This melancholy thing had a reputation for being lousy and Ron came to the conclusion that it was overrated.
He had been sad before, but never for any great length of time. There had been the Camp Wannaweep fiasco back when he was a kid. Sure, he was sad an awful lot of that time but the sadness had been broken up by bouts of sheer terror or disgust. He had been sad when he and Zita broke up, but very shortly after that he had taken up the mantle of the Fearless Ferret, and after that he had gone on the exchange trip to Japan. He hadn't had time to be sad. Now, he had plenty of time to savor every lousy moment of just being miserable.
He only had himself to blame. She had tried to avoid this. How many weeks ago had Kim sat him down and explained to him that she just wasn't attracted to him? She had told him flat out that there was never going to be anything other than friendship between the two of them, but had he listened?
Okay, he had listened, but he hadn't really believed it. At the time, it had seemed so unreal. Not three weeks before that, she had been all over him during the fiasco with the moodulator. As much as he had known there was something wrong with the way things went down, it had really felt nice to have her crushing on him. Since that time, he had come to realize that it wasn't just having a hot teenage girl throwing herself at him, it was having Kim throw herself at him. Sometime, somehow between the missions and the evenings at Bueno Nacho, between the school activities and hanging out whenever they could, he had fallen for her.
But she hadn't fallen for him.
Instead, she had fallen for the new guy. Again, Ron could only blame himself; he had seen the new guy show up on the motorcycle and invited him to sit with him at lunch. Eric and Kim had taken one look at each other and it was obvious, even to someone as relationship-ignorant as him, that they had hit it off immediately. Kim's eyes grew wider as Ron's heart had shrunk. At the time, the only thought going through his mind had been, "so this is how it ends."
But it hadn't ended. It wasn't so much that it ended as it all faded, remnants of what they had once had lingered just enough to make him try to keep it. It started with Friday Nights; the nights they always used to hang out together. First, she started inviting Eric along, then she simply invited Eric and was pleasantly surprised when Ron showed up, as well. Then, she became less than happy when Ron was present. The walk to school went the same way; first, Eric would meet them at school, then he started picking her up on his cycle before Ron got to her house. Before he knew what was going on, Ron was walking to school alone.
Before long, every moment Kim had between classes, she spent with Eric. The only time that Ron really spent with her was during cheer practice; even the bad guys seemed to be slowing down, so they didn't spend time together on missions any more. The only mission that had come up in the last few weeks had been to save her father from Drakken. She hadn't even tried to hang out with him afterwards; she hadn't even thanked him for helping her; she couldn't get home fast enough to get back to her interrupted date.
Eventually, he realized that he wasn't doing anything but torture himself by trying to stay close, so he gave it up. Once cheer practice was over, he just went home; and Kim hardly seemed to notice. It would be easier if he could be mad at Eric, but Eric was never a jerk to him, or pretty much to anyone. He was a good guy; witty, friendly, never mean; and Ron hated him for it. The guy was perfect; handsome, athletic, smart and had a great ride. He was better than Ron by every measure, Ron couldn't blame Kim for falling for him, which made things even worse.
Now, he was staring at his image in the mirror, removing his father's hideous tux. He had originally planned on going to the prom alone, maybe dance with Monique a time or two, but he thought better of it. It would be painful enough to see Kim and Eric dancing; he could just about imagine Bonnie's looks and cutting remarks about the whole thing. No, Bonnie wasn't exactly happy that Kim had gotten together with the new hottie and she was going to take it out on any target she could. A lovelorn Ron staring at the two of them on the dance floor would just be too easy a target for her to ignore. For the first time that he could remember, Bonnie's cutting words actually bothered him. He could deal with them Monday, at school. For now...well, he didn't really know.
He couldn't even hang with Felix. If his friend had been in town, he might have thought of going to the prom. The two of them could have talked a little trash between Felix's infrequent...and Ron's even more infrequent...dances. Instead, he and his mother were off on the East Coast giving a presentation on the capabilities of his robotic wheelchair. Again, Ron couldn't blame the guy; it was the sort of presentation that would elevate Felix's status from "sure fire to being accepted by MIT" to "MIT begging him to attend." It would also enhance his mother's reputation and probably bring in more investors to the Middleton Space Center. The only problem was there was some sort of reception going on which meant, even taking into account the two hour time difference, the guy wouldn't be available until late tonight. There would be no on-line zombie-bashing tonight, either partner or competitive.
