Red Blossoms Redux
Yeah, it's going to take me forever to get out another 12,000 words; my muse just doesn't flow like that. I'm going to drop the word count down to a more managable level.
Ron watched as the ground came closer, the waves beating against the rocks on the shore. His eyes were glazed, and he barely felt the touchdown gently rock the plane under Shego's capable control. With a groan, he rolled his attention back towards the cabin, too nauseated by the rhythmic waves outside. The alcohol in his system was playing tricks on his body that he'd previously only imagined, and he was most definitely feeling crummy in the tummy.
Needless to say, when Shego returned to the cabin and yanked him to his feet, it was the last straw for his stomach.
"Oh shit, damn it!" Shego cried. "I just bought these shoes, you little…"
"Sorry," Ron mumbled, then horked up the rest of his stomach's contents.
Well, that was pleasant, thought Ron. I don't think I'll be drinking again anytime soon. Shego, grumbling and muttering to herself, shoved Ron off the plan and led him, or more accurately shoved him, towards the edge of the landing field and the beginning of some sparse jungle.
"Hey, there aren't any monkeys on this island, are there?" Ron said as he eyed the trees nervously.
"Shut up and walk, Count Puke-ula," Shego said, and gave him an extra shove.
Ron sighed. "Well, where am I walking to?" he said, with a raised eyebrow.
"Just move," she said, and jabbed him again.
He spun around. "Hey, you know what, I'm not going anywhere. I think I want to know where you're taking-" Shego pinched his lips.
"Walk forward or I'll hurt you," she said coldly.
He slapped her hand away, and she dropped into a fighting stance. "Try it dork," she said glaring, "just try it."
Without warning, Ron swept her feet out and jumped on top of her grabbing her hands and jamming his knee into her neck. She swung her legs up and around his, and yanked him off; he tumbled across the hard packed sand, leaving a cloud of dust in his wake. Shego charged again, but Ron tucked down and jumped into her dead center, slamming her to the ground again. He started swinging at her, trying to punch her face into the ground.
Shego tried to block as much as she could, but his wild attack kept her stunned long enough for him to get a few choice hits in, and she was suddenly knocked half senseless by one particularly accurate punch to her jaw. As her eyes went cloudy, Ron grabbed her by her neck and started to squeeze while screaming at her.
"I'm better than you bitch, you hear me? How do you like that? I'M BETTER THAN YOU!" Ron shouted, shaking her head back and forth, not caring anymore, not wanting his blood to stop pounding in his head, not needing Kim, that bitch, she hated him anyway, she never needed him, and she was always saving him, always making him feel little…
He stopped. Shego hung limply from his grasp, her eyes half open. He dropped her to the ground, clutching his head and doubling over. Ron clenched his eyes. Drops began to fall on Shego's shirt, making small, growing stains on the green and black fabric. Opening his eyes and letting the tears flow, he gently touched her face. He rubbed her cheek. A ruddy complexion formed under his touch, and her eyes fluttered, then blinked twice, thrice.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm sorry."
Shego coughed and weakly pushed him off. Ron rolled off and knelt next to her in the sand wiping his tears away. She pulled herself away from him and coughed, spitting flecks of blood on the sand.
"Jesus, you're a random," she choked out.
"Get bent," he said.
"Well, get up," Shego said crawling to her feet. She wobbled a little then pulled herself together with a shake of her head, and stood for a moment looking at the sullen teenager. "Are you going to sit there forever?"
"What, no threat?" Ron said glancing up at her.
"Grow up boy. If the only way I can get you to move is by telling you I'm going to hurt you," she said, then suddenly cracking him on the back of the neck, knocking him to the beach, "you'll eventually stop believing me." Ron moaned for a moment, then lay still. Shego grabbed him by his collar, and still staggering from his assault, slowly dragged him towards the light vegetation that filled the center of the island hid Drakken's island "fortress", a tar paper bungalow that had seen better days. Probably in the Truman years.
