Disclaimer: Kim and pals belong to Disney, the Bat and all related elements are trademarks of DC Comics. The series Batman Beyond and the Tomorrow Knight belong to Warner Brothers. I own the plot; the rest is fun and I'm broke as usual.
Author's Note: Thanks to all my reviewers, you guys rock hard!
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Kim Possible: Gotham City
Chapter 02: "You've got to learn to crawl…"
The Lair, Gotham City
Ron slipped into the driver's seat and buckled into the four point security harness. Then he checked the instruments, the mirrors and had the onboard computer do a diagnostic of the engine and the car itself. Satisfied with the results he gently laid his hands on the wheel, taking several deep breaths to clear his mind from everything unnecessary.
"You're ready?" Motor Ed asked from the side, where he was sitting in the passenger seat. On his knee sat Rufus, like Motor Ed buckled into a security harness.
Ron nodded. "Everything's checked and ready to go."
Motor Ed grinned. "Then let's go. Remember, just ten minutes, and we'll start with the flight training."
Ron returned the grin and started the engine.
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It had been two busy weeks since he had first came to the lair. Wade had tutored him about computers and had started to teach him the final touches of disabling security systems. In this point he stood in for Shego, for she was accompanying Dr. D. picking up the last equipment for their new hideout. Which of course meant stealing it, Drakken had a bad reputation to maintain and he was very proud of his record of unpaid bills.
Most of the time was occupied by Ron's driving lessons, which no less than Motor Ed himself was giving. In Yamanochi Ron had of course learned how to drive a car in a secure and civilized manner, but the lessons Motor Ed had in mind where more of the sort how to get away fast. Very fast, no matter the circumstances. "A good driver always find's a way!" he used to say. "Now if that dammed pedestrians would just get out of the way it would be a lot easier, too, seriously." The mechanic genius had personally powered up the car they were using for the lessons. What on the outside looked like every other normal modern sports car was on the inside a high tech piece of machinery.
Today was the final test for Ron's street driving skills and Motor Ed had made a bargain with him. "Dude, you've got to learn to crawl before you can walk, meaning you've must be able to stand your man out on the streets before I put you into anything with wings. When you can get away from the police for ten minutes we'll start with the flight lessons tomorrow, seriously."
Ron had cheerfully agreed.
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A short while later Ron stood downtown in a backstreet, waiting for a police car to pass by. Wade had joined Eddy and him via video uplink, his nervous face visible on a small monitor on the central console. Behind him stood Bonnie, the android had had insisted to see her 'hunk' Ron perform.
"I still think this isn't a terrific idea." Wade said to the umpteenth time.
"Chill, dude, this is gonna be one hack of a show, seriously. And Ron needs the practice." Eddy answered with a grin.
"Shego will have a fit if she finds out that you're taking unnecessary risks like that."
Motor Ed growled. "She's one to talk; Green is one of the most thoughtless thrill seekers I've met in my entire life. Besides Drakken that is, living with that woman is an adventure in itself."
"Wade, I'm gonna be alright." Ron said and gave his best human friend a grin. "And I know that you secretly want to know if the equipment functions like you and Dr. D. developed it to do."
"Well, have it your way. But just for the records, if I have to break your sorry butts out of police custody by breaking into Gotham City's police central computer you'll do the laundry and cook for the next two months."
"It's a deal." Ron smiled. "But when we get away with this you'll buy supper today."
"Ok."
"I have confidence in you, sweetie!" Bonnie said, pushing Wade aside and bringing her face close to the screen. "And when you come back quickly and in one piece I'll let you shower in my room..." she purred with a sly smile.
Ron felt himself blushing.
"Will you please get away from the terminal, I've work to do." Wade said angrily, while he tried to push Bonnie away.
"Well, this is the only working terminal with a connection to the car, so we'll have to share."
"And whose fault is that?" Wade retorted.
"Well, you could go and do something constructive for a change instead of searching the net for news on Britina or the Gotham Sharks cheerleaders." Bonnie spit back.
Seeing that Wade was furiously blushing and that the conversation between Bonnie and Wade was about to break down to bickering Ron wisely chose to cut the connection. "We better not pry into that."
Eddy just smiled when suddenly Rufus caught their attention. "Police car!" the little rodent chirped and pointed towards the main road.
"Yo, the little guy's right. There we have contestant number one!" Eddy said. "Let's go!"
Ron hit some buttons on the dashboard, causing the windows to darken and the color of the car to change to purest black. From the outside the car now looked like a solid peace of black metal. Another button activated the jammer, so the police wouldn't be able to identify them by computer scans of their transponder or communication signature.
He steered the car out of the backstreet and onto the main road.
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Officer Maria Gonzalez had a bad day. In fact it was one of those days you'd better stay in bed and call in sick. She had overslept and been late for work. Unfortunately for her the sergeant on duty had caught her trying to sneak in and had her chewed out about it. Later that day one of the new lieutenants had scolded her about her report on a robbery she had been called to.
