8
Uzi was amused.
Below his loud, shifting perch floating atop the old cityscape raced the wench in his men's stolen Hummer, desperately trying to outrun his Apache and his men giving chase. He laughed--actually laughed as his men followed the Hummer turn for turn, speed for speed down the many twisted cobblestone streets in a mere Skoda Estelle. From out the tiny windows, Bravo team opened fire upon the target. The bullets smashing into the vehicle looked nothing more than flickers in the thick canopy.
"Trying to outrun us." He thought aloud, nearly chuckling it out. "What is she thinking?"
"Hmm." the pilot behind him replied. "Either she thinks she's in the world of 'Grand Theft Auto', or a version of 'Burnout' chocked up on steroids."
"Does it really matter in the end?" he asked rhetorically. "The wench is good as dead! I mean--do you see how the guys down there are sticking it to her? It's an act of God that the Hummer hasn't blown sky high yet."
"'Yet' is the keyword in that sentence, sir." The hitman noted.
"Pf--it'd better be!" he chuckled passively.
The Skoda had barely made it through that sharp turn to the left that the wench had taken. A tiny plume of fire engulfed a window and the olive form responsible as the two airborne wheels touched down upon the stone. On the cobbled sidewalks, the many dots that were people scattered like wild buckshot.
"Sir!" Shia exclaimed rather hesitantly. "Don't you think that the men are engaging the target rather excessively?"
"Just like I told them." His lips pulled into a guilty, toothy grin. "So?"
"This has international incident pockmarked all over It." the pilot sighed.
"Interesting choice of words there, Shia." He chuckled softly.
"Uh. thanks?"
***
*RATATATAT--TATAT--TATATATAT!! * Roared voices of the gun--guns, how many there really were--over the manic-depressive growl of the Hummer. Large pieces of the streets were dust, particles the size of golf balls and pebbles, sweeping into the windshield with an erratic barrage as the vehicle tore through the plumes.
Kim had tried almost everything in her evasive maneuvers, everything that the boys over at STS had taught her proved to be nothing more than useless facts as the olive drabbed men matched her move for move. They one- upped her for every move she made, showing off their seemingly endless firepower upon the vehicle, so much that a bullet nearly nicked her in the leg as it smashed through the cabin.
A stream of white plumes bellowed from out the hood like train smoke. She wasn't sure how much more the Hummer could take.
She stole a hurried glance at Ron. He sat in the passenger side pathetically, his wide eyes brimmed with tears and all is front teeth bared as if he was about to cry.
"RON!" she yelled. Her eyes narrowed as a T-junction closed in on her. "SNAP OUT OF IT!"
"W--WELL WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO--!" she could just barely see his body flop against his door in a heap as she made the turn. People flocked away from the piece of sidewalk, scattering at the sound of screeching tires. "FEND THEM OFF!?"
"YES!!" she yelled. "THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WANT!"
"WITH WHAT!?" the boy slapped his hands against the dashboard, arms locking at the elbow.
"I don't know!" her eyes quickly rolled. "Find something! Throw tire irons, shake stuff loose, toss Rufus--!"
"HEY!!" the "father" and the "son" cried in protest.
"Okay--don't throw the rodent!" she pressed her teeth together. "Just find something!"
"Ugh--right!" the boy shuffled in his seat, lengthening his form as he worked over the console. Through the sensory overload, she could just barely feel the cloth of his cargos scratch against her skin.
"RON!" she yelled. "Hurry up!"
"I think I found something KP--!" his tense voice died in another barrage of flying lead. The nearby pedestrians turned tail and ran for dear life, their panicked screaming a quick decrescendo as the gunfire silenced.
"What?" she called.
"Some kind of gun!" he said. "I think it might be an rocket of some kind."
"SO FRIGGING USE IT ALREADY!!" she screamed.
"Ugh!" the boy moaned. "Yes mommy!"
***
Things have taken a turn for the worse for him--his men really. He wasn't sure what had happened. After gloating over his absolute victory of the day, a huge fireball engulfed the pursuers, the plumes of fire and smoke blossoming over the streets of Prague. The plumes had grown into a small mushroom as the target sped away, the vehicle scathed and its driver not.
Out the window of the vehicle, he could see a target. Blond hair capped the head while in its arms smoked some kind of lengthy tube with a chubby muzzle.
"Don't tell me the dumb-asses left the Javelin in the car." He frowned.
"Okay." Shia agreed to the rhetorical statement. "I won't tell you, sir."
He rolled his eyes as his good hand went for the CB. His finger went for the button even before the microphone touched his lips.
"Bravo team, respond!" he groaned. "Do you read me, Bravo team?"
"Oh--UGH!" crackled out a masculine voice, the tone stressed *painfully*.
"Bravo team, respond." He said flatly.
"Uh--men. down!" the voice groaned. "I don't think the others.UH-- made it!"
He recognized the voice, addressing the man by his handle. "Victimized.?" he asked slowly.
There was no reply. His mangled ears could only catch a quick, irregular gasp, followed by a soft, voiceless sigh like the final breath. The microphone clattered upon the panel when he tossed it aside.
*Want something done right, do it yourself! *
"Lower altitude." He said flatly.
"What sir?" the pilot asked.
"I said lower altitude, Shia!" he barked. "Tail the wench! Do NOT let her escape! Use any means necessary!"
"Sir, I must--!"
"Must *WHAT*, Shia?" he growled. "Take her down by any means necessary! Got it?"
".Yes sir!" the boy obeyed, and he felt his gut move up his body as the 'copter began its descent. Shia, that boy was a mystery--an enigma to him. For a button man of his reputation and skill, the possibility of a soft spot was unthinkable. and dangerous, considering his profession.
"Remind me to fossilize your heart when we RTB." He said.
".Huh?" the boy said.
"Forget it."
***
The Apache was a stalker, tailing her--its prey with the tenacity like that of the very people who shared the name. No matter how many sharp turns she took, and the near misses the marked vehicle had escaped, she couldn't escape from the ominous drone of the 'copter's rotors or the roars of its hawk-like turret.
"Kim!" the blond yelled. "Can you floor it please!? If you didn't know. WE HAVE A CHOPPER ON OUR TAIL!"