At 12,000 feet Wade began to think that he'd made a mistake. Five seconds later and a thousand feet lower he was certain. "Oh man, oh man, oh man," he said as he fell. The wind whipped his baggy clothing wildly, and the sun shone in his eyes. Enormous clouds slowly passed him like languid giants floating in the air. He squinted against the sun. Checking his altimeter, he saw it was time.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered, and yanked his chute. The jerk pulled him in places he hadn't wanted to be pulled, and he winced. "Nothing says 'good morning' like a nylon strap in the crotch," he squeaked. Flight controls in hand, he guided his descent towards a glistening sliver of water winding along broad, shallow valley. Wade glanced at his altimeter, and guesstimated his landing time; about ten minutes, give or take. He sighed.
After finishing high school at age twelve and college at age fourteen (well behind his own pace, but still wow-worthy), Margaret had been accepted to an advanced position within the EPA; she had been enthusiastic about it, but within a few weeks her e-mails were terse and broken up. It was almost as if they'd been heavily edited without Meg's consent. A week ago they'd stopped completely, and the Load's had been unable to get a straight answer from anyone regarding their daughter.
He could have sent the Wadebot 2.0, but it still needed some upgrades he hadn't gotten around to putting in yet, namely the parachute. That, and it felt like something he needed to do personally. As he drifted, he pulled out his own kimmunicator and thought about calling Kim. He shook his head and put it away, deciding that the answering message he'd left would do the trick. It wasn't her problem, and she was too busy anyways. That thing in Brazil with Shego had rattled her, and-
Brazil.
What if…? Naw, it couldn't be. Could it? Wade checked his kimmunicator. Just as he'd abruptly feared, the crash site Kim had found was only a few kilometers from where he had interpolated his sister's location to be by backtracking her e-mail through a series of classified military routers. No doubt about it, she was in danger.
He yanked his chute and increased his rate of descent until the passing air rustled his hair violently.
"Are you sure this is the way out?"
"Yes, stop asking," Margaret hissed. "And be quiet."
"Don't shush me," Mego said. "Just because I'm half your height right now doesn't mean you can order me around."
"Well, stop being so afraid and grow back to normal size."
"I'm not afraid," he said indignantly, and as he returned to his normal mass, "I'm just trying to be stealthy."
She rolled her eyes, and kept creeping along the wall. With her attention away, he slowly shrunk back down until he stopped shaking. In the pale light he could still see signs of struggles that had been in vain, blood fans across every surface of the hallway in all directions. Bullet holes pockmarked the opposite wall, but no blood stained it save for a few small drops of a green liquid that couldn't possibly be blood…at least not human.
Below him, Wade saw an even gap in the canopy seemingly hidden from all but a top down view. He tugged hard to pull up and aim himself towards it. Bird calls finally reached his ears, lilting on the wind, blown aloft with the smell of fresh cut lumber and burning…something. The sounds as well, they seemed to be the calls of carrion birds. It worried him more. Longing to land, he double-checked his pouches to make sure he had everything he needed.
With a swishing sound he passed the canopy, the tops of the trees rushing past him. A little fast, he thought, and desperately tried to slow his descent in the remaining moments. Too little, too late, and he crashed to earth, slamming into the ground hard and tumbled, knocking his vision fuzzy for a few seconds. As he tried to shake off the woozy feeling, he noticed that he'd landed on fake grass; plastic-y blades in even rows caught his eye as well as its slick texture.
"Oof."
"I got it, you got it?"
"Yeah, I got it. On three?"
"You mean 'one, two, three', then go, or 'one, two' and go on 'three'?"
"On three," Margaret said rolling her eyes.
"Hey, that's classic cinema there," he said raising an eyebrow.
"Whatever. One, two, THREE!"
They both shoved against the closed trap door as hard as they could.
Wade felt the ground heave and he flipped over onto his face. He coughed.
"What in the world…?" he said aloud.
"Oh crap, there's somebody there," a male voice from below said.
"I don't care, I'm not a prisoner," a far more familiar female voice replied.
"Meg? MEG?" Wade shouted. He jumped up and stared at the ground.
