KP – One Oh One : Part XV - United we Stand
Kim sat on the edge of the acceleration lounge. She snapped out of her harness just about the moment they were airborne, already preparing for her leap. Her nerves were already on edge, so much so she really didn't care that Will Du was piloting the miniature, two seat "fighter" hoverjet. A couple times he almost said something, but a quick glare from her made him hold his tongue.
She sat in silence watching the terrain fly by below them in a blur. Her stomach was turning flips as she thought about what she might find when she got there, if that was even where he was. No, there was no doubt in her mind. Ron was there. She knew him better than any other person on Earth, including his parents. Just as certainly as the events of the last twenty four hour caused her to snap and destroy part of her room, the emotions had become too much for Ron and he was taking it out in the form of a final solution.
"Five minutes to target." Will announced, wincing slightly thinking even that might set her off. It didn't. As long as he stuck to business he was just another instrument on the hoverjet doing its job.
Time to get checked out on one of these things Kim told herself. The new flyer Wade was putting together would primarily rely on pre-programmed flight plans, but she insisted it have manual controls and wanted to learn how to fly it herself. The days of being chauffeured around on her missions was coming to an end. There weren't going to be any more surprises like the time they actually had to pay a helicopter pilot for a ride or like the time Team Impossible prevented them from even getting their rides.
It would also mean being able to just about tell Global Justice where to stick their 'orders.' Their 'independent contractor' status wasn't her idea and she only endured it thinking of it as a necessary evil. If they got out of this…when they got out of this that would come to a close. Kim Possible was her own person and the only other person who had any say in what Team Possible would do from now on was Ron.
The Kimmunicator rang and she hit the accept button before it could get through all four familiar notes. "Go Wade."
"I just got off the line with Doctor Director. Ron's suit just went to full battle mode. He doesn't care if I can see him now, he lit the screens up like a lightning bolt."
"Is he?..."
"He's right where we thought he would be. Apparently WWEE doesn't care if they're seen now either. Satellite scans show a large opening in the mountainside, as if they left some hanger doors open."
"Good, then they're just showing me the way in."
"That's not all. I was trying to hack my way into their computer system when it all went dead. They instituted some kind of kill virus that took out their entire system. But that's not the worst of it. Before I got cut off, I found the base has a self-destruct system, and it's been activated."
"How long?"
"You've got about ten minutes. After that, the whole base is going to be leveled."
"One minute to target." Will stated. He glanced over at Kim, meeting her eyes.
Kim almost looked away, but she found something there she was not expecting. Instead of smug, often misplaced confidence, she saw respect and concern in his expression. Will Du might have been a pompous, arrogant, self-centered jerk most of the time, but he was still a human being and he knew quite well what Ron meant to her. She thought she could also see a degree of respect for Ron himself, after all, the very first day they met, Ron saved his life.
Kim clipped her Kimmunicator back to her belt and got ready. The craft was already slowing and she could see the mountaintop containing he base they had infiltrated two nights earlier. With a last check she nodded to Will. The canopy rolled back and the wind caught her in the face. She pulled the strap of her helmet tight and fired the drive unit of her glider pack, sending her up and above the jet. Twisting her body in mid-flight, she extended the wings. The inverted gravitational field took hold, leveling her flight. He checked the chronometer on the back of her glove. Eight minutes estimated until the whole base would blow up.
Gunning the engine, she rocketed toward the huge doors open in the east facing slope. The fact such an inviting entrance could be a trap occurred to her, but there was no time. She would just have to go with her gut that the base had already been evacuated and nobody would even be aware of her approach.
Ron watched helplessly as a greenish light started seeping from his body. It was happening. Carrion was sapping his 'powers'…his greatest abilities. His body hung from his fist like a limp rag doll. He could already feel the fingers tightening around his throat. If the forced removal of his powers didn't kill, him, then the bastard was going to finish the job himself. Then there would be nothing left standing in his way from going after Kim.
What had gone wrong? He had the super-suit, he had his hard-won fighting skills, he had the ferret weapons and on top of all that, he could feel his Mystical Monkey Power working for a change. With all that working for him, how could he have failed so miserably? Without the crystals, Cary On was just a normal human being. He wasn't even using any weapons besides the crystal itself. He went in, confident in his belief he would quickly and easily take Carrion down.
