The Trinity Sitch - Book 4: Heart of the Fury
Chapter 12: On Our Own Terms
Yori shifted uncomfortably in her seat, trying furiously to find a position where her new low-rider jeans were not binding in the most disquieting places. She was certain that if she had not been blessed with generous curves they would have fallen to her ankles every time she stood up, just like Stoppable-san.
Considering what she was wearing underneath the new pants, that would have been infinitely more embarrassing to the normally demure and quite conservative young woman that it would be to her one-time crush and his long boxer shorts.
It certainly didn't help the young woman driving the jeep was dressed almost the same way and seemed perfectly comfortable with it. "Chica, your actin' like a coyote that cranked a leg on a cactus over there. Sure I don't need to pull over for a rest stop?"
"I am quite all right, thank you, Possible-san. I am afraid that your American-style clothing just does not fit me correctly."
Taking her eyes off the long, straight desert road for just a moment, Joss gave her companion a quick once over. "Looks like they fit just fine to me."
"It is just…I am not accustomed to clothing this tight and restricting…or this revealing." She complained, indicating her pants and the lacy red crop-top Joss had picked out for her.
"Revealing? You're the one that was runnin' around in a skin tight ninja getup."
"My gi was not revealing. In fact it covered up far more than this outfit does. I am certain that half of my backside shows."
"Well, speaking of backsides, if that silk outfit wasn't revealin' then how come I could tell you weren't wearin' no drawers under it? Or anything else for that matter?"
"I was dressed appropriately for my task." She said, red coloring her cheeks. "Besides, one can hardly call what I have on now underwear." Yori was turning as red as her top, considering the direction their conversation was taking. "I should have purchased the clothing I selected first."
"What, that skirt thing? You woulda looked like a cath-lick school-gal in that thing. That would have stuck out like a palomino in a goat pen. We're tryin' not to be noticed."
"Not to be noticed? I have been propositioned twice now since putting this on."
"Yeah, me too, but I'm willin' ta bet those hombres have already forgotten you and moved onto the next Chiquita. There's a big difference between dressin' up hot and dressin' up weird. When ya look as good as we do, we'd 'tract more attention if we dressed like we were tryin' ta hide it."
Uncomfortable as she was, Yori had to admit Joss had a point.
They drove for another half hour. Every so often Joss would pick up her Kimmunicator and check the progress of a dot on the tracking screen. Bored, she tried to strike a conversation up with the Japanese woman again.
"So, what is the bid deal with you and Ron? Did ya'll hook up before he got together with Kim?"
"Hook up?"
"Yeah. Went steady with, boyfriend/girlfriend, dating, jumped in the sack…" she rattled off a list of what the multi-purpose term could mean.
"No, I did not!" She answered, perhaps a little more forcefully than she wanted to.
"So, how come cousin Kim went all green eyed over you and Ron?"
"Were here eyes not always green?"
"Jealous, Yori. I mean, even right up to the wedding, if your name came up she'd go all tense and everything. She didn't even do that with me and I came right out and told her I had a crush on him when I was little."
"Perhaps that itself is the answer. I am almost the same age as both of them, perhaps a few months older. Also, you said you made your intentions known. You cleared the air and, like you said, you were a little girl at the time."
Joss chafed at the 'little girl' comment, though she figured Yori was right. "So, what happened? Did Kim catch you smooching or something?"
"No. The only time she ever saw me kiss Stoppable-san she was standing right beside him."
"Whoa! So you did crush on him!" Joss almost squealed. "And you laid one on him right in front of Kim? That was spankin'!"
"I do not think a chaste kiss on the cheek would qualify as spanking, though I could not tell which one of them was the most shocked."
"So, bottom line it for me. Did you want to date Ron or not?"
"Yes, I did."
"But you didn't say anything."
"I thought at the time I was making myself clear. Despite the signals I gave him, he seemed to only have eyes for his future wife. The only way I could have been more obvious would have been to come out and tell him I was interested in him."
"Yeah, you'd about have to do that with him. Even that time back when I first met him and I kind of attached myself to his arm he seemed kind of oblivious to it. He didn't even catch how tweaked Kim got when I kissed him on the cheek when they left. Kim said he kind of freaked on their ride home when she told him I had a little-girl crush on him. Twelve and almost sixteen wouldn't have been right."
"I thought your current boyfriend was even older than Stoppable-san."
Joss blushed, but only just slightly. "Guess bein' almost nineteen does make a difference. At least to me it does. Sure riles up Daddy somethin' fierce."
"It is dishonorable to ignore the wishes of your elders, especially your father's."