She frowned. "Tell me something I don't know!"
"WELL--DO SOMETHING!" he yelled. It took everything she had not to slap him silly.
"LIKE WHAT!?" she yelled back. "ASK THEM NICELY!?"
"YOU'RE THE TEEN HERO!" on the dashboard, Ron's fingers clawed at it like a petrified kitten. The surface of the dashboard underhand was pale, circling the circumference of his strained fingers. "YOU TELL ME--!!"
The deafening rip of the machine gun assaulted her ears and she felt her bottom lift up from the seat, hovering over it briefly as the cabin jerked to the right at a gentle angle considering. Her shoes slammed the brake down, her flittering hands twisting the wheel right for a last minute turn. Tires screeched, and she could just make out the exploding-- *exploding* texture of the wall before the wheels caught a grip on the cobblestone. She couldn't feel the accelerator underfoot as she slammed it back down.
"WAS THAT IT!?" the blond yelled frantically as he was pushed back into the seat.
"SHUT UP, RON!" she shouted back. "I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!"
The passenger whipped his head around out of the corner of her busy eyes. He seemed to have somewhat of a panicked-yet-quizzical expression upon his freckled face. It was typical of him, nothing more.
"NOT EVEN GOD KNOWS WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!" he shouted.
"UH-HUH!" the mole rat squeaked out from his pocket burrow. Through the intensity of the war-zone outside the windows, her eyes managed to take a lap around her sockets possibly for the last time--
"KIM!!" they both screamed. Her eyes snapped back into place, dead center in her head as they focused onto the rather large pile of crates right in front of her--
*OH-NO! *
Her feet scrambled for the brake--and her ears caught a crunching sound, piercing and loud, and she felt the Hummer tip onto the right two wheels as the crunching boxes grazed the undercarriage. Glass shattered as the vehicle smashed onto the cobbled street. The whole car was moaning in pain as its metal crumpled and buckled; the world upturning as the top graced the street and everything outside spun wildly like a top.
The stones of the street cried out in strange sounds, as if something tore into the street and pulled them out in a hurry--
"Uzi.!" she groaned as she forced her breakfast back up her overturned throat.
The car seemed to vibrate unevenly around her while the heavy rounds smashed into it from above. The car seemed to slow its revolutions as it skid uncontrollably down the street. Through the broken and buckled windshield, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest as she saw her mechanical predator hovering overhead, exhaling a stream of fire like a dragon as the rounds continued to pound around them like hail.
"KIM!" cried the father and son duo beside her.
"Hold on!" she shouted.
***
Uzi laughed. He had the wench right where he wanted her, helpless like a fish in a barrel that he didn't hesitate to shoot. The street was like a ghost town's. Czechs below him had scattered like ants a few minutes ago, ducking into their network of alleyways for cover as he brazenly executed his rightful vengeance. It wouldn't be too long before the military heeded the panicked call of the police force, but he had to be certain that the wench was put in her rightful place.
"A patch of dirt: six feet long, three feet wide, and six feet deep." He thought aloud, nodding at himself.
"Sir?" the hitman asked from behind. "Did you say something?"
"Forget it, Shia." He shook his head. "Arm the Hellfire missiles."
"On a crowded street, Sir?" the kid said quizzically.
"Look below you, Bonnet." He chuckled. "See anyone?"
"Uh." the kid moaned like that cartoon character, "no sir."
"Then I don't see a problem, do you?" he smirked.
"No sir." The pilot replied. "I do not. Prepping the missiles now, Mr. U."
"Ha--That's a good soldier!" he laughed.
***
Kim drew her the back of her hand across her brow, the beaded sweat drops smeared across unevenly as she took in a deep breath. The car had skidded to a stop; the (probably) twisted and bent grill of the Hummer simply touched the wall at the end of the street. If the upturned vehicle approached the seemingly dead-end any faster, or if the maniac hadn't ceased his assault.. Well--she didn't want to think about it period.
"Oh." her eyes winched beneath her closed lids. Pain was a red crack in her head, splitting it in half as the headache started up. "Ron.?"
"Yeah?" the boy said quietly, ironically almost as if nothing had happened at all.
"Uh. you dead?" she sniffed.
"Ugh!" the blond groaned. "Nope, the Ron Factor isn't a non-factor yet."
"I hear that!" light was an ellipse as she opened her eyes, thin at first but color swirled into her sight all too quickly, which aggravated the splitting crack in her head further. Her weary eyes couldn't see anything but an ancient wall through the twisted windshield.
"Come on, Ron--" Her neck felt stiff as the fingered the belt buckle of her restraints, quickly loosening out as her whole body fumbled out of the driver's seat. "Ugh--! We need to. aw--get out of here!"
"Too true!" he coughed.
She carefully worked her body onto her back, the metal beneath her letting out somewhat of a *THUD* and a *CLANG* as she flattened out. The soles of her shoes pressed against the warped door, and she drew her knees up to her chest. The door clanged and dented as she thrust her feet against it, only to draw her knees back up and releasing them at the door feet first again. and again. and again till the useless portal fell open. It clattered onto the street like a trashcan lid.
Her back arced, pushing her body into a wimpy arch as she crawled out of the useless vehicle like a crab. Her bottom touched down onto the cool, slick street just as her brow cleared the low ground clearance.
"Can you move, Ron?" she shook her head quickly.
"Yeah!" the boy called from the vehicle. "If I can only. just-- WHOA!"
She turned her head over her shoulder, and she saw a rather large mass topple onto the upturned ceiling like a sack of potatoes. She let out a quick giggle as the boy moaned pitifully.
"OH--my head!" the boy groaned.
"Uh. ouch!" his rodent companion added.
"Come on guys!" she moved her hands toward her bottom, and she forced herself up a few inches--
"Peek-a-boo!" that callous, taunting voice of Uzi--her predator-- boomed over the Apache's chopping clearly, like it would be the final words she'd ever hear. "I SEE YOU!"
She sprang to her feet quickly. Her eyes zipped back to the twisted cabin, and Ron had managed to almost work himself free of the vehicle in no time at all. But it wasn't fast enough. The Apache wasn't going to let them go free--not yet--not until it gave them a final present on it pilots' behalf.