Something was missing from the equation. No matter how many weapons, how many skills he took into the situation, he was incomplete. As his consciousness faded, it all became so clear to him. Without one, the other is incomplete. He was strong, stronger than he had ever been in his life, but the foundation of that strength was Kim. Without her he didn't have that final edge, that intangible something that made them victorious again and again and again.
Kim's voice rang in his head "I can't save the world without you." He couldn't recall her ever saying those words to him, but they were as clear as any memory of her to him. That filled him with new despair. In his foolishness he was costing her something that she relied on. Himself. It wasn't just some 'Ron Factor.' They were a team. He had his part to do, she had hers and leaving one or the other out took away that edge, that something special they brought to the fight.
His vision started to fade, though whether it was from lack of oxygen to his brain on that his soul was being torn into by the dual assault of his strength being sapped by the crystal and the despair he was feeling in his heart. Ron was no longer being held aloft by his throat, but drifting in a soft sea of light, cradled by clouds softer than any satin sheet. Strong, yet dove soft arms wrapped around him, caressing him. He could hear her voice. I am here Ron.
It came to him he rally was hearing her voice.
"Put my fiancé down!" She screamed.
Carrion looked at Kim and smiled. She was standing there, legs apart, dressed in the same type of suit Ron was, only trimmed in glowing blue bands.
"Shouldn't you be at home crying your eyes out?" He mocked.
"Been there, done that, bought the t shirt. Now let him go, you bastard!"
He glanced at the unconscious man in his grip, grinning wickedly, then turned back to Kim. "As you wish." He opened his hand, letting Ron drop to the floor like a worn-out Pandaroo. He squared off with her, their eyes locking together.
The sight of him almost made her want to retch. There was so much he had in common with Ron. Their hair and skin were almost the same color. Carrion even had freckles across his cheeks and nose, just like Ron had. The worst of it was he had the same chocolate brown eyes. When she had first laid eyes on him at the start of their Senior year in high school, she thought he was the perfect vision of what Ron might grow into one day. He had all the best traits, along with a square jaw and broad shoulders, as if he were some kind of perfected vision of the man she loved.
Now the veil was torn away. He wasn't the perfected Ron. There was no such thing. Ron was who she loved and his face, with the rounded jaw and the large ears sticking up and out, that was perfection, that was the hottie that made her heart race. Ron was the man she wanted to spend her life with.
Carrion was just a perversion of that.
That knowledge took something within her and changed her. For almost a year she had been living with a kernel of fear deep in her heart. What he had threatened to do to her almost paralyzed her at times. He may not have had the chance to lay a hand on her that day, but he still took away her innocence.
Now facing him once more, she saw him for what he truly was. He was the purest evil she had ever faced, but instead of fearing him, it only made her angry. Innocence was gone, but knowledge had taken its place. The fear that had slowly been eating away at her mind suddenly washed away, passing through her. A passage from one of the Science Fiction novels her final High School English teacher made her read came back to her.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
The power that Carrion had taken away from her that night returned to her. She saw him now at the pathetic corruption of a human being he really was.
"You're too late, little kitty-kitty." He laughed maniacally. "You couldn't do anything to me before without your little protector here, and now I have his power." He held up the gloved hand, displaying the crystal. It flared to life, sending streamers of greenish light swirling around his body.
"The Mystical Monkey Power is now mine! I am no weak fool like Stoppable, I have no fear in my heart keeping me from using it to its fullest potential. You thought Monkey Fist was terrible, wait until you see what I can do!"
He looked directly at Kim, expecting to see her cowed before his magnificence. Instead what he saw reminded him much more of another kind of cat. She wasn't a frightened little kitty-cat as he taunted her, she was a lioness. No matter, he had the power now.
"I'm going to par-broil you, I'm going to filet you like a trout. I'm going to throw you into the blender and set it to puree."
Kim stood up a little straighter, a wry smile spreading across her lips. "So you stole Ron's greatest power, huh?"
"Of course I did! That is how the crystal works!"
Kim's smile got a little wider as she saw Ron stir. Carrion wasn't paying him any attention, so he didn't see his eyes starting to glow blue.
"Maybe, Carrion, I need to boil you like the hollandaise sauce." She shot right back at him.
"Fool! Everyone knows the sauce will be ruined it if comes to a boil!" He suddenly stopped, confusion playing across his features. He held up his fists, apparently trying to concentrate. "What is happening? Where is the blue fire?"
