Thanks for the reviews, especially from someone whom I cribbed a little bit of Kim's. . . personality from.
Interlude:
A slim figure ran across a prehistoric plain chased by several large boars.
"Stop, oh stop, I command you!" he shrieked, panting and stumbling as he ran his torn clothes trailing behind him.
Wake up at noon, breakfast still warm. That was Mom. Kim groaned; she'd pulled herself from the couch at her not-brothers' prodding, only to find out that her erstwhile twin had already left with. . . him. Another boondoggle at the PDVI lab; most likely following up about the missing item and gathering information to find. She desperately wished she could join them, that she could say "what's the sitch?" to a bright-eyed little kid sitting in front of a computer monitor.
She slowly ate some of her eggs and bacon, then dumped the rest down the disposal. Hunger had left her a long time ago; her gaunt face, especially compared to her counterpart, showed this.
"Kim, you should eat more," a feminine voice said.
"Mom, I-" Kim began to pout, but caught herself. "Sorry. I'm just not hungry ma'am."
"Kim, you can call me mom. It's alright," Kim's Mom said, then smiled. "Really."
Kim smiled, thanking her with her eyes.
"How are you doing?" her "mom" said, abruptly staring at her with a more serious expression. She stirred her coffee and took a sipped as she waited for Kim's reply.
"I don't know. Everything? Should I even be here? Why didn't I evaporate when Drakken fired that weird beam at me? Why did I get sent to that other weird dimension first? If there's already a Kim here, is it right for me to stay?" She turned away as she continued.
"Why did things work out for her and not for me?"
Ah, the brisk night air. I feel. . . monkey-fied. The one and only true master of monkey kung-fu stretched his arms out, his feet resting in a lotus position. Wind blew across his bare chest and he faced the moon. It was full, a bright glowing ball in the sky. There was nothing holding him, no mastery of the world to tie him down, no responsibility to the dojo, nor to his shrew of a wife, Yori. He was free.
For a minute more he rested, and then leapt to his feet, swinging his arms in as he did so and flipping into the "picking-bananas-at-dawn" stance. No rest for the holy. The monkey master must be in motion, for he is a wave upon the sea of life. That was one of things Master Sensei had always said, though Ron had usually foolishly paid more attention to the curves of Yori's gi during lessons. At least they had sunk in subconsciously.
He walked for a while down the rough dirt road, then glancing behind him, decided to roam a little farther afield. The tall grass swished around him; he moved through it as he'd been taught, not leaving a single pair of knotted blades or crumpled stalks. He was one with the earth, and moved along it with swiftness, glancing back every now and then, waiting for the inevitable whipping of helicopter rotors. They came soon enough, though not from the direction he'd expected. He hugged the ground as the helicopter flew low over his head, and kept his eyes on it as it passed.
His tongue caught in his throat as he caught a glimpse of the purple and green insignia painted on the side of the craft.
It couldn't have been. . . Could it?
"Landing clearance approved, over,"
"Roger tower, over and out," Kim said. They smoothly transitioned from their tight holding pattern and settled on the asphalt near several ground hugging structures. Two familiar scientists hurried towards them.
"Miss Possible! Miss Possible!" the two men called as they ran.
"Think they're gonna have trouble remembering to call you Mrs. Stoppable?" Ron whispered to her. Kim smiled, and not just at the joke; it warmed her to know that Ron was as ready as she was though just as tied to career, school, and missions.
"What's the situation gentlemen?" Kim said, slapping her flight gloves in her hands and tried to look mildly exasperated about having been called to the lab again in the same week.
"It's your friend," the bearded scientist replied, and as Kim and Ron raised an eyebrow, "er, fiance."
"Not really him of course," the smaller of the pair sputtered.
"OK, stop," Ron said, holding up his hands. "I'm guessing somebody else popped through the gateway, and that he has blond hair, brown eyes, kinda lanky, about my height, build, and everything else. Am I warm?"
The two lab coat wearing men glanced at each other. "Yes!" they said in unison.
"You don't know how fabulous this is for us," the larger of the two said.
"Absolutely, this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that we can receive extra-dimensional signals and even matter!" his mustachioed counterpart chirped.
"I smell a grant!" the other said, and high-fived his friend.
"Ugh," Kim said, rubbing her eyebrow.
Kim and Ron followed the two men as they turned and motioned them into the base. Rubble was strewn around in places and charred, blackened surfaces evident of an explosion plastered a few walls. There were several sitting on the floor people being treated for wounds. What happened here, Kim wondered. She took in the carnage and shook her head. Could this lab get anymore accident prone? She knelt by a security guard with a black eye and a bloody chin who smiled gamely and waved her off. She smiled back and returned to Ron's side.
They continued towards the PDVI wing of the large complex, passing more devastation as they moved along. As they reached the sector in question, Kim and Ron noticed a strange smell in the air. The question on both of their minds was answered as they stepped through the doorway. All of the equipment in the lab gave off an acrid, yellow smoke that drifted about and lay close to the floor, trailing around their shoes as they entered. Kim glanced at the former portal and grimaced; it lay in pieces around its previous location, pieces of it embedded into the wall in some spots.
"I take it not much else is coming through?" she said pointing at the unit.
"True, at least for now," the larger scientist said.
"Well, no worries then, right?" Ron said. Kim rolled her eyes.
"Who is he?" Kim said.
"Well, it appeared to be your friend, as he said," the bearded scientist said.
"Much more physically capable of course," his friend continued.
"Hey!" Ron said, indignant.
"If it was her..." He still waited, hunkered down in the grass. Why, he could not say. It was irrational, it was stupid, it went against every ingrained and torture-tested instinct in his body. But Ron watched the sky for the purple and green chopper to return.
Short? Yeah, but I want to keep this fresh in people's heads.