This is part two of the three-part ending.
Part three will be posted tomorrow.
STD 2018- (Midnight, in the skies over Japan)
The kinetic weapons weren't traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light because the Captain of captains didn't want to destroy the planet, he wanted to make a statement. He didn't know that this statement was about to kill millions of people, but that wouldn't really have bothered him or any of the other captains. Still, they were traveling at incredible speeds.
The kinetic projectiles flashed through the last 26 miles of atmosphere in a fraction of a second. (A/N 99.9% of the earth's atmosphere by weight is here.) Heat from the falling slugs the size of Greyhound buses was felt in South Korea more than one hundred miles away. Trees under the incoming slugs burst into flames just before the first impacted the ground. The concussion wave from the first few shattered trees into splinters which immediately exploded into a firestorm. Buildings shattered into instant rubble. Following slugs shattered bedrock into gravel and the force of the impact sprayed the gravel out into the sea.
The combination of heat and concussion waves turned Tokyo into an instant crematorium. The updraft from the firestorm pulled burning debris, ash, and dust thousands of feet in the air. Vaporized metal condensed and added a sparkle to the cloud.
The mountain called Yamanouchi was no sturdier than Lowardian physics predicted. A blue globe snapped into existence around Rufus who was in the cave snoozing on top of Lenard. The blue globe was extinguished by a spray of vaporized iridium, which burned away the flesh of all the humans in the room. Following slugs crushed the mountain into gravel, the gravel to sand, and finally blew the material out to sea.
In approximately forty-five seconds, Japan, an archipelago with 420 inhabited islands, was erased from the planet along with the 125 million people who lived there. The glowing cloud of burning debris and steam from the sea boiling as it rushed onto the superheated impact area turned North and South Korea's midnight into twilight. The next morning, the sun didn't rise over Beijing and wouldn't be seen for four days. The Lowardian kinetic weapons officers knew their job, staggering the impacts over the period of nearly a minute reduced the tsunami generated by the destruction of Japan to the point where only North and South Korea's eastern coastline received catastrophic damage. The shock waves from the impact triggered dozens of small to medium sympathetic earthquakes all along the western side of the Pacific Ring of Fire.
STD 2018- (Noon, Middleton)
Wade was plating fish tacos with a side of chips and queso dip to take down to have lunch with Katsumi when he heard her cry out in terror. Racing down the stairs, he flew through the door to find her frantically bringing up pictures from high-resolution weather satellites, spy satellites, even the test cameras from the International Space Station, anything she could use to get eyes on the West Pacific Ocean. Wade's mind struggled to accept the magnitude of the firestorm over Japan as he thought, 'Where are Kim and Ron?'
STD 2018- (Somewhere at the far edge of the Kuiper Belt)
Kim sat unnoticed in a cafeteria area. She idly wondered if this was how Ron felt back in the recent past when they were doing regular mission against ordinary supervillains. Perhaps this was a sign that the MMP was finally starting to work for her. During the morning sessions of the Dragon Course, one of the exercises was becoming invisible, or to be more accurate, "How not to be seen". In the courtyard, she felt like she was able to become translucent where other students, even many junior students, could turn invisible. She believed that was due to leftover MMP bleeding out of the Temple that Toshimiru himself had carved out of the mountain. Her theory was he intentionally left behind a pool of MMP for nearby students to access. Certainly, she had no success practicing this kind of stealth anywhere else until now. She wasn't exactly invisible, it was just that when Lowardians would look in her direction, their eyes would look away like she was no more interesting than a chair or table. Occasionally moving with her carafe of iced water, a bowl of chips and Diablo sauce, she sampled the conversations:
"Don't know about the fighting skills of this Great Blue human, but they are handing out samples of something called a Naco, run up and get one, I've had three already. Tomorrow's breakfast special is going to be something called a bean and cheese combination burrito. If it's half as good as this Naco, I say let the forces of darkness take over everything as long as this Great Blue keeps cooking!"