"Wade?" The ground heaved again, and two figures emerged. His sister leaped forward and hugged him tightly, and he returned it in kind. "What are you doing here?" she said excited.
"I came looking for you, and Kim was busy, so I couldn't call her for help. So I jumped a C-130 and hitched a ride to Brazil cause that was where I tracked you to last, and then I got a flight over what I'd figured were your coordinates, then- Hey, you're that superhero guy from Go City." Wade finally noticed the thin man standing to the side and looking a little left out of the reunion. "Mego, right?"
"You got it. How do you know me?" he replied surprised. "Oh wait, you were that computer dude that one redheaded chick who got Hego's powers was always talking to right? It's Tom actually, I don't go by that silly superhero moniker any more. Although it is nice to be recognized." Meg rolled her eyes.
"Can we get back on track?" she said. "Like, figuring out where we are so we can get as far away as possible?"
"What about your job?" Wade asked.
"The company's going through some cutback's right now. I don't want to stick around."
"Think nothing of it Miss Possible. We're all too happy to help after you saved that man who'd gone overboard," the captain said waving away Kim's profuse thanks as they walked slowly across the carrier deck. "Can't go without a cook, especially a good one. Besides, the boys are glad to see a pretty face after two months at sea."
"The boys will work fast then?" Kim said crossing her arms, a little miffed at being considered eye candy. She pretended to ignore the looks she was getting from the fuel crew refilling her ride. A belly flashing crop top was not the thing to wear around horny seamen, she decided. Oh well.
"Absolutely," he replied.
"Good."
A glance at his watch gave Dutch pause. Ten minutes had passed, and the crew was barely done with the hookups. He shook his head. "Pathetic," he muttered.
"I know, they don't even have the oxygen tank on the flight deck yet," Barkin said. Dutch gave him a wry, knowing grin.
"What will you do when we get where we're going?" Barkin continued, abruptly stopping and looking at Dutch. The other man sighed.
"I'll jump in with you of course," he said without hesitation.
Barkin frowned. "Who are you trying to impress?" he said, and gesturing in Kim's direction, "She's young enough to be your granddaughter."
"Heh. I'm gonna make you pay for that grandfather crack," he said with a half-hearted smirk. "No, I just want to beat this thing. I lost the first time. I missed it the second time with that mess in New York. I want to win. I want to pay it back for Dillon, for Billy, for everybody. And win or die, I'm too old for what happens to me to matter in the grand scheme of things; whatever I was put on this earth for good or for bad I've already done."
He stared out over the ocean, the swells dipping and raising like sheets in the wind in slow motion. Barkin nodded and glanced back at the chopper. Kim sat on the step ladder while the fuel chief went over their flight logs, absentmindedly playing with her hair while the captain talked at her. Navy, he thought, rolling his eyes. Her expression made him pity her a little. While Dutch continued to watch the water, he walked over to and leaned against the helo.
"So there we were, lined up against the railing, middle of the Bering Sea, when this rogue wave just slammed into the ship," the captains said as Steve-o arrived. "Knocked three men overboard, and I was one of 'em. Now that water was colder than witch's..." Kim glanced at Barkin briefly, a "help-me" look on her face.
"Say Captain, I was wondering if your radar section had picked up anything out of the ordinary," Barkin said, interrupting his monologue.
"Huh, oh yes, Kim mentioned that you and your people," he said, oblivious to the sudden scowl from Kim, "were searching for a… Pippen 2350 was it?"
Kim nodded. "Right, it wouldn't be broadcasting its position though."
"No, can't say as that we saw anything like that," he replied.
Kim smacked her hand with a fist. Nothing but a dead end everywhere she looked. Where was Shego?
"She couldn't have made it to Drakken's hide out. Where could she have gotten to in the time she had with the fuel and plane she was flying?" She quickly stood and turned to Barkin. "Steve-o, I need a map and a pencil, along with everything you have on uninhabited Caribbean islands within the range of that Pippen."
"Good thinking," he said, giving her a thumb's up as he rushed into the cabin.
Within minutes, they had three islands picked out, and as Dutch prepped the craft for launch Kim stood by the railing.
