"How? Why? When?" Ron's mind was going into overload. He was processing the new information he just received.
"So many questions." Tara walked up to him and put her arms behind his neck. "So little time." She silenced any further questions with a kiss.
Ron's mind officially shut down and the only thing still working was the part that made his lips move and his eyes close. When she finally broke away after a few seconds he was in a trance. A sweet, beautiful, amazing trance.
"I'm glad you liked it." she said with a smile.
Ron still didn't speak. He simply looked her up and down. It's weird since she looks exactly like Tara but she's….just different in some way. She looked sultry, not at all like the sweet but naive girl at school. She spoke differently too. Was this really Tara?
"Are you really..."
"Yes, its me. All Tara King."
"Then why…?"
Tara laughed "I'm guessing you're asking why I'm not acting like myself. Short version, this is myself. Anything else you've seen has been an act, besides me liking you anyway."
Ron felt like he was a dial up modem trying to download an HD video or something. "You like me?"
"Yes. I know. Shocking. Look we don't have a lot of time so can you process all of this later? I'll take you to lunch tomorrow and explain everything. Although if you want that to happen I need you to do something for me."
He was still lagging behind but he decided to listen when she said to take it all in later "What do you want me to do Tara?"
As soon as it came out of his mouth Tara smacked him across the face.
Ron rubbed his cheek, it felt like she put all her strength behind it. "Why?"
"Stop thinking about yourself."
"I'm not thinking about myself." He said, only to get yet another smack.
"You're lying! Stop acting!" She pulled back her hand to slap him again but found herself pinned to the wall by her collar.
Ron looked at her in a serious manner "What do you mean by acting?"
"I put on a face too. I know what everyone else sees isn't the real you. I don't know if you're doing it for Kim or to protect yourself, but we don't have time for that now."
Ron put on a thoughtful face before asking "Alright. Speaking completely hypothetically, if I was acting. Putting on a face if you will. Why would I stop acting right now?"
Tara felt giddy inside despite the circumstances. She was finally speaking to him, the real him, as herself. "If we lose, Drakken wins."
Ron rolled his eyes "You don't say."
Tara snarked right back "You can be a sarcastic ass all you want but I know you don't completely understand."
"And what don't I understand?"
"You really think Global Justice is just going to roll over when the self repairing toys start attacking? Middleton...no, the entire state is going to be ground zero for the largest nuclear and missile strike you've ever seen."
"There are millions of people here! They wouldn't!"
"They wouldn't kill millions to save billions?" Tara locked eyes with him, unwavering in her resolve.
Ron was appalled, but she was right. The world isn't some comic book where everybody lives at the end. If it really came down to that choice most people would do the same.
"You're right." Ron said looking at the ground
"Thanks. Could you put me down now please?"
"Oh, my bad." Ron gently put her down back on her feet.
"Aw, how sweet. You slam me against the wall then you decide to be gentle with me. You know just how to treat a girl." She said with a shit eating grin
"You were attacking me!" Truthfully he would have never attacked if he fully understood she was an ally, but she caught him off guard.
"I'm just messing with you. I know." She waited a few seconds until he relaxed to continue "What I don't know is how strong you are.
"Does it matter?"
"It kind of matters since we will be taking on a load of synthodrones and a superhuman yeah. I know you aren't weak since you just suspended me in the air one handed for over two minutes with no visible signs of strain." Tara said
"Probably slightly stronger than Shego right now. She can't go full tilt with her powers without hurting herself though, and me," he lit up his hand with what almost appeared to be a blue flame "I don't have that problem."
"I thought I'd be surprised, but I'm not. You really are something special."
"hmph, thanks." Ron got a lot more stoic when he was really acting like himself. It was nice.
"So tell me" Tara put a finger in Ron's chest. "Why weren't you going full tilt from the start? You almost got yourself captured, or worse."
"Honestly, I was afraid of the cameras showing everyone the real me. I figured if I got caught someone would come in and save the day. But you're right. There's no time for that. I was being selfish." Ron turned away towards the hall entrance, saying it out loud mad him feel like an idiot.
Tara turned his head towards her gently "Ron, lets analyze your messed up attitude tomorrow. On our date. Which we will have after we crush the bad guys."
Shego went back to doing her nails after she sent out the synthodrones. They were supposed to lock him up in some storage place for Bueno Nacho stuff. She figured it would be funny to make him think he was in heaven. She figured things didn't go completely to plan when she heard smashing outside the control room door. She did not expect a henchman to come flying through the door and stoppable to be standing there with his palm raised as if he hit him with a buddha palm.