Kim grinned to herself, she had no idea if she could speak Lowardian, but the MMP seemed to let her understand it. Ron had disappeared into the kitchen after fixing her a platter of snacks and telling her to hang out in the eating area and listen. Apparently, Ron had taken over the kitchens.
After watching the Lowardians she had been listening to head back to the serving lines, she moved to sit near three Lowardians talking over some kind of hot drinks and pastries:
"I heard that we are pulling out as soon as the Earth government hands over their chief scientist. Rumors are that Imperial Scouts are headed this way."
"Think that they will just hand the human over? I'd expect them to refuse or stall."
"The bombardment ships should be making an example of some islands any time now. That'll put the fear of Lowardia into them!"
"They did check to make sure the human we want isn't on those islands? Those trigger-happy idiots aren't very careful…"
"The islands are on the other side of the planet than the scientist."
In spite of the arrogance provided by the blue, Kim's blood ran cold. Was the 'Scientist', her Dad? 'Oh my God,' she thought, 'are they going to bomb Hawaii?' Looking around, she spotted Ron talking to Warhok and Warmonga. Hurrying over, she grabbed Ron and pulled him to the side. The moment that she pulled on Ron, both Lowardians seemed startled and stared at her.
'Note to self,' she thought, 'rule #3 for "How not to be seen": Don't grab people.'
"Ron, they are planning on attacking Hawaii or some other islands to get the government to hand over Dad!"
Warhok spoke up, "I talked to the Captain of captains when we arrived and he has agreed to immediately issue an order to stop all actions now and reconsider their plans in a meeting of captains following a demonstration of your Mystical Monkey Power. Right now, you need to go to your quarters and rest," he then spoke more sternly, "For your safety, you need to remain in your quarters until Warmonga and I come to get you. Come, we will escort you to ensure you arrive safely."
STD 2018- (Shortly after noon, Middleton)
Wade was working as fast as he was able, one-handed. Using a Dvorak-forsaken mouse. The reality of what had happened had not become real to him and he was not going to let it become real until he got a message out to Ron and Kim. Katsumi was a sobbing mess in his lap and he was holding her tightly with one hand while he used his free hand to call up the history of locations of everyone that he had 'chipped'. Joss and Slim were at their ranch all morning. Kim and Ron's chips were 'out of range', of course. Tim and Jim started in Tokyo, then Tim went off by himself eventually making his way back to the Yamanouchi campus. Jim remained at the factory but later went off wandering Tokyo. All three Stoppables spent the evening at their house. Kim's parents were at the small inn they had been staying at while Dr. Possible recovered from having his memories reconnected. Rufus was spotted outside the gates of Yamanouchi then his signal disappeared. Probably went into a cave. Vivian Porter was in China, Wade seemed to recall that she was talking to a chip fabrication company about a new processor for their new service syntho-helper. He thought that Erica was with her.
Wade almost lost it when he saw that only the beacons from Slim, Joss, and Vivian were currently reporting and that the display of an ocean research satellite showed no land above the waves where Japan used to be. Over six thousand islands, of all sizes, erased from the Pacific.
Suzie exploded into the room and barked harsh, fast Japanese at the sobbing girl in his arm. Katsumi jerked to her feet and answered back in Japanese. Turning to Wade and bowing deeply, she said, "Forgive my inexcusable weakness, Wade-sama, what can I do to assist you?"
Glaring at Suzie, he replied, "Break into the command and control systems of the deep space telescopes in Australia, I have a message I want to get to Kim and Ron as soon as possible. We aren't going to take time to ask permission."
"Hai!" replied the young Ninja, sitting down in the computer chair behind him, grabbing a small towel to dry off her face before putting her hands on the keyboard and began furiously typing.
While Wade was putting together a very short message to Team Possible, the "Surrender or Die" demand from the Lowardians came in:
"Surrender James Possible to us by sunset at his lab. Any disobedience or resistance to Lowardian forces will be met with overwhelming destruction as we demonstrated on the other side of this world."
