McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas.
As soon as the runway was sighted, Kim grabbed Ron's hand and made sure Rufus was secure in his favourite pocket of her pants, dashing to the closest emergency exit. Closing her fingers around the handle, she paused and glanced at Ron curiously to ask him what was wrong. "Kim, this is a passenger plane. They always land and people get out, remember?" Giggling faintly, Kim tossed her head and gave Ron a sheepish little smile. "Well, since we're up anyway, how about a few stretches? I've been feeling a little uncomfortable since Wade called." Suddenly serious again, Kim began to run through a pretty basic exercise routine. Following her lead, Ron reached into the large hip pocket of her pants to retrieve Rufus, who scampered up his owner's arm. "I get it, KP. You want to be ready in case we've got a huge army of robots waiting for us at the baggage carousel, that's cool..." Arching her back inward, the athletic young cheerleader nodded softly and frowned. "I have to be ready. You have to be ready, and the hand on my butt certainly isn't helping." Withdrawing his hand, Ron came to the realization that he hadn't found Rufus after all. There was only one likely course he could take now, a dry smile spreading across his freckle-strewn features slowly. "Kim, don't get excited..." Rolling her eyes again, Kim straightened up and returned to her seat with Ron. "Stoppable, a hand in my pants isn't quite enough to get me excited." She always felt better when Ron pulled out one of his famous, almost pitch-perfect Han Solo impersonations, Rufus clambering down Ron's sleeve and expecting to be petted. "Sorry, sweetheart. I don't have time for anything else", Ron continued with that same dry smile. Lightly tickling Rufus, Kim listened to his contented little murmurs and leaned over to plant a soft kiss against Ron's cheek. "You do have your moments. Not many of them, but you do have them." Adjusting his seat back to its full and upright position, Ron just found himself relaxing, patting Rufus lightly and offering him an important piece of travel advice. "Okay, hold your nose. Then keep your mouth shut and blow, little buddy. If that doesn't work I brought Jolly Ranchers."
The slow descent of the plane brought them down into the middle of a pleasant early Nevada afternoon, tyres screeching on contact with the runway and not a single Bebe in sight. However, Kim just knew that they were out there somewhere, planning their next move. She didn't know how many of them there were, or whether they still had the increased capacity to mass-produce themselves, so she made herself comfortable against Ron with a long, drawn-out sigh. All too suddenly, the plane jerked to a stop and the passengers began to panic in their seats; whining metal-against-metal drilling sounds outside. The terrified co-pilot had already bolted from the cockpit, her uniform streaked with blood from the deep gashes all over her body. Stumbling and falling to her knees at the sight of Kim and Ron, she reached out to grab onto their seats before a long metallic tentacle snaked out from the cockpit and lashed itself across her ankles. Already slipping her gloves on, Kim lunged for the bizarre tentacle as Ron recoiled in horror. Squeaking and diving between Ron's two favourite shirts, Rufus' tiny claws scraped against the thin fabric of his undershirt as both became consumed with irrational panic. The owner of the long metal tentacles revealed herself, a vision of unearthly beauty in polished chrome. The sleek efficiency of a machine designed entirely by other machines, Bebe strode down the aisle from the cockpit and turned her cold eyes toward the hated enemy... If she could, she would smile wickedly as the human girl's name flashed across her memory.
"Kim Possible. Threat level: minimal..." Arms folded across her chest, Kim raised an eyebrow before making a sardonic comment. "Really now? I bet you're crying on the inside though..." Not wasting her time in a battle of wits, this particular Bebe unit turned her attention toward Ron without even giving so much as a second glance in Kim's direction.
"Stoppable, Ronald Kevin. 1307 Buena Vista Parkway, Middleton, Illinois. You have been chosen by Bebe. Your compliance will be most appreciated." Staring blankly, Ron seemed to be in a state of shock until Kim noticed his lips moving. Leaning over to help him, she whispered, "That means agreeing to go with her."
"But, Kim... I don't want to, I just don't think I'm ready to start dating robots", Ron whined. Standing up from his seat, the most unlikely of saviours made his way over to confront Bebe, tapping her metal chest with the diamond tip of his walking cane. "Madam, perhaps you have heard of me? I am Senor Signor Senior, billionaire and super-villain. If not, no matter. The point is this; you cannot simply threaten your arch-foe by forcing your way on board her plane and brutalizing members of the staff... Such an act is not super-villainy, merely terrorism. I suggest you rethink your strategies..." In the confusion, Kim managed to get Ron to the closest emergency exit and punch the door open, leading the rest of their fellow First Class travellers to safety. As Signor's son grabbed his father by the lapels and fled, Ron grinned and remarked, "Thank you! Kim, should we send them a nice fruit basket or something?"
Racing through the corridors of the terminal, Kim had barely enough time to reply to her friend before two identical Bebes were stalking them at a nightmarishly slow pace. To Kim, it looked as if they were trying not to harm their targets, like they wanted both of them alive for something... "Ron, I've had an idea. We can lose them at the metal detectors, come on!" Struggling to get his shoes and pants off, Ron threw them haphazardly onto a plastic tray and shoved it through the X-ray machine while Rufus sat on his shoulder and hung onto his shirt collar for dear life.
