KP – One Oh One : Part VII – Aw, Man! A Rerun
"I thought we took these guys out last summer." Ron groused as he checked the glider-pack attached to his back. He was having a hard time getting used to it adhering directly to his super-suit instead of utilizing a harness. However, after Kim nearly falling to her death when Shego yanked the release, another means had to be found. Unfortunately, that meant, at least for the moment, the new packs only worked with their super-suits. Wade was working on retractable straps that could work with their regular mission gear, but for the moment they would have to rely on their old style jet-packs or wear the suits.
"Ron, we only nabbed a couple dozen of these guys that day, and they are called the World Wide Evil Empire, as in, all over the world? And the guy running the show did get away." Kim hefted her own pack onto her back, where the special panels adhered to her black and blue suit.
She watched him for a couple seconds, expecting his next words to be something along the lines of that not being his fault. Instead he looked worried and wouldn't meet her eyes. Something about that sitch was still bothering him, even though it happened back in the summer. It couldn't be the fight they had that morning, they had already cleared the air about that long ago. No, it was something else. Perhaps it really was as simple as the fact Agent Alpha got away.
The Air National Guard C-130 Hercules they were flying in was somewhere in the middle of their scale of preferred aircraft, with antiquated prop jobs at the bottom and private luxury jets at the top. Granted, anything that could get them safely to their drop-zone was fine with Kim. The military transport was the best Wade could come up with once he tracked down WWEE's current base of operations. Or course, they could always call in Global Justice and hop a ride on a hoverjet, but this was a Team Possible mission.
Kim allowed herself a small smile as they got ready to jump. Ron really wanted to do this, to the point he was willing to make a night jump with a tested but unproven flying pack. He must want a piece of Alpha pretty badly. That thought made her frown just a little. Personal vendettas could get you in trouble, make you lose focus. They were there to find out what their latest scheme was and, if possible, put a stop to it. If the sitch called for just recon, so be it. If things were too hot for the three of them to handle, then they would call for backup.
That is, if Doctor Director wasn't ferociously cranked at them for taking WWEE on alone. Betty Director's brother Sheldon, the one-time leader of the criminal organization, under the pseudonym of Gemini, may have been in prison, but she tended to take a very personal interest in bringing them down. That was part of the reason Kim wanted her team to take them on alone.
By her team, that meant Ron, Rufus and her. In her mind, if it called for the super-suits, it was too dangerous for the twins. Even so, she had them on standby, just in case. Needless to say, they weren't happy, but part of the deal they made with their parents was that, when it came to missions, Kim's word was law. Technically, so was Ron's, but the only time he had taken the reigns since Jim and Tim came on board was when Kim was captured by the very people they were about to reconnoiter.
The jump-master was making his way back toward them. "Thanks for the ride, Captain Reynolds." Kim flashed him a huge smile.
"It was the least I could do after you helped us reattach that forward buffer panel." The tall man said, giving her a thumbs up.
"No big, it was just a walk out onto the wing without a lifeline while we were deep in a cloud bank."
"We'll be over the jump-zone in thirty. When the ramp opens, we'll use hand signals, we won't be able to hear each other."
Both of the teens gave him a thumbs up in response.
If the packs were activated in an emergency, a helmet would snap out of a housing near the top of the unit, unfolding like some kind of high-tech origami creation. Since they were making a planned flight, she pulled the hood of her suit up, stuffing her hair carefully into it and put on a solid helmet with night vision capabilities in a special head's up display. Pulling the control arms out, she repeated the gesture to Captain Reynolds and got ready at the inside edge of the ramp.
He hit the controls and the rear half of the plane opened up. Carefully she made her way to the end of the ramp, Ron at her side. Once upon a time, she would have called him a baby for his fear of doing something like this, but she had come to understand it was a very deep rooted fear and only his utter devotion to her allowed him to overcome it. She craved the adrenaline rush of a dangerous stunt like this. In reality, it was Ron who had a lot more guts to go through with it despite being scared out of his wits.
They jumped at the same time, Kim's leap elegant, like a master cliff-diver, sailing into the air with her arms outstretched. Ron looked much more like he was fighting the urge to tuck his body into a cannonball position. Either that or he was trying to keep himself from flapping his arms fruitlessly.
At a pre-programmed point, the packs came to life. A pair of wings extended first from the bottom, then snapped open like a beetle's. Unlike their old units, these 'wings' were not true air-foils. Instead, they were artificial gravity projectors. They created a field of inverted gravity (commonly referred to as 'anti-gravity') that would keep them in the air much more effectively, also allowing them to hover at any point if they wished.
The other big advance over the old 'toasty buns' jet packs was the new drive. It was a compact ion engine that was safer and had an enormously greater range, since it did not rely on primitive combustible fuels. In reality, the resemblance the new packs bore to their forebears was only superficial. Wade had been extremely busy duplicating and adapting some twenty-fifth century technology he gained access to. He still included the familiar emergency helmet and the extendable control arms, so the packs could be handled the same.
Ron was just happy not to be burning the seat of his britches off for once.