Suzie looked over his shoulder at his message. She reached over and added a line to the end:
"Islands of Japan totally destroyed in kinetic strike as a warning."
"All Possibles/Stoppables were lost."
"Believe that any new kinetic strikes will originate from your location."
"Expect looting by Ls to start at any time."
"Teams Cobra, Orange & Indigo will protect Slim, Joss, and Middleton with their lives."
"Is that still short enough, Wade-san?" Suzie asked.
"Yes." Wade replied, then said, "Katsumi-san, let me know when you have control of the antennas and we'll get this message started."
"The antennas that were Internet-attached are now yours, Wade-sama" she replied with a voice still rough with unshed tears and a command window popped up on one of his screens already logged into the command and control systems of seven antenna farms; ready for him to input commands.
STD 2018- (Somewhere at the far edge of the Kuiper Belt)
"I'm not having any fun here," Ron thought as Kim dodged another sword strike as she nimbly slipped between the torn pieces of deck-plates he had orbiting himself. The first match had been two on two with paint pistols. Their opponents, not having seen the teens' fighting style, made it an easy win. This match was five on two with primitive weapons and they were being cautious and concentrating on Kim. Two opponents were on the ground bleeding. Kim had a bleeding cut on her face from getting hit when she tried to halt the match so their seconds or trainers could remove the first one injured. The second one on the ground had an arm mangled and ribs broken when Ron had reached out, grabbed a deck-plate, and sailed it like a Frisbee at him after he managed to hit Kim while she called for a timeout.
Ron dropped the orbiting rubble and drew the Lotus Blade. These guys apparently got all their training from bad movies and had no idea of basics, like the goal of a sword is to hit your opponent, not your opponent's sword. And that the heavy sword with grooves, like a comb that Kim selected, wasn't for producing grievous wounds, it was a sword breaker and by the time Ron stepped beside her with a glowing Lotus Blade, his opponents were carrying blunt, short swords. Two of their remaining opponents were quickly bludgeoned to the ground and the third drew a projectile weapon of some sort, but not fast enough and Kim dodged the shot to the side while Ron removed the offending hand.
"Match is awarded to the Great Blue and his Battlemate," the announcer's voice was amplified to be heard over the roar of the crowds. Warhok, the Great Blue's designated second watched as two warriors were carried off the field, plus another three that slowly, painfully hobbled off on their own power. Including one that had a tourniquet tied to his wrist.
Warmonga, the Great Blue's designated Coach/Trainer was giving the pair a careful check for injuries. Well, she at least glued a couple of butterfly bandages to Kim's face before checking Ron. Kim ignored the disparity. As charged up with the blue as she was, her arrogance would not permit jealousy, the idea that her 'Battle mate' would consort with anyone except her was laughable. 'Not that I've ever done any consorting with Blue Boy,' she thought grumpily.
The demonstration matches were being held in a dome on the large troop transport ship. The dome might have been transparent, but this far out in space, the interior lights swamped out the light from any stars that might have been visible. The dome covered an area about one quarter the size of a football stadium. Warmonga told them that she thought that most of the personnel in their fleet that could be spared were here to witness the battle prowess of her Great Blue.
Ron's biggest Lowardian fan girl was highly amused that his new and wildly popular breakfast dish, the Bean and cheese burrito smothered with a red or green chili sauce was giving him a combat advantage as most of his opponents were suffering from painful amounts of intestinal gas. Not to mention the air purifiers in the arena were working at maximum capacity.
"Warhok," Ron asked, "Are the captains satisfied now? Are my world and family safe in exchange for our services?"
Warhok looked troubled at seeing the announcer set up for the next match, "I will go ask the captains personally."
Ron watched him walk off then turned to check on Kim. He was amused to see her standing nude with Warmonga painting red tribal designs on her upper body. Once finished, Warmonga held out her hook blade to let Kim slice off a foot of fabric off of a kilt.