"How did it come to this?" He asked his little buddy.
Rufus could only shrug his shoulders.
He indulged in a little bit of self-pity; he didn't hurt anyone, he did good things by helping Kim on her missions. Sure, there were people who did better in school, but he was better than average. He might not be the most observant in his faith, but he was far from the worst. Why was he alone during his Junior Prom when so many others were having a good time?
Then, the moment was over. He had been around the world over and over and knew that bad things happened to people, whether they were good people or bad. Also, some things that seemed to be bad could turn out to be a good thing. Right now, things seemed to really suck but there was a good chance that he would look back and consider this a fortunate turn of events. One thing was for sure, laying around and feeling sorry for himself wasn't doing him any good. He actually rallied a little for a small smile; Bueno Nacho was still open and because he hadn't spent money on a tux rental or a flower for a date, he had plenty of money to stuff his face into oblivion! He jumped to his feet and trotted down the stairs; he was never in such a bad mood that a little faux Tex-Mex wouldn't cheer him up!
Okay, good 'ol BN wasn't what he was used to. The kids menu and the toys irritated him to no end, but in the evening, there were no kids to be found here. It was almost like old times when he walked up to the counter, without having to wade through a mass of howling kids, and place his order. He noticed that Ned seemed a little jumpy; of course, Ned seemed a little jumpy ever since that burly new manager had shown up, but now he seemed jumpier-jumpier. No matter, junk food was waiting! Then, behind Lars' back, the skinny little employee held up a serving tray.
This wasn't normal. Ned had written the word "Evil" on the tray in diablo sauce. Ron could understand using fire sauce, fire sauce would wash right off. Diablo sauce would discolor the tray. Whatever Ned needed to tell him, it was worth risking being caught, rather than risk the few seconds it would have taken to select a safer sauce. Ron did his best to act like he hadn't noticed, taking some satisfaction in Ned's expression of crestfallen, frustrated dejection to mean that he had succeeded. If he had learned one thing from Yori, during her trip to Middleton, it was to have a plausible story to put people where you needed them. He walked right past his usual booth, flinching at the thought that it was no longer "their" usual booth, and approached the one farthest from the counter.
"This is the last straw!" He roared, spinning to glare back at the manager.
"We have plenty of straws," the big man assured him, from across the room.
"No, not the straws," Ron stepped back. "This table is filthy! It was bad enough that the place is so crowded and noisy with all of the kids around here these days, does it have to be dirty, as well?"
"Of course not," the big man offered him a tight nod, then caught Ned's gaze and gave a head gesture towards the table in question. Ned looked both scared and relieved as he scooped up a rag and scurried out to Ron.
"So, what's up?" Ron whispered, then said, loud enough for Lars to hear, "Look at that! The sauce has been there so long that it's gone solid! It's going to take some serious scrubbing to get it off!"
"I'm sorry, sir," Ned answered him, in a loud voice. "There's something with the toys, something bad going on," he whispered to Ron. "I overheard Lars talking to corporation, there's supposed to be something happening yet tonight."
"Like what?" Ron asked him.
"I don't know completely," Ned admitted. "But I overheard him saying something to the effect of being on line early and there were plans in place to make sure that she couldn't interfere. There was an awful lot of concern about her."
Ron didn't know if he should gasp, sigh or shake his head, he settled for blurting out the obvious. "If there's talk about keeping 'her' from interfering in Middleton, 'she' has to be Kim."
"That's my guess," Ned confirmed.
"Okay, it's clean, finally!" Ron snarled, loudly. "I'll see what I can find out," he whispered, then took his seat. He pulled out his phone and hit the button Wade had programmed.
"What's up, Ron," the chubby genius answered from the screen.
"Odd things at BN," Ron answered. He quickly filled Wade in.
Ron recognized the look that Wade was giving him; it said that the genius was just humoring him, convinced that he was just looking for attention since he wasn't hanging with Kim anymore. Well, that was something else Ron had learned; it didn't matter why Wade was on the case, only that Wade was on the case.
