Kim, Josh, and Bonnie just finished up another rough day of training with Ron. It almost seemed like he was trying to kill them before WEE did. They decided to head to the mall to relax since they had been on high alert for a couple of weeks now. Kim drove them in the car her brothers souped up for her.
"How can you date someone like that?" Josh was rolling his shoulder, hoping some of the pain and tension would go away.
"I hate to admit it, but Ron is like a completely different person during training."
Bonnie smiled even if she ached a little. "Do you know why he's being so hard on you guys?"
"Because he secretly works for WEE and wants the bounty for himself?" Josh said.
Bonnie chuckled while shaking her head. "Because he cares about you and doesn't want you to get hurt. He can't watch all of us all the time. He's strong, not omniscient."
"Still, wouldn't WEE have made a move already? Josh has been staying with us for three weeks now."
Josh to a moment to respond. "If I was on mission and had to take you out I would be gauging your level of strength and tech unless I was positive you were an easy target, then bring a disproportionate level of force to crush you. I also wouldn't involve civies since that can leave a trail. I'm the best though so it's unlikely it would be as well thought out. Still, we should be on our toes."
"If he asks me to do one more quadruple flip in weighted clothes I may not have toes." Kim said
"At least he's only going a bit over double your body weight to increase your athleticism and speed. I swear he's trying to kill me with the strength training."
"Well, he could spend the better part of the two hours of training taking you down like he does me. He's not exactly gentle since he knows a real opponent won't be as nice." Bonnie added.
There was a collective sigh in the car. The only reason they weren't truly mad at him is because as hard as he pushed them, he pushed himself harder. Despite his powers he always tries to reach a new crescendo of power. Any time they tried to get him to stop he said he needs to become stronger to protect those he cared about, and that he'd know when it was enough.
Josh had a thought. "Couldn't we send Ron in to handle this?"
Bonnie held back her wrath, for now. Josh was a bit on the insensitive side so they had to walk him through emotional things like a child. "Josh, you don't see anything wrong with telling his best friend and his girlfriend that you want to wind him up and send him out against one of the most dangerous organizations on the planet?"
Josh still didn't quite get it. "He's basically a walking tank that fires nukes. He could probably handle it given the right prep. You've heard stories about how durable and fast he is.
"The operative word being probably." Kim explained while Bonnie shook her head in disgust, cringing. "If something happens to Ron I don't think you need to worry about WEE killing you anymore." Josh was going to ask why until he looked into Bonnie's eyes. He didn't feel fear, but he felt his closest approximation to it in that moment, he could swear for a split second her eyes flickered a much lighter shade of green. .
"If Ron goes into the meat grinder, all of us go into the meat grinder." Bonnie from there turned and looked out the window. As far as she was concerned the situation was resolved.
"Only one of us would break the meat grinder if they were put through it though." Josh whispered
Bonnie's glare returned. "What was that?"
"Nothing." Josh noticed Kim was beginning to get frustrated, however it wasn't at the conversation. "What's wrong?"
"There are just so many closed roads and detours today. It also feels like we're hitting every red light in the city. We It's kind of annoying." Kim slapped the steering wheel in annoyance after running into yet another roadblock.
Josh noticed there were no other cars near them, or people for that matter. "Get out the car."
"Are you crazy? We're at least two miles out from anything." Bonnie said. They were in a practically abandoned district of Middleton. It had been in limbo for the past few years while the city decided what to do with it.
"GET OUT THE DAMN CAR. NOW!" Josh made sure to shove both Bonnie and Kim to help get the point across.
After they stepped out Bonnie began screaming at him. "What the hell is your pro…." She was cut off by the car exploding in front of her, seemingly after something hit it from the air. She immediately turned around to try to create some distance but saw two figures blocking her path.
"What did I tell you?" One said. He was of a similar size to Josh, although his hair was jet black and he was on the paler side.
"Like rats." The other said with a smile. His hair was a deeper red than Kim's but he also had a rather slender form. On a good day he was only four inches taller than her. They soon understood the like rats part when a forcefield activated around them. It was enough area to fight in, not nearly enough to hide or escape.
"Beta. Chi. I'm guessing you're not here to catch up."
"Nah, just to collect your head." Chi said
Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator to alert wade to their location, but the screen remained blank.
"Don't bother. It's jammed." Josh shook his head.
"You're going to be dead before backup shows anyway." The trio turned to see a mountainous man coming out of the pile of car debris.
"Epsilon." Josh didn't bother waiting for a response since Epsilon was the silent type. "Well Beta, where are the guns?"
"Come on, that's no fun. You know we like to get our kills bare handed." Beta licked his lips a little as if he could taste the kill. It caused Bonnie to shiver.
Josh knew they only had a few seconds to plan before they attacked. "I'll take beta. Kim, take Chi. Bonnie, take Epsilon."
"You want to leave Bonnie with the guy that just totalled our car!?"
"His speed does not exponentially correlate with his strength."
"English!" Kim and Bonnie spat out in unison.