"We're wasting time, they're coming right this way..." Taking charge, the lightly-armed security staff monitoring the metal detectors began to rise from their hard plastic chairs only to find the two Bebes bearing down on the young couple. The older security guard straightened his cap and fumbled for the stun gun at his belt, his jaw dropping as he saw the gleaming chrome figures. His partner launched himself at the lead Bebe, soon finding himself swatted to one side like nothing while Ron and Kim made their escape again. "Ron, it's you they want. Go on without me, take Rufus with you." Her look of sheer resolve melted into that famous "puppy-dog" pout as their fingers began to intertwine again, and Ron couldn't bear to look his oldest friend face-to-face. "You don't have to do this for me. Listen to me, you really don't!" He was close to tears, his knuckles almost worn through to the bone from their firm grasp on Kim's bare shoulders.
"Ron, don't look back. Take the Kim-municator and don't worry about me." Kim held Ron's chin in her left hand, lifting his soulful cocoa-brown eyes to meet her own. Fearing for each other's lives, the heroine and her sidekick embraced lovingly; lips meeting lips for the first time. But these lips belonged to people that had known one another for as long as either could remember, and Kim was the first to break off from the kiss in shock. "Ron, are we really doing this?" Vaguely listening to Kim, Ron opened his eyes slowly and just smiled. "Yeah, why?" The Bebes had finally found them, two more joining the original three and circling around the tender little scene with wicked intent gleaming in their burning red eyes. "I was just making sure. There's one last thing I have to say to you, Ron Stoppable..." As she smiled serenely, Ron began to whisper "I lo-" before a finger pressed to his lips silenced him. Bawling his little eyes out, Rufus climbed back up Ron's shirt to nuzzle his tiny whiskered face against Kim's cheek and get a little kiss of his own from the impossibly brave girl before she whispered back to Ron, "I know that, but I was going to tell you to zip your pants up properly..."
He couldn't really tell whether that was an instant or an entire lifetime ago, but Ron Stoppable listened to Kim's final instruction and followed it diligently. Cradling Rufus against his neck, he kept his eyes straight forward and head down, and then ran for his life through the Domestic Arrivals lounge. Behind him, he could only hear the movements of Kim's fists and feet as they scythed through the air in mortal combat with the deadly robotic drones. What if they were killing her? He had to go back, he told himself. "Rational Ron" took the podium inside of his head and addressed the crowd, most of whom were just variations on "Scared Ron", and he began to remind them of the promise that he and Kim shared. Everyone seemed to like it, nodding their heads and looking worried until "Hungry Ron" took the podium for himself and shouted, "There's a Cinna-Bon stand! Over to the right there, you can make it!" Outside of Ron's head, he and Rufus followed their noses while Kim was fighting off the Bebes with some help from most of the airport's security staff. As one, the five robots intoned, "Kim Possible. You must give Ron Stoppable to Bebe. Ron Stoppable will complete us. Ron Stoppable will make Bebe perfect..." Balling up her fists, Kim lashed out at this threat to her friend's health and well-being with a very uncharacteristic cry of pent-up rage. It had seen their emotional outpouring just moments before, and now the thing wanted to make her jealous. The thing wanted to sink its foul metal claws into her Ron, to steal him away from Kim. She would not let it touch him, and the sudden rush of adrenaline to her system carried the simple message to every nerve ending in her slim young body. Taking the Bebe completely by surprise as its attention seemed to be elsewhere, Kim launched herself up off the floor in a double-footed back-flip kick that caught the robot square on the chin. Knocked back by the impact, Bebe-01 found itself smashing into a row of slot machines that erupted in showers of coins and tokens.
"Well?" Kim stood with her hands on her hips, finding herself waiting for a witty retort from the Bebe as the other four closed in on her. "At least Shego can be funny", she remarked with a typical skyward roll of her eyes. The roar of a powerful engine cut through the eerie moment of silence like a power saw, Ron's voice straining to be heard over the sound. "KP, get on!" Riding on the back of a white four-wheeled ATV with their luggage lashed to the rack at the rear, Ron gunned the engine and glared at the five Bebes through narrow, heavy-lidded eyes. Sprinting for the ATV and clambering onto the seat, Kim's heart skipped a beat as she took in the sight of Ron Stoppable being firmly in control of a situation. She couldn't be prouder for him as he executed a near-perfect K turn and sped down the long corridor and out onto Tropicana Avenue. "Wow, I really am impressed! Ron, you're..." She paused to playfully dig him in the ribs and asked, "So how much of this was Wade's idea, anyway?" Shouting back at Kim, Ron pulled the ATV onto the world-renowned Las Vegas Strip and headed in the direction of the huge pyramid of black glass. "Wade's got some kind of jamming signal that they shouldn't be able to block! Rufus, what's on our tail?" Simply shaking his little head, Rufus blurted out "Nada!" and Kim confirmed it. Pulling into a parking space, Ron handed back the Kim-municator and cut the ATV's ignition. "My hero," Kim giggled, nuzzling her nose into the back of Ron's neck.
Thanks to everybody for the reviews! I'd like to dedicate this particular chapter to Christy Carlson-Romano and Will Friedle for all their work, bothtogether in Kim Possible and separately. Let's hope they get the chance to team up again somewhere down the line.