"This is odd," Wade said, suddenly looking less sympathetic and more determined. "I'm trying to hack...er...access Bueno Nacho's systems, but there's a very sophisticated firewall."
"Can you break in?" Ron asked.
"In time," Wade told him. "But this is a serious security measure, much more than a fast food franchise should need."
"Competition for the market is cutthroat," Ron pointed out.
"But not to this extent," Wade protested. "I have an idea, I might be able to do an end-around through the phone system. It will take time, but you can help."
"Uh, not exactly computer security savvy," Ron reminded him.
"But you are fast food savvy and you have a link to BN," Wade informed him. "Call up Bueno Nacho headquarters and demand to speak to the CEO. As a major patent contributor, you'll get access to the corporate headquarters. Make your complaint and stay on the line, that will give me the time to infiltrate and find out what they're hiding."
"If there's one thing I can do, it's complain," Ron happily agreed with the plan. Then, the phone was ringing and it was time to try to run some interference...just without any personal danger this time.
It started out easily enough; of course, there was a series of automated answers that Wade was able to navigate easily enough without Ron even having to press a button. After several minutes, he wound up talking to a human.
"I'm here to complain about the service and conditions of my local Bueno Nacho," Ron told the bored-sounding woman on the other end.
"You should direct your complaint to the local manager," she told him, clearly forcing herself to show a modicum of politeness.
"Yeah, this is Ron Stoppable, the guy who invented the Naco," Ron told her. "Unless you want me to contest the ownership of that product and give the rights to one of your competitors, you'll patch me through to the CEO."
"Um...err...right away sir, just one moment," He was quickly on hold.
"Good work," Wade's voice came over the phone. "I'm in close enough to start. When the CEO comes on the phone, remember that you don't have to win an argument, you just have to keep him on the line."
It took a few minutes before the phone clicked to life again. "Yeah, what do you want?" A familiar voice demanded.
"Drakken?" Ron gasped before he could think enough to play things cool.
"Huh? Buffoon?" The man demanded from the other end. "What are you doing calling me?"
"Wondering what's going on with Bueno Nacho!" Ron snarled back, trying to get back in character. "This place is..."
"How did you figure it out?" Drakken interrupted. "Wha...no matter! I'll see to you!"
The phone line went dead.
"Wade," Ron said. "I'm sorry, but..."
"I heard," Ron was less irritated by Wade's interruption than by Drakken's. "Get to the prom, Kim's not answering her calls and if Drakken's involved, he probably has something planned for her."
"Right," Ron jumped to his feet, only for a very large hand to settle onto his shoulder.
"Sir," Lars smirked at him. "Why don't you come back to the storeroom with me? We can sort out your issues and nobody needs to get hurt."
"I don't think so," Ron squirmed out from the big man's grip. "I think I'll take my business elsewhere."
"I insist," Lars rumbled. "Or, should I say, we insist."
A swarm of little diablo toys swarmed from behind the counter. Ron was slightly relieved when Ned's shriek of terror was a little girlier than his usually were. However, he didn't have time to reflect on relative manliness. The irritating, little fiends moved like lightning, blocking off his escape.
"We have you trapped," Lars told him.
"Wait, they're just toys!" Ron suddenly realized. He sprinted for the door, right through the obnoxious giveaways, only to be caught. Some of the toys grabbed onto his ankles and calves, while others linked together, trying to wrap around his legs.
"Just toys?" Lars chuckled, but Ron wasn't about to be captured. A twist and tumble freed him for a moment and allowed him to jump up and grab an overhead fan. The air-moving appliance spun him around and he let loose at the proper time, letting his speed carry him over the toys and to the door. Giving his own chuckle of triumph, he leapt onto his scooter and gunned the small engine out of the parking lot...
...Only to see an even larger swarm of the toys emerge from all of the doors and set off in pursuit. Rather than fall behind, the tiny omens of ruin actually closed onto him. Why had he spent all that money on various video games, and not on a better ride? Okay, he never would have had enough to buy a proper motorcycle, but he could have had something better than this!
"How is this possible?" He roared in fear.