'Wait! Where did they get a kilt?' Ron wondered, 'Were both of the warriors carried off the field fully dressed?'
"Hey, KP," he called out as he walked up to the pair as Warmonga wrapped the kilt around his girlfriend after having to slice off another section to prevent her from having to wrap it around an extra time, "Got tired of wearing Club Banana?"
"Your battlemate does her foe a great honor, Great Blue," the Lowardian replied, "She is declaring to all present by wearing his emblem that he and his family are warriors worth fighting along your side!"
As Warmonga wandered off to check the condition of the field, Ron leaned close to his painted battlemate, "Is the emblem the design on your skirt or the paint on your boobs?"
She glared at her Great Blue Idiot, "It's the design on the kilt, it's not a skirt. The design all over my entire upper body is the Great Blue's tribal design. I'm wearing the kilt because baby Shiva has been telling me for the last hour that it is nearly time to turn it loose and I am not delivering it wearing cargoes!"
"Don't you need to be in a bed or something?"
"Hey, if Chinese peasants can deliver babies while squatting in the fields during the middle of a harvest…"
"Beep-Beep-Be-Beep" the Kimmunicator interrupted them.
Kim padded barefoot across the sandy ground and snatched up the Kimmunicator out of her mission pack expecting some sort of recorded message.
She felt her 'blue' extinguish with a pop as she read the short message. The shock of it caused her to sink to the ground to her knees. Two sentences brought her mind to a halt:
"Islands of Japan totally destroyed in kinetic strike as warning. All Possibles/Stoppables were lost."
Jim. Tim. Mom. Dad. All dead. Even little Hana and Rufus. Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable. She numbly handed Ron the Kimmunicator. There would be no comfort from him, not as jacked up on MMP as he was. But wait, that wasn't fair, this wasn't a time for comfort, her world was in danger and she was here for a reason.
She started pulling hard on the blue to numb her sorrow as physical pain rippled through her lower abdomen. 'It's an octopus, Sis, no head or shoulders so delivery should be practically painless', she remembered one of the Tweebs telling her. 'Painless my butt,' she thought as one last wave of sorrow crashed against her soul when she remembered that any chance to ever tell them that was stolen from her. Then the blue Mystical Monkey Power surrounded her, shielding her from much of the pain, both physical and mental. With the sharp edges of her sorrow and physical pain being wrapped in blue, she tried to straighten up when she felt thin tentacles with rows of miniature suckers latch onto her right thigh, as Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds, yanked itself free. Mystical Monkey Power notwithstanding, the pain almost made her pass out and she would have fallen had not Ron and Warmonga supported her.
"What is wrong with your mate?" the Lowardian woman asked. Looking at the shape that pulled itself into the arms of the young female human, the alien paled, "Warrigle, The Fell Judge of Warriors and Executioner of the Wicked…" she murmured, shivering in terror.
Kim, like in her dream, found herself cradling it in one arm and tickling it with her free hand. It batted and grabbed for her fingers playfully, but was silent.
Ron started to put the Kimmunicator down but remembered he was supposed to look at it. He read the message. Twice. He heard a piercing scream of rage that morphed into an insane laugh. The sound stopped when he realized it was coming from him. Checking the screen, he pointed out to Kim the timestamp on the message. Due to their extreme distance from the Earth, the message traveling at the speed of light took fourteen hours to get to them, Wade sent the message a little over fourteen hours ago. Japan had already been destroyed before they reached the fleet.
"I don't think you understand the magnitude of the problem you will have when the Great Blue or his Battlemate find out that you have already attacked his planet." Warhok was standing in front of the table where the Captain of captains was sitting with all his captains. He had been trying to convince them to pull the fleet out immediately. They needed to abandon any further attempts to loot the planet and forget their demand for the Battlemate's father, even if that meant the wormhole generator prototype and design would become worthless to them. There was a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach when a commotion from the crowd behind him interrupted his arguments.