"Yeah, I guess. It's just he don't like it cause I get lots of attention from men. But I'm an adult now and I can make my own decisions. So I'm datin' a guy who's five years older than me. Big whoop, it's not like I'm gonna marry this un."
"Isn't the point of dating to discover your future mate?"
"Maybe. It's also a good way to have a good time with hot guys."
"I am still not comfortable with the attention men pay me, especially dressed this way." Yori said, wiggling her backside again, trying to keep the crease from pinching.
"Well, if you like Ron, you obviously like the guys. Why not just let nature take its course. They can look, doesn't mean they get to touch, especially when you can put the ninja smack-down on them."
"That would not be…seemly."
"You sure are a strange Chica, Yori. Me, I like all the attention, 'specially since I used to be kind of a tom-boy. Comes with bein' a cowgirl, I guess. But when guys start payin' me all kinds of attention, tellin' me how pretty an all I am, makes me feel like a real woman inside. Then there's the kissin'…and the other stuff…" She sighed slightly, thinking about her after-mission time in the Bahamas.
"I would not know. Most of the students where teach are boys, yet they do not seem to think of me as anything other than one of the instructors there."
"I bet you're wrong on that count." Joss smiled at her. "Hot for teacher is pretty universal, even if they're trained well enough not to show it. Now, come on, you were a student there not too long ago, you can't tell me that out of all those boys, you never had one that you would have considered dating?"
"Let us just say that I have not met a man who I would do more than kiss on the cheek."
"Wait a minute, hold the phone, that's it right there!"
"What is?"
"You mean to tell me, at your age, lookin' like you do, you're still a virgin? No wonder Kim freaked out, she thinks you're saving yourself for Ron."
"I was not saving myself just for him. He turned out to be meant for somebody else, I just have not found anyone else who would be worthy of me. Would you not save yourself for a man worthy of you?"
"Don't know, not 'xactly savin' myself."
"Oh." Yori blushed again, getting Joss' meaning. They sat in silence for a while, neither of them smiling any more.
"Yeah, 'oh.'" Joss said, suddenly just a tiny bit upset. "I guess I've never met anyone like Ron who could be that close to me. So I date…a lot. Sometimes I go steady with a guy for a little while, sometimes it's just a date or two. Sometimes it turns out all the guy wants is a little tumble. Once it even turned out the guy really wanted to be with me since I looked so much like Kim."
"You really do not like being compared to her, do you?"
"When it's in a good light? Fine! Let's just say that one guy called me Kim at…a very bad time."
"How would…oh!" She exclaimed, blushing once more.
After a few minutes Joss asked, "Did you love Ron?"
She considered the question a moment before answering. "In hindsight? No. It really was, as you say it, just a crush. So, what about you, Possible-san? Did you love Ron?"
"Nah. Just a crush. Still, can't believe you wouldn't go for that hottie with the hair."
"Hair? Oh, you mean Hirotaka?"
"Yeah. I saw his picture in Kim's yearbook from the exchange thing. Him I could crush on."
"Not my type."
"No?"
"I prefer blondes." Yori smiled.
"You are not helping yourself on the cousin Kim front, you know."
She looked at Joss, who was smiling, realizing she was just ribbing her.
They crested a slight rise, catching view of some of the sparse traffic on the desert road, including the large silver bus they had been shadowing.
"This is a much better way of tracking them, I must admit." Yori said.
"Well, as long as they've got those Moodulators with them, we've got a chance. Joss said, her expression shifting into Mission Mode.
"How is it that Load-san can track an inactive electronic device?"
"Let's just say that those particular little things bother him quite a bit." She jammed on the accelerator, starting to close the distance between them and their target.
"Are we even sure they are still on the bus?"
"No, but somebody got on there in Yuma carryin' all six of the stolen chips. They ain't pulled over yet, and according to this," she held her Kimmunicator up, showing Yori the screen, "They're still on that bus. Worst case scenario now, we get the chips back before they can be used for anything bad."
Yori nodded. It was there best shot considering the trail had gone cold after Bortel's lab. The plan this time was simple. Twice now Yori had been bested trying to take the pair on in their own element. She was good, but there was a reason they were working in tandem. They were a team, combining their strengths. Now it was time for Joss and Yori to confront them on their terms.
Fighting the urge to look through the tinted windows of the large, silver bus as they passed, Yori looked the other way. The pair had not yet seen Joss and wouldn't be forewarned if they saw her speeding past them.
Once out in front, Joss picked up her comm. "Wade, you sure they're getting off at the next town?"
