"He's giving us the eye again, KP," Ron whispered to Kim as they walked away from the hotel reception.
"What eye?" she turned to look back at the receptionist, who looked away quickly, pretending to be busy at work.
"A wink and a thumbs up," Ron shrugged. "So...what's the sitch, Kim? Heh...I used your catchphrase..." he sniggered to himself.
"Focus, Ron," she said sternly as the two of them headed over to the elevator.
"Relax, KP. Mission time's over. The Ron-man gets to chill-ax with his girl in a sweet hotel...oh, so that's what the winking and thumbs up is all about..." his voice trailed out as his eyes glazed over.
"Ron..."
"Sorry, KP. Thinking clean thoughts now," he said quickly as they entered the elevator. "Anyways, you were saying something about this bug-man?"
"His name's Antropy, a Team Go villain who decided to step up big time, literally in this case," she made a slight face before pressing a button on the elevator.
"Still with the big bug issue, Kim?" he asked a little incredulously. "I thought you got over it already?"
"By staying away from the landfill," she pointed out, watching the number increase on the elevator indicator. Since Ron didn't know anyone here in Go City beside herself and his dorm room wasn't ready yet due to his last minute acceptance, they had decided that it was best that he room in a hotel first for now.
A soft chime indicated that they had arrived at their destination and the elevator door opened, allowing them to step out. "Kim, I can't believe I'm going to have to say this, but you're going to need to deal with your giant bug issues if we're going to have to deal with this bug-man," Ron said as they walked over to his room.
"Yeah I know but I've got the roach-whisperer with me now. I was hoping you could deal with them so that I don't have to deal with the issue at all," she pouted at him.
"Aargh...puppy-dog pout...one of my many weaknesses...cannot resist..." he said in mock agony before he leaned in and give her a quick peck on her lips. "Fine...I'll deal with the bugs, you deal with the man and we'll save the day just like we always do," he grinned at her.
"Spankin'," she grinned back as they arrived at his room. "You get some sleep and I'll meet up with you in the morning so that we can talk about Antropy, 'kay?"
"It's a date, KP."
"Great. Now I just have to get back to my dorm before the dean notices that I went out on hero business."
"Right...wait, what's this about the dean finding out the hero business? I thought everyone knew that you're a hero," Ron asked in confusion.
She made a face. "Talk to you about it tomorrow," she gave him a quick peck on his lips before she darted off.
PB
By the time Kim got back to her dorm room, it was nearly 2 am. Darnia was already asleep, although Kim did wonder exactly what time did her room-mate fell asleep. Stifling a yawn, she slipped into her bed and closed her eyes. So far, so good. While they had lost the device to Antropy, at least no one was hurt. Ron had found the missing personnel trapped inside the locker room with the electronic lock malfunctioning, hence his lateness tonight. And tonight was a night when Kim could use all of the good news that was available to her, she thought as she slowly drifted to sleep.
Sleep wasn't the welcome rest that she'd hoped for though; she could hear the clicking of ant mandibles inside her head all throughout her sleep, causing her to wake up every hour or so. It was almost dawn when she was actually able to get some real rest and even then it was cut short by her alarm ringing at 8 in the morning.
"Hey, Kim," Darnia said shyly to Kim when the latter rose from her bed. Kim's room-mate was already at her computer, the monitor showing a website called Chumster. "Had bad dreams?" she asked.
"Terrible ones. How did you guess?"
"The hourly screams gave me an idea."
"Sorry..." Kim said in embarrassment.
"It's okay. Something bad happened last night?" Darnia asked curiously, turning away from her computer to look at Kim, adjusting her glasses as she did so.
"Run in with a really icky villain. It's no big," Kim says dismissively as she headed to the washroom to freshen up. She was back a few minutes later, feeling and looking a lot better.
"Need to know basis only or can you spill?" Darnia asked when Kim returned.
Kim thought about it for a moment before she shook her head. Her pride was at stake here. "I can say that the villain escaped and I'll be on the lookout to get him behind bars," she said. So that I don't have to deal with those giant bugs ever again, she added mentally.
"Maybe I can help you with that?" Darnia asked, sounding a little excited. "Wow...you really want to get into this hero business gig huh?" Kim asked her.
