The Kimmatrix: Matrix Resurrections
A Fan Fiction Fusion By
Classic Cowboy and Turles
Chapter 7: It's Just A Kiss
"A kiss may ruin a human life"
- Oscar Wilde
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The morning came quickly to the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar II. It felt as if it were only a few minutes ago that they were having the time of their lives in the temple at Neo Zion to where they were, inside the Neb II, roaring through the pips and tunnels like moles burrowing to the surface. Of course Ron and Kim had the question in mind of why leave Neo Zion, but then again Morpheus wasn't one to really answer questions with a straight-forward answer. It was basically a matter of faith that things would make sense in hindsight.
Onboard the Neb II, while Kim, Niobe, Ghost, and Morpheus were asleep, saving their strength for the Matrix, Ron went up to the cockpit where Link was. He came in very quietly, almost like a child sneaking around a house, hoping not to wake their parents.
"You're up early." Link said with a smile from the pilot's seat without even looking back at Ron as if he had eyes in the back of his head.
"I haven't been sleeping too well lately." Ron confessed as he came up and sat in the co-pilot's chair.
"Maybe you need a sleeping partner." Link said rather casually with a slight hint of humor capped off by a wink.
"Kim and I are just friends." Ron shot back very quickly as he tried to hide the fact that he was blushing red through his pale freckled skin.
"I don't recall mentioning any names." Link smiled back at the teenager, who then began to blush even more, "Busted." Link laughed.
As Link piloted the Neb II through all the pipes, their surface level on the dashboard (if it could be called that with how messy and unorganized its construction was) was coming closer to "broadcast depth". With the hum of the ship going on and on, there was a very uncomfortable silence in the cockpit, the proverbial elephant in the room that both men knew was there, but couldn't get it out into discussion, until Ron decided to break the silence.
"Link?" Ron began.
"Yeah?" Link answered back.
"What was he like?" Ron asked, "Neo I mean. I tried to talk to Morpheus about it but…"
Link was quick to finish Ron's train of thought, "Morpheus tends to use big words that only he can understand." He said with a nod, understanding Ron's feelings about the situation, "So what do you want to know about him?"
"What can you tell me about him?" Ron asked, turning the co-pilot's chair to face him expecting something from his lips.
"Neo…" Link began, reminiscing about the events of sixteen years ago, "Well…I guess you could say that he was one of those…buddy-buddy type guys. It was extremely hard not to like the guy, but when Neo was in the Matrix…shiiiii-it!"
"Huh?" Ron asked in confusion.
"It was so damned creepy, Ron." Link said with a smile, but with disbelief behind it as if he was still trying to recover from what he saw so long ago, "He was an unstoppable force in there, especially if you messed with Trinity. He could stop bullets, use telekinesis, control animals' minds, fly like Superman, but what got me the most…he only did once. It's something that I will never…ever forget 'til the day I die."
Ron felt himself nod with interest at Link's story about the man that people thought he was to be. He wanted to know, just wanted to know, like many young men before him, whose simple desire was to know about the past. People always asked questions like that, questions about their parents, wondering if they were (at all) like them when they were younger, what life was like back in their day, and most of all, about themselves.
"It was towards the end…" Link explained, "…of the war, I mean. It seemed like it would be our last mission. All we had to do was get to a special door in a special building. We needed to take the power out of twenty-seven city blocks to get there. Unfortunately, we ran into a lot of trouble trying to time it just right. Neo asked Trinity to stay out of the Matrix on that mission, and she went in anyway to save him as well as Morpheus…but…she ran into a problem. An Agent. She fought her hardest, but… a normal person can't beat an Agent. I mean after training with Neo, Trinity and Morpheus both could go toe to toe with one, but beat one? No way. Even with the odds against her, she still tried, until she had to make a desperate escape."
"What'd she do?" Ron asked, hoping to press the story.
"She leapt out the forty-seventh story window of a building, guns blazing at the Agent that was coming after her." Link said, his voice starting to sound teary. He took a quick sniff and continued on, "That was when the cat got her. The Agent fired one bullet and hit her. At the same time, Neo was flying…and I mean literally flying across the Matrix itself to save her. He was pulling cars, trucks, and all kinds of shit behind him in the slipstream of his wake. Just a few meters before she hit the ground, he came up and caught her."
"…whoa…" Ron uttered.
