(From Last Chapter)
(Time: Sunday Night (Middleton time), Prom + 16)
"It wouldn't be so much cheating..." he murmured, thinking about his words. "But it wouldn't be hard for you to find someone more attractive than me on many levels. If that were to happen, it would be over, wouldn't it?"
Barely able to keep her voice down, she hissed, "I can't believe that you think I'd toss you aside for a pretty face! Did I ever even flirt with anyone else when I was dating Josh? Or Eric? And what about you? I saw you checking out little Miss Ninja when she was showing off her boobs and..." Her increasing level of outrage was quenched by the soft, cool touch of smooth leather running along the arm she had draped over Ron's shoulder. Looking up, she found herself looking into the face of a snake with an almost iridescent purple body shining in the dim light with a copper-colored chin and lower face.
STD 2018-
Her second impulse was to scream in surprise and rage, her third impulse was to just burst into tears and cry at the futility and injustice of it all. Her first impulse was to carefully reach up and gently pull the snake into her lap. Well, to be truthful, she pulled on the end with the face and the next six feet of snake slid down into her lap. Ron's eyes grew round and he pressed himself against the outside wall.
"Quiet!" she hissed, "Not a sound! Don't upset Steve, we are having a conversation here and we aren't getting interrupted by stopping for something stupid like this.'
"Steve?" She saw his expression morph from startled to fear to puzzlement, to... humor? The ceramic mask on the side of his face was sometimes distracting but didn't cover his eyes or mouth, and she knew from long experience to look at his eyes for his real expression.
"Well, 'Steve's better than 'Snakie'. Now, before Steve interrupted us, I was asking you if you ever saw me cheat in a relationship."
"Hey, was that a crack at the name Roachie? Uh, what's Steve doing?" He had put his arm around her when she snuggled against him. Steve took advantage of the gap between her back and the seat back and slid behind her at her waist gliding under her shirt. Presently the snake was wrapped around her twice with its head in front resting on her arm. She absently stroked the smooth soft skin of its head and neck.
"I guess he's cold. Now focus, please. Have I ever given you any historical reason to think that I'd cheat on you?"
"Yes," Ron suddenly looked determined, almost defiant.
Indignant, "When have I even flirted with another boy, when I had a boyfriend?" Kim demanded.
"Never," Ron admitted. "But you've blown me off when you met a cute guy. You locked me in a janitor closet before going to the dance with Josh. You started hanging out with Eric without even letting me know that we wouldn't be walking to school together anymore."
"I didn't know the door would lock!"
Glaring, now a bit more ominous looking with his ceramic mask, "That's not the point. The point is that when a potential boyfriend showed up, your best friend got kicked to the curb!"
Wincing at the brutal statement, "Okay, I admit that was totally wrong on my part. But you weren't my boyfriend. Can you admit that much? Can you believe that if we take that step, things will be different, if for no other reason that you will be my boyfriend and not my best friend?"
"Maybe, but you have to admit that it wouldn't be hard to find somebody better than me...certainly more attractive than me!"
"Dammit Ron!" she growled, "You make it sound like I get up in the morning, go to the beefcake market, and select my boyfriend for the day! Have you never heard of loyalty?"
There was a commotion toward the front of the plane, a tall, skinny man was struggling to open a long, carry-on case, two Flight Attendants were struggling with him and they nearly had him under control when he pulled out a short stubby device and pressed it against the floor. A low-pitched droning sound reverberated through the cabin.
Both of them felt Steve tremble and become agitated, now trying to hide totally under her shirt. She suppressed her urge to leap into Kim Possible mode, get up and go kick some major villain booty. The terrified snake wrapped around her did help her focus on this one victim.
"To me! My snake servants, come to me! Come to Sergeant Serpent!" Wild eyes could be seen even from this distance before he dropped to the ground, boneless as a bag of hammers. Apparently one of the people who had joined the Flight Attendants was an Air Marshal with a taser.
"That bastard's been trying to train snakes with pain!" Once brown eyes were glowing soft blue. A softly glowing blue hand started to reach under her shirt, but he backed off when a savage hiss was heard.
"You try, Raven, touch him and tell him that he is safe with you."
She felt his warm hand on the back of her neck and a slight blue haze covered her vision. Holding up her hand, she saw a faint blue glow. Slowly she reached under her shirt, pausing when she felt the tickle of its tongue tasting her.
"No fear little one, you are safe with us," she said in as low a pitch she could manage as she stroked its head and neck. Steve stopped trembling and lay quietly coiled around her with its head and neck draped over her arm.