"Exactly, Possible," Wade's voice sounded from his phone. "I'm watching this on security cameras and scanning. Somehow, those things are making use of Dr. Possible's Hephaestus technology. That's awfully expensive for free toys. Get to the gym and get Kim. I'm going to contact Dr. Possible and see what he can tell me."
"Right," Ron agreed, only vaguely wondering how Wade managed to talk over his phone when it was off. The toys were almost on him when Middleton High came into view. He slammed on the brakes, jumped over the handlebars and sprinted into the gym.
There was a minor commotion when he burst inside; all the couples' formal entrances were over and it was now down to the dancing. Still, a few students noticed him and expressed their surprise. He took a few moments to realize that he wasn't being pursued, then stalked onto the dance floor, not caring that he was interrupting the whole thing.
"Ron, what are you doing?" Okay, it was to be expected that Kim would spot him before he spotted her; he was drawing attention to himself. He had a moment's flinch; knowing that he was ruining her night, seeing how lovely she looked and how much better Eric looked than he could have ever managed. But he braced himself; this was for her, after all.
"You're in danger," Ron panted. "It's Drakken, he's doing something with Bueno Nacho and the toys, they're evil and they chased me all the way here. There's some plan for you because he wants you out of the way to do...whatever it is that he's going to do."
"Look, Ron," Kim adopted a very reasonable tone, the tone she used whenever trying to explain something to him that she thought he should have picked up on long ago. "I know that things are changing, we had this talk in the tree-house. I know that you don't like what's happening at Bueno Nacho, but this is just silly. Go home and we'll talk about this tomorrow."
"I guess it comes down to if you trust me or not," Ron told her, mustering what dignity he could. "After all the times I ran off to support you on you missions, am I worth believing this one time?"
She thought about it. She actually thought about it! After all these years, how could she even consider that this was some attention seeking ploy?
"Drakken, Bueno Nacho, toys?" Eric asked. "Look, Kim, I know that he's your friend, but isn't this a little hard to believe?"
"Yes it is," Kim nodded. "Which is exactly why it's the sort of thing that Drakken would do. Okay, Ron, let's make this quick. Eric, I'll be right back."
Ron didn't know if he should smirk at Eric or feel sorry for him. Instead, he offered the other teen a shrug, then hurried after Kim.
"So what's the plan?" She demanded of him. She might believe him, but this whole sitch was ruining her perfect night and while it wasn't his fault, he was the most handy target for her irritation.
"Wade says the toys use your dad's technology," he explained, hauling his scooter up. "Why don't we start at your place?"
She gave a grouchy grunt, but hopped on behind him. He had the strange feeling that this might be the last time he would give her a ride, but was determined to see the mission through. He made the fastest trip he ever had from the school to the Possible Home. Fortunately, Wade had been his usual, efficient self. Both of Kim's parents were waiting for them.
"I'm very sorry that your prom night was interrupted," James stated, leading them into the house. He had apparently failed to notice that Ron wasn't wearing formal attire. "But this is...very serious."
Ron took a good look at this man he considered his second father, and realized that he seemed to have aged years in the handful of hours since he had saw him last.
"I never realized that my technology could be misused like this," the genius continued. "Hephaestus was supposed to allow greater flexibility on deep-space missions, not...this..."
"Just what is 'this'," Kim asked.
"Definitely something that isn't good," her father told her. He had a couple of the toys sitting on the coffee table in the den. "I hate to say it, but the very properties I developed for deep space applications could be used for nefarious purposes. In Drew's hands..."
"And, they're being distributed through thousands of restaurants around the world," Ron added, when the rocket-scientist's voice faded into silence.
"Okay, just what kind of threat are we talking about?" Kim asked. "They're just little toys!"
"Yeah, but..." Ron tried to tell her about being attacked at Bueno Nacho, but her father spoke over him.
"They're small at the moment," James explained. "But if you subject the metal to enough radiation; heat, X rays, gamma radiation, it can store it and utilize it later. The metal can grow, reconfigure itself, even repair damage. I've read up a little on Drew and as much as he can be eccentric, he's also brilliant. I have no doubt that he has a reactor in one of his lairs and he's used it to energize all of the cybernetic metal he's been producing. The only thing keeping him from having an army of semi-autonomous robots all over the world is the safeguard I put in."
