KP – One Oh One : Part XII – The Spirit of Vengeance
Ron lay on the bed, facing the wrong way, his head hanging off the foot. He started up at the neatly trimmed joint between the ceiling and the wall, recalling the day early last summer when Kim and her Mom painted the room right after he moved into it. There was nothing quite like those warm, fun days living here. Sure, he did it to help his Dad out, but having the opportunity to live in the same house as Kim was nothing short of a miracle for him. How many guys got to do that with their teenage girlfriends?
The two gold rings were hanging from a stainless steel necklace Mrs. Dr. P. found for him. That was safer than keeping them in his pocket until he knew whether Kim would accept them back. Would she? Paul seemed to think so. Kim's Mom seemed to think so. Heck, even her Dad did too. He just wished his own confidence was so high. The sight of her yanking that first ring off her finger was almost like a physical kick in the gut to him. A slap to his face, Kim running away crying or both he could have expected. The finality of her act was just so brutal, so wrenching. That she walked away with utterly no expression on her face and drove off still dominated his mind's eye.
He had a really scary moment when James Possible came home from looking for him. He was still circling the campus, alternately calling Ron's house and his own home, just in case he showed up at either place. Still, it was Anne who called him home when he came in with Paul.
Several times in the past Ron had been in a similar position, waiting for the righteous wrath of Kim's Dad to come down on him, and even though, in almost every case, the elder Possible ended up surprising him. Only this time, he had clearly done something so wrong, so horrible that Kim would do something as unthinkable as breaking up with him.
It only got worse when Anne detailed what had happened after Kim came home. The photos from the smashed frames were still sitting on the kitchen table, somehow having been spared the worst of the broken glass and wood that once housed them. Thinking about her flying into such a rage made him physically ill. Knowing how her Dad must be feeling about that time made things even worse. The reality that the man was so angry with him made his whole gut bind up in knots and go cold.
Then his car pulled up in the driveway. Ron couldn't see it from his vantage point in the kitchen, but the sound was unmistakable, or at least it was in his guilt and fear riddled mind. Once before, when he thought he was going to be in trouble for Kim getting drunk at a party, he had to steel himself, to constantly remind himself to take it like a man. He didn't even have that level of confidence any more. It Paul hadn't been sitting nearby he knew he would have made a break for the kitchen door.
Logically, what was Kim's Dad going to do to him? The punishments he doled out were always just that. He had never physically raised a hand on any of his children. Then there was the fact that Ron now stood his height. His shoulders were not nearly so broad as the older man, but it just seemed he shouldn't have been able to intimidate him so much.
Ron's heart still nearly stopped when he appeared in the open door of the kitchen. The expression on his face was of anger mixed with fear, yet the first words out of his mouth were, "What happened, Ronald?"
The heart that had almost given up the ghost a moment before suddenly broke when he heard the concern in that voice. He wasn't their to brow-beat Ron, to grab him and throw him into a space capsule or to even pound him into the tile floor. Both his children were hurt, were in pain and he wanted to know why and what he could do to help. Here was the source, the foundation of the strength that Kim had. There was love and support at every turn.
Without further hesitation, he spilled his guts. He told them everything, from the moment he learned who Kim's captor was, why he didn't tell her then and why he finally found himself trapped and unable to tell her. Yes, they made it clear to him that what he did was wrong, but they saw it as a mistake, not an evil.
Then Kim's Mom got him to talk about things they had done. He had to force himself to think he was just speaking to a doctor then, not Kim's mother. Sensing she already knew the gist of it, he told her, though he had no idea what such intimate details of their love life had to do with his horrible error in judgment.
Later, Anne chased him downstairs, threatening to drag him into the bathroom and bathe him herself. She offered him a mild sedative to help him sleep as well, but he didn't want to be drugged and he needed some time to think anyway. At that moment, lying on the bed or sitting against her upstairs door were no different from each other.
How could he have been so stupid? Whether he thought she needed it or not, Kim did not want 'protection.' She wanted to be in charge of every aspect of her life and all he had done was take that away from her. On top of that, he really had failed to protect her after all. His fear that she would see Carrion in every shadow, in every face was happening anyway, even if she believed he was still in the state prison.
