Guess what? This story has now broken the 10000 hit mark! Whoo Hoo! My second story to do this! I'm so stoked. (again) A big THANK-YOU to everyone who is reading this! Once again, thanks to those who left a review for the last chapter: CajunBear73, Whisper from the Shadows, AtomicFire, bmwrider, DuffKilliganFan, RealityBreakGirl, and Aacire…

Disclaimer: If I could win Power Ball, I would buy the characters from Disney, but I haven't won yet, so at this time I STILL don't own them. Oh well…

Chapter 19

Scanning… Scanning…

Four of the Eric Drones all stood in a group after finally pulling themselves back together outside of the building, and scanned the entire area visually, looking for any evidence of the three they had been fighting earlier.

One of the drones had run through the building earlier, and had gone around the front and to the back where the others were now standing. It had observed the brunette girl and the boy with blonde hair as they left in a black sports car, license number BR-549. There was no sign of the green woman with long black hair.

The drones had a limited ability to communicate with each other using the WiFi signal, so all information was immediately shared. They were also able to send a message back to the one who had programmed them for the mission.

The message was simple. "Three survived our attack, although one of them has disappeared. Orders?"

After a few seconds, the reply came back. "One of you follow the two, and the rest of you return to base."

The drone that had seen the two leave immediately took off in the direction the car had gone, and the other four located their hidden van, and headed back to home base.

…x x x x…

As the two teen heroes continued to follow the signal showing where their families were, Ron would keep glancing behind the car as if looking for something. Finally Kim had to speak up.

"Ron… I don't think we're being followed. You can relax now."

"I'm… not so sure Kim. Something keeps tingling on the back of my neck, almost like a 6th sense or something. It makes me think that we are either being watched, followed, or both."

"Well, we should be safe pretty soon, because according to my tracking system everyone should be in that the basement of that building over there." She pointed towards what looked like an old brick storefront.

"Where are we anyway?" Ron asked.

"I think this is part of 'Old Middleton'. Some of these buildings have been around for over a century. I think I heard one time that someone bought them all and were planning on re-furbishing the old buildings, and turn the street into a nostalgic shopping area."

"Hey that should be pretty cool."

Kim pulled the car around the block, and turned down an alley, and parked right behind the store where her tracking system said everyone was located. Ron gently nudged his pocket, waking up Rufus.

"We're here Buddy." He whispered.

Rufus popped his little head out of the pocket he was sleeping in, and went to look up at his human when his small eyes noticed movement near the roofline of one of the buildings behind them. If the sun hadn't been shining right on the roof at the time, he wouldn't have seen it.

Immediately he chattered at Ron, and pointed where he had seen the movement. At the same time, the hairs on the back of Ron's neck were starting to rise.

"Kim…" Ron whispered out the side of his mouth. "Don't turn around to look, but I believe there is something or someone on the roof of that building behind us."

He felt the car move slightly, and then turned his head just enough to look where Kim had been just a few seconds ago! Now where did she…?

Suddenly without warning, a red-clad body slammed onto the hood of the car, and Ron screamed! Both he and Rufus immediately jumped out, and looked at what had landed on the hood of the Mustang. It was one of the Eric Drones!

It really didn't crawl off the hood, as it partially oozed off, making both Ron and Rufus go "Ewww…" as they quickly exited the vehicle and took a few steps away from it.

Rufus clamored back into Ron's pocket, and pulled the flap down. He then felt a small whoosh of wind accompanied by a small thump, and looked to his side to see Kim standing back up from a semi-crouching position.

"Well, Ron, you were right." Kim said, as they both stood back to back, and then started to turn around as they scanned the small area in the alley-way.

"It was right there on the roof of your car, Kim, and then it sort of… slid off." His eyes were darting everywhere at dumpsters, trash cans, stacked pallets…

"Ron! Look out!" Kim shoved her boyfriend hard down the dirt alley, but he didn't lose his footing. As he slid to a stop just before slamming into a metal dumpster, Ron's eyes went wide as he looked up just in time to see Kim's car be flipped over on top of her by the drone!

…x x x x…

Shego was able to follow the group of drones easily, as she had used the cloaking device that Drakken had installed in the flyer. It shielded both her and the flyer so no one would see just her floating in the air.

The area they had gone to was a few miles outside the skirts of town, near an old abandoned farm. The drones parked the van near a Quonset Hut, and went inside, not noticing dirt and leaves being blown around about a hundred yards away behind some trees.

Keeping the cloaking device on, Shego climbed out, and stealthily crept up to the side door that she had seen the drones enter earlier. She looked at the lock, which was the style with a key-pad.

"This couldn't be any easier to get in!" She whispered to herself, and reached into a hidden pocket inside a flap of her suit. She pulled out an item no bigger than a breath sprayer, and dusted the keys with a light colored substance, causing the keys that were pressed to stand out. Now that she knew the numbers, all she had to do was get the correct sequence. On the third try, she heard the tell-tale click of a magnetic lock being released, and she walked into the building.

Immediately Shego stepped into a dark room, and she crouched off to the side by the door to let here eyes adjust to the darkness. It didn't take long, as there was some light coming through an open door that led into a hallway.

Using her Ninja skills, Shego slinked around the few pieces of furniture in the room, which was a table and two chairs, and went to the open door. She quickly glanced out into the hallway, and saw one end opened up into a large area and the other end stopped at a door that said "Catwalk".