"Yeah." Link smiled, "But that wasn't the end of it. The bullet that the Agent fired was still inside her. Somehow…I can't explain it…it was like Neo dove right into Trinity's code and pulled the bullet out. That's when the whole thing went south. The shot was a mortal wound, and she died in Neo's arms a few minutes later."
"Died?" Ron asked, his face beginning to pale, "But…but everyone said they went together to stop the war."
"Did say anything about the fat lady singing?" Link chuckled, "Trinity did die. She was dead. Her heart was stopped, brain dead, damaged beyond repair from the artificial negative stimulation, and her signal from the Matrix was gone. That was when Neo did something weird. The code around them, just them went… freaky, and for a moment, Neo merged with Trinity at a level beyond my understanding, beyond understanding period. It was like he reached into her heart, into her very soul, and brought her back. No negative side effects….at all."
"Wow…" Ron whispered, unsure of what to say to a story like that, especially knowing what Morpheus had said about damage in the Matrix being reflected in the real world, "How did he do that?"
"Never got the chance to really ask him" Link shrugged, "It got crazy after that. The original Neb was destroyed by a squad of Sentinels, and Neo went into this weird coma. When he recovered, he and Trinity left on Niobe's old ship, the Logos, and that was the last time that any of us saw them alive."
The cockpit door opened with a great, metallic creak and a voice came out from behind them.
"Good morning." Morpheus said as he approached the pilot's chair, "Are we at broadcast depth?"
Link looked at the meter on the dashboard.
"Just hit it, sir." Link reported as he prepared to land the Neb II on a nearby edge of the abandoned and decayed sewer pipes. "Ready to go when you are, sir." He said as he stood up and walked out of the cockpit with Morpheus following closely behind.
"Morpheus…sir?" Ron called.
Morpheus stopped at the cockpit door and turned to face Ron.
"There's a connection to the Matrix at Neo Zion." Ron stated to his captain, "Why are we leaving to get to…um…get in?"
"Simple." Morpheus explained, "I didn't want to tell you this in Neo Zion because I didn't want to draw attention. The machines gave us that link, and I, for one, do not trust them." He turned to the door and called out to Link, "Ronald and Kimberly will come with me to the meeting. Niobe and Ghost, remain here in case we get into trouble."
"Roger!" Link called back.
"Are we going to encounter problems from the outside, sir?" Ron asked.
"No," Morpheus answered as he exited the cockpit, "It is better for us to visit the Merovingian in a small group."
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They were back inside the Matrix for the second time. It seemed so strange again to both Kim and Ron, at least for a while, since the differences between the realities seemed so small. Though for Kim and Ron, they remembered what happened during their previous voyage into the Matrix. The fight with Monkey Fist was so horrific; neither one of them wanted to think about it as they got onboard the elevator to the Merovingian's restaurant.
Déjà vu all over again.
"Here we go again, huh KP?" Ron asked jokingly as the three of them rode the elevator to their destination.
"Oh yeah." Kim answered back.
"What can you see, Ronald?" Morpheus asked as he looked up at the numbers on the elevator dial moving closer to their floor.
Ron closed his eyes, getting one last peek of the world of the Matrix in colors, shadings, and textures. He let out a small sigh before he opened them back up to the code of the Matrix that swirled all around him like water, yet the code in that building seemed so different than the rest of the Matrix. It was nothing like any other building that he had seen, a building that seemed self-aware of what the reality of the world was. He could see devices planted in between each floor of the building as his senses reached out to them, and he knew what they were from the knowledge that flooded him on the day of his release from the Matrix.
"The code is different." Ron answered back, "It's like it's encrypted."
"Isn't the Matrix already encrypted?" Kim asked.
"Yeah." Ron answered, "But this is different."
"So, is that good for us or bad for us?"
"It looks like every floor is wired with explosives."
"Bad for us."
Morpheus looked down from the numbers to the floor of the elevator car where the doors met the floor. His mind instantly ticked back sixteen years to an almost identical conversation, which made him give out a sharp and quiet chuckle.
"What's so funny, sir?" Kim asked very inquisitively.
"It's just that…" Morpheus paused in his sentence, "you two remind me so much of some old friends…who are no longer with us."
The elevator gave that slow and soft stop as it beeped to herald their arrival at the Merovingian's restaurant, there was the same black tile floor, and French speaking host, who didn't even look up at the trio. Then again, they didn't stop to speak to him; they simply went ahead into the restaurant, to the long black table where the Merovingian always was. He sat at the center, surrounded by his goons and thugs in their Armani suits, and Persephone at his left hand. The Merovingian looked up and his face lit up with such glee like a boy opening the biggest gift on his birthday.