"GO TO HELL, UZI!" she screamed into the raging winds that tore into her face, staring into the cold, plastic eyes of her predator.
"Sorry!" the predator chuckled. "But Hell has no vacancies at the moment, and I'd like to see my 18th birthday before I hit the deathbed."
She took another glance at the blond. His teeth were clenched together, and he grunted rhythmically as he desperately tried to wrench a leg free; the mole rat aided him as it gnawed viciously on the cuff of the stubborn leg.
"But while we're on the subject," the metal-head continued casually, as if he was chatting with her over teacakes. Reminded her of the punk's father, it did, "I believe that yours is on. what was it--? Oh--March 20, I believe. I'm sorry that I couldn't make the last one, but here's a little present from me. I hope that you find it most. volatile!"
She cocked an eyebrow, her thoughts in a brief puzzlement before they drew across the 'copter's weapon bays. and its many missile lugs underneath its tiny wings.
*Hellfire! *
Her hands clenched around Ron's shirt, caring nothing if the boy had worked himself completely free or not. Her fingers curled into her palms tightly through the shirt, and out her lips grunted a stifled groan as she hoisted the boy up onto his stumbling feet. She felt something tug on her pants, starting at her flaring cuffs and it shuffled up her legs.
"Kim!" the boy whined. "My shoes' are untied--!"
"Shut up and move!" she barked, and the dead weight beside her dragged his feet as she went for the narrow alley a few feet away. "Come on--hurry up--!"
A cold chill ran down her spine as that mocking, taunting voice of her chaser bombarded her ears.
"HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, KIMMIE!" he roared, and slowly she looked over her shoulder as she ran. Something dropped from a wing; her eyes trailed down the string like thing that unraveled from it like fishing wire.
"It's your birthday, Kim?" the dead weight beside her asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"
She rolled her eyes ironically. "Oh. boy!"
--*KA--BLAM! *
She felt like she was flying, gracelessly like an ostrich as she saw the cobblestone pass underneath her smoothly. For a moment, the stones looked so small before they grew so big that she could make out the texture on them, both in her eyes and on her skin as the boisterous explosion died away in the still, city air.
She lay there, still as the stones beneath her, easing her breath to unnoticeable movements. Her muscles ached, her face burned with pain but she couldn't move. She wouldn't move lest the punk dared to finish her in a hail of gunfire.
"Ron." She whispered quietly. "Don't. move!"
"Gotcha KP." The boy nodded.
"Ron!" her voice was hoarse, but still quiet.
"Oh--right!" the blond replied. "Sorry!"
***
Uzi wasn't impressed by the wench's last-ditch effort to throw him off. Who was she trying to kid? He was Uzi Drazen, the son of the feared Col. Alexander Drazen who served both hero and villain alike. And if his father could see through such disgraceful ploys, then so can he.
"Shia." He said. "Do you think the missile did her in?"
"HA!" the pilot laughed. "Whom do you take me for? Just 'cause I'm a big softy at heart doesn't make me stupid, Mr. U."
"Glad you feel that way." He nodded. "And now that you've done such a nice job clearing the street, lower altitude and open fire. We're not leaving the country with an unfinished job under our belts."
"Yes sir, lowering altitude by 15 feet." The hitman replied, and his eye beamed pure joy as it ran over her limp body. Kim Possible--the wench who killed his father, who put a grapple in his neck, was down--finally down. A wicked smile crawled across his face as his guts leveled off in his body. "Acquiring target."
Yes, nothing could get in his way now--
--"THIS IS THE CZECH MILITARY!" something called loudly in the language, so loud even he could ear it through the thrumming of the 'copter's blades. --
--Though he spoke too soon. His neck gave out; the base of his skull pressed against the base of his neck. His eyes rolled, the good one catching the sight of a tanned Mi-28 Havoc hovering close by, its considerable combat load trained right on them.
"Shia," he moaned, "disengage the target. Move out before that Havoc opens fire on us."
"I think they'll open fire on us even if we try to move, Sir." The pilot noted.
"Yeah, that's true." He shook his head. "But let me handle the diplomacy! Just keep the chopper steady."
"Um--right, Mr. U."
***
Something blared overhead, loud and disjointed over the Apache's chopping blades like someone was speaking in a foreign tongue. Someone else that is, and Ron didn't know who.
He moved his eye around the socket, trying to catch a glimpse of the speaker. Uzi's craft hovered indifferently above them, but out of the corner of his sight closed in another copter. Its little wings held a truckload of missiles like the Apache, though its body and weapons resembled nothing of its American--err--Israeli counterpart.
"Ron!" coughed the auburn, her body lain haphazardly in front of his face. "What's going on?"
"Two 'copters' right above us." He replied quietly. "One's the Apache while the other has to be military."
The girl rolled her green eyes, sighing. "Ron."
"Yes?" he said.
"They're BOTH MILITARY!" she growled voicelessly.
"Oh--right!" he tapped his head against the cobblestone gently. "Duh!"
"Hmm--duh!" his little buddy affirmed from Kim's pocket.
"What are they doing now?" she whispered.
His eye took a trip to the outside corner once again. The bigger of the two circled slowly around the Apache like the schoolyard bullies back in D-hall.
"The big one's circling around Drazen like it means something." He noted aloud. "I'm not sure what it means, but I don't want to find out."
"Neither do I." She moved gently, moving her hands up close to her dirtied face as if to move.
"Think we can get out of here unmissed?" his aching limbs followed suit.
"They'd miss us.uh--but we wouldn't miss them." She groaned as she pushed herself to her feet, wobbly. His muscles burned as he hoisted his chest off of the stones, uttering a grunt out his mouth as his legs moved close to his chest. He felt his spinal bones shift back into place while he rose.
"Oh. AH--!" he moaned. "That's a sprain!"
"Come on." The girl called. He looked to see the girl caked in street grime limp her way to the nearby corner, and to the possible safety it provided. He nodded as he made his way for it. There was no way the 'copter's could see them in the cramped alley--
--*RATATATATATATATATATAT* --
--But it didn't have to as it seemingly opened fire, yet quieter than before. His knees buckled, but as he went for the sidewalk he noticed that nothing on it looked out of place. like nothing had touched it even as something like a boisterous bumblebee buzzed overhead. The locked hands capping his head parted, and his eyes wondered up the buildings to the skyline.
