Blaze finished his short demonstration, the Kimmunicator beeped.
"Finally!" Kim pulled it out. "What's the sitch, Wade?" Wade paused, taken aback by the no-nonsense tone. He hadn't seen this side of Kim since before....well, before everything had happened.
"I still haven't managed to lock down a single location... have you met with your friend yet?" Kim nodded, pointing the Kimmunicator at the two brothers busily chomping away on nacos. Kim had informed Wade of the Kirrnan's device the night before.
"It's not going to be much use without a target, though." Kim warned. Wade gave a kind of half smile.
"Yeah, I know. My computers are crunching away at the data as fast as they can. I'll let you know as soon as I have a projected location." Kim sighed as Wade's image disappeared. Why couldn't her life be normal for once? She left Rufus with Blaze and walked towards the school. Crews could be seen trying to get everything fixed in time for prom the next day. Kim sighed again. It looked like she was going to miss out on another school dance.
She spent most of the day with Rufus and Blaze, trying not to think about the phoenix growing stronger, causing chaos, and destroying the world. It was hard not to call Wade every three minutes, so she locked her Kimmunicator into receive only mode. She could send messages if she wanted, but it would take about three minutes to unlock it. This way she was less tempted. When night began to fall Blaze looked up sadly.
"I must return. My people will be worried about the creature." He and Rufus said their good-byes and he hopped back into the ship, which they had moved into Kim's back yard. As Kim and Rufus watched him take off, they heard Kim's mom calling her in for dinner.
"Yay!" Rufus scurried into the house, but Kim hesitated. She looked up into the night sky, losing herself in the infinite space and the beauty of the stars. She rarely took time to just enjoy life, and, what with Ron's death and her own possible impending doom, she soaked up the ambiance. Her mom called again and she hopped up and ran inside, knowing that time was running out.
To be continued...