"Morpheus!" He cried out, "So many years, so many years. How have you been? I am pleased to see you survived that horrid battle…" He turned to Kim and Ron, "And Miss Possible, Mister Stoppable, the new suits look good on you." He then stopped to look at the curves displayed by Kim's choice of dress, "Especially you, Miss Possible, or might I call you Kim?"
"Miss Possible." Kim said through her clenched teeth, having a great disgust for the Frenchman.
Morpheus stepped up to address the program, "We need to know exactly what it was that Doctor Drakken stole from you." He stated emotionlessly.
"Ah," The Merovingian sighed, sounding very disappointed, "Always to the point aren't we, Morpheus?"
"Answer the question." Morpheus pressed the issue even further, his voice still sounding bordering upon interrogative.
"No." The Merovingian responded like a spoiled child refusing to get off the swing set and come in for dinner, "I will tell you nothing. I did not call you to help recover my item, Morpheus. I had asked Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable and I will not tell them this information either for it is unnecessary for them to know what it does, but that it must not rest in Doctor Drakken's hands. If that is all, I must bid you adieu before I have you forcibly ejected."
It was such a dramatic change in conversation that the Merovingian had switched from being very polite and welcoming to giving ultimatums. Ron, having had enough of the Merovingian's attitude, stepped forward, feeling that new part of him come forward, that nobleness and seriousness that was so un-Ron.
"I don't think you realize…" Ron stated, stepping forward to face the Merovingian. He wanted nothing more than to give the pompous Frenchman what was coming to him, but he was cut off.
"I realize exactly who you are, boy!" The Merovingian snapped hatefully at Ron, "I know you are the One and I also know that you have seven months, just like the others. Mark my words boy and mark them well. I have survived your predecessors and I will survive you. You will be gone, and I will still be here…as always!"
"Seven months for what?" Ron asked, cocking his head from side to side in his usual Ron-ness. He then looked over at Kim, whose face began to pale severely in contrast to her sunglasses. Even though Ron couldn't see her eyes, he could feel the fear that she had. That was when the realization dawned upon him.
"Come along, Kimberly…Ronald." Morpheus said to them, "It is obvious that we will find no help here."
He turned and headed back to the elevator with the two stunned and shocked teens following behind. As they left, Ron stopped in his tracks to look back at the Merovingian, as if to hopefully gain some kind of sign what he said wasn't true, that it was simply a ploy to scare him, much like all those tactics that villains have used on him before, yet when he looked at the Merovingian's face and saw no change, his heart sunk to his ankles as he turned and followed Kim to the elevator, wondering about his fate within seven months.
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The silence was thick amongst the trio as they got into the elevator. Even more so with Ron, the proverbial gears were grinding in his head as he lowered his head in contemplation. The idea of having only seven months left to live stuck with him the most. He felt confused, panicked, and lost. All of these emotions were underneath the calm cool surface that he cultivated as he leaned against the corner wall of the elevator car. He didn't look at either of his companions. What could he say to them? Then again, it was noticeable that he was being too quiet, even to Kim who knew Ron like she knew herself; she felt that same amount of silent panic about the Merovingian's prediction.
"Pay him no heed," Morpheus said to the two teens as if he was reading their minds the whole time, "No one knows what the future holds. You may outlive all of us Ronald, so ignore the pompous…"
Morpheus was about to cap off his insultory speech when the elevator suddenly stopped. The trio looked at the indicator and saw that they had gone down only one floor. It did occur to them that perhaps there were some people waiting to get to a different floor. That theory was soon disproved when the elevator doors opened and standing there, waiting patiently was the Merovingian's wife, Persephone.
Déjà vu all over again.
Morpheus shook his head with a slight smile on his face, "Why am I not surprised?"
"Please excuse my husband." Persephone stated, apologizing to the trio, yet her eyes seemed fixed upon Ron. It was the kind of look that Bonnie had when she looked at Ron while they were together, and that made Kim very suspicious of this woman's intentions. "He has been cranky since I have not given into his desires for sixteen years."
"What'd you mean?" Ron asked as he stood up straight and scratched his head in puzzlement. The not-so-innocent answer to such an innocent question was given when Rufus wiggled out of his pocket, climbed up to his shoulder, and whispered small chirps into his ear.
"Oh! Poor guy…"
Rufus nodded as he climbed down Ron's suit back into his pocket.