"How about this blue fire?" She flared the defense screens of her suit, sending her flying into the air. She flipped twice, bringing her foot down right across his jaw.
Carrion stumbled backwards, dazed by the blow. He wasn't ready when Kim punching him in the jaw. It wasn't a single strike, but a flurry of blows coming faster than the eye could follow. She hit him in the face, in the gut, pounding him relentlessly, never letting him get his guard up. Finally she backed off, letting him slowly get to his feet.
"Where is the power? I should be hearing the howling, I should feel the strength of the simian spirit surging through me."
"Because you're nothing but a pathetic fool, Carrion. The power might give Ron great strength and the natural ability to use Monkey Kung-fu, but that was never his greatest ability." She moved in on him again, roundhouse kicking him in the jaw, sending him sprawling to the ground. "Maybe this time while you're in prison you can start a cooking class."
"What?"
"On second thought, that's not yours." She fired her grappler. The molecular bonding cup smacked into his hand, adhering to the glove. With a might pull, she ripped the glove clean off of his hand."
"No!"
Kim held the glove in her hand. The crystal was glowing faintly. She wondered what other powers were still trapped in the crystal. No matter.
She flung the remains of the glove to the ground, smashing the crystal with her foot. Little motes of light danced around it, many swirling up into the air. One quickly found its way back to Ron.
Carrion slowly got to his feet. Weakly he held his fists up as Kim approached him.
"I should have done this the last time instead of telling Ron to let you go." She grabbed his shoulders and brought her knee up with all the force her muscles and the exoskeleton of her suit could muster.
He doubled over in pain, clutching between his legs. Using her grappler cable, she quickly tied him up, making sure to bind his legs as well. He lay there moaning, not offering any resistance.
Kim went over to Ron. One of his eyes were swollen shut and his whole face was slowly turning into a huge bruise. She hated to think what his body looked like under his suit. The amber colored power bands had gone completely dim.
Still, he managed a little goofy smile when he saw her kneeling in front of him. She reached out and gently touched his face.
With a sudden, horrid thought, she checked her chronometer. There was no way to tell how badly he was hurt, but there was no choice. Wrapping her arms around his chest, she hauled him to his feet. The wings extended and the engine of her glider flared to life.
Just as she was about to lift off, she looked over at the bound figure moaning on the floor. She said a silent prayer that her new pack really was more powerful than the other and grabbed a handful of the cables binding him.
Painfully slowly the three of them lifted into the air. The anti-gravity wings were clearly outmatched by their combined weight, but the engine was strong enough to give them lift, though flying was ungainly trying to keep the thrust vectored downwards. She could see the open doors ahead of them, with the brightening morning sky beckoning them onwards.
They had about a hundred feet to go when the first charge went off. The main console disintegrated in a shower of metal, plastic and rock. The pressure wave hit them, propelling them onwards, taking them clear of the next explosion that took out the command console on the raised platform. More charges started going off above them and she was barely able to dodge the worst of the shrapnel. The large crane broke loose, crashing down right behind her. Smoke and fire filled the air. She pushed the throttle all the way open then leg go of the control, hanging on to Ron with one arm in case he didn't have the energy to maintain his grip himself. All she could do was try to control their flight with her body as they were buffeted by dozens of explosions.
A final blast, larger than the rest brought the entire cavern down, just as they rocketed out of the opening into the clear. The top of the mountain suddenly sagged as plumes of chocking dust swirled all around them.
Moments later they were clear. They were coming up on another ridge and they were going too fast to correct. She leveled out their flight as best she could, then let go of Carrion, letting him fall into what she hoped was relatively soft mountain scrub.
She rolled sideways, taking the brunt of the impact at they piled into the other mountain. The wing of her pack was snapped right off and she could feel them rolling, tumbling toward the cliff. Twisting her body, she wrapped one arm around Ron, firing her remaining grappler cable. The tip caught something and held fast. The line played out as they sailed over the edge of the cliff. Then she felt it go taught. Pain shot through her shoulder, but she clung to Ron as if her own life depended on it.
In a way, it did.
A roaring filled her ears. For half a moment she thought more explosives were going off, then the pressure was taken off her arm. She could feel other arms around her, gently taking Ron from hers. Sensing they were safe, she hit the release, freeing her overstretched arm from the cable.