"I'm coming for you Shego," she said softly.
Below the grass and earth of the Brazilian jungle, two figures approached one another in a hall of bare cinder blocks. They spoke wordlessly; gestures flew from their fingers at a rapid pace.
Are you injured?
No, I am fine.
You are wounded. I can see the scar.
It was not deep. We must return to your ship; is it ready for take off?
Yes, but there is one other. We cannot leave a hunter behind.
Forget your mate. She is not important. This clannish breed of savages has encountered us twice before in recent memory, and learned nothing both times.
They once worshiped us; now they will soon be our equals. We should leave them as little as possible.
A sudden noise, a glance backwards, and the two figures played their fingers across their wrists. With a soft buzz, their forms dissipated as they moved to either side of the hallway.
Ugh, what a loser, Shego thought watching Ron watching her and trying unsuccessfully not to be noticed. She was the finest looking woman he'd ever see of course, save for a certain perky titted redhead, so she couldn't really blame him. God how pathetic was that? He had a hot girl around him all the time and was totally trapped in the friend zone. Yeesh. Almost certainly still a virgin; oh yeah, total loser.
"The hell are you looking at?" she said, catching him off guard as she lounged in the wicker chair Drakken had jacked from a Pier One for her in a half-assed attempt at a valentine's day gift.
"You," he said faster than she'd expected.
"Why?" she tightened her face, crow's feet appearing under her eyes. She needed sleep. Watching him watching her kept her awake.
"What else is there?" he said.
"The walls, the floor. Hell, anything, just stop staring at me," she said waving her hands. "Yeah, my tits are nice, but commit them to memory or something."
"Jeez you have a huge ego," he muttered. 'Just like your brother Mego' was the rest of the sentence; unspoken, but hanging in the air. Favoring him with a scowl, Shego raised herself from the chair she'd been sanguinely lounging in, which probably was why Ron Stoppable had been unable to take his eyes off her taunt but fidgety body. Well, there was that. He wished he could keep her to an enemy, and not be smitten by her. It wasn't easy. Not with a form as seductive as that.
Shego was well aware of her effect on men, let alone boys, and Ron wasn't quite a man. She could change that, and it gave her a twinge of something. Which meant she was deeply in need of sleep. She rubbed the bridge of her nose as she paced back and forth. Sharp pains tagged her stomach suddenly and she felt an urge to gorge herself on a burrito, her favorite comfort food. A quesidia would do, and she walked into the kitchenette of the shack. A tortilla shell, cheese, tuna (her own peculiar taste) and a microwave were all she needed.
Whistling, she tossed together her ingredients, flipped them into a shell, and tapped her fingers as the greasy concoction zapped. With a ding of the oven, she pulled out her meal and prepared to take a big bite out of the quesidia but for a glance at her captive. His mouth was half open, eyes wide, and a small bit of drool hung off his lip.
"Oh yeah, you're probably hungry," Shego said.
"Er, yeah," Ron said astounded how true that comment felt the moment she said it.
"Ugh, I hate kidnapping. 'Feed me, these ropes are too tight, stop putting needles under my fingernails, blah, blah, blah," she said rolling her eyes. She grabbed a knife and made to slice off a sliver of the folded tortilla. Abruptly she checked herself and sliced it in half, and took it over to him. A moments hesitation as to how to feed him, then mimed opening her mouth.
"Say Ah," she said with a smirk. Ron quickly responded, though with a irritated expression. She fed him, and he ate with gusto. For a brief moment he smiled at her as he chewed, and in a moment of weakness she smiled back, an honest smile void of malice. Inappropriate; she quickly turned her head away.
"Tuna?" he said with a full mouth, a surprised expression on his face.
"Yeah, tuna. I like it; it's tangy and it keeps my girlish figure," Shego said with a gesture at it.
"I'll say," Ron blurted, and immediately became interested in something else. She smirked at his outburst as she ate her half walking back to her seat. Swaying her hips a bit more than normal, and consciously at that? Maybe. She sat back down in the wicker chair. It really was comfortable; I should have thanked Drakken for it, she thought trying to take her mind off the smile. She really needed sleep.