"How do I shut it off?" Ron said coldly
"You're too late sidekick! I have won!" Drakken flamboyantly raised his hand towards the screen. It showed numerous large diablo toys flying in the sky, all over the globe.
Ron cocked his head as if he was thinking about the weirdness of what he was seeing then replied "I'm not asking twice."
Shego noticed a blonde girl smirking behind him "Sidekick, who's your sidekick?"
"Her name is Tara, she will be helping defeat you all this evening. All you need to know is she's good at what she does. Very good."
"It doesn't matter! Seize them!" Drakken yelled. Henchmen along with a few synthodrones entered the room. Tara pulled out her daggers. Ron simply stood with a disinterested but angry gaze at Shego.
"Hope you don't mind sidekick, but I'm going to try out the new Kimmie over there." She tried to banter but he was already waving Tara off towards the henchmen.
"Try not to kill any of the actual people." Ron said, not really caring if one of these maniacs accidentally got seriously hurt. When he turned back around Shego seemed to be shifting between surprise and anger at being ignored.
"You ready to step up to the big leagues Stoppable?"
"You really have no idea Shego."
Shego looked at his eyes again. The casual indifference contained within them and his voice shook her a little. Something felt off. The normal creakiness in his voice was gone. He's confident things will go his way, maybe…."Zorpox?"
"Nope." Ron slowly walked up to Shego and put the tip of two fingers up to her solar plexus "Just Ron." The words were accentuated by a one inch punch that sent Shego flying into a wall of monitors near Drakken.
Drakken looked down at Shego coughing up a lung and actually felt concern. Not just for his plan, but for her. Whatever hit her had a lot of force behind it. He saw her glaring in the direction of whatever his name was. "Shego what's wrong? Does he have a weapon?"
Shego took deep breaths and managed to choke out "He...Is….the weapon."
"WHAT? He's just the sidekick. The bumbling fool. How dangerous can he be?" Drakken saw Shego gather a look of genuine fear in her eyes. "He's right behind me isn't he?"
"Yup." He chuckled to himself when Drakken jumped, then wrapped his hand around Drakken's neck. "Tell me about your plan, and tell me how to disable the device."
Before Drakken could spill Ron felt some plasma hit him in the chest. It probably would have been enough to incapacitate a normal person, too bad for Shego he wasn't normal. As he was standing up he paused and looked at a fallen picture frame with….Eric and Kim? He would have to ask them about that.
"Dr. D we need to beat them and complete the plan now or escape." She tried speaking to Drakken but he just stood frozen as his world crumbled around him.
"Wow, that actually hurt. Too bad you underestimated me again." Ron ripped off what remained of his shirt and dropped it to the ground revealing his chiseled form.
Usually Shego would enjoy the view, but fight or flight was taking over. She lunged at him until they locked hands and she tried to overpower him. She can literally lift a ton. No matter how skilled he was in combat he shouldn't be able to overpower her. Except he was doing just that. Every second he was bending her arms back further, forcing her to her knees. He watched her struggle with what she could only describe as sadistic glee.
"H-How?" Shego looked at him fearfully. This shouldn't be possible. This can't be happening.
"Well, Shego I've been holding back this whole time." He forced her fully onto her knees, his smile grew as she winced "Then a new friend made a good point. Why am I holding back?" He gave her a headbutt that left her groggy "Your actions would result in the subjugation or death of millions. I shouldn't be holding back on you. You don't deserve it." Ron took a step back in preparation to knock her out with a kick to the head.
"Wait!" She said when his foot was just a few feet away from her skull
"And why should I do that?"
Shego did a visible shiver. Whichever Ron this was he feels worse than Zorpox. "I can tell you how to make it stop. You win."
Ron forced his eyes to take on a blue hue and made a hand glow, then spoke to Shego again. "No tricks."
"Yes….Sir. No tricks." She bent the knee for Zorpox, she could swallow her pride and do it again to not get her skull cracked open. He was on another level.
Looking around Drakken saw that all of the henchmen had been knocked out and the synthodrones were just piles of goo. He tried to make a quiet escape through the door but found his hair was being pulled and he had a dagger to his throat.
"Move again and this hilt is cracking your head. Or maybe I might use the sharp part. Depends on my mood really." Tara said, a little too happily in Drakken's opinion.
"Alright." Drakken finally admitted full defeat.