And that had been her bright highlights of this day. Gonzalez and her partner had participated in a search of a warehouse where they had busted some drug dealers. And just one hour after bringing in the crocks the leader of the gang had walked out of the main entrance on the Police HQ with a smug grin and one of the most expensive lawyers of the entire city at his side. This had really been a great boost to her belief in the judicial system.
On top of that her partner (a really attractive guy by the way, but Maria was strictly keeping her job and her private life separately) had dropped his cup of coffee onto her lap forcing her to go home and change, because she had forgotten to take her spare set of clothes with her today. It'd been another opportunity for the sergeant to give her a long, first-class rant about responsibilities.
Gonzalez had hit rock bottom right after these delightful ten minutes. Apparently Commissioner Gordens car had been stolen from the guarded headquarter parking garage, together with a handful of other vehicles. When the call came in for somebody to drive the Commissioner home they had drawn straws and Maria, thanks to her incredible luck on this blessed day, had lost and gotten this assignment.
At the moment she was doing cab duty for Gorden, who sat sulking in the passenger seat of Marias squad car. Her halfhearted attempts of conversation where either snapped at or completely ignored by the normally well-balanced head of the Gotham Police force. Now they were driving in silence, with Maria occasionally taking nervous glances toward her superior.
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Barbara Gordon, a woman in her mid fifties with short, white hair, glasses and blue eyes, was well known throughout the city as a symbol of stability and order. Her faithful troops believed in her. She was demanding the best of all of her subordinates, a not easily satisfied taskmaster, but she returned the continuing support of her police men (and women) with dedication to them and commitment to the cause. She was known to have an open door for the problems of the police staff, she was not satisfied with sitting at her desk and letting others take the everyday risks of the job. Very often she was found right in the middle of a shootout or at the front of a cob raid.
She had been in the search of the warehouse, too, and she too had seen the crock leave the station even before all of the paperwork had been done. She knew things like that happen, after all the system was far from being perfect. But today even her proverbial calmness had snapped when she'd not found her car in her usual spot and a short examination of the security tapes had shown some guy leaving the garage with it. She had given the staff members of the garage not one, but several pieces of her mind in rather harsh terms before she had ordered a squad car to take her home.
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Ron caught up with the police car and checked the driver. It was a young Latino woman, accompanied by an elderly woman in civilian cloth. 'Well, this is going to be one ride she never forgets. But I must sure they don't get hurt.'
He accelerated and suddenly changed the lane and cut in on the squad car. The police car had to break a little to avoid collusion, but the driver seemed experience enough to not let the car swerve. A look into the back view showed Ron that she seemed to swear under her breath. He smiled and hit the breaks repeatedly, causing the police car to do the same. Suddenly the light and the sirens on the squad car activated. The hunt was on.
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Gonzalez was pulled from her thoughts by a black, fast looking car that cut in on them. She was about to grumble about it when she realized who was sitting next to her, so the just mumbled a few unpleasant things. But then the car suddenly slowed down repeatedly, followed by short acceleration phases. 'They're taunting us.' she realized. Of course her use of 'they' was a wild guess for she couldn't see the inside of the other car because of the dark windows.
She took a nervous glance at the Commissioner. Barbara sighted. "We're still on duty and they're practically begging us to pull them over. So do what you must, Officer."
Gonzales nodded and activated the flashing lights and the sirens.
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Ron stomped on the gas pedal, his car jumping forward. He waved in and out of the traffic, speeding along the road in an extreme unsafe manner. Several other cars honked angrily at him, but he didn't mind it at all. He shot around a corner, drifting through the curve with the heck of his car in a perfect circle, just like Eddy had taught him.
"Aim for that back road, dude, let's see if the police babe has some guts, seriously." Motor Ed said and pointed towards an opening between two administrative buildings.
Ron nodded.
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Maria was in hot pursuit, all of her attention fixed on the car before her. She saw it take a turn and she followed closely, her foot on the gas and break alike, forcing the car to drift around the corner. She grinned when she saw the street ahead being emptier than the one before, with a war cry she gave the world acceleration a new meaning. "YOU'LL NOT GET AWAY FROM ME!"
Barbara gave her driver a curious look when she heard her calling a challenge. Shrugging it off, she grasped the transmitter and called HQ. "Commissioner Gordon and Officer Gonzalez reporting, we're chasing a black car of unknown type eastbound on the 234th street. Send backup immediately."
She activated the scanner, only to see a warning message rolling down on the screen. "They got a jammer aboard. Don't loose them or we can't identify them."
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Ron hit the breaks, tore the steering wheel around, forcing the car to slither almost a hundred feet vertical to the street course, before he threw his foot forward. With screeching, smoking tires the car shoot down the narrow lane Eddy had pointed to.
Ron never took his eyes from the road, concentrating on not losing control when the car kicked up a lot of dirt and trash.