They had already taken the new units for several test flights, getting used to the quicker handling and greater speed, but this was the first time to actually use them under real-world conditions, even if it was just a tactical insertion. True, they could have used parachutes, but that would not have given them an obvious exit strategy.
The heads-up display was certainly a plus. They were deep in the Rocky Mountains, really only just over a hundred miles from home, but the terrain would be dangerous to navigate without the clear synthetic view of the mountaintops the visors provided.
Ron recovered once they were flying under their own power. He was still scared, but he had his game face on. If she were alone, she probably would have free fallen almost the entire distance, only using her own pack to brake and land. That, or she would have cranked it up to full speed. This was something she truly enjoyed doing, to the point she sometimes wished she could fly without the artificial wings.
Oh well, if teen heroes were meant to fly…
They cut the power to their drives, letting their momentum carry them to their pre-determined landing zone. Kim's landing resembled that of a great bird of prey coming to light on its perch, the wings immediately snapping closed before being sucked back up into the casings.
Right behind her, Ron tried to emulate her landing, only to be tripped up by a loose stone, sending him tumbling into a heap, sliding to a stop in the gravel. Kim gritted her teeth and thanked their lucky stars for the protection their suits offered. Ron also had the added benefit of his newer 'rip-stop' cargo pants, putting that designation to the test.
Kim hit a control mounted on the back of her hand and the pack separated from her back. With a deft move, she caught the lightweight device and gently lowered it to the ground. She got to Ron before he could try the same thing, holding his as he hit the release. The packs were meant to be tough, but she didn't want to put that to the test by letting it hit the ground hard.
They touched another switch on their control pads and an overlay of the intelligence they had on the sight came to life on their displays. The base was well camouflaged and without the recorded visuals, they could easily have missed the hidden entrance.
The two guards at the entrance would have been overlooked as well. Their gray and black uniforms not only blended in with the terrain, but the night time darkness as well. However, with the thermal imaging feature of their night-vision, they stood out as bright orange and yellow human forms against the cool blues and greens of the surrounding rock.
WWEE wasn't taking any chances. The two men were armed with H&K MP5 submachine guns with silencers and laser target designators. Kim was expecting that and it was one of the many reasons she didn't want her brothers along for this mission. They had proven to be quite competent in the field so far, but they hadn't gone up against anyone quite this well armed yet. There were still assistance and rescue missions to take on before they were ready for that.
Even when Kim started, this kind of thing came up only rarely. It wasn't until they went up against Drakken to recover Professor Acari's cyber-robotic tick plans as fifteen year olds that they were in direct danger from real villains, and he tried feeding them to the sharks he kept in his Caribbean lair, not just simply shooting them.
Still, fighting their way past two armed goons wasn't the plan. There were other ways into lairs of this type. Any time somebody built an underground hideout, they had to have a way to get fresh air into them. That meant ventilation shafts and for an installation this size, they would have to be fairly large.
Kim pointed her fist into the air. There was a slight 'phut' sound as the grappler built into her suit fired a thin cable. Instead of a mechanical hook like the old unit slung to her waist utilized, this one had what looked like a tiny suction cup on the end. It struck the rock face she was aiming for and the sophisticated device inside it stuck fast, instantly bonding it on a molecular level. The cable pulled taught and she signaled Ron she was ready.
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders. It was funny how many times he did that since they had been doing these sorts of things. Thinking back, she realized having him holding onto her like that always seemed quite natural. Now there was the added dimension of how pleasing his touch was, much as it had been the night before when she slept like a baby in his arms.
That was only a fleeting thought. Time for business! The cable retracted back into her suit, pulling them upwards toward the hidden shaft. She grabbed onto the lip of it, letting Ron climb up her back so he could get to the grating covering it.
He pulled a small vial out of his tool belt. Normally they would use a modified version of her mother's laser scalpels or her laser lipstick to cut through it, but they didn't want to be spotted. Instead, he poured a small amount of the liquid dissolving agent onto the edges. There was a slight hissing sound and brief acrid odor as it melted through the metal. Kim grabbed one edge, Ron the other and they pulled it loose.
"KP, I'd like to point out, I didn't melt my fingers." Ron whispered with a grin.
She smiled right back at him. "Ron, quit fooling around." It came out a lot more lovingly than it used to, but she had to admit, he was right, this time he didn't end up getting the stuff all over him. Of course, this time around he knew what the stuff was and wasn't mistaking it for her nail polish.
He beamed right back at her. "I thought you liked a little foolin' around." He pulled a small cylinder out, extending it across the mouth of the shaft. Using his own grappler, he attached the end of the cable to it.
"Time and place, now move."
"Banzai." He whispered, climbing into the opening. Slowly he played out his line. Their info only went so far, so he wasn't going to bungee directly into it as he did Drakken's lair when Kim was home sick.
That turned out to be a wise choice. About thirty feet down the shaft he encountered the first barrier. The villains were actually learning!