"He's strong but he's not fast like Ron. Just don't get hit."
Chi started yawning while beta rolled his eyes. "Have you finished forming your strategy?"
"Yea, I'm guessing you weren't going to give us more time anyway."
Chi ran up to Josh with a fiendish grin. "You'd be right." Chi pulled out a knife and aimed at Josh's throat, Kim kicked it out of his hand while Josh circled around to Beta. "oooo a new plaything."
Kim waved her hands tauntingly. "Bring."
Bonnie could barely even follow Chi's movements. At best she would make out a blur She was suddenly glad Josh made that call. He probably would have stabbed her already. She immediately stopped paying attention to Josh and Kim's fight when she felt a shadow over her. His fist was swinging downward and she dodged just in time. When he pulled his first out there was a small crater where she previously was. If he hit her she would have been paste. "Is this really how I die?"
Kim was blocking and trying to disarm Chi of his other knife but it felt like an impossible task. Without the weighted clothes Ron made her wear she felt as light as a feather and very fast but it just wasn't enough. She could barely find the time to parry. Chi put his hand on his wrist for extra power and plunged the knife downward, Kim blocked with both of her arms but was almost brought to her knees.
"Maybe Alpha didn't completely waste his time on trash. You're decent."
"Thanks but no thanks. I don't need compliments from scum."
"Ohoho my. Looks like we got a live one." He moved his hands from above her and kicked her in the chest to push her away. "For now."
Josh was worried about the others, and he wasn't sure if they were ready, but they really had no other options. He looked for escape routes while they were fighting but found that nothing stuck out. He didn't have much time to think given that Beta and him were essentially equals. It looks like he has been training since his departure as well.
"Don't bother looking for an escape, there's no way out. Force field. You know the drill."
"Then I'll just have to make one after I go through you." Josh gruffed out.
Beta shook his head and smiled. "We both know at best you're only slightly above me. We did survive the same experiment after all. Now you have a bunch of dead weight slowing you down. This is the end of the line." Josh looked over Beta's shoulders to see Kim struggling to keep up with Chi and Epsilon trying his best to turn Bonnie into playdough but missing by a hair.
Josh really didn't see a way out of this. Eventually Bonnie would get tired, or Kim would slip up. Two versus one he definitely didn't have a chance since Beta was here. He had to think of something. Fast. Just then something crossed his mind. A rather strange thought. Bonnie isn't science like them, she's magic.
"Kim kick the knife over!"
"Give me a minute." From what Kim could see this guy was faster than her and Josh but he wasn't very strong. She assumed that's why he was third among the WEE agents. Find an opening was hard, exploiting it before he covered it was harder. She did notice he seemed to have a sadistic side so he wanted to cause her harm as quickly as possible. Maybe she could exploit that. Chi made a split second mistake which gave her the time to kick the knife on the ground over to Josh.
Beta mocked him. "And here I was about to fight you fairly without a weapon. Although if you want to bring in toys…."
"Oh, its not for me." Josh tossed the knife to Bonnie and she reflexively caught it. Although when she looked at it she seemed lost.
"Are you sure this will even work on him."
"Alright Bonnie, I need you to trust me."
Ron had just finished training and decided to meditate. He didn't try to connect with Sensei, this was just for him. It also counted as training since it helped him control his mystical monkey energy. If he was right if he learned to control it well enough it could have many uses. Sensei can clearly fly with his which is basically just a form of telekinesis, and sensei was sure he was supposed to be stronger than him at some point in the future. He grew excited at the prospect of telekinesis even better than his teacher's.
His meditation training mainly consisted of concentrating on the energy deep inside of his core and trying to "flex" it, sometimes he was aware of energies around him as well. Kim had a fiery red aura, he assumed because of how passionate she was. Josh's was fairly gray, he presumed since he didn't feel much. Although it lightened the more time he spent around Kim. He guessed that was a good sign. Bonnie's was simply light green before her transformation, now it was a greenish blue. Most people had some form of chi, they just never trained it. Or they simply did not have much potential.
After a few minutes of meditation he grew cold. He never felt this way before, there was a general sense of unease. He looked deep within the void to see what could be causing it and his eyes landed upon a dark red aura in the distance. Scarlet red, the same color as blood. As soon as he focused on it he wished he hadn't. It drew closer and he felt a deep sense of dread. He never sensed anything like it. He could have sworn he was suffocating due to how dense and oppressive it was. There was no fighting it, he had to get away. With all of his strength he pushed away, luckily it just seemed to be general, not strictly focused on him. He woke himself up from his meditation.
"What the hell was that?" There was no mistaking what he felt, whatever it was was evil. Not greed. not old Bonnie mean girl evil. Pure evil. If he hadn't pushed away he was sure he would have died. He never knew something like that existed on earth. He needed answers, answers he wasn't sure sensei could provide but he had to try. He had to calm himself down first. This was a complete failure. His heart was still racing at what he could only perceive as a near death experience. Something bad was coming, something worse than WEE. Much, much worse. Just the thought of that aura left him with a sense of impending dread. He had to take his mind off of it.