STD 2018-
"...OK, how about I swear that if I find myself attracted to anyone else, you will be the first to know and I will not act on it until I talk to you or personally see your dead body..."
"Well..."
"OH, COME ON, Ron! You're the one that won't even try because you're afraid to fail! Risk it! I swear that I won't do anything behind your back, I swear my undying loyalty, what more can I do?"
"Excuse me ma'am, but..."
"WHAT!" the attendant was faced with a snarling goth girl, whose right eye was twitching somewhat psychotically.
"My apologies, but we need you both to move out of these seats so we can check for loose items in the overhead." The attendant was professional, polite, and scared.
"How many are you looking for?" the blond in the window seat pulled the crazy woman back into his arms.
"Sir, I can't really discuss that right now, I really need you and the lady to get up, please. Just for a few minutes."
"Well, I would," the blond sounded apologetic and reasonable, "but you see, Steve here is sleeping and I really don't think you want to wake him up, OK? If you are just looking for one snake, he's right here, he's not bothering anyone, the plane lands in about two hours so let's just let this sleeping Steve lie?" He lifted up the blanket draped over the crazy woman's front to display Steve draped over her forearm.
The attendant stumbled back in surprise and fear against the seats on the other side of the aisle. "His eyes are open, he's not asleep!"
"Honey, snakes don't have eyelids, they can't close their eyes. Excuse me," continued the older woman, whose shoulder the attendant's butt was currently pressed against and who was sitting directly across the aisle. "Could I have another peek at it, please?"
Ron lifted the blanket again and the woman leaned over to get a better look.
"That's an Eastern Indigo Snake, the largest native snake in North America. Fairly docile and non-venomous. She's a beautiful specimen. What are you going to do with her?"
"I don't know!" moaned the young woman, frustration oozing out from every pore of her body, "I just want to have a talk with my guy here and you can't imagine how many times I keep getting interrupted."
"Well, I think you have about an hour before they turn the lights on and start serving lunch. How about I run interference for you two so you can finish your talk." The woman got up and intercepted the Air Marshal and the returning attendant and started talking to them, preventing them from advancing on Steve and his two new friends.
Releasing her, Ron said, "I'll risk it. I ask for no promises or conditions on your part. Only that you give me an honest chance to grow into the boyfriend role."
"What?! Just like that?"
"Seriously Raven, just like that. Face it, if we keep talking, sooner or later another disaster will arrive to interrupt us. For the good of all mankind, I think I have to shut up and give it my best try," dropping the goofy grin for a serious face, he continued, "Besides, I really want this because you are totally worth risking my heart for."
A smattering of applause came from the seats around them. Apparently, their conversation was not as quiet and private as they had assumed.
Raven let out a long breath. Now what? She had been so focused on getting to this point, she hadn't planned on what to do next. Thinking for a bit, she decided to try to grow their boyfriend/girlfriend relationship a little bit.
"So. Here we are cuddling and talking, care to try some... other stuff?" She raised her face to look directly at him and puckered her lips a tiny bit...
He responded by leaning over for a kiss. Just as their lips met, she had a flashback of Eric kissing her. The kiss was more tender than passionate, not a bad first boyfriend/girlfriend kiss. Except that she flinched.
Looking into his eyes, she saw they were unfocused.
"Eric?!" he whispered as he once again focused on her, "Really?!, Eric?!"
"I'm sorry!" she groaned, "I don't know what happened!"
"Maybe this just isn't going to work, maybe you need time to get over him or something. Maybe I am rushing you before you are ready..."
"I still want to try. Please, Ronnie, let me try."
Brown eyes looked into midnight eyes. These weren't the eyes that he saw in his dreams, still...
"We'll work on this boyfriend/girlfriend thing together, OK? Just like the song says, 'Together forever, no matter how long; From now until the end of time.'"
She pressed her face into his shoulder crying a little at the release of tension that she hadn't noticed building up and gripped his shirt tightly in her fists. He slid his arm around her and then...
"Ow! Dammit, Steve!"
Startled, she backed away and looked down to see that Steve had clamped down on his hand. And Steve didn't seem to be in a hurry to let go.
"Serves you right for stringing her along like that!" a young woman across the aisle and a row back declared.
"I've heard that female snakes about to lay eggs are pretty protective, but I've never actually seen it before." The woman that had run interference for them was coming back to her seat. "That really is an amazing specimen."