"Safeguard?" Kim asked him.
"The Hephaestus metal won't activate without the proper command signal," the rocket-scientist told them, rallying a bit and showing a smile. "Drew wouldn't have put in this kind of effort unless he had already tested this. While he's distributed the toys, he hasn't established a network for broadcasting the command signal. We can still stop him before..."
"Guys!" Wade's image suddenly appeared on the Possible's television, despite the appliance being turned off. "I'm picking up a massive signal coming from Bueno Nacho. Maybe...YIKES!"
Ron could sympathize with Wade's remark. The two toys on the coffee table suddenly started to grow and move. He caught a glimpse of Wade's room, where another toy was activating. This was definitely a yikes moment. Scratch that, it was a YIKES moment. He dutifully added his voice to the statement even as he grabbed Tim, who was gawking at the growing toys, and shoved him out of the den. Kim did the same for her other brother while the Possible parents, showing remarkable reflexes for people who didn't face such threats on a weekly basis, were on their sons' heels.
The robots both formed a spinning blade on one hand and attacked, while still growing. Ron decided that he had to have a talk with Mr. Dr. P about false modesty. 'Growing' suggested that a four-inch toy could grow to a foot, or maybe two feet high. Growing to the point that their head's brushed the ceiling warranted a couple of adverbs associated with 'grow'.
Still, the things weren't exactly agile. They stumbled after the two teens, tripping on furniture and smashing into walls. Even in her formal dress, Kim was the picture of grace, jumping forward to kick one of the robots and using the force to tumble out of the reach of the other. On the other hand, Ron saw an opportunity while both were fixated on the redhead. He dropped his shoulder and drove himself into the knee joint of one of the things. It fell forward, its weapon slicing into the other one. The damaged robot dropped with a shower of sparks pouring out of its body.
"Good move," Kim congratulated him. "But we need to get outside. Eventually, we're going to get cornered in here and we need to get this thing away from the fam."
"Right," Ron agreed. Kim dodged another attack from the still functioning robot and Ron took advantage of the distraction to throw an afghan over its head. Then, he was on Kim's heels out of the door, pausing only long enough to make sure that when the robot got rid of the covering, it spotted him leaving.
At least that meant he got to see the bad news; the other robot climbed back to its feet, the rent in its metallic body mending as he watched.
"Bad news," he gasped to his friend, now on the front lawn. "The first one..."
Both robots burst through the wall, growing even larger now that the house was no longer an obstacle.
"...fixed itself," he completed. "And it looks like they can get even bigger."
"No kidding!" Kim clearly wasn't in any mood to hear the obvious, moving barely fast enough to avoid a jet of flame from one of the things. Her dress wasn't so fortunate, catching a serious scorch to the hem. "Do you have any idea how many hours of babysitting it took to afford this dress?"
"Not important right now!" Ron told her, feeling an odd satisfaction in reversing their usual role in the fighting conversation. Acting on a hunch, he jumped as high as he could and latched onto one of the robot's chest. He had a moment to be glad that a hunch proved correct; the toy joints on the robot didn't allow it to reach him. Then, he saw the other one line up a shot. He waited until the last moment before jumping clear, taking immense satisfaction when the gout of fire hit the robot he had been clinging onto.
He couldn't tell how much damage the robot took, but it had clearly been blinded by the flame. It swung wildly with its spinning blade, chopping deeply into the other robot's head. Unfortunately, neither robot went dormant while repairing. Instead, the blinded robot lurched about...blindly...while the other one was clearly staggered, but searched for the teens even while the gash in its head began to close.
Alright, he had to give credit to Drakken; the guy understood villain etiquette even if he didn't talk about it very much. It seemed somehow fitting that the same trick didn't work as well the second time it was used. Without a doubt, if they managed to get one of the robots to damage the other yet again, it would incapacitate its counterpart for even less time. Not good news, but definitely in line with proper, super-villain rules.
"Catch!" Kim shouted at him. He looked up just in time to see the end of a coil of rope flying his way. He understood her plan without her telling him; the two sprinted around the blinded robot, lashing its legs together and dropping it to the ground. By this time, the damaged robot had repaired itself and was no longer as clumsy and drove them away from the fallen machine.
