Chapter 47: Clash at Bueno Nacho

"Her pride?" Shego asked, she couldn't have heard that correctly.

"Of course, Shego." Drakken answered. "Kim Possible takes pride to the level of arrogance. She not only demands excellence from herself, she also wants her peers and rivals to acknowledge her accomplishments and she lets them define success!"

"Consider the boyfriend issue," Drakken continued with a smirk on a face. "Kim Possible wanted a boyfriend, much like most other sixteen-year old girls. The fact that other sixteen year old girls around her had one, and she didn't, made her want a boyfriend even more! This left an opening, a point of wounded pride that we could exploit!"

"That's why you had me log onto that 'I Hate Kim Possible' chatroom and make friends with her high school rival!" Shego concluded. "So that we could manipulate her boy chasing!"

"Exactly, Shego." The doctor agreed. "The money I paid that psychoanalyst was money well spent indeed! With his direction and your experience with Possible, you were able to pass her rival information needed to take advantage of her pride! That girl was able to convince Possible that other girls would look down on her if she dated her sidekick. She then convinced Possible that she needed a 'statement' boy, one who would make the other girls envious of her. Possible's pride caused her to fall for the setup."

Drakken then smiled at Eric. "Enter Synthodrone 901! The modeling agent I hired came up with the perfect blend of handsome and homey needed to catch Possible's eye. As for the personality," here the doctor almost collapsed with laughter. "We had a nearly perfect match to Possible's personality to us a model for your behavior! In one masterstroke we caused Possible to turn her back on her partner and become a crushing sheep on my agent! The dominant force behind Team Possible was essentially neutralized!"

Drakken slowly frowned and cupped his chin between a thumb and forefinger. "I only wish I understood why Unit 902 didn't have better luck with Stoppable. Boys are easy! Crank up the hormone level and the brain cells get squeezed dry. Any normal sixteen-year old boy should have been so smitten by a girl that attractive that his brain would have stopped." Drakken shook his head and waved his hands. "No matter, Team Possible is hiding in the woods and my robots are running rampant worldwide!"

The doctor twirled in triumph and found himself standing face to face with Kim Possible.

For a second, the two adversaries stared at each other. Kim was tempted to give him a lecture about having a rough enough time being a teenage girl growing up in the public eye, instead she settled for a right cross to his jaw. Shego and Eric just stood there, stunned.

"Kim, the roof!" Ron's shout brought her out of her reverie and she ran up the stairs to the roof hatch that Rufus had scouted out for them. Eric came out of his stupor before anyone else and took off in pursuit.

"Wrong idea, syntho-dude!" Ron advised him, as he brought the drone down with a leg scissors. Ron was on top of him in a moment, pinning him down and taking great glee in grinding that handsome face into the stairs. Shego didn't bother with the combatants. She launched herself over them and in hot pursuit of Kim. Ron let loose of Eric and chased after Shego. He had to give Kim enough time to destroy the antenna!

Kim managed to not pause and gawk at the sight. A full score of flying robots circled the compound while the fence was literally lined with the machines. She spotted the antenna and ran for that side of the roof. As she ran, a familiar, sizzling sound made her tumble to the side, barely avoiding a plasma blast. She spun around, seeing that Shego had made it to the roof.

Ron reached the roof just in time to see Kim dodge a plasma blast. He hesitated and that hesitation cost him. Eric grabbed the boy by the collar and hurled him back against a wall. While Ron saw stars behind his eyelids, he ducked into a tumbling, forward roll. Eric's follow-up punch flew over his head and Ron sprang to his feet and drove a knee into Eric's face. Eric fell backwards with Ron on top of him but the synthodrone got his feet between them and threw Ron over his head. Ron hit the roof with a tumbling summersault and hopped to his feet. Eric sprang upright, as well. The two closed in on each other again.

"I guess we've chosen our partners for this dance," Ron told Eric, ducking the synthodrone's punch.