"Er...Not really. I mean I don't know. It looks very exciting when I see you roundhouse some guy on TV but I'm not that sort of person. I think it's more to say to my friends and family that the great Kim Possible asked me for help on something that only I can do," she admitted.
That made Kim laugh a little. "Alright, fan-girl. Since you want to help me so much, do you think you can do a search for this guy called Antropy and what a QBFG is?" she asked.
"Ooooh...I have no idea what those are and I'm gonna find out. How do I get in touch with you once I get the info?" Darnia said excitedly and she turned back to her computer to get started on her new task.
"You think you can send it to my Kimmunicator if I give you its frequency?" Kim pointed at her watch. Darnia stared at the watch for a moment before she nodded her head and so Kim gave her the frequency for her to contact her via her watch.
Well, at least someone was happy about this, Kim thought as she watched her room-mate tear into the web. She had already ask Wade to start searching for more clues about the topics that she had just asked Darnia to searched for the night before but if it would make her happy, she didn't mind a second report even if it was a repeat.
Now if she could only get some good news herself.
PB
Or maybe not, Kim thought as she sat in front of Dean Mancuso, who was looking at his computer screen with a sharp look of annoyance on his face. It was sometime after 9 am at the moment; she was sure that Ron was waiting at the hotel cafe right now for her to arrive.
The dean stroked his clean-shaven chin and adjusted his horn-rimmed glasses, clearly intent on dragging out the discomfort for as long as he could. "Ms Possible," he started to say finally.
She opened her mouth to speak but he cut her off with a sharp wave of his hand. "No I don't want to hear what your excuse is for sneaking out in the middle of the night, especially just hours after I personally told you that you are not to undertake any sort of world-saving business..."
"First, how did you know that I snuck out of my room? Secondly, classes hasn't started yet so my missions are not cutting into my studies nor are they disrupting my classes," Kim interrupted him. High school was so much easier than this, she thought as she glared at him.
Mancuso turned his monitor so that it was facing her and that she could get a look of a video of her leaving the university grounds. From the looks of it, she guessed it was one of the wall mounted university cameras. "As for your second point, though you are technically correct and you did not infringe on our agreement, I did not expect you to go on a 'mission' so soon after our little talk," he continued to say as if she had not interrupted him.
"The world needed saving, Mr Mancuso. I can't just sit by and watch while some weird guy in an ant outfit breaks into a research center and steal a..."
The dean lifted up his hand to cut her off again. "Ms Possible, as far as I can see, the world is still around is it not?" he asked.
"Yes but..."
"Were you able to thwart this thief from getting away with whatever it is that he was burgling from this research center that you went to last night?" he asked again.
"No," she said warily, wondering where he was going with this line of questioning.
"Are you losing your touch, Ms Possible? I've always heard that you foil your opponents every time you meet them. Maybe it's time for you to retire from this business and just focus on your studies. Be a normal girl for a change," he said, his stern demeanor taking a more kindly and friendly one. Now this sudden change in behavior took her by surprise. What was he trying to do here?
"No, I'm not trying to be harsh with you, Ms Possible," he said, as if reading her thoughts. "It's just that in my experience, high fliers like yourself tend to fly so high that they forget that once upon a time, they're still beings that walk on the ground. Too many activities, and buried in their mile tall volumes of books until they forget that they are only young once. They forget how to enjoy themselves and treat their college life like the learning experience that it's supposed to be," he said, looking a little distant.
"I...I don't know what to say, Mr Mancuso..." Kim was at a lost for words. Maybe Mom was right about this guy after all, she thought.
"Just say that you will consider putting a halt to your world-saving rhetoric. College will one of the best time of your life, if you're willing to at least slow down and give it a try. It may not be like your world-saving antics but I promise you, it will be the experience of a lifetime," he said with a smile.
She took a deep breath and sighed. "I'll...consider it, Mr Mancuso," she said finally after a long moment of deliberation.
He smiled back at her. "I'm glad to hear it, Ms Possible. You won't regret it, I promise you. Now...you are excused. I have some urgent matters that I need to attend to," he said and stood up, gesturing towards the door.
She got up and walked a little numbly towards the door, still unable to understand exactly what was going on when he closed the door behind her with a soft click.