"Any ideas?" Kim asked him. The question came as a rude shock; he was about to ask her.
"Wade?" He suggested.
"Kind of out of action for the moment," she told him. She held up her Kimmunicator, so he could see that Wade was hiding under his bed while a diablo robot was tearing through his room.
"Kimmie! Ronald!" The teens looked to see Mr. Dr. Possible pushing his scooter out of the garage and into the driveway. "We souped it up, be careful."
"Right!" Ron dodged a spinning claw and tumbled towards his vehicle.
"Okay, it sounds like you just came up with a plan," Kim shouted at him, performing some gymnastics and keeping both robots occupied.
"Bueno Nacho!" He shouted back, jumping on the scooter and gunning the engine. "Didn't Wade say that the signal came from there?"
"Good thinking!" She agreed, jumping on behind him. "We'll play it by ear when we get there."
Then there wasn't time to talk. The big diablos retained the wheels under their feet, allowing one of the things to pursue them. Somehow, the scooter held up to the incredible power that the Possibles had given it in just a few minutes. He twisted and weaved down the street, managing to dodge the flames and energy blasts it sent their way. Of course, Bueno Nacho wasn't that far away.
"What's happened to the sign?" Kim pointed at the marquee, which had changed shape. "Wait, that has to be the transmitter, we have to take it out!"
"Right," Ron agreed, then slowed the scooter down.
"What are you doing...oh!" She gasped in understanding when he swerved at the last moment, leading the robot to plow into their target.
The monstrosity regained its feet; then immediately shrunk back to toy size. Ron took great satisfaction in stomping on the thing and grinding it to scrap.
"Good job guys!" Wade's voice sounded over the Kimmunicator. "I've got to get set back up, but it seems like all of the robots have returned to normal size. Wait...I have a message coming in for you...it's Drakken!"
"Well done, Kim Possible," the villain's image showed on the screen. "But before you gloat too much, you might want to know that I've got someone very important to you."
The image changed to a very confused looking Eric. "Kim, what's going on?" He managed to say, before the image shifted to Drakken again.
"This is far from over, Kim Possible. We'll see if you're all that or not." The screen went dark.
"Wade, track that call," Kim told Wade. "We have a boyfriend to rescue."
Ron was less than happy. Okay, that wasn't fair, he was more than unhappy; he was right down tweaked. Again, he couldn't blame Kim and he couldn't blame Eric. Kim hadn't asked him to fall for her, Eric hadn't asked Drakken to kidnap him. It was perfectly normal for Kim to expect him to help her perform a rescue and it was perfectly reasonable for her to rescue her boyfriend. The real problem was him; he couldn't help but wonder if Kim would expect Eric to help rescue him.
That wasn't the only thing bothering him. Wade had been working up some new battle suit for Kim. For Kim; not one for Kim and one for him. Again, Ron had to wonder just how he had become so unappreciated; didn't he help on the missions? Didn't he rate some consideration? It was actually pleasant to dwell on the injustice when it came to equipment as opposed to the injustice based on teenage romance.
He had time; it was one hundred miles or so to Bueno Nacho Headquarters, although his scooter ate up the miles at the rate that most aircraft did. Maybe this was a good thing; their standard operating procedure was to parachute in, so they had a better chance of catching Drakken by surprise. No matter, once they were done with this, there was going to be changes before he went on a mission again.
Then, there wasn't time to think about afterwards, it was time to concentrate on the mission. Getting into the compound was pretty easy; the battle suit melted a section of the fence and Wade assured them that it wouldn't set off any alarms. After that, it was a typical approach to the building. Wade had already run records of the building plans and knew where the control room would most likely be located. The two teens grappled up to the roof, which prompted Ron to realize that after all this time, he still didn't have his own grapple. He reminded himself to talk about that once this mission was finished.
They didn't use the ventilation ducts this time. Most of the guards seemed to be on the ground level or walking the perimeter. It was fortunate that Wade had the world wired to the point that he had been able to find a flaw in the patrol and get them inside. Still, Ron had to wonder why the genius never seemed to share this information with him. Again, he reminded himself to keep his mind on the mission as they slipped into the building and along deserted corridors.