Warren knew that something would happen. With his camera to his eye and the zoom activated, he recognized Possible, her sidekick, and Shego. Another young man had appeared as well, and was clearly on Shego's side. Warren pressed his transmit button.
Back at the Middleton High Gym Building, Felix locked onto a familiar signal. "Hey, check this out!" He exclaimed. "That same guy's transmitting to Channel 6 again!" Felix brought the picture on the screen.

"Okay, Possible and that green woman are fighting again," Bonnie observed. "But why are Eric and Stoppable fighting each other?"

"Oscar saw Eric jump into some sort of hovership after the lights went out," Monique explained. "We figured he was working for one of Kim's enemies. You know, distracting her and keeping an eye on her. To bad she didn't just get together with Ron instead." Bonnie flinched.

"Something isn't right about Eric," Barkin observed. "He should be down. Stoppable has picked up some hand-to-hand combat training somewhere, and some of those hits should have dropped that boy." The big man winced when he saw Ron take a hard blow to the gut. Ron, however, responded by driving a thumb into one of Eric's eyes. "There's no way that Eric is human!" Barkin declared. "That should have removed his eye! Just what's been going on here?"

Oscar and Cindy were jogging as fast as they could through the dark forest. They had found the thickest cover that they could, and hid while the hunting robots passed them by, even though one giant foot had only missed them by a couple of feet. Once the robot had passed, the teens had crawled until they were out of sight of the monstrosities. Now they were on their feet, putting as much distance between them and the hunters as they could. Their plan was to get back to the highway and follow it to a building and hopefully a telephone.

The teens broke out of the trees and found themselves in a small clearing. They quickly turned and sought cover again but a bright light spotlighted them.

"Freeze you two!" They heard from above them. They stopped and held their hands away from their bodies. The light was coming from some sort of flying platform, which was now lowering into the clearing. Oscar could just make out one of the two figures on the platform raise some sort of microphone to his face.

"We've got them!"

Drakken rubbed his jaw, stumbling to his position behind the workstations. This was a critical time and his direction was vital. For all of his hard work, his power distribution system could only support about ten percent of his robots flying at any time, so these flying assets had to be carefully allocated. In addition, although all of his robots had weapons, he had only been able to smuggle and/or construct a limited amount of ammunition. Selected robots had loaded themselves at his ammunition caches. These units were divided between military bases and a reserve force.

"Doctor," one of his technicians interrupted his musings. "Shall I order some diablos to eliminate Team Possible?"

"No, you fool! The diablos are capable but clumsy. They will not be used near the antenna or the reactor! Shego and Eric will handle those two!"

"Doctor," another technician chimed in. "Our mobile security team reports that they have caught Team Possible."

"Inform the security team that they have caught imposters, bring them in."

"Doctor," a third man reported. "There's a problem at Fort Riley."

Doctor Drakken rushed to that workstation. It appeared that an armored battalion had been conducting a nighttime live fire exercise during the attack. The battalion commander had redistributed his remaining live ammunition and had split his forces. Half had re-taken the base's ammunition bunkers, while the other half had retaken the base's motor pools. Service personnel were rushing to their Company Orderly Rooms, organizing and arming themselves. Drakken ordered half of his reserve to Fort Riley; he had no intention of allowing the Big Red One to arm itself.

The next few hours are critical, he reminded himself. He had a good chance of subduing all meaningful resistance in the next few hours. If he did that, the world was his! If he didn't, it could be the bloodiest day in human history.

Ron was losing and he knew it. Oh, he was landing three, maybe four good shots on Eric for every hit he was taking but it wasn't enough. He was wearing down, more and more he was blocking strikes instead of evading them and even blocks left him battered and bruised. Eric knew this and the synthodrone's smug grin was infuriating.

Synthodrone, no bones to break and no internal organs to damage, Ron thought. One little puncture will finish him but I'm not strong enough to punch a fist through his syntho-skin. I need a weapon! The Lotus Blade? Ron considered it while jumping over a foot-sweep. Even if I could achieve the inner harmony, while fighting, that I need to summon it, considering the distance from Japan to here it will arrive somewhere between too late and never. He drove a fist into the back of Eric's head and looked over at Kim.