If he really wanted to protect her, he would have told her right then and there. That would have armed her with the best weapon in her arsenal; herself. When it came time for physical battle, Kim could and would take care of herself. After all, she still beat him three out of four falls every time they sparred. Maybe one day if he mastered his Monkey Kung-Fu he could beat her, but she was still strong and skilled. Failing to tell her was setting her up to be trapped. The only reason Carrion got her the first time was because she thought he was a friend. Until that day, Kim was the type of person to live in two different worlds, world that never seemed to mix. The villains lived in one, the rest of the human race in the other. With the exception of Bonnie, she seemed to always trust the 'normal' people around her.
That bastard ripped that innocence away from her.
Ron noticed the Goth kids the first day of college. Really, he didn't pay them much heed. They weren't the type of people he would hang around with, but in general he could respect some of what they were about. Their looks weren't calculated so much to be scary but to differentiate themselves from 'norms' like him. There was also the element that their appearance was meant to tick off less tolerant conformists. Ron himself was a kind on non-conformist, so therein lay his moderate respect for them. The only thing he found truly reprehensible about them was the smoking.
He had never knowingly seen this Dorian guy. Maybe he had, but there was no way for him to pick him out. That was the irony of the gothic culture. The more they tried to break away from one conformity, the more they slipped into another. A lot of them were merely just kids trying to find a place to fit in, copying something they saw in places like that wannabe-goth headquarters store at the mall. Ron like the place himself, though it was more because of all the funny t-shirts the place sold.
Why would Kim single that one guy out, though? He pulled out his Kimmunicator and linked to the master data-base. Kim didn't put the file Wade gave her in the personal section, so he easily pulled it up.
He nearly dropped the device when the picture appeared. Ron knew how to create a disguise and that allowed him to see through them sometimes. He knew makeup when he saw it, as well as the fake hair. It was the smile, though, that he instantly recognized.
There was no doubt he was looking at a picture of a heavily made up Cary Allen On.
Ron noticed the name. At first glance, it just sounded like one of those names kids were saddled with by their parent that would lead them down a road of trying to find acceptance in some alternative culture. Then, realizing who he was looking at, he saw it for what it was. Just to confirm it, he wrote the name out on a piece of paper. There, with the letters circled, it was not just a clue, it was a billboard.
It came as a hammer blow. His failure was complete! Kim's worst enemy, her nightmare had done exactly what he wanted to prevent. He had been right there, in striking distance from Kim now for months. If he had tried something, she would not have even known it was coming and it would be his fault. He was supposed to have her back and he screwed that up, royally.
Yes, he was at fault, but he was not the only one to blame. None of this would have ever happened if that piece of human garbage had never come into Kim's life…into their lives. That filth had taken the strongest person Ron knew and reduced her to a fearful little girl. The bullies in Pre-K couldn't do that. Bonnie and all her bitterness couldn't do that. Shego…Sherry, for all her taunts had only managed to enrage Kim. Carrion, on the other hand, had managed to break her down. He was the one who started this mess. He was the one who visited real evil on them. He was the one who had Kim's rings hanging around his neck instead of resting on her fingers. If not for him, he could have easily done so much more than simply hold Kim in his arms that night in the cabin.
There was no way for Ron to take back what he had done, but it was clear now it was not an act of evil, it was merely a mistake. A bad mistake, yes, but not evil. Where he sought to protect, Carrion sought to destroy.
He found himself standing in the darkened room. His fists clenched and unclenched as anger slowly turned to rage. A quiet sound in his heart started growing. It was a small, squeaking, hooting sound at first, but it started to become a howling. His heart was beating faster and he could feel the pounding of fists on his chest. If his body had not been so rigid he would have been pounding his own chest at that moment. If his teeth were not clenched so hard they were almost splintering he would have been howling along with them.
Ron didn't realize consciously that he stepped out of his boxers. Purely on instinct he selected the greatest weapon he had at his disposal. Like an automaton he pulled his black super-suit on, zipping it shut. He pulled on the dark gray boots, feeling the material of the leggings bonding with it. The same happened as he first pulled on the suit gloves. The dark yellow bands started glowing softly as the suit came to life.
The conscious, logical part of his mind was still functioning. Selecting the proper controls, he damped down the glow, making the stripes turn black. He also de-activated the suit's communications array, setting it for full stealth mode. Finally, he flipped the hood up. There was nothing he could do about his internal tracking chip. Sure, he could tell Wade to shut it off, but that would alert them to his intentions.
This he must do alone. He pulled the front of the hood up, making it resemble a mask. Yamanuchi may have diverted his training from making him a full ninja, but he still had many of their skills. He may not have had the Lotus Blade, but there were other ways he could deal with his target. He caught sight of himself in the dresser mirror. With the suit turned solid black, he looked like a high-tech ninja.