"As near as I can tell, Joss. The pair you described bought a ticket for only that far. They're either switching busses there to throw you off the track, or they're meeting whoever they're turning the Moodulators over to. Either way, that's where you have to confront them."
"Got it." She checked her mirror. The bus was now several hundred yards behind them. The town, itself just a series of scattered buildings along the highway, could be seen in the distance. She reached down between the seats, bringing her slim new grappling gun out and sticking it in her impossibly tight seeming belt.
Yori took note, making sure her hook and chain were ready as well.
"Wade, the local law know we're comin'?"
"Already done. The local sheriff isn't about to stop any red Jeeps for speeding. You're all clear."
"Rockin, Wade, Wild Child out!" She started to stick the comm into a cargo pocket, realizing it wasn't there. She glanced at Yori. "Okay, for future reference, low-riders don't have enough pocket space."
"They don't have enough of any kind of space." Yori replied, wearing a look of slight satisfaction.
They pulled into the town. There was a bus company sign out in front of the gas station. They pulled into the lot and parked around the side. The piled out, Yori heading around the back as if looking for the lady's room, Joss walking casually around the front and getting a cold drink from a machine as the bus approached. She hooked her thumbs over her belt, keeping her hand close to the grappler in the back. She took a long swig of her Pepsi as the transport pulled to a dusty halt. Tilting her cowboy hat back, she waited, watching as indistinct shapes got up and made their way to the front of the bus.
Fourth and fifth out of the door were two otherwise innocuous passengers. They were both wearing shorts and t-shirts to be as comfortable as possible in the late-summer heat, though both were wearing caps and sunglasses. Each was carrying well-stuffed backpacks.
Joss recognized them, even with the headgear. She plastered a huge smile on her face and started right toward them.
"Ron! Kim! Is that you? Howdy!" She shouted at them, holding her arms out as if she expected a big hug.
The pair looked as if they were being charged by an enraged rhino. In the space of two heartbeats they did exactly what she wanted them to.
They ran.
She noted with satisfaction that, surprised out in the open, they both chose to run the same way. Good! That made this all that much easier. The grappler, its plastic body molded in bright orange to lessen the chances it would be mistaken for a gun, appeared in her hand. She raised it and fired. Instead of the usual hook and spike tip, a miniature bolo whipped out, wrapping itself around the legs of the false-Kim. She went down hard.
The false-Ron skidded to a halt, reaching down to help his stricken partner. That's when the black hook and chain seemed to stretch out of nowhere, wrapping around his midsection, pinning his arms. In seconds Yori was there, wrapping the chain around him.
Joss was already binding the hands and feet of her captive. She turned her onto her back, pulling off the cap and glasses.
"I think it's time that you and me have a talk about things." She said, ice in her voice.
Some time during the night the rain began in earnest. Not able to sleep, nor really wanting to, Kim slipped out of Ron's warm embrace and walked out into the main cabin of the wrecked aircraft or starship, whatever it was. She caught sight of Sagan, who was standing out in the rain like some kind of carved sentinel. His attention was directed outward so he did not see her up and about, though if she could have, she would have blushed anyway. She realized the only thing she was wearing was a second skin of living metal and she was pretty certain it left absolutely nothing to the imagination. Not wanting to potentially give a stranger a show, she ducked back inside their tiny cabin, contenting herself with watching Ron in the diluted moonlight. Even with the thick cloud cover she could make out the dim outline of the full, larger moon through the windows.
He was sleeping soundly, both from exhaustion and from the effects of the healing foam the old Torellian had applied to him. Still, she wished he was awake, both because she wanted to talk to him and because she wanted to be with him, though she wondered if that would even work in her condition. If Ron hadn't been injured she certainly would have tried. For heaven's sake, even with the horrible gash on his back and the bruising, if he had been awake he probably would have tried too. In his sleep the hand he draped over her had come to rest in its usual place after all. Ah, just as well he was sleeping. She didn't want to hurt him.
Then there was the issue that, at least in this form, she had been able to throw fifteen foot tall robots around like toys. Kim of metal, Ron of tissue, she said in her head.
That's Man of Steel, Woman of Tissue, but I understand the reference, he said, his soul speaking directly to hers.
You are supposed to be asleep, Ronnie, she thought back to him.
I think I am.
Then who am I talking to? Dream Ron?
Kim blinked. Half forgotten memories drifted back to her. When they had fought Arcus Uri and his men on Arkonia, they could hear each other in their minds. They put that down to their imaginations running wild during the battle. Then it happened again as they were returning to Earth. Again the idea they were speaking to each other through their soul connection was dismissed as pure fantasy.