Looking up, Warhok and the captains saw the Great Blue, his Battlemate at his side, walking through the assembled warriors and spacers seated for the matches with Warmonga following close behind.
"Who ordered the attack on my world?" the human female asked in a voice that clearly carried through the area. Oddly, she cradled some sort of creature with tentacles?
"Child," the Captain of captains, replied, "we have found that a demonstration of power reduces the number of casualties and shortens negotiation with planetary governments."
Her voice clearly and coldly rang out, "That demonstration killed over a hundred and twenty million humans. Did none of you feel that was a bad thing to do?"
The human female waved a thick, short rod over whatever it was she was holding. Tentacles reached up and pulled the rod out of a holder of some kind, the holder was dropped to the floor.
One of the obviously junior captains spoke up, "The Captain of captains make decisions with the full authority and support of all the other captains."
The Captain of captains stood, "We regret the excessive death toll, but the Earth must turn over James Possible without any delays, otherwise, we might have to pick a new place to demonstrate what happens to those who displease us."
He snapped his fingers and a clear wall snapped into position surrounding the captains. Armed and armored Lowardians started moving up behind them.
"Speaking of displeasing us, child, you had better beware, any disrespect from you could cause further demonstration strikes against your home."
"Turning over my Father to you won't happen, because you killed him!", the human woman took a breath before continuing solemnly, her voice clearly heard over the confusion of the captains discussing if the scientist they needed was truly dead or if it was a trick of some kind.
"Verdict!" she called clearly,
"Guilty!" the Great Blue answered.
"Sentence!" the captains paused at this word.
"Death!" cried the Great Blue, breaking into a stream of insane laughter.
Kim released Shiva who turned transparent and then invisible as it dropped to the ground. Continuing the motion, she drew her pistol and fired a single shot, the gun emitting a blue flash. The Captain of captains' head exploded.
"Spankin'," she said brightly, lowering her gun hand while Ron raised his hand to point at the glowing hole melted through the protective shield. The hole changed from glowing red to glowing blue as air began whistling out of the hole as the captains trapped inside began to gasp and struggle to breathe.
"Hold!" shouted Warmonga to the advancing Lowardians, "the Great Blue is all that will stand between our people and destruction. Kneel and receive his Justice and Mercy!"
The mob of fighters had paused in confusion, but the collapsing of their captains right in front of them spurred some of the more loyal to action. Hoping that distracting Kim would save their trapped and dying leaders, two advanced on Kim. They took one step past Warmonga and their heads fell to the floor after a sweep of her hook-blade reached out.
After that, it was full pandemonium. Ron's continuing mad laughter was not helping to convince any fighters to surrender and ask for mercy. Warhok fought to protect Warmonga as he steadily pressed her unwillingly toward the exit. Projectile and energy weapons were uncommon due to being in a room where a miss would open a hole to the outside vacuum of space, but there were a few. Kim watched the crowd in-between using flying and spinning kicks and anyone who drew something that looked like it had a barrel was a target for an MMP enhanced .380 round.
Ron would be called the 'Blue Reaper of Judgment' by the handful of survivors. Floating above the deck in the eye of a hurricane of seats and deck plates torn free from the floor, the few survivors were soon in a full panic trying to escape.
Kim was not in the mood to shoot the few Lowardians trying to escape in the back, mainly because she only had one spare magazine left. Looking around at the carnage, she tried to consider it Justice but failed. Looking up to the table where the captains had sat, the clear screen was covered in blood and gore. Apparently, the expanding gas from their breakfast burritos had been deadlier than either of the Tex-Mex fans would have guessed. During the fight, she had heard several loud pops and splattering noises but ignored them. 'OK,' she thought, 'that's Justice.'
"Beep-Beep-Be-Beep"
Kim picked up the Kimmunicator from where it was dropped when the fight started. Another note was on the screen:
"Analysis of local comms indicates that three messenger class crafts have boosted for deep space and are expected to escape retribution. Majority of heavy ships are changing course for Earth. This includes all kinetic energy strike units. Probability calculations suggest a massive strike against the planet even without any recognizable profit motive. Recommend generating a blackhole within the next five minutes to destroy entire fleet at this location. Require personal authorization to perform recommended action. - Shiva."