Shego rested her eyes, and though awake for a little while after, her breathing soon conveyed the opposite.
Which worked in Kim's favor as she gingerly held her knock-out lip gloss underneath her nose to keep her that way.
"Are you alright?" Kim asked. Ron nodded but kept looking away, trying not to appear happy to see her.
"I was gonna escape in a day or two anyway, but thanks for saving me the trouble," he said.
"Riiight. . ." Kim drawled.
"Well I was," Ron sputtered as he struggled to get his cuffs off. Kim rolled her eyes.
"Let me help you with those 'loose bonds' Mr. Escape Artist," she said, grinning as Ron pretended not to notice. She deftly clicked the hand cuffs open and dangled them from her finger smirking at him. Ron snatched them away and made to place them on Shego. As he did, she mumbled and shifted in her sleep. Kim held her breath, worried that she might awaken. Ron hurriedly glanced at her face to check the same.
Ron's gaze softened. She had pursed her lips, and their dark green color appeared lush against the shade of her skin, contrasted sharply by her night black hair flowing along her cheek and across her chest, as well as gently pooling around her head. She wasn't nearly as evil or miserable when she was asleep. Kim's sharp cough roused him and he quickly slapped her cuffs on, though his palm rested on the back of her hand for a second.
"Done?" Kim said, favoring him with extended eyebrow.
"Yes... Yes, I'm done," he said with a sheepish grin. "Done, done-ity done. Definitely done."
"Yeah, definitely. . . definitely done," Kim said in a guttural tone, her lower lip hanging from her face mocking him. "Move it Rain Man."
Aw man.
I usually don't sleep through getting captured, Shego thought, and here it's happened twice in a week. Dim Possible and her sidekick were standing in the middle of the room, as well as late middle age-ish man she didn't recognize and one guy who looked like. . . one of Possible's teachers?
"So we give her position to the Coast Guard and they come and pick her up right?" the buffoon said, taking a peek in her direction. As luck would have it, he didn't notice that she'd awoken.
"Not that simple Stoppable," the older man said. "The Coast Guard doesn't come outside of the three mile limit. This'll be an extradition thing at best, and a refusal to arrest at worst. That's if this Drakken fellow hasn't just paid cash for this island; the U S government doesn't like to grab people in sovereign nations out of their beds."
"You're kidding right?" her foe replied with an incredulous expression.
Yeah, like I'll let you do that, Shego thought as she surreptitiously fiddled with her manacles. Dumb-ass cheerleader; did she actually think I wouldn't be able to get out of my own handcuffs? With practiced care she silently slipped one hand out, then opened one eye halfway to see if she'd been noticed.
Shit.
Damn Stoppable and his hormones. Looking right at her. Had he noticed? Through her eyelashes, she watched him as he stood by looking rather bored. He had been staring absentmindedly at the very moment she'd undone her right wrist. Fortunately, his gaze had been a good deal south of her hands laying crossed against her chest. Perv.
She waited until he turned back towards the group, then visually scanned for an escape route, preferably one through Kimmy.
"Let's just tie her up and toss her in the back of the chopper," Kim said, and she turned towards Shego.
"Not gonna happen Possible," Shego said, lunging to her feet.
Kim flattened and swung a roundhouse at her head, but Shego ducked. At least she tried to. Usually Shego would have ducked, Kim's punch would have gone wild, and they would have commenced grappling on the floor. This time Kim's fist struck Shego squarely on the side of her face, snapping her head around and knocking her down. Kim stared at her fist a little surprised.
"Dang, Kim," Ron said a little shocked himself. "You been working out?"
"The sun sucks," Mego said, shading his eyes as he glanced upward at the cloudless sky. They had followed the slope of the land towards the Amazonian tributary that was closest to the complex, but their path had brought them to an expansive a clear-cut. Local loggers had stripped the land bare, leaving a huge swath of land almost completely exposed to the ravaging of the sun. As the small group slowly made it's way across the breach in the forest, Wade made a mental note to donate a large amount of money to some save the rain forest groups.