Kim was doing better than he was, but not by much. They hadn't had a chance to rig a holster for Wade's electronics frying weapon, so Kim was forced to hold it in one hand. Kim and Shego had always been very closely matched but Kim was now handicapped by the need to keep the weapon safe. Shego was slowly beating Kim. The way things were going, Eric would eventually leave Ron in a quivering heap then assist Shego with Kim. They wouldn't even get a shot at the antenna.

THE ANTENNA!

Suddenly Ron understood the situation. The fighting was just a distraction. The goal was to take out the antenna. If they managed that, it wouldn't matter what Shego and Eric did to Kim and him. He didn't have to beat Eric to take down the antenna, just give Kim four seconds. He knew how to do it.

Over the years, he had observed Kim and Shego fighting countless times and the two combatants had developed a sort of routine. While they were always adjusting their strikes and counters, Ron had learned to anticipate, in a general sort of way, when one would retreat or push the issue. He maneuvered himself so that Eric was between him and the other two combatants and went on the defensive. Eric apparently thought he was exhausted, because the synthodrone launched a flurry of blows, which Ron gamely blocked. Finally, he saw Shego let loose a series of high punches and kicks, which Kim ducked. It was time for Ron to make his move.

Ron made a high feint at Eric's head. As soon as the synthodrone reacted, Ron shot a wresting double-leg takedown, driving his right shoulder into Eric's stomach and lifting the synthodrone off of the ground. In the meantime, Kim threw a quick succession of low kicks and strikes, which Shego avoided by performing three graceful back flips. Eric managed a glancing blow on Ron's back. Ron gritted his teeth and forced himself into a sprint, with Eric still draped over his shoulder, he picked his point and dove. Shego finished her last flip by landing in a combat ready crouch, ready to close with Kim again. She was caught completely unaware when the lunging mass that was Ron and Eric landed on top of her.

"KIM, THE ANTENNA!" Ron screamed. He knew that he couldn't hold his adversaries down for long. The only reason that Shego hadn't fried him already was that she couldn't risk destroying Eric. Ron felt Shego's claws rake his right calf but he braced his legs wide, unleashing fists and elbows as fast as he could. Sometimes he hit synthetic skin; sometimes he hit warm, greenish skin. He was beyond caring which, as long as he hit something.

Kim didn't hesitate when she heard Ron's scream. She spun around, ran to the edge of the roof, aimed at the antenna, and pulled the trigger. What followed was the longest four seconds of her life. She could hear every curse, every shout and every impact of flesh on flesh behind her. She needed to maintain her aim on the antenna, so she couldn't turn and see. After a few eternities spent imagining all of the terrible things happening to Ron, the weapon shot the projectile. The dart flew across the twenty feet of open air and struck what appeared to be a microwave transmitter.

Shego was more enraged than she had ever been. She had been getting the better of the princess when the blasted distraction had dog piled her with the ambulatory sack of glop. With her face pressed into the roof, Shego had been forced to suppress her first instinct, which was to reach behind her back and plasma-fry anything on top of her. She knew her track record against Team Possible and she had no intention of finding herself, alone, tangling with both Kim and Ron. Shego had managed to reach back and positively identify Stoppable's leg before sinking in her claws. Unfortunately for her, the pest had pulled his leg out of her range and had then started pounding on both of his opponents, nailing her on the back of the head more than once. Shego put her hands down on the roof and did a violent push-up. This gave her enough space to roll over, get her feet between her and the two dolts on top of her and kick. Both Eric and Ron went flying and Shego sprang to her feet.

The antenna erupted in a shower of sparks from top to bottom when the dart struck. The gentle humming, which Kim hadn't even noticed before it stopped, was replaced by a harsh, loud buzz. She hadn't even wondered what this meant when a sliding body took her feet out from under her and crashed against the roof's railing. Kim kept enough of her wits to fall properly and identify a dazed and battered Ron as the object that had just undercut her. Kim jumped to her feet and spun around just as Shego reached her own feet. Kim noted, in triumph, that diablo toys were raining onto the roof.