The larger hoverjet closed its hatch and bore them away.
Kim rubbed her shoulder. It was going to hurt for a while, but somehow she managed not to dislocate it. Surprisingly, that, and a couple bruises she suffered in the crash, were all that was wrong with her.
The emergency room had already discharged her, so she was free to go check on the other patient. She ran into her mother right outside of his room.
"Mom? How is he?"
"Damned lucky." She sighed. "The x-rays all came back negative. He's bruised up pretty badly and has some loose teeth, but other than that, he's none-the-worse for the wear." She nodded toward the room. "He's waiting for you."
Kim nodded once, then brushed past her mother.
Ron's face was still swollen, but he looked somewhat more comfortable than he had when they brought them in. He smiled again when he saw her. "Hey." He said, a little dreamily.
"Hey yourself." She sat down on the edge of his bed.
He looked away then. "Kim, I'm so, so sorry, I…"
"Shhhhh. We can talk about all of this later. Time and place and all, you know." She gently placed her hand on his cheek and slowly turned his face back toward her.
"We've both made truly horrible mistakes, and that's something we're going to have to deal with, Ronnie, but that doesn't change the fact I love you with my whole heart, and I hope you feel the same about me."
"I always have." He seemed a little distant, but that was due to the pain killers he had been given. He still had the brightness in his eyes, even if they were surrounded by purple bruises.
Kim leaned over and gave him the lightest kiss on his lips. "Don't ever do that again."
Ron winced slightly. "Believe me, I won't. We're a team, and I forgot that for a moment."
Kim's smile faded slightly. "I don't just mean going after Carrion alone. I've said it before, there are no secrets. I don't care how much you think it's going to hurt me, you tell me everything. We can deal with bad feelings, but you put both of us in danger not telling me about him. You understand?"
He nodded slowly. "Carrion…is he?..."
"He's in a GJ hospital. They're taking charge of him now, so I don't think we'll have to worry about him for a long time to come. Besides, he's going to be talking like Falsetto Jones for a while."
Ron laughed involuntarily, though it apparently hurt him slightly to do so. He reached out and took Kim's hand. "It did feel good to wail on him though, at least until he beat me. Guess I am Stoppable after all."
"Don't talk like that, honey. Just don't ever forget. Together we're Un-Stoppable."
He laughed again. "I couldn't help but notice, you still called me your fiancé back there."
"Uh huh. Really, Baby, can you even imagine us not getting married?"
He gently took her ring finger. "There for a bit, I thought I screwed even that up."
A tear rolled down Kim's cheek. "No. What I did to you was horrible. You deserved a slap in the face, not having your heart ripped out." For effect, she gave him a very light pat on the cheek. "There, it's done. Now we can start putting all this behind us."
"Almost." Painfully, he sat up and took off the stainless steel necklace he was wearing. Kim closed her eyes as she felt him putting the ring back on her finger. She smiled, then looked down at her hand.
There was an emerald ring resting on her left-hand ring finger.
"The promise ring?" She said with a little shock. "I'm not your fiancé any more?"
"Yes you are. What matters is that you said yes. You'll be my fiancé until the day we walk down that aisle together as husband and wife. Just trust me, there will be a right time to give you the diamond back."
Kim smiled softly, getting an inkling of what he had in mind.
A trio of hoverjets landed in a secluded clearing in the Appalachian mountains. The door slowly opened and two men emerged. One was heavy-set, with reddish brown upsweeping hair and a neatly trimmed Vandyke.
Another group of men in magenta and white uniforms were waiting for him. One was holding a metallic object, almost bowing and scraping as he approached. He stopped, using his good left hand to release the bindings of the simple prosthetic hand he had been provided. It fell to the ground, forgotten. The other man held up the metal device. The end opened up, accepting his stump. With distinct pleasure he flexed his newly activated bionic hand, extending and retracting the fins of the finger-tip missiles.
"Very good." Gemini said softly. "It feels wonderful to breath real air again. Now tell me, where is this 'Agent Alpha' so I can properly thank him for my freedom?"
"I'm sorry, sir. He has been capture by Glo….by the enemy, sir."
Gemini raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. I very much wanted to know how we came to have an Alpha when I have not named one…"
"…I wanted to offer him a seat."
a/n – the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear is from Frank Herbert's Dune
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