"I wish to help you." She said to the trio, "Follow me."
Ron felt the same déjà vu again, as if the events in his past life were starting to reoccur all over again. Driven by his curiosity and not wanting to be left behind since Morpheus and Kim were following her, he ran to catch up. They went down the hall and into the men's restroom, at least that's what the sign on the door said, but the restroom itself was so top shelf, even the urinal was a work of art with how the water flowed over a wall down into a small trench built into the floor.
Persephone went to the mirror and began putting on her lipstick, "I will tell you anything and everything you wish to know." She said as she finished up her lipstick, "But only if you do something for me."
Morpheus let out a deep sigh as he knew what Persephone wanted. Kim, on the other hand, grew more and more agitated with each minute she watched this older woman. She was so pretentious in Kim's view, but she seemed to be a greater help than the Merovingian, still, she seemed to be up to something. Kim was like a mongoose and Persephone was a snake in her garden.
"Well…" Ron asked in his young innocence, "What would that be?"
Persephone looked at Ron and smiled lovingly as if he was her long lost lover, "A kiss."
"What'd you just say?" Kim asked quickly, the red flags in her mind screaming that there was something very wrong with this picture.
"And they say we're predictable…" Morpheus sighed under his breath.
Persephone locked onto Ron's concealed eyes, looking at him as if she could see past the dark lenses and straight into the windows of his soul. She stepped closer, her high heels clicking against the tile floor and echoing through the uncomfortable silence of the empty men's room, wrapped her arms around Ron's shoulders as if she were claiming the man for herself, and brought her lips to Ron's ear as she glanced over at Kim for a split second and then came back to Ron.
"Just a simple kiss," She whispered, the air from her lips sending shockwaves through Ron's body, activating certain functions and body parts below the waist, "but I want you to pretend I am her."
Ron wanted to look over at Kim, wondering if it was alright, but even though he knew in the back of his mind that Kim wasn't his girlfriend, his conscience was still bugging him about the situation. He looked at Persephone, who looked right back at him with that same look that seemed to say she could see into the very pit of his soul.
"It isn't as if this would be the first time you have been with a girl in the past week, is it?" She asked, her voice sounding almost like the purring of a very sensual, yet, sinister cat, "And it wouldn't have been the first time you pretended that it was her."
The fear crept throughout Ron's body; it was true, during that time of intimacy with Bonnie, he kept his eyes closed and tried to imagine that it was Kim. Especially when they were kissing, he fantasized that it was her, even more so when he made love to Bonnie. He never faced her; he came in from behind so that he could imagine that it was Kim. The thought made him blush and his eyes darted all around the room, trying not to look at Persephone as he began to sweat within his suit.
"I…" He stammered, "I don't know…"
"I do!" Kim snapped as her blood began to boil within her. She came between Ron and Persephone, shoving her hands between the two of them and pushing them apart from each other. She looked at Persephone and snarled, "Hands off!"
"Such emotion." Persephone purred as she slid around Kim and back to Ron where she began to hug his arm, "I thought you were only friends. A kiss would not damage your friendship, would it? Or is there something more there than just simple friendship? After all, it's just a kiss. How will a kiss hurt your best friend?"
Ron had such a look of confusion on his face, even though he tried his best to hide it, but there were certain things he could not hide, especially from Kim, who felt confused as well. She felt angered at Persephone for making such an unthinkable request of Ron. That was when the dream of the beautiful woman with slicked back, black hair came back to her. She had told Kim that she had to let go of herself, but there were so many things that Kim couldn't let go of.
"I…" Kim uttered, trying to find the words that would stop the situation from happening, "…um…fine, you're right. He's just my best friend, if you want to trade a kiss for information…" Kim's voice started to tremble and waver, desperately trying to keep her cool, even though she felt herself beginning to crack on the inside like a sheet of ice being shattered by a hammer, "…then fine…go ahead…"
She gave her statement as she crossed her arms and then stepped back from them, her eyes narrowed very tightly upon Persephone from behind her oval sunglasses.
"Ok then." Ron gulped as he turned toward the expectant Persephone, who once again wrapped her arms around Ron's neck. Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced over at Kim, smiling that same devilishly happy smile that Bonnie had when she was lording her relationship with Ron over her. She then looked back at Ron.
"You know what to do, Ron." Persephone whispered seductively as she moved her face closer to his.