"Tara could you bring him over here next to Shego please?"
"Yes….Sir." She made a point of mimicking Shego, to her annoyance. When they made it over she kicked his knees out from under him.
"You don't have to be rude about your victory you know." He silenced himself when he saw her reach for her weapon again.
"Like you were so kind to Kim and I when you just left us in labs that were about to blow?"
Drakken twidled his fingers and shrunk inward "I expected you all to escape. Just call it a friendly rivalry."
"Enough. Last chance. Tell me how to shut off the toys, or I'll let my friend have some fun with her blades."
"I installed a small explosive in the satellite on the building in case someone else managed to take it over. If I couldn't dominate the earth I wasn't going to let someone else have it." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small button. Cute.
Ron grabbed it then looked at Tara "If this is a trick and it's something to hurt me slit his throat." Tara nodded back at him. He didn't really mean it but the fact that Drakken didn't immediately shift gears let Ron know it was the real deal. The four of them turned to the monitor and saw the toys shrinking and dropping out of the sky. Drakken was saddened, Shego was indifferent. Another day at the office.
"Alright tell me about your plan. From the beginning. I need to know if I have to clean anything else up."
Drakken and Shego both cringed at each other. They hoped Stoppable's response wouldn't be awful.
When Ron first stormed out of the gym Kim was rather distraught. Was he telling the truth? Even if he wasn't did she need to be that harsh to him? Then Eric wrapped his arms around her and it all felt right. Her and Ron would talk tomorrow, they're still friends even if they had a fight.
The night was magic. For once she actually got to be normal, she got to go to her junior prom. She got to dance with the guy. No one was bursting in with a truth ray, or a convertible made into a weaponized drill. It was just a girl and a boy. Eventually the murmurs about her little spat with Ron died down and everyone was watching them dance. She smiled even more than she already was when she saw Bonnie standing around jelling with her boyfriend and watching them do some ridiculously awesome dance moves.
Afterwards they took a break. She had known Eric for less than a month but he felt like a missing puzzle piece in her life. They kept talking but it felt like neither one was listening to the other. All they saw was the glow in each other's eyes.
"This night couldn't be more perfect. I'm glad you asked me out." Kim said
"I'm glad I asked you out. It almost feels like I was made to please you."
"Well you're doing a very good job. Thank you." Kim wrapped her arms around his waist still looking into his eyes. They slowly closed the distance to each other, she closed her eyes. Their first kiss….was not to be at this moment.
Everyone was called back to the dance floor for a slow dance. Kim rested her head on Eric's shoulder and just went with the slow. The song was probably less than five minutes but it felt like an eternity. She could live in this moment forever. She was content, she was happy, she was...normal.
As the song winded down she removed her head but stayed near him due to his hands around her waist. She was holding her breath in anticipation. She closed her eyes again and leaned in...only to be pushed away. Did she do something wrong?
"What's happening?" Eric keeled over
"Eric what are you talking about?" She tried to place her hand on his back but he swatted it away again
"But how? The plan was perfect." He looked at Kim while breathing heavily "You, you set me up. Damn you."
"The plan? What plan? Is this a prank?"
Eric could no longer answer as his form destabilized. Rage was in his eyes until they became dead and no longer held light.
"He was a synthodrone?" Kim said to herself.
Kim walked out of the gym in a state of shock. She needed air and didn't want to wait around for the crowd reaction. She had feelings for a synthodrone. Ugh. She soon stepped on something outside and nearly fell because of her heels. She knelt down to pick it up.
"A diablo toy?"
She finally held her head up and looked around. There were hundreds, possibly thousands of diablo toys scattered everywhere. The school was completely untouched but the further away she looked the more damage she saw. The diablo toy fell from her hand as she lost her grip.
"Ron was right." Her eyes bulged "but if Ron was right how did he defeat drakken, Shego, and the synthodrones by himself?"
Pretty sure this is one of my first double uploads within twenty four hours. Ron is actually competent and fully aware of his strength in this one from the start. Why was he in hiding though? Why did Tara only decide to help now if she was this skilled? Why is Tara so skilled? How is Kim and Ron's relationship? Will I do the usual and have a spat break them apart indefinitely? Find out next time on Digimon, digital monsters. (Or rather in the next few chapters.)
You know the drill. If you want to support me hit up pat r e on dot c om / Crow Jones I'll likely be working on this story, the next hidden affections arc, and blue fire and will upload any previews there.