"Wade told me to have a plan to get back, Sorry, I got nothing, KP," Ron said as the whine of projectiles was heard going past.
Kim fired twice, the blue enhanced bullet curved up and then down toward an external door. There was a thud and then silence.
"Gotta protect our home. We've still got Wade, Slim, Joss, our friends in Middleton and billions of people we never had a chance to meet to protect," holding up the communicator she pressed the talk button, "This is Kim Possible. Shiva, destroy the fleet now." She held the unit out to the man that would never have a chance to grow into her boyfriend, the man that she would never have the opportunity to explore physical love with, saying, "It's OK, Ron, say it."
Never taking his eyes off of hers, he said, "This is Ron Stoppable, Shiva, destroy the fleet now."
Outside the dome, a ball of bright light grew until it was too bright to look at directly. Ron gathered up Kim in his arms, saying,
"KP, I'm sorry, I said I'd have your back and…"
He was interrupted by an explosion; doors that had been blocked by bodies were blown open. Large humanoids in full body armor and handheld weapons stormed in.
Ron stood up screaming, "It's the end of the world and you assholes are interrupting my moment!" A blue flash and a wave of his hand ripped up deck plates and sent them flying toward the intruders spinning like buzz saws. Outside, the ball of light collapsed into a tiny point of glowing violet. Around the teens, with a cacophony of pops and tearing metal, the transport along with the other ships in the fleet were torn to pieces around them with the pieces slowly falling into the violet point.
Kim and Ron found themselves sitting in a blue sphere floating in space, reminiscent of the sphere that Master Sensei could float in. She looked at her shaking hands then up into the soft brown eyes of her BFF as he tried not to panic. Creating the sphere must have required all the MMP energy leaving none for them. Here at the end, they were just Kim and Ron.
"Fuck me," she groaned, working hard to ignore the returning pain.
Ron pulled her into his arms, "Yeah, I know. Our families are dead, the world may never recover and we never had a chance to stop it, It's not fair."
She looked into his eyes, how could she have never noticed the love for her in those soft brown eyes, "No, you idiot, I am talking about sex, not some existential bullshit that has come due. I want you to fuck me."
Surprised, he replied, "I thought you had discarded that goth mentality, KP?"
"You're still talking. Why are you still talking?"
Ron carefully took her in his arms and kissed her, starting at her neck and working down to her breasts, the red dye of the tribal markings tasting sweet. Sliding his hand inside the waistband of her kilt, he stopped when she flinched in pain.
"KP! you're still hurting!"
"Ronnie. The problem is all the tissues that were forced to stretch when I was carrying the stupid thing for the last week. I've run out of painkillers and the blue is gone. But it's OK, Ronnie, I want you to do it. One of us should get a piece of pleasure before the end. Please, Ronnie, I want to give you pleasure before I die."
"I can't hurt you, Kim. Sorry, I just can't."
Even with her vision clouded with tears, Kim watched the purple point approaching,
"Ronnie, the time dilatation effect means that whatever we are doing when we hit the event horizon, we will do forever."
"Gotcha KP."
As his lips neared hers, she murmured, "Ronnie, I'm sorry for all my screw-ups."
"Don't be, I get to kiss the most bondiggity babe in the universe for all of eternity…"
The blue sphere disappeared into the purple point.
Two hours later. An uncaring universe decided that the black hole had not consumed enough mass to be stable. The purple point ignited into a tiny star that burned brightly for approximately twenty-five hours and then burned out with a blue flash after consuming everything in the area. Not a trace of debris, love, or mystical power remained, only a short stick with gold spots that slowly begins to accelerate to a watery planet.
This is part two of the three-part ending.
Part three will be posted tomorrow.
Posted 8 Jan 2019