"Are we there yet?" his sister said.
Mego rolled his eyes. "No, and we won't be near any sort of there for a while," he said. "I've missed my pickup by who knows how many days, and the only alternative way in and out that isn't on one of your employer's helicopters is what we're doing right now."
"I don't know why Kim hasn't responded yet," Wade said.
"Communication interdiction field," Meg replied. "It scrambles things for about a fifteen mile radius around the complex."
"Figures," Wade said slipping the kimmunicator back in his pack.
For a while they walked in silence. A few birds had managed to eke out a living in the remaining and swiftly growing scrub brush, and chirped as they fluttered overhead; as they lived and died, the forest would slowly heal, slowly return to its former glory. For now, the missing canopy offered no shelter from the sun, and the oppressive heat kept the small band from saying much of anything. Several hours past without a word.
Finally Mego could stand it no more.
"Seriously, what the hell," he said, stopping and waving his arms in disgust at the still distant tree-lined river bank. "I swear we've gotten farther away." He shielded his eyes and tried to catch a glimpse of the water.
"Chill out Mego, we'll get there eventually," Wade said. Jeez, it's like corralling cats, he thought. Wonder if we're outside the interdiction limit yet, he thought, pulling out the kimmunicator. "Kim? You there?"
Beep-beep-bee-boop
"Wade!" Kim shrieked grabbing the kimmunicator while ignoring the fact that Ron's hands were still gripped to it.
"OW!"
"Oops, sorry Ron," Kim said. "Wade, are you there?"
"Yeah, but. . . little trouble. . . -ting," Wade's voice replied as it faded in and out. ". . . in the valley. . .lab. We'll. . . longitude sixty three, latitude zero five point. . ."
"Steve-o, give me triangulation, now!" Kim said, pointing at Mr. Barkin without taking her eyes away from the kimmunicator.
"...jammer and..." Wade's voice faded, and all that could be heard was the soft hiss of static.
"We have a lock," Dutch said from the crew compartment. "Deep jungle- no, check that, a now deforested plain about a hundred kilometers north of the Amazon."
"It all leads back to Brazil, doesn't it Princess?" Shego said from her seat, stroking the window she rested her head on, lightly tracing various shapes in the condensation.
"What do you know about the situation that you aren't telling us?" Mr. Barkin said, narrowing his eyes at her.
"She's me," she turned her head slightly and looked directly at Kim, smiling at her with glazed eyes. "A lithe green succubus of death."
"Succubus. . ." Kim said, and wrinkled her nose at the notion of Shego's sexuality. Suddenly she turned a little red as she thought of how many hours she'd held Ron captive, and gave him a sharp glance. He hadn't noticed, having become enthralled with Shego as she stretched herself in fluid motions in the tight confines of the seat and restraints.
"A demoness in the forest who danced the air," she continued knowing full well and enjoying the affect she was having on young Stoppable. She also rather liked the mild, hallucinogenic feelings floating in her. Three hours of sleep in almost forty-eight, and she was swimming in her body. For another reason as well. From the moment she'd awoken in the hospital, her entire body was racked with mind-numbing pain. Automatic and subconscious mental disassociation exercises she'd taught herself long ago helped, but the pain combined with the lack of sleep was destroying her. She scratched her fake arm absentmindedly, the phantom limb itching something fierce.
"Doesn't help much," Mr. Barkin said. "Names, faces, things, how did you lose the arm, anything?" Too far gone, Shego had slipped into slumber again.
"Hey, don't you think you can sleep now," Kim said angrily. She stood to rouse Shego, but Ron held her back She whipped her head towards him with an almost vicious expression on her face.
"Kim, she's dying," Ron said. She soften and cocked her head, slightly confused. "Think Kim, she barely got the arm attached before she escaped. She hasn't had hardly any sleep, she lost hellacious amounts of blood, and her new arm is heavier than her old one. She had trouble containing her powers when I tweaked her earlier; trust me Kim, unless you want to kill her quicker, just let her be."