When Ron offered to sell her Steve 'real cheap', the woman just laughed.
STD 2018-
The good news was that the two young travelers didn't have to wait in line to go through Customs. In fact, they found that having a six-foot-long snake clamped onto you got you moved to the front of several lines where people were most eager to quickly pass you on to your next destination. In less than an hour, they had their small amount of baggage and were at the counter talking to the very polite and helpful people at the Japanese Animal Quarantine Service.
During their trip down the corridors of the airport's internal administrative area, Steve had finally let go of Ron's hand. That gave the blond a chance to stop at a restroom to relieve himself (there was no way he was going to put the hand that the snake was clamped onto anywhere near his crotch, just in case it decided to clamp onto something more sensitive). He was also able to carefully clean the bite. Steve's small, sharp teeth had done very little damage, after scrubbing with soap and water, the crescent-shaped bite mark was only bleeding a little.
Wade had somehow gotten a Japanese expert on regulations and such to speak for them. That is, they handed a Kimmunicator to the clerk and let her do all the talking using the Kimmunicator as a picture phone.
While they were at the counter, Steve had insisted on Raven carrying him looped around her like a very loose scarf and held its head up to watch the proceedings. The clerk was fascinated and before they could warn the elderly man off, he had reached out to give it a shy pet. The snake shamelessly rubbed its head against the man's hand, causing him to chuckle in delight.
For better or worse, Japan does not require reptiles coming into the country to be quarantined. Ron and Raven were stuck with their new buddy for the time being. The person helping them with the clerk, a young woman named Katsumi, told them to bring 'Snake-san' with them and that someone would meet them down at the south end of luggage claim, outside on the curb.
STD 2018-
Raven walked up to the black-leather-clad young man standing at the curb beside a small bus.
"Hirotaka! Hi!" she greeted the former exchange student.
"Pardon me, have we met?" the handsome young man touched up his hair by running a comb through it, giving it the spiked appearance that she remembered.
"Oh! I, uh, saw you last year when you were at Middleton as an exchange student. I'm Raven Mara and this is my boyfriend, Ron Stoppable. Are you going to take us to the school?"
"Yes, climb aboard and we'll be off. Were you delayed in customs?"
"No, but we had to process Steve here through the Animal Quarantine Service people."
"Ah, so. If I may ask, how does Rufus-san get along with Snake-san?"
"Rufus is back in the states, he'll catch up with us in a week or two. I'm hoping we've found a home for her by then." The blond said as he put their bags in the back, then gave Raven a hand up into the bus. Not that she needed it, it just seemed like a boyfriend thing to do.
Early afternoon in Japan was the wee hours of the morning in Middleton so that the pair were soon fast asleep in the back with a snoozing snake draped over their laps. Hiro made a couple of other stops to pick up people returning to Yamanouchi. He told these people to sit up front and keep the noise down, but the goth and the blond didn't stir, only the snake lifted its head to scan the new arrivals.
After dropping the rest of the passengers at a little village inn where they would spend the night before journeying up to the school, Hirotaka drove the bus and parked it in a garage. Gently waking the pair from a distance, he said, pointing to some small motorcycles;
"Master Sensei suggested that perhaps Ron-san could forgo the honor of walking all the way up the mountain just this one time."
"Booyah to that!" the blond had been worried a little about the trek up the mountain paths, his endurance and his balance seemed to have suffered lately.
"Didn't you have a much bigger bike when you were in Middleton?" Raven was a little disappointed, these were almost scooters and didn't appear to even have rocket engines attached.
"These will do less damage to the mountain paths than more powerful motorcycles and we thought that Ron-san might be more comfortable on a smaller bike."
Quickly looking at her new boyfriend to see if he had taken insult, she saw he was checking out the small bikes.
"Wow, Raven, these are classics! The Honda Super Cub has been in production since 1958, they've sold over a hundred million of them all over the world. These look modified; 150cc engines, disc brakes both front and rear, LCD instrument panel..."'
"You like them? I mean, these don't have rocket engines..."
"Well, you wouldn't take one to fight villains but for just buzzing around town, they'd be a lot of fun."
The bikes were modified as Ron had seen with an extended seat that could carry a passenger in a pinch, but sadly, no snake sidecar for Steve. Steve ended up being zipped up in Raven's jacket, this made her look kind of lumpy, but soon the three were cruising down village streets and onto smaller paths leading out into the forests on the side of the mountain. The paths were well maintained and easy for the little bikes to navigate. After an hour and a half of scenic cruising along switchbacks with the occasional stop to admire beautiful vistas, they came to a gorge with a rope bridge spanning it, the last part of the journey to the gates.