Perfect! She thought, and was able to easily get into the stairway that led up to a small catwalk that provided her with a birds-eye view of the large open area. Keeping back in what few shadows there were, as the area was well lit, Shego was able to see large double doors at the opposite end of where she was. Her luck held out as she was at one end of the building, so she could see the entire floor where all the action appeared to be happening.

She saw three of those cursed drones walk up to the back of a truck that apparently had just arrived. When the driver stepped out, Shego almost gave away her position by gasping, as it was the guy who had been the fake Emcee at the auction trap!

Then she saw six people being led out of the back of the truck, each had their hands tied behind their backs, and a black hood over their heads. Almost immediately she could tell who was who just by their voices, body posture, and their loud complaints.

They were all yelling at once, demanding in various ways where they had been taken. Shego knew exactly who was who just by the way they were standing. Dementor was the shortest (and obviously the loudest), Monkey Fist was standing in his usual half-crouch, Motor Ed's hair could be seen coming out the back of his hood, Senor Senior Senior still had his cane but he stood almost regally, and Drakken was the tallest of them all, holding his head high. The last one she figured by deduction that it must have been that Chester Yapsby fellow that worked with bugs.

When Shego saw Chester, she immediately had a thought. Now I wonder why they invited him, and not Killigan?

A scuffle started between Drakken and the Emcee guy, and somehow his hood came off. Of course he just happened to be looking at the right place and the right time to see the bottom half of one of Shego's legs, and he knew immediately who it was.

Since Drakken never was the brightest bulb, he yelled out the first thought that came to mind. "Shego! Attack!"

Oh snap! Before Shego could take two steps to try and get away, two of the drones had suddenly appeared and took hold of her by the arms and jumped the 40-foot distance to the floor below, all the while holding on to Shego's arms!

…x x x x…

"Kim!" Ron yelled and went to run towards the car that had landed upside down on top of his girlfriend. He took no more than two steps when the vehicle shuddered a bit, and was then sent flying over his head as she quickly stood with her arms raised.

Quickly he ducked, and then looked back at her with awe at just how strong she really was! "Behind you!" He yelled again, pointing at the drone as it had picked up a piece of discarded re-bar and swung it at Kim like a baseball bat!

Immediately she placed her arms in front of her body to protect her all-to-human torso, and the re-bar connected with her arms, launching Kim into the air and landed on her butt beside Ron. As she stood, Ron noticed that Kim was moving quite a bit slower. She dropped into an attack crouch as the damaged skin repaired itself, and something had oozed out of the damage before it zipped back up.

Ron was also ready to attack when both of them froze as the drone took a step forward and began to slowly loose it's shape from the feet up. It took another step and melted even more. Both Kim and Ron stood up from their attack postures, and watched in fascination as the drone that was about to attack them melted right in front of their eyes, never to re-form again!

"What… what happened Kim? Wheww…" Ron said as he waved his hand in front of his nose from the stench of the liquefied drone.

Rufus popped his head out of Ron's pocket, and also made a disgusting noise as he waved a paw in front of his face. Both then noticed Kim following the trail of green goo back to where the car had been upside down earlier. Grimacing, she slowly reached down, and picked something up.

"Kim…? What are you doing? You touched it!"

"Ron… shush! I think we have something that we can use to fight these things now!

Kim held up the small medicine container, which held the pills that kept her body from rejecting the bionics. The cap was off, and it was empty. The drone had stepped right onto them, breaking the capsules open.

"Now let's go find everyone and tell them what we've just discovered!" Kim grabbed Ron's hand, and started to move towards the building. Suddenly she stopped.

"Kim?" Why are we stopping?"

"Umm… Ron?" She said, moving her arms very slowly. "Remember that ESD goop that Daddy said I needed to have drained out of my bionics?"

"Yeah…"

"Well… we need to get it out. NOW!"

"Wh… what can I do Kim?" Ron asked as he was starting to worry about his girlfriend. It was almost as if she was turning into the Steel Man in that movie "The Magician of Ahz".

"Cut me Ron." Kim said with no emotion.

"What?" He couldn't believe his ears.

"Call the Lotus Blade, and cut me." Kim said, again without a hint of emotion. "If you don't do it now, I won't be much more help than a statue."

…x x x x…

The Worlds Deadliest Golfer walked into his castle dropping his mail on the edge of a table, causing it all to land on the floor and spread out.

"Drat…! Whut now! I shoot my worst game ever, and now uh can't even set something on a table!"

His eyes immediately fell to a standard sized envelope, as he recognized the handwriting right away. "Now whut's that Dolt Drakken doin' rightin' me uh letter?"

Picking the envelope up, he tore one end off and pulled out two sheets of paper. Unfolding them, he saw one was a short note from Drakken, which he read first.

Duff K.

Enclosed is a copy of an invitation I received for an auction I thought you might be interested in, that is if you haven't already received one.

Dr. D.

Killigan looked at the photocopied invitation, and wondered why he wasn't also invited to the event.

To be continued…

Well… it's about time Kim and Ron get a break with the drones, huh? I'm sure y'all can figure out the major draw-back of the solution, though. Y'all probably forgot about that ESD goop too, didn't ya?

Originally I wasn't going to bring Duff into this story, but then I realized he's a character I've never written before. Figured I could work him in somehow.

As always, please let me know whatcha think with that review thingy… you know what it is…