Ron grabbed the arms of his sunglasses and pulled them off, revealing his big, puppy-dog, brown eyes. He reached up to her face; his hands seemed to be on auto-pilot as they did so. He didn't know why he was doing it, but at the same time he had a feeling for the reason for it. With her arms around his neck, he wrapped his arms around her waist.
"Here goes…" He muttered as he pulled Persephone closer to him, one of his hands on her upper back and the other at the top of her buttocks as his face moved in and his lips pressed against hers. With their lips locked into one another, Persephone's tongue began to move past his lips and into his mouth.
As Kim watched this, her features softened from anger to desperate sadness before she turned to Morpheus.
"I'll be outside." She stated, her voice quietly cracking as she walked out of the men's room.
Morpheus only nodded, knowing all too well of the implications of the situation upon Kim. It was all so similar, and yet still so different. The feelings were there, but no one was willing to talk about them or even bring them out into the open. He could never be sure of it at the time, nor would he for his remaining days, but Morpheus could almost hear a very faint, whimpering cry from Kim as she left the men's room.
Ron and Persephone broke the kiss.
"Yes…" She whispered, sounding exceedingly satisfied, "That's it…so nice…unspoken love…It is such a pity though…that you must soon watch her die."
Ron was in such a daze from the kiss. It was like nothing that he had experienced before; not even Bonnie was that good. It felt as if he had just gotten laid, even though this was just a kiss, and the thoughts about the mission seemed lost in his daze, until what Persephone said broke through, and snapped him out of it.
"What?" Ron asked as he reached up to put his sunglasses back on.
"You have held up your end of the bargain." Persephone stated to Ron and Morpheus, ignoring what Ron was asking her, "Now, I will give you all the information I can give, as promised. Please follow me."
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Persephone opened her purse and pulled out a ring of keys as she came out of the men's room with Morpheus and Ron following behind her. As they headed down the hallway, Ron noticed Kim leaning on the nearby wall to the men's room door. She had her arms crossed and she was looking down at the floor in the same way someone stares out into space when they want to forget about a situation. Seeing her like that, Ron knew that something was wrong. He turned to Morpheus and Persephone.
"Could you two wait up for us?" he called to them both.
"What is it, Ronald?" Morpheus asked.
"Let them be." Persephone advised, "They need only a small amount of time for themselves."
Morpheus looked at her and then back to Ron and Kim, "Alright." He said, "We'll wait."
He then turned and went with Persephone to a adjacent hallway, hoping to give Kim and Ron some manner of privacy.
Ron came up to Kim and looked closely at her face, seeing glistening trails coming down her face from behind her sunglasses. The sight of these simple trails of moisture gave Ron Stoppable such an enormous pain in his heart, even though he knew that it was over such a simple act, but something had to be done about it. He reached out to Kim's shoulders and gripped them softly.
"KP…" Ron paused, bent over as if he was trying to see under her sunglasses, and restarted, "Kim…you alright?"
Kim reached up to try to dry and cover up the tear tracks streaming from her eyes. With the wiping away of the moist trails from her face, Kim gave a sharp and quick sniffle.
"Yeah." She said with a soft smile as she looked up from behind her sunglasses at Ron, "I'm fine. It's no big, Ron. Just got something in my eye…that's all…"
"Kim…" Ron said again, his voice changing once again to one of seriousness, "About what happened in there…" He tried to figure out something that he could say to Kim that would smooth over the situation, something that could make things right once again, so it could go back to the way it was, but he couldn't find anything.
"Ron, so not the drama" She said, trying to keep her old self on the surface while she was still cracking underneath it all as she smiled weakly at her best friend, "Like she said, it was just a kiss. Why would that bother me? It really is no big, so let's just forget about it, okay?"
"No, Kim." Ron said as he reached up to his sunglasses and pulled them off once again, "It is a big and I don't want to forget about it." He said as he reached out and pulled Kim's sunglasses off her of her face as well. At first, Kim reached up to stop Ron from pulling off her sunglasses as if there was some sort of dirty secret under them, then she looked in Ron's brown eyes and saw that he needed this just as much as she did. She remembered the dream, she had to let go, and so she released her hand from Ron's and he pulled off her oval sunglasses allowing her to look at Ron with her blood shot, emerald eyes. To Ron, Kim's eyes were a pair of precious gems that contained an immense sadness and pain.
"What is it, Ron?" She asked, her eyes still seeming to long for something that couldn't be expressed with words.
"I never really thought about this until we…'woke up', Kim." Ron began to explain from his heart, "Do you remember when we first met."