"We don't need her to tell us about it," Dutch said, stepping in from the cockpit. "It's a monster, a perfect hunter, and nothing more than primal blood lust personified. Ugly as sin, some godless thing you never forget." He wrung his hands, trying to force the sudden shake that had taken hold away, and glanced back up at Kim's questioning face.
"It's pure malice," he continued, his face actually showing a trace of fear as he spoke.
"Which doesn't help us much," Ron mumbled.
"Refractive camouflage," Dutch said. "Heat vision, although that's actually a mask it uses, like NVGs, only for heat."
"IR glasses," Kim said, whipping out her pair. Dutch blinked in surprise, and then a grin slowly spread across his face.
"Tech's come a long ways since the early eighties Dutch," Mr. Barkin said.
"If invisibility's the best it can do, then I'm all set," Kim said flipping the glasses back in her pocket. Dutch's frown returned.
"Don't go toe to toe with it," he said. "I did, and I was outclassed." Kim opened her mouth to speak, but he cut her off, "Way outclassed. The SOB I went against was a few inches taller than me, and outweighed me by a good hundred pounds. Extra dense muscles, denser than ours."
"Like a chimp," Ron piped up.
"Yeah, except this was no chimp, no primate either. Some sort of cross between a bug and a gorilla," he said and shook his head, ignoring the strange looks the two teens and their teacher gave him. "At any rate, just stay away and shoot first, ask questions later."
Kim furrowed her brow. That wasn't the way she worked.
Shortly thereafter, the blue of the ocean gave way to verdant fields and lush forest. Herds of cattle trundled across open plains in silent motion. Flat land gave way to rolling hills, which in turn became steep and crooked valleys tracing across the landscape, following swift rivers on their way to the Amazon. It was beautiful, light green fields and hills flowing to black speckled forest. Ron wished he could just watch the land pass beneath them.
Kim wandered up to the cockpit. "Anything?" she asked.
"Not since five minutes ago," Dutch replied.
"Have a little patience Possible," Mr. Barkin said. "We're still ten minutes out."
As Kim fretted, the VTOL hugged the ground, it's belly no more than a meter or two from the canopy. Without warning, they were suddenly in open country; a clear cut strip of forest abruptly placed the ground almost a hundred meters below their craft. Kim rushed to the window. She frowned as she recognized the area by the contour of the horizon.
"Somebody cut it all down," she said darkly. "The scars are gone." Indeed, the clear cut had occurred directly over the two crash sites, blending both of them into one huge tract of open land. A huge undertaking to be sure; who could have done it? The group Wade's sister worked for? Thousands of acres of rain forest cut down in two days? As she concentrated on the haphazard demolition she noticed deep pits in the earth; craters, Kim suddenly realized. They'd carpet bombed the forest, devastating dozens of square miles to hide to the marks. A few blown down trees still marred the landscape as proof of what had once been. A glimpse. . .
"What a waste. . ." she began to say; a flash of metal interrupted her spoken thought.
"Wait, hold position for a second," she said. Everyone held tight as Dutch brought the craft up short, titling it back and roughly handling it back and to the left. A flickering reflection had caught her eye, and she pressed her face up against the window. As they flew lower and lower, she saw the shine disappear then return in the same instant. A trick of the eye? No. Something had vanished for a moment, then returned. Though at the edge of her vision, she could still make out a strange round shape that lay at the end of. . .
"There!" The troughs in the ground; she knew those, and they hadn't been made by any bomb. And at the end of the long trace, she could barely see a rotund object flicker into being for a moment, then vanish right before her eyes.
"That ain't right," Mr. Barkin said. And then everything was fire.
What are you doing?
I am removing their chal, the larger of the two figures gestured.
We do not have time for your trophy hunting brother. Let us move on. The craft may need repair due to the primitives' actions.
They are worthy. Wait for a moment, and I will be done.
The slender of the two stood by, stroking its twin blades in impatience as the other worked. Males, she thought to herself. Pride and the hunt, nothing more. With a sharp twist, she jerked her head around. A noise had come from the air above them. Her brother had noticed as well, his tra'alk spear drawn out and snapped to the ready in a heartbeat. Without warning, a shock breeze stroked their skin as a large, unseen something blew past them along with a strange low hum. An invisible aircraft? Impossible. These primitives had no means to make such a thing.
