Soulmates of the Fury
Chapter 1: Mid-day in the Garden of Good and Evil
Savannah, Georgia: River Street
Take a cobblestone street. Add an eighteen year old man getting used to a recent growth spurt. Factor in a bit of natural clumsiness.
Result: Ron Stoppable wondering how the ground had suddenly risen up to smack him in the chin.
There was a time when the hand reaching to help him up would have been accompanied by the words "Quit playing around, Ron!" but this time there was just a smiling face framed by auburn red hair. He managed a sheepish grin as Kim helped him to his feet.
"They really should pave this." He griped.
"Historic district, hello?" she said, rolling her eyes as she took another bite out of the caramel apple the two were sharing.
River Street was quite literally built on the banks of the Savannah River. One side of the street gave a mostly unobstructed view of the river, while the other was dominated by very old buildings built halfway up the bluff. The majority of the city was built on top of a natural bluff, some 40 feet above the river. The buildings were constructed so one side would open to a long line of parks and a service street called "Factor's Walk" halfway up. The other side now housed dozens of gift shops and restaurants catering to the large tourist crowd in the small southern city. In the distance you could see a modern suspension bridge arching high over the water, tall enough to allow monstrous container ships to reach the docks up-river. The bridge was obviously quite new, with the cables all wrapped in a white material. At night huge lamps would light the bridge up.
The two teens had not seen that yet. They had only arrived in the city a few hours ago, parking Kim's PT Cruiser in one of the city decks. Savannah wasn't their final destination for the day, but with Tybee Island only about 12 miles away, they decided to spend some time in the historic city before meeting their host in the nearby beach community.
She passed the apple back to Ron, who turned it until he could get a great big chunk of caramel with his bite. Strings of sugary tan goodness stretched from the treat to his mouth. Kim stopped and helped him clean his face off. "Hey, save me some." She chided.
"More where this came from." He pointed to a display in the candy shop they were walking past. Candy apples of all sorts were lined up behind the glass. The sweet smell of fudge and pralines cooking in copper vats dominated the air.
"Don't fill up! Remember, Neil said that place he's taking us to tonight brings out more seafood than you can possibly imagine."
"I dunno, KP, I can imagine a lot!"
"Ron, if you make yourself sick I'm going to be the one embarrassed. Now, what if Doctor Drakken were to try and infect me with that orchid pollen again. You'd knock me right out of existence!"
As if on cue, Ron stopped and let out a grinding belch, spraying little bits of apple. "What, me embarrass you? Nah!"
Kim just put her forehead into her free hand "Aacch!" she said, shaking it slightly.
Their attention was diverted when a mighty "PWOOOOOOOMP" announced the passage of a huge cargo ship, containers in every color of the rainbow (but mostly burnt orange) stacked to the sky. The ship was so full only the barest hint of her waterline was visible.
"Wow, is that even going to clear the bridge." Ron wondered.
"Of course it is. That's why they built the new one. Look, right behind it, can you see the old pilings?" She pointed to the series of concrete blocks behind the new span, describing the arc of an older bridge. It was almost spooky, as if it were a ghost of the now-removed span.
"Why didn't they remove them when they built the new one?" Ron asked.
"I don't know, maybe they thought it'd do more damage trying to take them out than leaving them. Come on, I see a clothing store I want to look in."
Vacations were not something to be taken lightly by the pair. It seemed that every time they got a moment to themselves a four-note electronic beep would interrupt them. Day trip to Lake Middleton? Beep-beep-de-beep! Afternoon at the mall? Beep-beep-de-beep! A quite drive in the country – you get the picture. Even their senior prom went south – WAY south! Señor Senior Sr. managed to acquire about a thousand Lil' Diablo bots and reactivate them on the outskirts of Mexico City. This time, Global Justice hover jet or not, there was no getting back to Middleton High School in time.
There was also the issue of one more ruined prom dress. Diablo bots, two, Club Banana, zilch.
It had gotten so bad that after being interrupted just walking in the park holding hands Ron grabbed the Kimmunicator out of Kim's hands, almost in a Fury. She was afraid her best friend and boyfriend was going to dash the little device against the sidewalk in his rage. Instead he calmly informed Wade that the two of them were off-duty tonight and would be available for calls tomorrow. Despite being shocked what Ron had done, she was secretly proud of the control he exercised over his anger.
Wade got the message – as did Doctor Director, who had simply been calling them to follow up on a recent mission. She came to the same conclusion their young computer guru had.
Those two needed some time off.
It didn't come quickly. While the rest of the graduating seniors fanned out all over the country on vacations celebrating their commencement, Kim, Ron and Wil Du found themselves chained to a stone wall inside one of the Great Pyramids of Giza. The Egyptian sun was so not good for Kim's fair complexion! When they got out of that (mostly Ron's doing – to Agent Du's amazement) Ron teased her about a series of sun freckles that popped out on her face.
She obsessed about that for a couple hours until he explained how cute they were on her. Still, she was happy when they faded once more. She noted that, in the future, all desert ops would include sunblock of SPF 50 or better!
Kim's PT Cruiser was a graduation present from her parents. That in itself led them to an idea. Something neither teen had ever done!
They started planning a cross-country road trip!
