Rockin' Down the House by Ranchero D
Chapter III
Standard Disclaimer again; I wish I had a claim to these characters, but I don't. I do own this work of fiction, but the Disney Company owns the rights to all the KP gang. I am just a broke KP fan. Please do not sue me.
Enjoy
RD
Middleton Mall, next day
…and the clock is ticking.
Sadie III said "Kim, look, there's one over there at 10 'o clock. Shall I grab it for you, or will you manage it in enough time?" "No big, Sadie, I can do anything, remember? Kim deftly cranked the wheel, and almost skidded the big van into the space sideways, rocking to a stop. "Oops, sorry, kids. Had to get that space before anybody else, or we'd have to walk a mile." Kim turned her head and checked on the infants. The twins just cooed and gurgled, Jason having a big grin on his little freckled face.
Sadie said "Way to go, Shirley Muldowney, we almost hit that Caddie next to us. You have to be more careful when you have the kids in the car, remember?" Kim sheepishly said "I didn't see that oil spot. I'm sorry, Sadie." The third AI that Dr. Freeman had crafted shifted into reverse, spun the wheel from Kim's hands, dropped the shifter into drive, and adjusted the van into the parking space.
The vans' AI had been carefully programmed by Dr. Freeman with Wade's assistance to be much more cranky and watchful when Kim and the babies were in her. Ron had gotten a great deal from Wacky Wally on both of their vehicles after he had quit selling weather machines because of Drakken and that idiotic attempt to create 'DrakKanada'. Dr. Freeman, of course, kept the original Sadie because he doesn't drive.
Ron had Sadie II installed in his sleek black Mercury Marauder that Motor Ed had supercharged and tricked out to the MAX. Seriously? Seriously. Kim suddenly remembered being covered in red paint…
Seemed an awful long time ago, though.
They had gratefully found a parking spot close to the elevators at Middleton Mall. Sadie popped the doors unlocked, and slid the side door open and raised the rear hatch. Kim unloaded the twins from the mini-van that Ron had gotten her from the local dealer, and put them in the pram that Granny Crockett the Cookie Queen referred to as 'The double-barreled git along that rises the baby on the go to an art form'. Granny's state of the art surveillance system had picked up what she and Ron were saying outside of her bakery that day, and now she used what Ron had said about her cookies in her ads. Josh had suggested he could carefully remove the little stickers that the stroller was peppered with when it arrived, but Ron decided to leave the illustrations of the little cookies on the stickers. Josh had cut away the 'Granny Crockett's' text on the stickers, and Ron thought that they looked cool that way.
The mall seemed to have expanded to a humongous size after Shego had that battle royale with that horrible woman Kara Fang of the Blood Jade. Shego had just about destroyed the mall completely, especially the part where Club Banana had been.
Kim pushed the stroller into the elevator after telling Sadie III "security mode three, Sadie." The van acknowledged by saying "You got it, Kim, I'll keep an eye out for ya" and with a boop-boop sound and a brief flash of her lights, Sadie went into minimum security mode. Kim didn't think it was even close to necessary to go into stage one or even two, which involved force-fields, wrap around titanium flux armor, and even laser cannons in stage one. She hadn't had to use that since she and Ron had retired from the world saving missions last year when they had found out she was expecting. GJ was doing an admirable job of doing what she did miss at times, especially since Team Impossible had successfully been recruited, and Will Du was keeping close tabs on their ops. She also didn't want to draw a crowd wanting to see what was going on, and who was driving this vehicle.
Being mobbed today was just not in her plans.
Kim pushed the button on the shiny panel marked 'Food Court' and the doors whooshed shut.
Kim was sitting at a favorite table overlooking the newer wing of the mall, the stroller by her side. She glanced at her watch, and noticed it was a little after 12:20 pm. Mon was usually never late, and Kim started to get concerned when she spotted Monique silently gliding up the escalator. Monique spotted Kim, too, and gave a big overhead wave. The beautiful dark brown eyed young woman walked over to the table quickly, her hair bouncing as she walked. Kim noticed she was decked out in one of the most gorgeous power suits she had ever seen, a beautiful azure blue affair that accentuated every curve of her body, but also said;
'Don't mess with me'…
Loud and clear.