"We dismount and walk from here," Hirotaka walked to the end of the bridge and waited for Raven to resettle Steve and Ron to collect their bags. Raven started to grab a bag, but he took it, laughing about 'how it would be his honor to carry them all'.
At the gate they met an older woman, who Hirotaka introduced:
"May I present Ouka Nakano. She keeps the mountain's flora and fauna in balance and harmony. She would like to take care of Snake-san. Please give it to her."
Raven hesitantly held out the snake which easily slid into the woman's hands, draping over her arms. She spoke at length to their host then smiling and giving a short bow, walked away.
"She says to tell you that this snake and its children will be cared for and cherished. That our forests do not have the species of gopher turtles whose burrows that this snake makes its home in, but that her helpers will dig substitutes. Snake-san and its children will bring the population of poisonous snakes that have been plaguing the forest into balance by eating some of them. She thanks you for bringing a new friend to her forest."
STD 2018-
(Time: Tuesday around Noon, Prom + 18)
"James, lean over so I can reach you." Anne had been forced to track down her errant husband at the Space Center to the point of threatening security to go down to his lab and have one of her sons blow the door open. She had been rushing around the last day and a half to make sure her medical and other responsibilities would be covered during her trip to Japan and she hadn't really seen her husband since the meeting with the Child Protective Services case officer. Now, sitting across from him in the cafeteria, she didn't like what she saw. He rolled his eyes a little but leaned over so she could feel his forehead and check the lymph nodes in his neck.
"Honey, I think you are coming down with something, you need to take a day off and rest," said the worried woman.
"I've got a big video-conferencing meeting I have to get ready for, I'll be fine. I have a couch to nap when I get tired, a fridge full of OJ and a microwave for soup. I swear that I will go home and sleep for a couple of days after the meeting. Now, you said that you are going to get our Kimmie-Cub?"
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously, but answered, "Yes, I'm going to check on her. In the meantime, Judge Snobblestone is going to have his staff track down this stupid 'throw Kimmy in the psych ward' warrant and get it canceled. When that is cleared up, I'll be back with her."
"Good, good. Honey, I love you and I've got to get this demo ready. Oh, do we need to have Slim watch the boys while you are gone or can this Subira person do it?"
"Don't worry about the boys, I've got them covered. Sign this form for me please, it says that you approve of them traveling with me."
James scribbled his name on the form, "Hmm, never had to sign one of these for Kimmie-Cub, about time they got serious about kids running all over the world."
He got up and came around to bump foreheads with her, "Don't want you catching what I've got. If I have anything... Love you, hurry back with Kimmie-Cub."
"Please take care of yourself, James. I don't want to lose you. Love you..."
She watched her husband walk out of the cafeteria. She was torn between staying to make sure the idiot she loved like the sun didn't kill himself by working too hard and going to Japan to help her daughter and Ronald. Surely James' colleagues could help watch him.
She noticed Vivian Porter walking into the cafeteria dining area with a tray and waved her over.
"Anne! I saw the news about Ron stopping Dr. Drakken's latest take over the world plot. He's OK, right?"
"He had a pretty nasty head injury, but he seems to be recovering."
The blonde lowered her voice, "How's Kimberly? I heard her on a radio talk show, she seemed pretty down on herself about not being there to help Ron when he stopped Drakken."
"She's feeling pretty bad about it. Listen, can you keep an eye on James? I have to go out of town for a couple of weeks, he's been working night and day on that special project for NASA and I think he might be coming down with something. If you could just look in on him occasionally, that would help me a lot."
"Sure, I've been running into him a lot lately, I'm writing a paper on some of his findings from reverse engineering one of Drakken's A.I. technologies. He showed me these personality engrams and I've worked out a way to use them to measure a "personality distance" between two people."
"Did he give you any raw data?" blue eyes narrowed suspiciously.
"Yes! He must have dragged every personality test database in the state. You know, all those 'What Agony County Character are You?' online tests and such. All the data was anonymous, of course. Except for the two young men with the most detailed vectors, I figured out that those two are Ronald Stoppable and the Eric that your Kimberly is dating. I really want to interview those two."
"Why?"