That led to a couple complications. For one thing, it would be the first un-chaperoned non-mission trip the young couple had ever been on. Despite being high school graduates, both of their birthdays were in the middle of summer. On both of their parent's insistence, they would wait until then to make their trip. It was nothing to do with whether they trusted them – they had now been together for over a year and their trust had been earned over and over again. No, it had much more to do with how they rest of the world would treat them. There really was a difference between two seventeen year olds and two eighteen year olds traveling together. Trust aside, Kim's father had a long-long talk with Ron and it was quite reasonable that ultra-dense celestial objects were mentioned in the conversation.
Then there was the fact they were Team Possible. They were the best at what they did and all too often the world relied on that. Somehow they needed to pry themselves away from all that.
Senior year had been a transition for Ron. Not only did he grow six inches but he also grew up a lot. Part of it was the influence Kim had on him, but the greater part was histransmutation into adulthood. He now stood eye-to-eye with Doctor James Timothy Possible and was actually taller than his own father. Along with his increased stature came an increase in confidence and ability. A month-long trip to Japan had honed his skills exponentially. He was still nowhere near the martial artist Kim was, but he was no longer just a distraction. That didn't mean he still didn't trip from time to time. It was almost like there were two Rons, the new teen hero and plain old Ron.
They both carried Kimmunicators now. For a short while they tried referring to his as a "Ronnunicator" but that just felt weird – a combination of an awkward name and deja-vu they couldn't place. In time, they were simply Kimmunicators, since Kim was and probably always would be the team leader. The devices were now smaller, made out of matching royal blue PDAs instead of a hand-held game console. Wade assured them he could have made them even smaller, but the screens would have been too small to see.
Somehow not bringing the devices on their trip would have just seemed wrong, almost like ignoring a great responsibility. Kim's was in her purse and Ron had his in a leg pocket of his cargo shorts. Amazingly, in the three days they spent crossing the continent they had only rung once, and fortunately, that had only been Monique trying her best to get Kim to spill about Kim and Ron's Excellent Adventure.
Unbeknownst to them, Wade had deactivated his link to their Kimmunicators for the duration of the trip. Only an emergency call would restore the connection. They were, for all intents and purposes, now only very fancy cell phones. All of this was on Dr. Director's strict orders, orders including a directive that only if the two teens were in imminent danger would they be contacted. Through a stroke of pure luck, that had held.
So far.
They had stayed at a succession of motor lodges as they crossed the country. Ron had enough allowance money from his Naco royalty trust fund to put them up in style, but there was something about staying in tiny little rooms in out of the way places that appealed to them. It allowed them to behave like a real couple, instead of a couple of jet-setters.
Two days in Ron's Kimmunicator rang. The new units had different ring tones to differentiate between emergencies and just friends wanting to reach them. The audio call was unexpected but certainly not unwelcome. They quickly diverted from Washington DC down Interstate 95 to the city near the coast of Georgia. The place was know for its beauty and that appealed to them. Savannah and Tybee Island were two of the very few places they had never been.
They started out by wandering around the city itself, visiting the squares, listening intently as open-air tour busses trundled about, eager guides telling the story of this house or that square. They even got a helpful gentleman to take a picture of them as Chippewa Square where the park bench scene of "Forrest Gump." Was filmed.
They capped off the day with a walk on River-Street before heading back for the parking deck.
It would be very difficult to get lost in Savannah. The city was laid out in the very old way, on a grid pattern instead of the random, swooping curves they were accustomed to in their home town. A long, straight road led them out of the historic district. They passed a bicycle trail lined with palmetto trees and a long stretch of marsh. The only hill they climbed was a high bridge, from which they could see a Civil War era masonry fort and a tiny white lighthouse on its own tiny little island. Ahead they could see the taller Tybee Island lighthouse peaking above the trees.
Ron pulled out a set of instructions and slipped into his job as navigator. He learned very quickly that driving the car was Kim's job. He felt a bit weird not doing the driving himself, as his father had always done the family driving, but after a heated argument (no couple ever has been so perfect they don't fight) he relented. Of course, if it had been his car…
The house wasn't on the beach itself. It sat on brick pilings with the bottom open to the air. It wasn't as high up above the ground as the others close to the beach, but it still had the traditional screened porch look that the small oceanfront properties often boasted.
There was a note pinned on the screen door.
Kim and Ron
I had to drive to Hilton Head to take care of some business. Make yourselves at home. I'll be back later tonight, so if you'll accept a rain-check, we'll go to the Crab Shack tomorrow night.
See ya.
Neil.
"I wonder what that's about?" Kim said, frowning slightly
They made quick work of unloading the car, though Ron did find time to grumble. "Does saving the world take this much stuff?"
"Quiet you." Kim said playfully. "At least I don't haul around as much stuff as Yori did." She never quite got exactly what the two of them were hauling to South America that time they went after Monkey Fist to save their Sensei.
"Why exactly did you bring your grappler" he held up the red pistol shaped object, pulling the trigger.
Instead of a sharp hook and a length of cable, it only made quiet whooshing sound.
"Okay, genius here has found the real hairdryer." Kim said as she took it away from him.
They found dinner at another local place, an open patio restaurant called Sting Ray's and made a quick circuit of the town as the sun sank behind the island.
It occurred to them that they were actually quite dead on their feet.
There had still been no word from Neil so they settled into the battered over-stuffed couch in the living room of his house.
Both of them fell into a deep slumber almost instantly.