"Rufus, police frequencies." he ordered nodding the transmitter.
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Seeing the ninety degree turn their pray was making Barbara hold onto her top handle for dear life while Maria repeated the maneuver of the black car and rushed into the narrow street. She clearly tore the right wing mirror off; the squad car was a bit wider than the car before them.
"Rats!" she cursed. "You're gonna pay for that!"
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"Found it!" Rufus piped up and activated the speakers. A calm voice reported their rout to the police HQ. Ron liked the voice, despite the situation the woman spoke calm and composed. 'Must be the elder one.' he thought.
The car shoot out of the lane and onto the next main road, nearly hitting several cars and a truck before Ron turned around and sped away. Suddenly another police car came into view; it tried to block the next crossroad. The blond put his own car into a long curve, drifting past the new contestant and took up speed. The second squad car followed closely behind, while the first car with the woman behind the wheel was taking third position.
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Ron had taken several more turns and a third police car had entered the chase. He knew if he didn't loose one or two of them soon he was in for major trouble. He crossed another intersection, turned left and found himself on a busier street underneath a highway. He got an idea.
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"We'll have to end this soon!" Barbara said. Until now there had been no major accident, but it was just a matter of time until they would run out of luck. "Take him down, now!" she barked into the transmitter.
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Hearing the command and seeing the first police car coming dangerously close Ron switched lanes and headed towards a highway access ramp. Next to him Motor Ed inhaled sharply. "Not the highway, dude, there's no escaping from it!"
"I know!" Ron hissed between clenched teeth, then suddenly swirled the wheel around, while hitting the breaks, forcing the car into a tight drift, that took them out of the ramp and back onto the main road. The following police car had not expected this and shot up the ramp, unable to turn around it had to proceed onto the highway.
So far this has been good.
But Ron had estimated the ramp being bigger; the rear of his car touched the guard rail. With a massive metallic shriek Ron's car bounced back, rotated and swirled out of control across several lanes. Ron trashed the wheel around, desperately trying to regain control. He hit several other cars, knocking them aside, before he finally regained his bearing, in his mind saying silent prayers that Eddy's work crew had reinforced the car frame.
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Maria had seen the black car outsmarting the leading police car, but she was unprepared for the crashes the vehicle caused swirling across the street. Knowing she was way to fast for an abrupt stop she hit the breaks and swirled the car onto the side, smashing with her driver's side into another car.
She groaned, her ears were ringing from the impact, but luckily she and Commissioner Gorden were unhurt.
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Seeing that his remaining pursuers were caught up in the crash Ron slowed down and merged with the traffic. He pulled into an underground car park, shut the engine off and disengaged the jammer and the color change system.
He looked towards Eddy and Rufus, both still a bit pale around the nose. "Man, that last maneuver really needed some serious guts. I've done that myself two or three times, but with bigger and slower cars, not with a light one like this."
Rufus just gave an exhausted sigh and collapsed onto Eddy's knee. "Cheese emergency."
Ron managed a small grin. Then he took the transmitter, which was still keyed on police radio. "Hey, you guys back there in the crash, are you alright?"
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Maria picked up the transmitter when she heard an unknown young, male voice inquiring for her health status. She supposed it was the driver of the black car. "Why would you be interested in knowing if we are hurt or not?"
"Well, it was one big crash, so I'm concerned."
"Then you shouldn't drive like a maniac." Maria growled back. Out of the corners of her eyes she saw the Commissioner smirk. Or frown. She decided to drop this line of thought and continued. "So, maybe you'd like to tell me who I own the pleasure of filling out a fifteen page damage report for my car?"
"Nice try, officer!" the voice replied and Maria could have sworn she heard him grinning. But after a few seconds the voice continued. "Call me Oni." Then the line went dead.
"Oni, I'll remember that." Maria said.
"Me too." Barbara said from the side, while she was stretching and testing her limps for injuries. "By the way, Gonzalez, I want your report on this matter on my desk first thing tomorrow morning. And I would like it to be in-depth."
"I should have really stayed in bed this morning!" Maria whined, banging her head on the wheel, thereby causing the damaged horn to go into overdrive. "Man, this day tanks!"
"Tell me about it." Barbara sighted.
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An hour later Motor Ed dropped Ron of at his apartment. "I'll have the guys start the repairs immediately." Ron nodded in agreement. "And I'll send Wade over so he can pay for supper, since we didn't end up in jail he owes you one."
"Does that mean I've passed the test and you'll teach me to fly?" Ron asked with a grin.
"Nope. That means that I'm putting you in a hover jet because you're seriously too dangerous to drive anything with wheels." Motor Ed answered. "And we're in agreement that we don't tell anything about this to Shego, right?"
"Of course." Ron said, before Eddy sped away and practically flew around a corner and out of sight. "And they call me a maniac."
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Well, here's second chapter!! Please R&R!!