His lips curled into a sneer as he gazed at his pursuer, standing boldly in his seat out of the open cockpit. His hand seemingly was engulfed in an ovoid ball of fire, and bits and pieces of metal and glass kicked up from back canopy of the larger chopper--
--And the larger 'copter began to chase it's tail, quickly in smaller circles as its form got bigger and bigger. The large vehicle whistled a whinny, droning tune kind of like how a plane whistles as it plunges toward the earth.
--Something sized him by the collar of his shirt, the grasp easily smaller than his fists. He stumbled over his feet as the person dragged him into the alley.
"RON--MOVE!" the voice of his friend barked--and he found his butt back on the pavement.
"Kim!" he cried in protest. "Watch the tailbone, will you?"
"Oh--WATCH IT!" the girl threw herself on top of him, possibly the last thing he'd expect her to do--
--*BOOM!! *
The ground shook--*trembled* beneath them as something hard smashed into the street. Metal cried out, making those stomach-turning moaning sounds as the something buckled and bent in everyway imaginable. He wasn't sure what those quick *TINK* sounds were at first, but it was crystal clear as he saw a flat, ragged shard fly over them, no more than a mere centimeter away--
Everything was silent, quieter than a mausoleum but the still silence couldn't stop a tremendous heat from crashing into his body. He felt like he was on fire, as if the very gates of Hell had opened wide just for his torment.
"KIM!" he called.
"HOLD ON!!" she cried back.
***
In a splendid blast, the Czech helicopter was nothing more than a smoldering heap of garbage, littering a grand old street of Prague. The wench and her troublesome buffoon had to be somewhere beneath the rubble, and if they somehow managed to crawl into the alley before hand, the explosion had to have finished them off for good.
"Oh. daddy would be so proud of me!" he laughed at himself as sat back down. An annoying humming filled what was left of his ears, and a wonderful amount of warmth caressed his naked body as the canopy synched shut. "Wouldn't he be, Shia?"
"Oh--*ahem*--I bet he would, Mr. U." the pilot coughed.
"Sick again?" he rolled his eyes.
"Ulcer's flaring up again." Shia replied, and he heard a small rattling behind him for a moment. "Ah. nothing major."
"I'm telling you," he shook his head, "you should get that bullet removed."
"Should-a, would-a, could-a," the hitman dismissed. "I didn't-a!"
"As you wish, Mr. Button-man!" he replied. "Just get us back home without crashing okay?"
"Yes sir."
"How are we on fuel?"
"We're okay," the pilot replied, "but we have to stop off at Ruzyne- International for some fuel if we're going to make it all the way to Rome."
"Have the arrangements been made?"
"Yes sir. Alpha team has the place secured and have a fuel tank on standby, awaiting our visit."
"So what are we waiting for?" his eyes rolled again. "Let's go already."
"Yes, Mr. U."
***
Ron moaned, shaking sense back into his brain as the Prague city skyline focused in his eyes. He wasn't sure what had happened, something crashed nearby, something blew up nearby, and Kim's body atop his own simply was the crowing touch of it all. His chin touched the top of his chest, and his eyes grew as they ran over her limp body.
She wasn't moving.
"Kim!" he called to her quietly. "Kim!?"
The body let out a pitiful groan, and he thanked the almighty YHWH as her body moved on its own. The pungent stench of burnt hair smoked into his nose, and he could have laughed as the girl in soiled pink tossed her crisp mane behind her back. Her eyes batted before they opened completely. He could have stared into her emerald gaze endlessly, for he could have lost the very one behind that gaze.
"Uh.!" they closed, and she looked away as she put a hand to her head. "Man!"
"I know," he shook his head quickly, feeling his dirty, messy hair whip around his scalp, "we both should be deaf by now."
"It's not that, Ron." That puffy, auburn mane trembled before him, and it slowly disappeared over the horizon that was the very tip of her crown--
His eyes grew wide, and he gasped as he saw that small piece of mangled flesh hang pathetically from her cheek. A few streamers of blood dribbled from the avulsion, pooling into a big smear on her jawbone.
"What's wrong?" she blinked.
"You're face." He pointed weakly. "It's bleeding."
"Really--?" she touched her hand to her cheekbone, carefully trailing down her cheek till they stopped abruptly. where the creek of her crimson trailed down her fingers. She brought the hand to her face, and her pupils shrank as she gazed at it.
"Come on, KP." His body became a crab's, walking on both his hands and his feet as he slid out from under her. He let out a small groan as he pushed himself to his feet again. "Uh! You need to see a doctor."
"Eh." that puffy mane swayed from right to left, shifting on her back as the girl stood up. "Tell me something I don't already know."
"Well." he looked to the blue sky. "Given how dirty the sidewalk is, you could get infected if--"
"Ugh.!" she closed her eyes. "I know, Ron. Let's just get out of here."
Her soiled face was hidden underneath the thick auburn hair as she turned away. She hunched her back as she walked; her left arm still bent, her hand still pressed against her new, bleeding orifice. Something bothered him as he began to follow her, his steps moving a little slower than the girl's. Kim was silent--dead silent.
"What's wrong, KP?" he asked seriously. "Are you crying over there?"
"It's nothing." That mane swayed dismissively again. "My. face just hurts. That's all."
"I bet its more than that, Kim." He noted. "You're hardly ever this quiet."
The reddish mane whipped around her round head, her bloodshot eyes brimmed with tears, her bleeding features twisted in irritation.
"I said it's nothing, Ron!" he jumped at her snap. "Just. leave it at that! Okay!?"
He was treated with nothing more than her backside, walking down the last stretch of the dank alley. He blinked as she was enveloped by the sunlight as she slumped out, indifferent that he was still there.
*Something's definitely up. * he nodded, and he couldn't help but peek over his shoulder at the wreckage, the whole thing smoldering as the fires cracked like a campfire.
"RON!" the girl called--no--yelled down the alleyway. "You coming or what!?"
".Coming Kim." He said quietly.
"What?" she called back.
"I said I'm coming KP!" his chest tingled with anger. "Damn!"
The rest of the day was quiet from that moment forward.
Uzi was amused.