He could have easily made it out of the house through the front door, but that might alert the family. There was no doubt in his mind that at least Kim's Mom was up and about, probably ready to talk to her daughter as soon as she was awake. He was not about to chance having her run into a ninja in the middle of the night.
A small weight landed on his shoulder. He reached up and gently grabbed Rufus, setting him down on the bed. "Not tonight, little buddy. This is something I have to do alone. I don't want you being a part of this."
Rufus sat there, chattering, utter distress evident on his face.
"Listen to me very carefully, Rufus. I don't want you or anybody else coming after me. Don't warn Kim or her parents, do you understand? I don't want them mixed up in this any more. It ends tonight, no matter what happens."
The little naked mole rat just curled up into a ball, nodding helplessly. He instinctively knew what his human was about to do.
Ron went out the window, carefully closing it. Opened from the inside, it would not set off the security systems, so Wade would not be alerted to it. Even if he looked at the sensor logs, it would appear Ron had only opened it to get some fresh air. It was a cool, pleasant night and sometimes it felt good to let some of that in, no matter how good the ventilation system in the house was.
He hit the ground running. Even though the moon was out, he would know this way blindfolded. The trail was not entirely visible, but he knew how to move between the hedges of the neighborhood. He knew exactly what section of the woods would lead him to where he was going. Even a couple years ago, the pace he set would have left him winded, but now he moved with speed and grace. This was much like the Dragon Course at Yamanuchi, only easier as he was only racing against himself, not the other students. His heart beat only as fast as it needed to fuel his body, his breath remained regular. He cleared one fence as if it were nothing more than a hurdle at the high school track. The next he vaulted, landing in a dead run. He covered the mile in just a few short minutes.
Almost like a cat he ascended the tree, taking every other rung as he climbed the ladder of boards nailed into it. Moments later he was standing beside the couch his Dad had laboriously lifted up into the treehouse as it was being built. As if it were a sack of feathers, he shoved it aside. There he found a taped up box.
Ripping into it, he started selecting certain items. The gloves, the belt, a few other gadgets. Once he would have considered putting on the whole costume, but tonight he only wanted what could be considered weapons. Pulling the gloves on, he extended the razor sharp claws, flexing them. Confident he was now ready, he simply dropped through the hole in the floor, landing on the ground in a crouch before running on.
The afternoon before, Ron wouldn't have considered running the distance from the school parking lot to their homes, yet now he was running on another kind of energy. He covered the miles running steadily, moving so swiftly and silently that even his old master Sensei would have been impressed. Even if somebody were to look directly at him as he sprinted the distance, all they would have seen was a fleeting shadow.
A shadow with glowing blue eyes.
The apartment complex was only a couple blocks from the campus. It had only been built in the last decade, but it already looked sort of shabby. For one thing, the construction was, at best, of minimal quality. Then too, most of the residents were only there for a year or two. The neighbors called the place a 'kiddie condo' since it mostly housed students who had just enough resources to live off campus, but not much else. From time to time it was home to wild parties, sometimes to the point the authorities would be called, but for the most part, it was simply quiet.
There wasn't anything going on at that early hour of the morning, and if any of the students were actually awake at that hour, they most likely were spending their time studying or participating in other activities that did not lend themselves to witnessing the hooded ninja dropping from the rooftop onto a tiny balcony.
The sliding glass door responded instantly to his deft touch. Some of the tools he was using were in reality only replicas of 60s TV show props, but they still functioned when properly applied. The apartment was apparently deserted. Ron hoped he would find his quarry there, catching him unaware, but the single bed remained made. In fact, the place looked more like a showroom than where somebody actually lived. The only indication that anyone actually used the place was the bathroom, and the disorganized pile of makeup products sitting there.
Including the black wig.
The goth clothing was sitting in a pile on the floor, telling him Carrion had removed his disguise. That told him he was either about to make his move, or had returned to WWEE. He suspected the latter.
Ron almost smacked his forehead when he remembered what the guards near the mountaintop had said. Agent Alpha was in Middleton! Why didn't he make the connection then? Something big was up, something that needed his attention.
He pulled the mask down off his mouth and picked up the phone in the kitchen. There was a dial tone, so it was indeed hooked up. From memory, he dialed a number.
"Hi, my name's Ron Stoppable…yes…No, Stoppable. I'm part of Team Possible…yes, I work with Kim Possible. Look, I need a favor."
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