"Of Friends and Foes"
Chapter 4: The Calm Before the Storm
The mention of trouble in T's letter disturbed Kim, but she could not explain why. She was always going into life threatening situations, but none of them bothered her as much as this did. She asked Wade to watch for anything out of the ordinary no matter how insignificant. Time seemed to drag while she waited to hear from him. The hours turned into days and days into weeks and nothing happened. A month passed before Wade called again with news.
"Hey Kim, you wanted to know if anything happened out of the ordinary. Well I don't know if this is what you were wanting, but over the last few weeks the crime rate around the world has fallen."
Kim and Ron looked at each other then looked back at the Kimmunicator. "Isn't that a good thing Wade?" asked Ron.
"Yes it is," said Wade, "But it is how it happed that is so strange. Organized crime is falling apart. Several head members of the Mafia and Yakuza have been sent to jail when mountains of evidence appeared. Some of the lower members turned themselves in, confessing to everything they have ever done in exchange for protection. Even street gangs have disappeared, it looks like something has the bad guys running scared."
"Any idea on what that could be Wade?" asked Kim.
"None at all Kim, if they snow what it is they aren't talking."
"Okay, keep watching that to see what develops," said Kim.
"You got it, later Kim."
Kim turned off the Kimmunicator and put it away. "Bad guys running scared," she said to herself.
"Do you think there is something to it?" asked Ron.
"I don't know," said Kim, "I have a bad feeling about it that I can't shake. I've had it a while now, I think this is just the calm before the storm."
Weeks passed again and nothing happened yet except for more of the same. Kim checked with Wade every few days and every time he told her the same thing, the crime rate was going down worldwide. Ron was starting to worry about Kim. She never acted this way before. He wondered if something more happened to her when she was attacked, something emotionally. He decided to not let Kim know and made it his mission to keep her spirits up and get her back to normal. He acted goofy on purpose to make her laugh, Rufus helped out too. Kim knew what he was doing and really appreciated him for it. She cheered up for him and over the next couple of weeks everything was going back to normal. It was not long before Ron began to feel that something was going to happen. He knew Kim was right about this being the calm before a storm, and he felt that when the storm blew in it was going to be a big one.
Early one Saturday morning Kim woke up with a start, her heart was beating fast and she was breathing hard. She looked at the clock it was a few minutes after six. She tried to think what it was that caused her to wake up, "Was it a dream?" she said to herself. Something was wrong. She could feel it. She got out of bed and looked out the window as if whatever had woke her up was out there. The sun was just coming up, out in the distance she could see dark, ominous clouds rolling toward the town. "The storm is about to break," she thought. The phone rang and brought her out of thought. She picked it up and answered, "Hello."
"Hi Kim, I didn't wake you did I?" it was Ron.
"No, I was already up. You're up early though."
"I couldn't sleep," Ron paused a minute, "I woke up with this feeling that you were in danger."
Kim quickly looked back out the window and scanned the area, there was nothing there. "Everything is fine Ron," she said as she continued to look out the window, "I had a bad dream, but I'm okay."
"What about?" asked Ron.
"I don't remember, but I'm sure it was nothing though."
"If you say so," Ron said, "I'll let you go now."
"Yeah. Hey Ron, thank you, you know for caring. You've always been there for me, I see that now."
"I always will KP, bye."
"Bye." Kim hung up the phone and looked up at the storm cloud once again. This time it didn't look as bad for she knew that no matter what would happen Ron would be there to help.
Late that afternoon, Kim and Ron met at Bueno Nacho. Ron and Rufus were playing their nacho version of Jenga again while Kim stared out the window at the darkening sky. "Are you sure you're okay Kim?" asked Ron as he pulled a chip out of the pile.
"Hmm? Yeah, I'm okay Ron." She turned her head to see Rufus pull out a chip from the tower. It wobbled a little then stopped.
Ron did the same, "This is it Rufus, now we'll see who has the skills." He looked at Kim, she was staring out the window again. "I've been kind of worried about you lately Kim." Kim looked at her friend giving him her attention. "You haven't been yourself lately, like a different person all together."
"I know I have been," said Kim, "But I don't know why. It's like I'm feeling someone else's emotions, seeing the world through another person's eyes, and I've been having weird dreams of a guy in shadow with orange glowing eyes calling my name. It has been like that for the last couple of months."
After a moment of silence Ron asked, "Was that what you dreamed about this morning?"
Kim shook her head. "I really don't know what it was I dreamed this morning. What about you? You called just after I woke up, did you have a bad dream too?"
"Yeah, I guess I did," said Ron. "I dreamed that, . . ." the Kimmunicator beeping interrupted Ron.
Kim turned it on, and Wade's image came on the screen with a worried look on his face. "What's wrong Wade?" Kim asked.
"Global Justice wants to see you and Ron, Dr. Director is coming to get you herself," he said.
"Why does she want us?" asked Kim.
"I think I had better leave that to her."
"A good idea." Ron was startled and pulled out a nacho too quickly, sending the tower falling onto the table where Rufus cheered and began eating.
"Dr. Director!" exclaimed Kim, "What's going on?" Dr. Director looked at the two and frowned a little.
"I can't tell you here, if you would please come with me I will fill you in back at Headquarters." Kim and Ron got up from the table and followed Dr. Director out the door.