Mostly deserted. A large hand slipped out from an office and seized Ron's shoulder. He twisted quickly and spun, seeing the sumo ninja they had dealt with before.
"Take care of him," Kim instructed, breaking into a sprint. "I'll go rescue Eric."
"But...we're a team," Ron protested, but it was to Kim's receding backside. She was already gone.
"Now, I shall have vengeance!" The hulking form declared, in a most unimpressive falsetto.
Well, if Kim had abandoned him to go chase after he pretty boy, maybe he could make the most of things. He had a lot of anger to work off, and it looked like the big boy in front of him was a good target.
Just last year, the lunge the big man made would have caught him by surprise, but now it seemed almost painfully slow. Ron ducked under the charging bear-hug attempt and hit one of his opponent's knees. Sumo ninja was quick...for someone his size. Ron was much quicker; by the time the black-clad enforcer even turned around, Ron had driven two hard punches into the massive belly. Okay, that didn't do too much, but it felt good doing it.
The big guy wasn't out of the fight; he threw a punch that Ron managed to dodge, but tore a major chunk out of the wall that was behind him. Okay, this was still a serious encounter. Another punch came the teen's way, which Ron managed to swat to one side, opening the attacker up to a kick to his other knee. The sumo dropped to his knees, bringing his head closer to Ron's reach. The teen had to jump, but he managed both a punch and an elbow to the big man's head. The colossus was staggered.
Now less than graceful, sumo ninja tried to regain his feet. Ron pounced; jumping up and driving one of his knees into his opponent's jaw. The big man fell back onto his back, out of it. Satisfied, Ron ran off in pursuit of Kim. If things went the usual way, she would be fighting Shego, which would let him do an end-around and get to the machinery. Of course, there was a hostage to rescue, as well. Was it wrong for him to decide that destroying the master transmission source was more important that getting Eric out?
The hall he ran down gave way to a multi-story, open atrium...and a great view of the expected Kim vs Shego fight. However, he forgot about the end-run and stood, stunned, watching the fight. He should have been even more irritated that Wade hadn't seen fit to make a battle suit for him, but he could only appreciate what this suit was doing for Kim. The suit was able to withstand the green woman's plasma, meaning that Kim didn't have to dodge every burst. In fact, whenever the complex action separated them, she was able to send the plasma flying back at her foe. Eventually, the fight wound up toe-to-toe again, and Shego made some sort of remark about how cute Eric was. This seemed to set Kim off more than usual, and she landed three or four hard shots to Shego's face, dropping Drakken's enforcer, senseless, to the ground.
Ron should have been irritated that mentioning Eric had tweaked Kim so much, but he was too busy being impressed by the suit and the knockout that had just been delivered.
"Gee Kim, I didn't now you cared so much."
Ron quickly regained his irritation when Eric himself, with not a hair or thread out of place, appeared at the top of a multi-story escalator and rode it down to Kim's level.
"Eric!" Kim shouted, and rushed to him, her arms open.
"No! Wait! Stay away!" The handsome boy shouted, holding up his hands to ward her off. Ron could only watch, in confused horror, as Eric's clothing suddenly changed to one of Drakken's henchman's uniforms, then to one of the outfits that he wore to school, then back to his tuxedo.
"Eric, what's happening?" Kim demanded, just as confused as Ron was.
"This is wrong," Eric shouted, clearly intending someone farther away than Kim to hear him. "I won't do this!" He then addressed Kim. "I was supposed to distract you from interfering with Drakken's plans," he told the redhead. "Then, when that didn't work, I was supposed to be the last line of defense, to incapacitate you so you couldn't stop him."
"I...I don't understand," Kim answered. Ron couldn't blame her, he didn't understand what was going on.
"That's not important right now," Eric told her, stepping away from the escalator while still holding up his hands to ward her off. "What's important is that I wont do what he demands of me. I can't trust myself, so I'm getting out of your way. Drakken is about to unleash his diablos, worldwide. You've either avoided or incapacitated all of his guards. Get into the control room, stop him, and then I'll tell you everything."
A/N: As always, big thanks to Joe Stoppinghem for beta reading.