"Yeah." Kim said softly, recalling that day so very long ago and yet, the memory was still fresh in her mind, "I saved you from some stupid bullies in preschool, right after you distracted them from ganging up on me." She couldn't help smiling at the memory of it, "Like I could forget a day like that."
"Do you remember what you said to me?" Ron asked again, his heart feeling like it was trying to beat its way out of his chest.
Kim paused and then answered, "I said, 'you are weird, but I like you'…I think. What are you getting at, Ron?"
"Why do you like me, Kim?" Ron asked, his grip on her shoulders starting to tighten as if he was ready to take her in his arms and hug her, "How do you like me?"
"I…" Kim uttered, trying to understand it all, especially the feelings that she had when she saw Persephone and Ron kiss, "Ron…what's this about?" She asked as she felt her stomach doing more moves than a gymnast at the Olympics.
"Kim…Kimberly…" Ron gulped, and then stopped to steady himself with a good sigh to gather his courage, "I'm not really sure how long I have, but…ever since all this happened…it made me realize what you really mean to me, and I just want you to know that…I…I…I…"
Ron stopped his sentence as his Matrix senses began to pick up something. He looked up as his vision changed from normal to that of the Matrix code. He looked up through the ceiling and saw some very familiar figures coming to the elevator. It was one man followed by about four others. "They're coming." Ron uttered, "We have to go." He said to Kim, sounding panicked. The two of them hurried to where Morpheus and Persephone were waiting for them.
"Someone's coming." Ron reported to Morpheus.
"It must be my husband." Persephone concluded, "Time is short. Please, follow me."
In a hurried walk, the four of them headed down the hall, made a few turns through the elegantly bland hallways to come to a door, where Persephone used one of the keys on her ring to opened it. What Kim and Ron saw inside seemed to defy all notions of logic. They had expected to come to a regular room within the building. Yet, what they saw there was like the foyer of a great mansion: marble floors and walls, the banisters of the twin stairs that snaked down the side to meet at the bottom were a deep cherry. Everywhere there was the air of the arts, even the floor sported the enormous letter M, undoubtedly for "Merovingian", and along the walls of the stairs that led to the second level were all kinds of weapons: spears, swords, sais, shields, maces, halberds and all manners of weaponry from different periods and locations.
"The information you seek is this way." Persephone stated as she led the trio to a doorway under the large stairs and balcony sitting at the opposite end of the foyer. It had been a roller coaster of styles; first they went from elegant blandness to exquisite extravagance, to medievalism. The extravagant foyer had given away to stone laden hallways like some kind of gothic dungeon with only barred windows that allowed streams of light, which gave way to a fluorescent light and very neat, clean laboratory. It seemed almost like all the other kinds of mad scientist lairs that Kim and Ron had been to, computer banks and equipment everywhere, yet it was minus the inept guards that were always present.
In the center of the room, there was a dust outline in the floor, and poked with rubber circles at the far corners of the shape. Ron and Kim reached the conclusion that it must have been the machine in question. Yet, something seemed very wrong in Kim's mind. She kept looking around at the room itself, wondering what was wrong with the picture, while Persephone came back to Morpheus with a small, PDA-like contraption. "Here are the design specs for the machine in question." She said as she handed it to Morpheus.
He took it and scrolled through the innumerable pages of text, schematics, notes, journal entries and so on. That was when Morpheus made the horrifying connection of what the machine was.
"A Code Copy Program." Morpheus stated, "But what would Doctor Drakken want with a copy program?"
Kim and Ron looked at each other with a very knowing smirk on their faces as if predicting what Doctor Drakken's moves were.
"Cloning." The two of them said in unison, thinking back to how Drakken had done so in his innumerable plots in his attempts to take over the world. He stole laser drills, built doomsday machines, Killer Bee-bee's, and enslaved the elderly. It had gotten to be old hat with Kim's arch-foe's boss.
"If that is all," Persephone stated, glancing towards the door, "I suggest that you make an escape before my husband returns."
"I believe you are correct." Morpheus agreed as he tucked the pad into his pocket, "Let's move out."
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As the four of them walked back out into the mansion's foyer, there was still that thing that was bugging hell out of Kim. It was the fact of how the lab was so big. The machine, judging from the outlines in the dust on the floor, must have been huge, or at least big enough to reach up nearly to the lab's ceiling. That's how it usually was in Kim's experience of mad scientists' lairs; the equipment usually reached up to the ceiling. Already the dots were beginning to connect in Kim's mind and at that instant, she felt as if she had been stabbed in the back. The thought was laid aside when the four of them came into the marble foyer and there, waiting for them, was the Merovingian. He stood there, with his entourage of men armed with guns, applauding the four of them.