"Doctor, we are no longer transmitting!" A technician shouted. Doctor Drakken ran to the technician's workstation and examined the readings.

"The isolation transformers have been shorted!" Drakken yelled, with panic in his voice. "Send the synthodrones to replace them before it's too late!"

"Sir," the technician cut in, "The human maintenance team can do the job faster."

"Idiot!" Drakken snapped back. "The main power line is now shorted directly to the antenna structure! That antenna is highly charged! Humans will die upon contact but the drones won't be harmed! Get them to work while I observe!" With that, the Doctor charged up the stairs and onto the roof.

Oscar and Cindy stood, as the two men lowered their hover-platform. One of the men pointed something that looked like a handgun at the two teens and hopped to the ground. As he approached them, the other landed the craft and joined him. None of the four seemed to know what to do for a full minute, then one of the men received a radio call.

"Hey, this isn't Team Possible! These are just high school kids."

"So," the larger of the two said, "thought you'd just pull one over on us, huh? Well get this, kiddies, this isn't that stupid cartoon with the talking dog! You mess with us, there's a price to pay!" His companion holstered his weapon, grabbed Cindy by her hair and dragged her back towards the hover-platform. The larger man holstered his weapon and marched right up to tower over Oscar.

"The boss says bring you back, not bring you back unharmed." He grabbed the front of Oscar's shirt and lifted the teen up against a tree. The big man was very confused when Oscar smiled at him. Of course, he didn't know that he had just placed himself belly-to-belly with a wrestling champion.

"Guys, I think Kim and Ron have won!" Felix declared. "Look at all of these feeds, the robots have all shrunk down to toys and deactivated! Whatever Kim did to that antenna knocked them out!"

"That's good," Mr. Barkin said in a solemn voice. "But keep this feed up. Kim and Ron are still in danger."

All four stared at the screen, which showed Shego and Kim climbing to their feet and facing each other.

Shego was steamed. It wasn't that the plan was falling apart, which was bad enough in its own way. It would have been nice to ride Drakken's coattails to world conquest and the resulting luxurious life, but that wasn't the worst part. No, the worst part was that little Kimmie had managed to knock out the antenna after Shego had gone up to stop her. The little cheerleader had beaten her again!

"Okay, princess!" The mercenary roared at the redhead. "That does it! I've had enough of you!" With that, Shego ignited her hands and charged, beyond rage. The mercenary didn't even attempt one of her skillful attacks. She simply extended her hands and dove at the redhead. Kim caught Shego's wrists and dropped to her back, bringing her feet up into Shego's stomach and sending her flying over Kim's head. The mercenary flew off of the roof, across the twenty feet of open air and into the antenna.

Her hands, still charged with plasma, struck the charged support structure.

Kim had to admit that the explosion was impressive. Shego's hands had managed to hit two support struts, which had vaporized. The teen heroine's smug expression quickly evaporated when she realized that without the support struts, the entire structure had become unstable. The antenna began to fall, in the direction of the missing support. Directly towards her and the still stunned Ron.

Cindy struggled with her assailant, who was trying to cuff her to the hover platform's railing. While she was no weak girl, cheerleading and gymnastics had made her surprisingly muscular, she was still sixteen, relatively petite, and severely outsized. Not only that, but the larger of the two thugs was roughing up her boyfriend. While she wasn't a fighter, like Kim, she had no intention of just standing there, helpless, while these two brutes mugged Oscar.

Suddenly, her assailant released her and went sprawling, in a wild jumble of limbs, over the railing and onto the forest floor. It took her a moment to realize that Oscar had just tackled the man, grappling with him. She looked towards where she had last seen her boyfriend and saw the other thug face down on the ground, moving and moaning feebly. Looking back to her boyfriend, she noted that he had managed to maneuver himself behind his opponent and lock a choking hold on the man's throat. She ran to the melee, wincing at the horrid shade of blue the thug's face had become. The man was out by the time she got to them.