Below his loud, shifting perch floating atop the old cityscape raced the wench in his men's stolen Hummer, desperately trying to outrun his Apache and his men giving chase. He laughed--actually laughed as his men followed the Hummer turn for turn, speed for speed down the many twisted cobblestone streets in a mere Skoda Estelle. From out the tiny windows, Bravo team opened fire upon the target. The bullets smashing into the vehicle looked nothing more than flickers in the thick canopy.
"Trying to outrun us." He thought aloud, nearly chuckling it out. "What is she thinking?"
"Hmm." the pilot behind him replied. "Either she thinks she's in the world of 'Grand Theft Auto', or a version of 'Burnout' chocked up on steroids."
"Does it really matter in the end?" he asked rhetorically. "The wench is good as dead! I mean--do you see how the guys down there are sticking it to her? It's an act of God that the Hummer hasn't blown sky high yet."
"'Yet' is the keyword in that sentence, sir." The hitman noted.
"Pf--it'd better be!" he chuckled passively.
The Skoda had barely made it through that sharp turn to the left that the wench had taken. A tiny plume of fire engulfed a window and the olive form responsible as the two airborne wheels touched down upon the stone. On the cobbled sidewalks, the many dots that were people scattered like wild buckshot.
"Sir!" Shia exclaimed rather hesitantly. "Don't you think that the men are engaging the target rather excessively?"
"Just like I told them." His lips pulled into a guilty, toothy grin. "So?"
"This has international incident pockmarked all over It." the pilot sighed.
"Interesting choice of words there, Shia." He chuckled softly.
"Uh. thanks?"
***
*RATATATAT--TATAT--TATATATAT!! * Roared voices of the gun--guns, how many there really were--over the manic-depressive growl of the Hummer. Large pieces of the streets were dust, particles the size of golf balls and pebbles, sweeping into the windshield with an erratic barrage as the vehicle tore through the plumes.
Kim had tried almost everything in her evasive maneuvers, everything that the boys over at STS had taught her proved to be nothing more than useless facts as the olive drabbed men matched her move for move. They one- upped her for every move she made, showing off their seemingly endless firepower upon the vehicle, so much that a bullet nearly nicked her in the leg as it smashed through the cabin.
A stream of white plumes bellowed from out the hood like train smoke. She wasn't sure how much more the Hummer could take.
She stole a hurried glance at Ron. He sat in the passenger side pathetically, his wide eyes brimmed with tears and all is front teeth bared as if he was about to cry.
"RON!" she yelled. Her eyes narrowed as a T-junction closed in on her. "SNAP OUT OF IT!"
"W--WELL WHAT DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO--!" she could just barely see his body flop against his door in a heap as she made the turn. People flocked away from the piece of sidewalk, scattering at the sound of screeching tires. "FEND THEM OFF!?"
"YES!!" she yelled. "THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I WANT!"
"WITH WHAT!?" the boy slapped his hands against the dashboard, arms locking at the elbow.
"I don't know!" her eyes quickly rolled. "Find something! Throw tire irons, shake stuff loose, toss Rufus--!"
"HEY!!" the "father" and the "son" cried in protest.
"Okay--don't throw the rodent!" she pressed her teeth together. "Just find something!"
"Ugh--right!" the boy shuffled in his seat, lengthening his form as he worked over the console. Through the sensory overload, she could just barely feel the cloth of his cargos scratch against her skin.
"RON!" she yelled. "Hurry up!"
"I think I found something KP--!" his tense voice died in another barrage of flying lead. The nearby pedestrians turned tail and ran for dear life, their panicked screaming a quick decrescendo as the gunfire silenced.
"What?" she called.
"Some kind of gun!" he said. "I think it might be an rocket of some kind."
"SO FRIGGING USE IT ALREADY!!" she screamed.
"Ugh!" the boy moaned. "Yes mommy!"
***
Things have taken a turn for the worse for him--his men really. He wasn't sure what had happened. After gloating over his absolute victory of the day, a huge fireball engulfed the pursuers, the plumes of fire and smoke blossoming over the streets of Prague. The plumes had grown into a small mushroom as the target sped away, the vehicle scathed and its driver not.
Out the window of the vehicle, he could see a target. Blond hair capped the head while in its arms smoked some kind of lengthy tube with a chubby muzzle.
"Don't tell me the dumb-asses left the Javelin in the car." He frowned.
"Okay." Shia agreed to the rhetorical statement. "I won't tell you, sir."
He rolled his eyes as his good hand went for the CB. His finger went for the button even before the microphone touched his lips.
"Bravo team, respond!" he groaned. "Do you read me, Bravo team?"
"Oh--UGH!" crackled out a masculine voice, the tone stressed *painfully*.
"Bravo team, respond." He said flatly.
"Uh--men. down!" the voice groaned. "I don't think the others.UH-- made it!"
He recognized the voice, addressing the man by his handle. "Victimized.?" he asked slowly.
There was no reply. His mangled ears could only catch a quick, irregular gasp, followed by a soft, voiceless sigh like the final breath. The microphone clattered upon the panel when he tossed it aside.
*Want something done right, do it yourself! *
"Lower altitude." He said flatly.
"What sir?" the pilot asked.
"I said lower altitude, Shia!" he barked. "Tail the wench! Do NOT let her escape! Use any means necessary!"
"Sir, I must--!"
"Must *WHAT*, Shia?" he growled. "Take her down by any means necessary! Got it?"
".Yes sir!" the boy obeyed, and he felt his gut move up his body as the 'copter began its descent. Shia, that boy was a mystery--an enigma to him. For a button man of his reputation and skill, the possibility of a soft spot was unthinkable. and dangerous, considering his profession.
"Remind me to fossilize your heart when we RTB." He said.
".Huh?" the boy said.
"Forget it."
***
The Apache was a stalker, tailing her--its prey with the tenacity like that of the very people who shared the name. No matter how many sharp turns she took, and the near misses the marked vehicle had escaped, she couldn't escape from the ominous drone of the 'copter's rotors or the roars of its hawk-like turret.
"Kim!" the blond yelled. "Can you floor it please!? If you didn't know. WE HAVE A CHOPPER ON OUR TAIL!"
She frowned. "Tell me something I don't know!"