A series of bars were attached across the shaft. They were teardrop shaped in cross-section, with the sharp edge pointing outwards. If he had jumped down the shaft, he would have been sliced up like a loaf of bread lengthwise.
He was sufficiently well hidden by that point he could use the laser. It was a time-consuming process, but he carefully caught each sharpened bar, shuttling them up to the top of the shaft so they wouldn't drop down.
Kim went down next, taking care of the next set of bars. It took them almost an hour to get all the way down into the main ventilation system. The physical barriers weren't the only things they had to deal with. Their visors gave them enough warning to know there were security beams in place, either intended to activate some other nefarious weapon or simply alert WWEE to their presence.
Dangling upside down, Kim extended the data cable of her Kimmunicator into the control box. Moments later, Wade had the beams disabled. She touched bottom first as the shaft leveled out, changing into a metal lined duct.
This was where being relatively small and light really paid off. Ron outweighed her be a good fifty pounds, but the metal skin of the passage was enough to hold even him. The same couldn't be said for the majority of the hired muscle.
"Okay, Wade, we're in." She kept the Kimmunicator clipped to her belt, relying on a throat mike.
"Take the passage to the right. That should take you to the main chamber. After that, you'll pretty much be on your own. The readings I've got haven't penetrated any deeper."
"Roger that." She dropped down onto her hands and knees, wriggling down the narrow duct. Ron was close behind.
"Ron, if you're wasting time looking at my butt…" She warned chidingly.
"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it wasting time." He whispered back. "Besides, from this point of view, that's about all I can see."
"Are you saying my butt looks big?"
"Just right."
"Flatterer."
He grinned to himself, but kept crawling after her. "So, what do you think?"
"I don't know what to think. That's the whole reason we're here tonight, to try and find out what they're up to."
He shook his head, despite her not being able to see him from that angle. "No, I mean about that party we got invited to."
"Ron, remember what I said about time and place?"
"Yeah, but I've got to tell them something. Come on, it's our first college party."
Kim rolled her eyes. "I'm not exactly thrilled with the prospect of going to a party. Remember what happened the last time we went to one?"
"Well, it's not going to be at anyone's house, so we don't have to worry about parents showing up and wigging out like yours did."
"No, Ron, I'm talking about the one we got invited to this time last year. Remember…his house?"
"So? What are the chances the host is going to turn out to be the son of a super-villain, bent on getting revenge?"
Kim stopped and looked back at him. "Do you really want to know the answer to that question?"
"I'm just saying, KP. We've got to start fitting in somewhere."
She started crawling forward again. "Where have I heard that before?"
"Come on, Kim, it'll be fun." His whisper almost broke into a whine.
"We'll talk about this later. We're almost there."
"But…"
"I said we'll talk about it, not no we're not going and that's final. I promise, 'kay?"
Kim reached a grille. Instead of looking down on a large open chamber from above, they were looking up. Whoever laid out the large open space apparently had taken Lairs 101. There were all kinds of catwalks criss-crossing the high ceilings, as well as pipes that seemed to go nowhere. That meant plenty of places to hide. There were banks of controls, all manned by men clad in the magenta and white uniform of the World Wide Evil Empire. To top it all off, there was the usual mammoth view screen.
Ron had to stifle a giggle. They apparently weren't using the monitor at the moment and a very familiar screen-saver was playing.
"Oy." Kim growled, almost louder than she meant to. Every so often the image would change, morphing from one to another. They were all various shots of Kim her little brothers had taken over the last few years and posted on the internet.
"That's not funny, Ron. In fact it's really, really creepy if you ask me."
"Sorry, KP, that's just my reaction every time I see that shot of you with Noxzema all over your face and toothpaste dripping from your mouth."
She growled softly again. Touching a control on the side of her helmet, a small camera lens popped out, recording everything she looked at. "Do you see Alpha anywhere?" She whispered to him.
Ron shook his head. "Can't tell unless I see his uniform from the front. I see at least five of them that could be him."
Kim grunted in response. Their vantage point wasn't the best, so she crawled on down the duct. About a hundred feet further on, they came to a dead end. Ron opened one of his cargo pockets. "Okay, Rufus, buddy. You're on."
The little pink rodent crawled out of his usual hiding place and gave him a sharp salute. He squeezed through the grate and, using his big buck teeth, started unscrewing it from the wall.
They climbed out into a darkened room with a series of tables and lots of cabinets. Kim switched her visor from thermal to light intensifying as Ron went to watch the door. She spotted a pile of papers spread out on one of the tables. Since they were just on a scouting mission, that was as good a place to start as any.
Ron gave her the thumbs up signal, indicating the coast was clear, so she pulled a tiny flashlight from her belt and scanned the printouts. Her eyes came to rest on one picture in particular and she let out an involuntary yelp.
Immediately he was at her side, looking at what distressed her enough to nearly scream like that.
It was a picture of her, dressed in her teal top and black jeans, holding a laptop and her Kimmunicator to her chest as she ascended the steps into the Middleton College Science Building.
There was no question in her mind where that picture had been taken from.
Dorian Conyers.
Kim Possible and all related characters © Disney