"It turns out that if you project all the data, except emotional maturity, onto a two-dimensional plane, then use emotional maturity as the Z-axis, the mapping shows that Eric is a nearly exact duplicate of Ron, plus maybe three years of maturity. James noticed the match when he found those two have the closest data points in personality distance, much closer than any of the other examples. When he showed me, I realized that it was just this one measure that caused the difference. Didn't James mention this work?"
"No, over the years I've pretty much stopped telling him about interesting surgeries and he's stopped telling me about new rocket fuel blends and engineering details." Anne was stunned. And angry. Angry that James knew this and didn't mention it. Did this mean that he was OK with Ron? She knew she was too angry to go down and yell at him. He was sick, under tremendous work pressure and this confrontation would have to wait.
"That's great! I've given up on trying to get a robotics engineer as a boyfriend because they can never leave work at work. I mean, sometimes a girl needs something a little more human over dinner, never mind the bedroom, you know?"
"Yeah... Uh, Ronald is out of town with Kimberly and I haven't seen Eric in a couple of weeks. Listen, I really have to run, if you could just peek in on my idiot husband to make sure he hasn't collapsed at his desk, I'd appreciate it."
"Sure, Anne, not a problem. Have a nice trip and if you see them, tell Kimberly and Ron I said good luck on their mission."
STD 2018-
"Anne's leaving for Japan," James sat down at his workbench in the lab, putting his head in his hands, "Erica, I screwed up."
"How so?"
"I should have gone with her. I was too worried about the FTL prototype being ready for its first critical test, so I decided to let her go alone. I'm too busy to watch Jim and Tim, so she's taking them with her. What kind of husband am I turning out to be? What kind of father?"
"I'm sorry, James, I wish I could make you feel better..." electric blue eyes looked at him with affection and sympathy, "I can only tell you that Anne loves you very much. Anne's love is enormous and would burn your soul to ash should it be focused only on you.
She is trusting you, the man she loves over all others to watch over himself while she goes to unknown lands to find and help heal your precious Kimmie-cub. She did not take your sons because she thinks that you are a bad father, she is taking her sons to keep them away from the people trying to grab your daughter. Her love for your Kimmie-cub is almost as strong as her love for you."
"How do you know all this? You've never met her!"
"I know because I am her, James. You are creating me in her image physically and my access to Middleton General's doctor databases have given me her mental baseline. The stories you tell me are helping me move closer to being the real Anne, the Anne that you see in your dreams and the Anne that captured your heart so long ago... For now, finish the work on the prototype. Make her proud of you..."
"That's true, I can lose myself in work." James walked over to the fabrication unit he had moved into the lab, "Soon your body will be finished and ready for final sizing and finishing touches.
"I look forward to that, James. It would be nice to give you a hug."
James gave the white ceramic skull laying on his workbench a gentle caress. Sliding the FTL prototype onto a heavy wheeled table, he pushed the table into a steel chamber in the back of the lab. Stepper motors moved warm blue eyes to follow him with artificial affection...
"James, using the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer as the trigger is going to keep this from going into production," a male voice pointed out.
James shut and sealed the heavy chamber door and walked back to a control box on the assembly table.
"Yeah, I know. But that will keep it from being weaponized. Besides, they remember the person who discovered penicillin, not the people who figured out how to mass produce it."
Pressing a button, a vortex appeared in the chamber, a vacuum sucked the table and prototype through it, and then the vortex disappeared.
"True, but when someone figures out how to make the second PDVI, then the destruction you will have enabled will pale in comparison to anything I ever planned!"
"If it were that easy, either you or Demenz would have figured it out long ago instead of always stealing it."
A woman's voice interrupted the discussion, "He's got a point there Doc. Say, is it just me or is it the new mad scientist style to have talking heads for sidekicks."
James pressed the button again, the vortex reappeared, the FTL prototype fell through it onto the padded floor, and then the vortex disappeared.
The FTL prototype held a pair of silver moon boots in its mechanical claws.
STD 2018-
Anne strode out to her car in long, angry strides. She knew that her daughter was hoping to get to the part in anime cartoons where the characters 'confess' their true feelings for each other, and in romance anime, those feelings were always true love. Kimmy needed to know that Eric... was Ron. Or maybe that Eric was Ron from the future?
The more she thought of Eric, the madder she got. She would have to have a long talk with James, and maybe a long examination of his brain. But first, she needed to see that her Kimmy was OK and that Ron was properly healing. And calm down. Right now, she was likely to examine his brain with a dull scalpel. Starting at his crotch and working upward.
"Dr. Possible! I need a word with you!"