"WELL--DO SOMETHING!" he yelled. It took everything she had not to slap him silly.
"LIKE WHAT!?" she yelled back. "ASK THEM NICELY!?"
"YOU'RE THE TEEN HERO!" on the dashboard, Ron's fingers clawed at it like a petrified kitten. The surface of the dashboard underhand was pale, circling the circumference of his strained fingers. "YOU TELL ME--!!"
The deafening rip of the machine gun assaulted her ears and she felt her bottom lift up from the seat, hovering over it briefly as the cabin jerked to the right at a gentle angle considering. Her shoes slammed the brake down, her flittering hands twisting the wheel right for a last minute turn. Tires screeched, and she could just make out the exploding-- *exploding* texture of the wall before the wheels caught a grip on the cobblestone. She couldn't feel the accelerator underfoot as she slammed it back down.
"WAS THAT IT!?" the blond yelled frantically as he was pushed back into the seat.
"SHUT UP, RON!" she shouted back. "I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING!"
The passenger whipped his head around out of the corner of her busy eyes. He seemed to have somewhat of a panicked-yet-quizzical expression upon his freckled face. It was typical of him, nothing more.
"NOT EVEN GOD KNOWS WHAT YOU'RE DOING!!" he shouted.
"UH-HUH!" the mole rat squeaked out from his pocket burrow. Through the intensity of the war-zone outside the windows, her eyes managed to take a lap around her sockets possibly for the last time--
"KIM!!" they both screamed. Her eyes snapped back into place, dead center in her head as they focused onto the rather large pile of crates right in front of her--
*OH-NO! *
Her feet scrambled for the brake--and her ears caught a crunching sound, piercing and loud, and she felt the Hummer tip onto the right two wheels as the crunching boxes grazed the undercarriage. Glass shattered as the vehicle smashed onto the cobbled street. The whole car was moaning in pain as its metal crumpled and buckled; the world upturning as the top graced the street and everything outside spun wildly like a top.
The stones of the street cried out in strange sounds, as if something tore into the street and pulled them out in a hurry--
"Uzi.!" she groaned as she forced her breakfast back up her overturned throat.
The car seemed to vibrate unevenly around her while the heavy rounds smashed into it from above. The car seemed to slow its revolutions as it skid uncontrollably down the street. Through the broken and buckled windshield, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest as she saw her mechanical predator hovering overhead, exhaling a stream of fire like a dragon as the rounds continued to pound around them like hail.
"KIM!" cried the father and son duo beside her.
"Hold on!" she shouted.
***
Uzi laughed. He had the wench right where he wanted her, helpless like a fish in a barrel that he didn't hesitate to shoot. The street was like a ghost town's. Czechs below him had scattered like ants a few minutes ago, ducking into their network of alleyways for cover as he brazenly executed his rightful vengeance. It wouldn't be too long before the military heeded the panicked call of the police force, but he had to be certain that the wench was put in her rightful place.
"A patch of dirt: six feet long, three feet wide, and six feet deep." He thought aloud, nodding at himself.
"Sir?" the hitman asked from behind. "Did you say something?"
"Forget it, Shia." He shook his head. "Arm the Hellfire missiles."
"On a crowded street, Sir?" the kid said quizzically.
"Look below you, Bonnet." He chuckled. "See anyone?"
"Uh." the kid moaned like that cartoon character, "no sir."
"Then I don't see a problem, do you?" he smirked.
"No sir." The pilot replied. "I do not. Prepping the missiles now, Mr. U."
"Ha--That's a good soldier!" he laughed.
***
Kim drew her the back of her hand across her brow, the beaded sweat drops smeared across unevenly as she took in a deep breath. The car had skidded to a stop; the (probably) twisted and bent grill of the Hummer simply touched the wall at the end of the street. If the upturned vehicle approached the seemingly dead-end any faster, or if the maniac hadn't ceased his assault.. Well--she didn't want to think about it period.
"Oh." her eyes winched beneath her closed lids. Pain was a red crack in her head, splitting it in half as the headache started up. "Ron.?"
"Yeah?" the boy said quietly, ironically almost as if nothing had happened at all.
"Uh. you dead?" she sniffed.
"Ugh!" the blond groaned. "Nope, the Ron Factor isn't a non-factor yet."
"I hear that!" light was an ellipse as she opened her eyes, thin at first but color swirled into her sight all too quickly, which aggravated the splitting crack in her head further. Her weary eyes couldn't see anything but an ancient wall through the twisted windshield.
"Come on, Ron--" Her neck felt stiff as the fingered the belt buckle of her restraints, quickly loosening out as her whole body fumbled out of the driver's seat. "Ugh--! We need to. aw--get out of here!"
"Too true!" he coughed.
She carefully worked her body onto her back, the metal beneath her letting out somewhat of a *THUD* and a *CLANG* as she flattened out. The soles of her shoes pressed against the warped door, and she drew her knees up to her chest. The door clanged and dented as she thrust her feet against it, only to draw her knees back up and releasing them at the door feet first again. and again. and again till the useless portal fell open. It clattered onto the street like a trashcan lid.
Her back arced, pushing her body into a wimpy arch as she crawled out of the useless vehicle like a crab. Her bottom touched down onto the cool, slick street just as her brow cleared the low ground clearance.
"Can you move, Ron?" she shook her head quickly.
"Yeah!" the boy called from the vehicle. "If I can only. just-- WHOA!"
She turned her head over her shoulder, and she saw a rather large mass topple onto the upturned ceiling like a sack of potatoes. She let out a quick giggle as the boy moaned pitifully.
"OH--my head!" the boy groaned.
"Uh. ouch!" his rodent companion added.
"Come on guys!" she moved her hands toward her bottom, and she forced herself up a few inches--
"Peek-a-boo!" that callous, taunting voice of Uzi--her predator-- boomed over the Apache's chopping clearly, like it would be the final words she'd ever hear. "I SEE YOU!"
She sprang to her feet quickly. Her eyes zipped back to the twisted cabin, and Ron had managed to almost work himself free of the vehicle in no time at all. But it wasn't fast enough. The Apache wasn't going to let them go free--not yet--not until it gave them a final present on it pilots' behalf.