He decided to grab something to eat. Even when Kim and Bonnie weren't there months ago food was always there for him. He went to the fridge and pulled out a few things. Some cheese, some eggs, some bacon, whatever. Maybe Rufus would be up for some omelets.
"Hey little buddy what do you want on your omelet?" He already knew the answer but it was always entertaining.
Rufus contemplated deeply. It was a hard decision, but there was only one true answer. "Cheese!"
Ron shook his head with a smile while grabbing an egg. "Sure, coming right up R man."
Rufus looked at his master and friend in an elated fashion. He could cook very well but Ron's would always be the best. He watched as he cracked an egg then dropped its contents into a bowl. He grabbed a second egg then just dropped it without cracking it. Rufus was concerned since he never really made mistakes like that while cooking.
At seemingly random he felt an intense stabbing pain in his shoulder blade. Inside of his head he heard Bonnie screaming in pain. He had a feeling the two were related. He didn't know how it worked, he didn't know why it worked, but he knew she was in pain. He didn't need to concentrate or meditate, he just knew where she was. Her body, her essence, was calling to him, The car didn't cross his mind, Rufus, didn't cross his mind, the only thing on his mind was getting to Bonnie. He ran straight in the direction he felt Bonnie in. He didn't bother following the streets or the sidewalks, he parkoured from house to house. Tree to tree. It didn't matter if anyone saw him and thought he was an ass, the only thing that mattered was her.
After a couple of short minutes he saw he was in an abandoned part of middleton. She was close, very close. His aura yearned for her. He needed her. Nothing else mattered. When he drew closer he ran into something. It caused him some pain but it didn't matter. Nothing was going to stop him from protecting his BonBon.
"Have you gone soft and insane!?" Beta said. That was ridiculous even by his standards. Logically if you wanted the best chance of escape against superior opponents you wouldn't tell one of your teammates to harm themselves. Yet here they were. Beta looked around and saw that even chi was frozen. "Well? Don't freeze just because they're crazy. We have a job to do."
Before he got back to his fight Josh gave Bonnie a warning. "I'm not sure exactly how you work but don't pull it out. The blood loss probably won't kill you but you could get lightheaded enough for...well."
Bonnie didn't need him to finish the statement. Her instincts told her to dodge again as epsilon did a two handed clubbing blow, leaving a small crater where she previously was. It still hurt just leaving the knife in, but she preferred that to the alternative. She had no idea why she trusted Josh. What purpose could that have possible served. After a couple of minutes of playing lion and mouse she heard something. Looking around everyone heard it.
"What now?" Beta groaned.
Bonnie, Kim, and Josh looked and saw Ron had hit the forcefield at top speed and was forcing his way through. He did not look happy. They had never seen him like this, it was almost animalistic.
The WEE agents saw him and were left aghast. Chi wasn't one to shock easily but he said. "What is he? He's punching through the field."
After a few seconds Ron finally damaged it enough to get through, he was almost growling while he breathed. Now that he was closer the trio could see that his eyes were cerulean blue. When he looked at Bonnie and saw the knife in her shoulder they swirled. It seemed as if the sight irritated him more, a very light breeze passed as soon as he saw it. That couldn't have been Ron. Right? His friends stepped off to the side since they had a very accurate idea of what was about to happen.
Ron noticed a large man had been standing in front of Bonnie. He had to be the one that stabbed her. The only person who even saw a blur was chi, he didn't have time to react. Epsilon was hit with what could only be referred to as a stratospheric uppercut. He landed flat on his back and groaned. He was extremely durable but it almost felt like a mack truck hit him. After ten seconds he finally shook off the cobwebs enough to get on his hands and knees. Ron was going to try his best to recreate what he did to the egg earlier with this guy's skull but smoke began to fill the area. He only heard one thing before it cleared a minute later.
"We're leaving."
After it cleared there was no trace of them. Ron was still livid. He wanted to kill the person that hurt Bonnie. HIS Bonnie, and his friends. This wasn't like Shego, she just wanted to knock Bonnie out for getting in the way. This was a hit. He began stomping a few times and they felt the ground shake, Bonnie got the feeling that if he kept raging like this they would end up underground. She did the only thing she knew always calmed him. She placed her palm on his cheek and gave him the sweetest kiss she could. After she pulled away she rubbed his neck.
"I'm okay. We're okay." She watched as his eyes shifted back to their natural chocolate brown coloring and lightly smirked. She was relieved. He smiled back, they were safe. He saved them. After a few seconds he felt drained, then he collapsed.
Author's note: I'm really hoping this chapter lived up to expectations. I was rather excited about the idea in my head, yet I'm still not sure it came out well when I put pen to paper. Or would it be keyboard to screen? You get what I mean. Whatever. Also if it wasn't clear enough, what ron felt was not WEE. There will be further explanations in the next chapter or two, but all will not be expounded upon until the next arc. You will just have to wait and see ;). Feel free to make prognostications.