Yet there it was. Though the body of the craft was nearly invisible and the engine almost silent, the dual rotors, unable to be laden with whatever means to turn transparent, were still visible.
I will take it down, the male signed. It may have seen the ship.
Do so, and be sure to hit the crew compartment, his sibling replied.
A bolt of plasma lanced out from his shoulder.
"What the-!" Mego exclaimed. An explosion echoed across the plain as a ball of fire flashed into being a few hundred yards away.
Kim, Wade immediately thought as a VTOL craft suddenly appeared flying through the air. It fell to earth, crashing into the ground with a shuddering thud, sending a gout of dirt and debris into the air.
"Come on, we have to help them!" Meg cried as she started towards the downed craft. It smoldered on the ground, but except for the gaping hole in the center section, it seemed relatively intact. Without warning, two figures appeared and strode towards the craft with malicious intent. It was obvious they had fired upon it. Mego took one look, then violently grabbed Meg.
"We have to go. Now," he said calmly, though his face was pale. He simply stared forward, his eyes unmoving from the two people heading towards the downed airplane. "No questions, just do it."
"Kim's on board that plane," Wade said, and took Mego's hand away from his sister's arm. "We have to help her."
"Hey, I all for good works and all that crap, but guess what?" Mego said slapping his hand away and backing up in a general retreat, still watching the two. "Those aren't human, they aren't from around here if you get my drift, so let's just get the hell away, alright? You're thirteen, she's a lab tech, and I'm a coward. None of those translates into Special fucking Forces, so if you don't mind, I'm going to run away now."
Meg scowled at him, then, steeling herself, started running towards the crash site.
Wade took a pitying look at Mego, then headed after her.
He stopped backing up for a moment, and stood watching the two kids heading to certain injury and worse. "What the hell have I become?" he said, throwing up his hands and following them.
As soon as they were hit, Shego knew what had happened. That blast of blue and flash of heat, so like her own, was unmistakable. She crouched in her seat, bracing herself against the one in front of her as she felt the floor beneath her drop, floating her feet above it. Kim was flying back as the craft tilted back, slamming against the seats in turn. Sore back tomorrow Princess; like after getting a train run on you by the football team. As the parts of the seconds slowly ticked by, she saw other things in slow motion like time had frozen itself. Ron rushing after Kim and grasping her hand, and keeping her from slamming into the back of the helo as it fell.
She felt herself rising, though why she couldn't say. Was she ready? Sure she was. As the plane fell, Shego watched the ground tilt and come towards her; she braced herself against the seat in front of her. A brief scream not hers, was that Possible? Oh, that was too rich. Little miss perfect was scared of flying and she'd kept it secret all these years. Oh wait, she said to herself, that was Ron.
The pilot had grabbed the controls; the big man was holding on with a death grip, and he might be able to stabilize them given enough seconds, but he didn't even have that. The craft nose dived into the dirt, the windshield shattering and a cloud of dust and earth was flung back into the cabin. Shego hunkered down as best she could.
Oh shit, was all Kim could think as they plummeted. Then she was slamming against the seats in the cabin, and reality faded in and for a few moments. A hand grasped hers, smooth but strong, at least strong enough to save her. Ron. He was always there for her. It made her smile as she lost consciousness.
"Kim, stay with me!" Ron shouted as they hit the earth. He wrapped himself around her as best he could, shielding her from the debris that suddenly seemed to fill the cabin. A rock hit his back, and he winced hard enough to bring tears to his eyes. There was no time to protect himself, only Kim. All his anger was gone in a second, and he hugged her tight as the VTOL crashed.
Shall we investigate?
No, it will not be necessary. It was an unarmored craft, and weakly made at best. There will be no survivors.
To be continued and possibly concluded.
Well, long or short? Do you want more updates or longer chapters? Let me know in your reviews. I'm thinking between a thousand and two thousand words, and breaking wherever it feels right.