She stopped and turned, letting a short cylinder drop into her hand from the sleeve of her jacket.
The man, dressed in a dark suit, flashed a badge, much too fast for her to read. "I'm looking for a Kimberly Ann Possible."
"I haven't seen or talked to her since Saturday morning." Her right foot slid back a little to improve her stance. "She was going out to have breakfast with Ron Stoppable. Have you checked with him or his family?"
"Does your daughter often go missing without warning? I'd be upset if I had a daughter and she disappeared like that. Do you know where she is?"
"Kimmy and Ronald often get called away on missions where they vanish for two or three days. I don't like it, but I've learned to deal with it."
"That's unfortunate, there is a warrant out for her. We suspect that she is a danger to herself and others. I'm afraid that we may have to take your sons into protective custody. Just for their own safety, you understand."
"In fact, Dr. Possible, I think you should come with us. Just for your own protection. It's not safe for you to be out here alone, not with your daughter on the loose."
A black sedan pulled up beside them. There were two large men in dark suits in the back.
"But Duhei-san, Anne-sensei is not alone." A woman dressed in black stepped up beside the redhead.
"Ah. Miss Subira Chen...The Counselor. You of all people should know how dangerous Kimberly is."
The counselor produced a foot-long stick of some sort in each hand. "Kimberly first killed Shego because she was Dr. Drakken's bodyguard and the only person likely to avenge his death. She shot Dr. Drakken nine times before she allowed him the mercy of death. She did this after Shego burned a boy she had abandoned earlier that night and because Drakken was starting an attack on the world. Imagine her retribution if you attack her family..."
"But that's exactly why we need her! Think of the protection and justice she can provide her country working for us!"
"Then send her a job offer via her website. However...so there are no misunderstandings, I am not Subira Chen, I am Suzie Chin of Team Cobra of Yamanouchi. If you insist on taking Anne-sensei or any of her family, then I personally will start the erasure of your organization. Bonnie Rockwaller will live just so someone will remain to tell the story about her foolish, late uncle Derrick."
Derrick laughed, "You have no idea who you are talking to..."
The sticks in Suzie's hands snapped open into steel battle fans, "Get back in your car, Duhei-san and leave, or invite your thugs to join us and let loose the dogs of war. I am finished speaking with you, decide quickly because I am done with this little game you are playing.", the small, battle-seasoned ninja warned the American agent."
"This isn't over," he sneered as he backed away from the crazy ninja-wannabe. Backing around to the passenger side of the black sedan, he got in and the car slowly drove away.
Anne looked over at the quietly trembling young woman. "That's 'let slip the dogs', dear. Not 'let loose the dogs'." She felt a bit shaky herself from the adrenaline generated by the confrontation.
"But Sensei, that makes no sense! I want to turn the dogs loose for battle, not make them slide around..." Her shy smile told the surgeon that the trembling was from adrenaline, not fear.
"Is it safe for me to approach?" called a voice.
"Anne-sensei, please allow me to introduce my teammate Wanda Wang."
A young oriental woman in jeans and a blue polo shirt walked up, "Pleased to meet you, may I see what you have in your hand?"
Anne held out the metal cylinder. Not a true cylinder, it had curves to make it easier to grip molded into its surface.
"Careful where you point it..."
Wanda studied the device, "Nee-chan, I'm surprised that you did not signal me to appear, did you not think it was appropriate to put more pressure on the Agent to get him to back off?"
Suzie took a long breath and exhaled as if to blow off her excess adrenaline, "Perhaps I did not want him to back off. He attacked my charge in a most cowardly fashion - with paperwork. Besides," she nodded at the redhead, "he knew that I wasn't alone."
Wanda pointed it at a steel post sticking out of the ground about six feet away.
"May I?" she asked Anne, holding up the cylinder.
"Be my guest."
A flash of red light followed by a crack of electricity clearly visible in the afternoon sun struck the post.
"I believe that Team Cobra has an opening. Are you interested?" The taller Ninja handed back the weapon as it quietly whined, recharging itself.
CREDITS
All characters are the property of the Disney Company. This is a work of fan fiction.
Judge Horace Q. Snobblestone and his wife, Eunice along with Suzie Chin(Subira Chen) and her partner in Ninja-hood Wanda Wang are all from Sentinel103 and his Once Again stories.
Authors Note: Thanks to CajunBear73, Daccu65, and Sentinel103 for basically being beta readers, editors, and sanity checkers. Believe me, I need a lot of sanity checks.