Thinking quickly, she retrieved the man's weapon, aimed it at the hover platform's controls, and pulled the trigger. A ball of soft, green light burst from the muzzle and scorched a hole in the control console. Oscar had regained his feet and the larger thug was starting to move with a little more strength, so she grabbed Oscar's hand and led him off into the forest.

"How did you take that first guy out, he's a lot bigger than you?" Cindy asked Oscar, after a few minutes of quick jogging.

Oscar smirked, "if he had just beaten me up, I couldn't have handled him. Instead, he decided to start out by choking me. That put him in close where I had the advantage."

"Okay," she said, "but wrestling isn't self defense! How did you take him out? That guy really looked like he was in pain!"

Despite that fact that they were jogging, Oscar managed a snort of laughter. "Cindy, I've wrestled for eight years now. Don't you think I've learned how to cheat?"

Rufus scampered through the plenum space under the floor of the Control Room. Each of the workstations above him generated a bundle of cables that dropped down into the plenum space and he was inspecting these bundles. Finally, he found what he was looking for, a data port on one of the cables. While Wade's extractor was a wonderfully compact item for a human teenager, it was big and bulky for a mole rat. Rufus, however managed to drag the unit to the data port, plug it in, and hit the button on the unit. The valiant little mammal hoped that the human on the screen would be able to use this to find out how the bad human had made his human, and the human that should be his mate, sad.
Kim only had moments to react. Ron was struggling to his feet but was in no condition to dodge the mass of metal falling his way. In desperation, Kim grabbed him, jumped up, placed her feet on his chest and kicked with all her strength. She flew one way, Ron flew the other and the antenna crashed onto the roof in between them. Kim jumped to her feet, idly noticing that there was an absolute swarm of police vehicles converging on the building and started to run around the twisted mass of metal to find her best friend.

Ron hadn't flown as far as Kim had; as a result the antenna had only missed him by a few feet. He was coming around and had gotten to his knees when a hated set of feet appeared right in front of him.

"Well loser," the hated voice said. "It looks like you might have actually won. My father's plans have all fallen apart but I can still do what I was made to do. My purpose in life was to break up Team Possible and I can still do that. If it's of any consolation, you were a lot tougher than I thought you'd be, of course that's not saying much."

Ron still didn't have a weapon, but as Eric's hand grabbed him by the collar and started to hoist him up, he had an idea. Ron grabbed Eric around the waist, lifted him and threw himself backwards. Both combatants tumbled into the twisted metal that was the fallen antenna. The two grappled with each other, rolling over on the shifting, shattered rubble until Eric's superior strength exerted itself and he regained his feet. Ron had taken further injury; he had taken a slash along the left side of his ribcage, a cut under his right eye and a gouge in his right thigh but he had hope. Down on one knee, Ron noticed a slow trickle of yellowish-green fluid forming a puddle around the synthodrone's left foot.

Ron clamped his arms tight around his opponent's waist and squeezed with all of his strength. He felt Eric's fists hammer him in the ribs and even though he felt something give way, he was beyond pain. The trickle of fluid had become a stream. Ron got his feet under him yet again and struggled to stand while maintaining his bear hug on the synthodrone. Eric's fists hit him again but not very hard. Eric was loosing strength. Ron let out a roar of mingled anger and triumph and lurched the rest of the way to his feet.

Kim circled the rubble and gasped in horror. Ron was on one knee; arms around Eric's waist and the synthodrone had just raised his fists. Even as she ran to help, Eric brought his fists down into Ron's ribs. The boy's chest caved under the double blow and Kim knew that he had damaged ribs, at least. As she drew closer, she noticed a yellowish fluid spraying out of several holes in the synthodrone's back. Ron struggled to his feet; never relinquishing his hold while Eric raised his fists again. This time, those fists just fell onto Ron, as if the drone no longer had the strength to hold them up. Kim stopped and stared at the sight that followed.