Monique gave Kim a quick hug, and said "Girlfriend, it's been just too long since I've seen you. Must be weeks now." Mon then turned, bent down to the carriage and exclaimed "And how are you, Amber, and you, Jason Marc? Aren't you just the most beautiful babies in the whole wide world? Yes, you are, yes, you are!" while tickling both under their chubby chins. Turning back to her best GF, Monique slid into the chair beside Kim and said "Sorry I'm a teensy bit late, but I wanted to see the new Manager of our store here for just a sec. Had to give her an update on my new line of sportswear, and before you say anything, NO, it's not based on your mission gear again…
MMM, well, on second thought, maybe you might see just a little influence there.
Monique leaned forward in her chair, getting on a serious face for a moment, and asked "Well, what's the problem ya got, Mrs. Stoppable?"
"Mon, I was worried about what to do for our anniversary that's coming up. I came up with a solution that I hope you'll like, and I need you to be involved in it. Very involved, matter of fact." Moniques' eyebrows started to rise, and Kim realized she was starting to get the wrong idea. "Whoa, girl, I don't mean anything bad. I just need you to sing."
The beautiful ebony complected exec rocked back in her chair, a shocked look blooming on her face. "Sing?" "Moi?"
"Kim, I'd try to go into battle with you, I'll dodge exploding golf balls and run from Monkey Masters for ya, even sit with the kids, but you want me to sing? I can even go from manager of a CB store to district manager in nothing flat, but sing? Where? In public? Don't know about that one…"
Kim started to do her patented 'puppy-dog pout'.
She had actually had a wonderful visit with her parents while she was about 6 months pregnant, and her Mom had set her down and told her "Kimmie, the pout is a wonderful weapon to use when you want something or need something badly. We're going to sit and perfect this, so you can use it on Ron… And, eventually, your children. I've seen you use your version several times, and I want to buff it up just a bit. Just don't tell your father about this. It still seems to work for me, and I don't want that ruined. You understand, don't you?" Kim started to complain that she thought she had it down perfectly, but Mrs.Dr.P said "There's always room for improvement, sweetie."
They had a fun filled couple of hours over ice cold glasses of cocoa-moo.
Monique pondered for a moment, and finally said "Well, I can sure try for you. Might even be fun, but I make no guarantees."
"That's all I ask, Mon." The lifelong BF's pinky-shook on it, and Kim excitedly started to tell Monique about the rest of the plan.
Next Morning
Kim was at home busily tidying up because she was expecting company this morning. She had just tidied up the kitchen after a sumptuous breakfast they had prepared to extend the little celebration from last night for Ron's new contract. Ron had just left to go to his main office downtown to check in, and then he had to return to the studio. He was going to be gone all day.
She was setting the controls of the miniature version of the 3000LXS the Canadian super agent 'Joe' had let her keep after that mission. Joe had dubbed the little floor scrubber/vacuum the 'Vacrometer', not wanting Kim know she was being set up and trained in secret to foil Drakken once again. He had tried to keep his identity a secret, but it didn't work out that way. After the mission, he had his labs convert the efficient little machine to do its job in the janitorial way.
Kim pushed the start button on the remote, and the machine gave a little 'putt-putt-sputter-COUGH' and fell silent. Kim bent down and sighed. "Good thing Joe sent the complete blueprints and instructions for this thing." She knew from the sputtering sounds it made on startup that the filter compression tank was full again. She popped off the tank, checked over the gear-shifting transmuter, went into the kitchen, and dumped the contents of the tank into the trash.
Fitting the tank neatly back into the machine, Kim decided to re-set the parameters for the automatic cleaner to include Ron's office, silently hoping to herself that he hadn't left anything of major importance on the floor. Satisfied that it would fire up now, Kim pressed the start button. The Vac hummed to life smoothly, and took off on its mission to destroy dirt.
Kim started back toward the twins when the doorbell chimed;'Bong-Bong-Be-Bong'.
"Spankin', there here."
Kim opened the door with a flourish.
End of Chapter III