Yet here she was having a short conversation with Ron as he slept.
His eyes slowly opened, glittering in the soft light.
"You know, in this light, you're kind of cute." He said.
"Flatterer." She smiled back at him. She leaned over the bed and kissed him gently. He responded by pulling her back down into the bed, throwing the dusty covers back over her again and holding her close in a bear hug.
"I think that medicine wore off." He said.
"Is it hurting again?" She asked, her hand feeling around his bare back, trying to find the gash.
"Actually, no. I feel pretty good."
She twisted around again, letting him snuggle against her back. "Ronnie, what if I'm stuck this way from now on?"
"Shhhhh. Don't say things like that. Besides, we've met somebody with your new powers before. Remember, he could change back and forth at will."
"I know. But…but remember he talked about his brother, he had the powers first and he couldn't change back for a long, long time."
"KP, I think he didn't change back because he didn't know he could. He still did."
"But I don't know how." She said, her voice cracking. "Ron, I don't want to be like this. I can feel your touch but It's not right somehow. I can see you, but I can't smell you…"
"Baby, right now I think that's a really, really good thing." He said, wrapping his hands around her waist.
"I'm not kidding, Ron. I know you probably need a bath. Heaven knows, I probably do to under this…stuff, for all I know."
"Well, okay, what happened when you changed?"
She though a moment. "I was fighting with the girl who was pretending to be Yori."
"Okay, then what. How did you start to change?"
"It didn't…it didn't start until the pain started." She turned over, looking into his eyes.
"She hurt you?"
"No, it wasn't my pain. It was yours. I could feel what was happening to you. I thought you were dying, then there was this burst of light. I tried screaming when all this metal started wrapping around me, but instead I started flying, instinctively knowing where you were."
I'm not hurting now.
But we're still in danger she thought back.
"We've been in danger lots of times before, KP. Hmm, okay, what about all the things the Blessed Mother told us about this?"
"I don't remember anything about turning our powers off and on and you seem to have lost yours."
He put his chin on her shoulder, a tear rolling down his cheek, though she could not feel it as it dripped onto her. "No, baby, I didn't. Before you got to me, it saved my life…"
"What?..."
"I…I had to fight in that arena. They gave me a sword and somehow I knew how to use it. I've never used a weapon that big in my life, yet the moment I tried to defend myself, it's like my hands knew what to do with it. The next thing I knew, I'd won the fight."
She pushed him back slightly so she could see his eyes. The answer to her unspoken question was there…
…he had been forced to kill his opponent.
That was the pain. It wasn't his body in pain, it was his soul. That's what had called out to her through their connection.
"Oh my God, Ron."
"When it happened, the crowd was cheering me, but all I could do was throw up. That's when they found out I was human and they tried to kill me." The tears were spilling out of his eyes full force now. She pulled him back into her embrace and let him cry. She could feel the pain in his soul and no matter how much she loved him or how much he loved her, she couldn't take that pain away.
Or could she?
The Blessed Mother had said something! Their love was the key to their power! Yet it was another venerable mentor who had been giving her the clues she needed.
"Ron, tell me something. Sensei asked me a question before I came here and it has been bothering me."
"Um hmm." He said, still sobbing slightly.
"I can't remember the first time I told you that I loved you."
His sobbing stopped as he met her eyes again. "You don't remember?"
"No, I can't." her voice was cracking. It was literally hurting her that she couldn't
"It was after the Junior Prom. We walked until we were on a bluff overlooking the city and we watched the sun come up. Right as it crested the ridge you said 'Ronnie, I love you.'…unquote."
Kim smiled, her voice sounding part sob, part laugh. "No, silly, that's when you told me you loved me, not the other way around. You said 'I love you, KP.'"
Suddenly it felt as if her heart had been set free once more. It was so simple. How could she have forgotten?
"Jinx, you owe me a soda." Ron said, a goofy smile spreading over his face. Then, as she looked into his eyes, his mouth gaped open. She caught a whiff of his days without brushing breath and choked a bit.
"Ron, that was over five years ago, you can't wait that long to call…" She stopped and leaned close to him, taking a deep breath. He had been right earlier, he reeked.
It was the fact she now knew he reeked that made her hear leap. She could smell his sweat, his breath! She could feel the stiff, bristles of his quickly filling in beard as she touched his face.
She touched his face with a hand of plain, normal flesh.
Love was the key to her power!
Despite the fact they both needed a very long shower, they delved into that power until dawn.