Eric's handsome face hollowed in a strange parody of aging, while the homely, battered and bloodied Ron Stoppable struggled to his feet. While Ron surged, Eric withered, now unable to even lift his arms. A weak scream of despair wheezed from Eric, soon to be overwhelmed by Ron's roar. Now Ron was fully on his feet, holding the limp remains of the once handsome, seductive synthodrone. Ron turned towards her, his 'Ron in the clutch' expression firmly on his face. His face was battered and already starting to swell and a cut under one eye oozed blood down over half of his face. Ron focused on something behind her.

Doctor Drakken had run onto the roof in order to supervise his maintenance drones' replacing the isolation transformers. Before they could arrive, Possible had flipped Shego into the antenna, causing it to fall. The doctor had leapt out from under the falling tower and stood, stunned as he realized that his plan had failed. Then his synthodrone had fallen at Stoppable's hands and he found himself on the roof, alone, with both Possible and Stoppable, with hordes of police closing in. He turned and ran for the roof hatch.

Ron saw Drakken, the man who had caused the battering he had taken this night, fleeing. The man, who had played Kim and had tried to play him, the man who had caused all of this damage was trying to get away. The man who had ruined Bueno Nacho was attempting to escape. Ron heaved the empty sack, all that remained of Eric, at the fleeing doctor. The synthodrone's remains wrapped around Drakken's legs, sending him falling on his face. Kim stayed back, somehow sensing that this was Ron's moment of triumph.

Drakken rolled over to see Ron approaching him with a steady, deliberate stride. The doctor skittered backwards until his back struck a wall, halting his retreat. Ron stalked up right to him, loomed over him and glared down at the schemer.

"Say my name," Ron ordered.

" Wha..wha…don't hurt me, your name escapes me, I give up!" The doctor pleaded, hearing footsteps on the stairs.

"Say it!" Ron insisted, making an upward, yanking gesture with one hand.

Drakkens eyes bugged out and he reflexively dropped one hand to his posterior. "Uh…well…STOPPABLE. RON STOPPABLE!"

Ron stood up and crossed his arms in triumph even as a horde of police and other law enforcement officials swarmed out of the roof hatch and took Drakken into custody. Ron found it satisfying that the first time he heard Drakken say his real name was when he stood over the doctor's cowering, defeated form while in the ruins of the doctor's failed plans.

"Boo-Yah!"

He turned towards Kim, who was approaching him. He smiled at her even though he couldn't seem to catch his breath and he was starting to ache all over. Were clouds coming in? The world was starting to get dark. He suddenly coughed.

Warren was ready to kick himself; he had some great footage but he had forgotten to activate his parabolic microphone. He kept the camera focused on Team Possible and threw the switch. The sophisticated electronics automatically aligned the directional microphone on his point of focus.
Felix, Monique, Bonnie, and Mr. Barkin had been watching with at first horror, then pride and finally joy as Ron defeated Eric then humbled Drakken. Barkin shared a high five with Felix. Just as Ron turned towards Kim, they picked up an audio feed.

"He's really beat up, but I've never seen him look so…satisfied." Bonnie mused out loud.

"That boy's badly injured," Barkin told the others. " Possible needs to get him medical attention fast."

"He does look awfully pale," Monique noted.

As they watched, Ron coughed and blood started to trickle out of his mouth. Kim snatched her Kimmunicator out of her belt and ran to him. Their horror grew as his eyes rolled back and he collapsed. Kim caught him around the chest and gently eased him to the roof.

"Ron, stay with me. RON!" Kim's pleading sounded clearly through the audio feed. Ron didn't move.

Kim keyed her Kimmunicator. "Wade, we need an ambulance, now! Ron is seriously hurt!"

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Thanks again to everyone who has taken time to read this story. I hope you're enjoying it.

A special thanks to all of you who have taken the time to review, or email me to wax nostalgic about your days as a wrestler.

And a major thank-you to Joe Stoppinghem for Beta reading and catching grammatical errors.