"Bravo!" He said condescendingly, "Bravo! I see you have discovered the use for my toy…but it is the why that still eludes you, no?"
The thought came back to Kim when all the dots were connected, "There never was a robbery." Kim stated, looking at the Merovingian from behind her oval sunglasses.
"What'd you mean, KP?" Ron asked.
"The doors in the lab are way too small to be able to get that big of a machine out…without your knowledge." She said as she raised her finger and pointed straight at the Merovingian as if her hand were a gun aiming its first bullet, "This was all one big set up!"
The Merovingian smiled, "Quite true, Miss Possible." He began to laugh at the teen hero's efforts, "Again, you know the cause, but the effect still eludes you."
As the Merovingian was about to go on again with his cause and effect rant, a door opened somewhere in the foyer and a voice that Kim and Ron hadn't heard in weeks burst forth like an explosion.
"The effect is that I rule the world!" The raspy voice answered.
Kim and Ron looked quickly to see that their immediate suspicions had been confirmed; it was their old foe: Doctor Drakken. He came in posturing about as if he felt that his victory was close at hand, like he usually did. Following behind and keeping her guard up was his 'faithful companion', Shego. The two of them came to the Merovingian's side. Though when Doctor Drakken took his proud posture, he looked to the Merovingian, who flashed a very evil and spiteful glare, and Drakken knew what it meant.
"I…" He uttered, "I mean, we rule the world!" He said proudly, raising his black gloved fist.
While Drakken was boasting his villainous ways, Persephone came to the Merovingian's side.
"History does repeat itself, my love." Persephone said to her husband, "Cause and effect."
The Merovingian looked down at his wife as she left back through the main door leading to the restaurant through the keys she had at her disposal. He then looked back at the trio with the rage burning deep within him from the years of backed up tension and sexual frustration. It swirled on his face as he tried to stay calm, to have the most proper of manners even in the face of his enemies. He then smirked at Ron, seeing that boyish innocence on his face even with all the new clothes he had.
"I wonder how far along are you, Ronald Stoppable." He stated as he raised his hand to his henchmen, who came forward, cocking their guns, even Shego, who usually preferred hand-to-hand combat, leveled a gun straight at Ron's head. "How powerful are you?"
"You know," Shego interrupted the Merovingian's villainous ranting, "I would love to tear you and Kimmie apart with my bare hands, but you work with what you have. Right, Ronnie?"
Ron snorted at all this, "We've been through all this before, haven't we?" He asked his rhetorical question with such condescension as he came forward, standing on the marble letter M embedded into the floor, "I can take whatever all of you can dish at me."
"You can take it?" The Merovingian asked, "You can take it? All of your predecessors had much more respect than you! Shoot him!"
With that command, Ron Stoppable stood his ground against them. He clenched his fists, ready and waiting for whatever was going to come. With the knowledge of the world around him, he reached up and spread out his hand like a traffic cop halting one direction of traffic. The guns began to fire, all of them sending out bullets at Ron, Kim, and Morpheus while the shell casings had hit the floor. Kim was scared, even though she didn't exactly cower behind Ron as he had in the past; she was just worried about what the outcome would be. Yet, what made her stand her ground was the confident smile on Morpheus' face, he stood there as if he was saying to Kim: watch this. As the guns fired, the bullets stopped in mid-air just mere inches from Ron's hand, he began to bob his head, and smirk with absolute confidence.
"Is that all ya got?" He asked in his cockiness as he lowered his hand and the bullets fell to the ground like pearls from a broken necklace. As they did, Ron looked to the Merovingian with a very conceited smile, wondering if the Merovingian had lost his ace in the hole against him.
"Ok, you have some skill." The Merovingian admitted, rather defeated.
"Boo-yah!" Ron cheered for himself as he broke out into a small, pseudo-break dance, "Who bad? Who rocks? Uh-huh, oh yeah!"
As the henchmen of the Merovingian, as well as Shego and Drakken watched, many of them were dumbfounded as well as annoyed. Sure, he stopped the bullets, but did he really have to rub the victory in their faces like that? Shego certainly was not one to take victory so well, especially when her enemy was glorifying it like that. She reached up with another gun and fired a few more bullets at Ron.