"GO TO HELL, UZI!" she screamed into the raging winds that tore into her face, staring into the cold, plastic eyes of her predator.
"Sorry!" the predator chuckled. "But Hell has no vacancies at the moment, and I'd like to see my 18th birthday before I hit the deathbed."
She took another glance at the blond. His teeth were clenched together, and he grunted rhythmically as he desperately tried to wrench a leg free; the mole rat aided him as it gnawed viciously on the cuff of the stubborn leg.
"But while we're on the subject," the metal-head continued casually, as if he was chatting with her over teacakes. Reminded her of the punk's father, it did, "I believe that yours is on. what was it--? Oh--March 20, I believe. I'm sorry that I couldn't make the last one, but here's a little present from me. I hope that you find it most. volatile!"
She cocked an eyebrow, her thoughts in a brief puzzlement before they drew across the 'copter's weapon bays. and its many missile lugs underneath its tiny wings.
*Hellfire! *
Her hands clenched around Ron's shirt, caring nothing if the boy had worked himself completely free or not. Her fingers curled into her palms tightly through the shirt, and out her lips grunted a stifled groan as she hoisted the boy up onto his stumbling feet. She felt something tug on her pants, starting at her flaring cuffs and it shuffled up her legs.
"Kim!" the boy whined. "My shoes' are untied--!"
"Shut up and move!" she barked, and the dead weight beside her dragged his feet as she went for the narrow alley a few feet away. "Come on--hurry up--!"
A cold chill ran down her spine as that mocking, taunting voice of her chaser bombarded her ears.
"HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, KIMMIE!" he roared, and slowly she looked over her shoulder as she ran. Something dropped from a wing; her eyes trailed down the string like thing that unraveled from it like fishing wire.
"It's your birthday, Kim?" the dead weight beside her asked. "Why didn't you tell me?"
She rolled her eyes ironically. "Oh. boy!"
--*KA--BLAM! *
She felt like she was flying, gracelessly like an ostrich as she saw the cobblestone pass underneath her smoothly. For a moment, the stones looked so small before they grew so big that she could make out the texture on them, both in her eyes and on her skin as the boisterous explosion died away in the still, city air.
She lay there, still as the stones beneath her, easing her breath to unnoticeable movements. Her muscles ached, her face burned with pain but she couldn't move. She wouldn't move lest the punk dared to finish her in a hail of gunfire.
"Ron." She whispered quietly. "Don't. move!"
"Gotcha KP." The boy nodded.
"Ron!" her voice was hoarse, but still quiet.
"Oh--right!" the blond replied. "Sorry!"
***
Uzi wasn't impressed by the wench's last-ditch effort to throw him off. Who was she trying to kid? He was Uzi Drazen, the son of the feared Col. Alexander Drazen who served both hero and villain alike. And if his father could see through such disgraceful ploys, then so can he.
"Shia." He said. "Do you think the missile did her in?"
"HA!" the pilot laughed. "Whom do you take me for? Just 'cause I'm a big softy at heart doesn't make me stupid, Mr. U."
"Glad you feel that way." He nodded. "And now that you've done such a nice job clearing the street, lower altitude and open fire. We're not leaving the country with an unfinished job under our belts."
"Yes sir, lowering altitude by 15 feet." The hitman replied, and his eye beamed pure joy as it ran over her limp body. Kim Possible--the wench who killed his father, who put a grapple in his neck, was down--finally down. A wicked smile crawled across his face as his guts leveled off in his body. "Acquiring target."
Yes, nothing could get in his way now--
--"THIS IS THE CZECH MILITARY!" something called loudly in the language, so loud even he could ear it through the thrumming of the 'copter's blades. --
--Though he spoke too soon. His neck gave out; the base of his skull pressed against the base of his neck. His eyes rolled, the good one catching the sight of a tanned Mi-28 Havoc hovering close by, its considerable combat load trained right on them.
"Shia," he moaned, "disengage the target. Move out before that Havoc opens fire on us."
"I think they'll open fire on us even if we try to move, Sir." The pilot noted.
"Yeah, that's true." He shook his head. "But let me handle the diplomacy! Just keep the chopper steady."
"Um--right, Mr. U."
***
Something blared overhead, loud and disjointed over the Apache's chopping blades like someone was speaking in a foreign tongue. Someone else that is, and Ron didn't know who.
He moved his eye around the socket, trying to catch a glimpse of the speaker. Uzi's craft hovered indifferently above them, but out of the corner of his sight closed in another copter. Its little wings held a truckload of missiles like the Apache, though its body and weapons resembled nothing of its American--err--Israeli counterpart.
"Ron!" coughed the auburn, her body lain haphazardly in front of his face. "What's going on?"
"Two 'copters' right above us." He replied quietly. "One's the Apache while the other has to be military."
The girl rolled her green eyes, sighing. "Ron."
"Yes?" he said.
"They're BOTH MILITARY!" she growled voicelessly.
"Oh--right!" he tapped his head against the cobblestone gently. "Duh!"
"Hmm--duh!" his little buddy affirmed from Kim's pocket.
"What are they doing now?" she whispered.
His eye took a trip to the outside corner once again. The bigger of the two circled slowly around the Apache like the schoolyard bullies back in D-hall.
"The big one's circling around Drazen like it means something." He noted aloud. "I'm not sure what it means, but I don't want to find out."
"Neither do I." She moved gently, moving her hands up close to her dirtied face as if to move.
"Think we can get out of here unmissed?" his aching limbs followed suit.
"They'd miss us.uh--but we wouldn't miss them." She groaned as she pushed herself to her feet, wobbly. His muscles burned as he hoisted his chest off of the stones, uttering a grunt out his mouth as his legs moved close to his chest. He felt his spinal bones shift back into place while he rose.
"Oh. AH--!" he moaned. "That's a sprain!"
"Come on." The girl called. He looked to see the girl caked in street grime limp her way to the nearby corner, and to the possible safety it provided. He nodded as he made his way for it. There was no way the 'copter's could see them in the cramped alley--
--*RATATATATATATATATATAT* --
--But it didn't have to as it seemingly opened fire, yet quieter than before. His knees buckled, but as he went for the sidewalk he noticed that nothing on it looked out of place. like nothing had touched it even as something like a boisterous bumblebee buzzed overhead. The locked hands capping his head parted, and his eyes wondered up the buildings to the skyline.