Instantly, Ron brought his hand up stopping the bullets in mid-air as if they were flies heading straight into fly paper.
"Come on!" Ron said, holding the bullets in mid-air, "Give me a break!"
"Sure, Ronnie-boy." Shego smirked as she reached up with her thumb for a button on her gun near the trigger and safety catch, "Take five."
She pushed the button and Ron looked at the bullets, noticing something very different about them. They had hollow points in them as if someone had drilled small holes into them. He watched from behind his sunglasses in wonder of what or why bullets were designed like that. He soon came to regret asking himself that as puffs of gas blew out of the bullets in a thick, putrid, yellow cloud. As the gas began to surround him, Kim, and Morpheus, Ron's mind told him not to breathe in the gas, but he already inhaled too much of it. As he tried to hold his breath, his vision became blurry and his head began to spin. With the blurred vision, the world also became darker and darker until he lost consciousness and fell to the elegant marble floor.
Kim and Morpheus too inhaled the gas, but while Morpheus was fighting to stay on his feet, Kim was desperately trying to reach Ron. She fought the effects as if they were her mortal enemy. She moved her feet, but they felt as if they weighed were weighed down with so much lead and simply got heavier with each new step.
"Ron!" She wheezed, "Look…out…"
Her eyes were starting to close as she saw Shego coming through the cloud of yellow gas with her gasmask on, its oval lenses and breather making her look almost alien as she threw Ron over her shoulder. She would have made a quick get away, but turned to look at Kim, who was starting to lose her battle against the gas.
"Right into our hands!" Shego laughed as Ron's sunglasses dropped from his face and onto the marble floor, where Shego crushed them underfoot as she made her get away out of one of the mansions doors.
"Let…him…go…" Kim hissed as she tried to get back to her feet, but her body seemed to weigh hundreds of pounds that her strength could not endure. She couldn't hold her breath anymore; she released it and took in another breath of the gas, falling to her knees. The weight of her body seemed to compound with each breath of the gas she took.
"Ron…no…" Those were the last words that Kim had uttered before all became black and she fell into the darkness of her mind.
110101100110100111001011011100101010110101
"Ron!" Kim gasped as she opened her eyes as well as trying to get back to her feet, only finding herself in the Jack Room of the Neb II with the hands of Link and Niobe trying to hold her down.
"Easy, easy." Niobe advised as she rubbed Kim's head with a damp washcloth, "You were knocked out. Morpheus got you to an exit. You're safe now."
"Ron?" Kim asked as Link reached over and pulled out her jack, "Where's Ron?" She asked, begging for Niobe to give her the answer, no matter how grim it may be.
"You were careless and impulsive." Morpheus scolded as he walked towards Kim's chair, "You could have gotten yourself killed."
"Where's Ron?" Kim asked, again ignoring the commanding scolding that Morpheus was giving to her.
Morpheus took in a deep breath and let out a sigh of frustration before turning to Link and the newly arrived Ghost.
"They've masked his signature." Link answered softly, as if he was delivering the news of a death in a family, "I…we don't know where they've taken him."
Kim sat upright, looking over at Ron's body still lying in the jack chair, asleep, and connected to the Matrix. She got up out of her chair and went over to Ron's side, laying a hand on his forehead and brushing it back against the scratchy stubble of his head. She bent down, laying her forehead against his and cursing herself for not being strong enough to save him. It was so sad to Kim, she had been all over the world inside the Matrix, saved dozens of people, and yet, when it came to her own best friend…she was powerless to stop his capture. She stood up again, brushing her fingertips over his sweat soaked forehead.
"Can you find him?" Kim asked Link, her concern shaking and cracking her voice, her eyes not leaving the face of her best friend.
Even though Kim couldn't see it, Link was shaking his head. He knew what the answer was and looked over at Niobe, Ghost, and Morpheus, wondering what he should say to her, lie through his teeth that he might be able to find her, even though it was impossible with all the encrypted code or tell the truth that they may never find him. Even worse that they may have to pull the plug. If Drakken did, in fact, have that code copy machine, then he could use it on Ron. That thought did occur to the most seasoned crew members, who had seen dire situations like this before, but Kim was far too new to receive such distressing news…except Link had an idea, but he had to tell the truth first.
"We can't." He told Kim, who then looked at him with her emerald eyes filling up with tears. He paused until he finally said, "But I know who can…she has to help us."
To be continued…