His lips curled into a sneer as he gazed at his pursuer, standing boldly in his seat out of the open cockpit. His hand seemingly was engulfed in an ovoid ball of fire, and bits and pieces of metal and glass kicked up from back canopy of the larger chopper--
--And the larger 'copter began to chase it's tail, quickly in smaller circles as its form got bigger and bigger. The large vehicle whistled a whinny, droning tune kind of like how a plane whistles as it plunges toward the earth.
--Something sized him by the collar of his shirt, the grasp easily smaller than his fists. He stumbled over his feet as the person dragged him into the alley.
"RON--MOVE!" the voice of his friend barked--and he found his butt back on the pavement.
"Kim!" he cried in protest. "Watch the tailbone, will you?"
"Oh--WATCH IT!" the girl threw herself on top of him, possibly the last thing he'd expect her to do--
--*BOOM!! *
The ground shook--*trembled* beneath them as something hard smashed into the street. Metal cried out, making those stomach-turning moaning sounds as the something buckled and bent in everyway imaginable. He wasn't sure what those quick *TINK* sounds were at first, but it was crystal clear as he saw a flat, ragged shard fly over them, no more than a mere centimeter away--
Everything was silent, quieter than a mausoleum but the still silence couldn't stop a tremendous heat from crashing into his body. He felt like he was on fire, as if the very gates of Hell had opened wide just for his torment.
"KIM!" he called.
"HOLD ON!!" she cried back.
***
In a splendid blast, the Czech helicopter was nothing more than a smoldering heap of garbage, littering a grand old street of Prague. The wench and her troublesome buffoon had to be somewhere beneath the rubble, and if they somehow managed to crawl into the alley before hand, the explosion had to have finished them off for good.
"Oh. daddy would be so proud of me!" he laughed at himself as sat back down. An annoying humming filled what was left of his ears, and a wonderful amount of warmth caressed his naked body as the canopy synched shut. "Wouldn't he be, Shia?"
"Oh--*ahem*--I bet he would, Mr. U." the pilot coughed.
"Sick again?" he rolled his eyes.
"Ulcer's flaring up again." Shia replied, and he heard a small rattling behind him for a moment. "Ah. nothing major."
"I'm telling you," he shook his head, "you should get that bullet removed."
"Should-a, would-a, could-a," the hitman dismissed. "I didn't-a!"
"As you wish, Mr. Button-man!" he replied. "Just get us back home without crashing okay?"
"Yes sir."
"How are we on fuel?"
"We're okay," the pilot replied, "but we have to stop off at Ruzyne- International for some fuel if we're going to make it all the way to Rome."
"Have the arrangements been made?"
"Yes sir. Alpha team has the place secured and have a fuel tank on standby, awaiting our visit."
"So what are we waiting for?" his eyes rolled again. "Let's go already."
"Yes, Mr. U."
***
Ron moaned, shaking sense back into his brain as the Prague city skyline focused in his eyes. He wasn't sure what had happened, something crashed nearby, something blew up nearby, and Kim's body atop his own simply was the crowing touch of it all. His chin touched the top of his chest, and his eyes grew as they ran over her limp body.
She wasn't moving.
"Kim!" he called to her quietly. "Kim!?"
The body let out a pitiful groan, and he thanked the almighty YHWH as her body moved on its own. The pungent stench of burnt hair smoked into his nose, and he could have laughed as the girl in soiled pink tossed her crisp mane behind her back. Her eyes batted before they opened completely. He could have stared into her emerald gaze endlessly, for he could have lost the very one behind that gaze.
"Uh.!" they closed, and she looked away as she put a hand to her head. "Man!"
"I know," he shook his head quickly, feeling his dirty, messy hair whip around his scalp, "we both should be deaf by now."
"It's not that, Ron." That puffy, auburn mane trembled before him, and it slowly disappeared over the horizon that was the very tip of her crown--
His eyes grew wide, and he gasped as he saw that small piece of mangled flesh hang pathetically from her cheek. A few streamers of blood dribbled from the avulsion, pooling into a big smear on her jawbone.
"What's wrong?" she blinked.
"You're face." He pointed weakly. "It's bleeding."
"Really--?" she touched her hand to her cheekbone, carefully trailing down her cheek till they stopped abruptly. where the creek of her crimson trailed down her fingers. She brought the hand to her face, and her pupils shrank as she gazed at it.
"Come on, KP." His body became a crab's, walking on both his hands and his feet as he slid out from under her. He let out a small groan as he pushed himself to his feet again. "Uh! You need to see a doctor."
"Eh." that puffy mane swayed from right to left, shifting on her back as the girl stood up. "Tell me something I don't already know."
"Well." he looked to the blue sky. "Given how dirty the sidewalk is, you could get infected if--"
"Ugh.!" she closed her eyes. "I know, Ron. Let's just get out of here."
Her soiled face was hidden underneath the thick auburn hair as she turned away. She hunched her back as she walked; her left arm still bent, her hand still pressed against her new, bleeding orifice. Something bothered him as he began to follow her, his steps moving a little slower than the girl's. Kim was silent--dead silent.
"What's wrong, KP?" he asked seriously. "Are you crying over there?"
"It's nothing." That mane swayed dismissively again. "My. face just hurts. That's all."
"I bet its more than that, Kim." He noted. "You're hardly ever this quiet."
The reddish mane whipped around her round head, her bloodshot eyes brimmed with tears, her bleeding features twisted in irritation.
"I said it's nothing, Ron!" he jumped at her snap. "Just. leave it at that! Okay!?"
He was treated with nothing more than her backside, walking down the last stretch of the dank alley. He blinked as she was enveloped by the sunlight as she slumped out, indifferent that he was still there.
*Something's definitely up. * he nodded, and he couldn't help but peek over his shoulder at the wreckage, the whole thing smoldering as the fires cracked like a campfire.
"RON!" the girl called--no--yelled down the alleyway. "You coming or what!?"
".Coming Kim." He said quietly.
"What?" she called back.
"I said I'm coming KP!" his chest tingled with anger. "Damn!"
The rest of the day was quiet from that moment forward.