Wrongsick! The word echoed throughout Kim's mind when she heard Antropy's words. Monkey brains? Favorite delicacy? Something within her snapped and she charged at him, together with Yori who let out an uncharacteristic howl of rage as she lunged at Antropy with her twin fans.
"What? We shouldn't fight just yet. I haven't even finished my rant yet," Antropy said as two ants, these ones the size of a large dog emerged from two piles of garbage on either side of Kim and Yori and expelled a gout of green fluid from their abdomen and straight at them. Kim saw this and immediately froze in her steps, her phobia acting up at the worst possible moment.
"Possible-san!" She felt something slam into her back and as she flew through the air, the blasts of fluid missed her and splashed on the walls instead, eating through them in a matter of seconds, leaving behind two holes.
Acid-spitting ants...what's next, Kim thought, a little shaken as she slowly got up to her feet. Yori got up as well, her face filled with concern for Kim. "Possible-san, are you alright?" she asked. Kim nodded back quickly and turned her attention back to Antropy, steeling herself.
"Where's Ron?" she demanded. "And what does the QBFG have to do with all this in the first place?"
"The Quantum Blockade Field Generator...interesting marvel of scientific development isn't it?" he said with a smile. "Did you know that it could block out cosmic radiation when used in space? Did you also know that if you use it on Earth, you could wipe out all living beings too? Of course you did, that's why you're here. To stop me from doing that," he smiled pleasantly at them.
"So why did you send your ants to Japan then? Why go after the anti-QBFG?" Kim asked.
"Anti-QBFG? What's that?" he asked, appearing to be puzzled by Kim's words. The two girls exchanged a glance at each other. Something weird was going on here, like Antropy was out of the loop of certain decisions made.
"Oh...and regarding your first question, where is the monkey boy, I wonder. My minions are keeping a very tight lip on his location. We don't want you to spoil the festivities at all. It will be quite the feast you know, extracting every single bit of his essence from his bones and devouring the bit of power that has infused his soul. I'm told that fear makes the meal taste even better," he chortled amiably.
Okay...that's it. She has had enough of this guy's food talk. Turning around and taking quick aim, Kim fired a sonic pulse at one of the acid-spitting ant while Yori hurled both fans into the other. The first exploded in a tiny chunks of exoskeleton and flesh while the other one let out a shrill cry as the sharp tips of the fan pierced its head. It staggered for a bit before it collapsed as Kim and Yori charged again at Antropy, both girls leaping up into the air and launching a double flying kick at him.
"Must this always end in violence?" he asked sadly two seconds before both feet landed on his face with a very satisfying crunch and sends him flying across the room, slamming into the wall. He got up lazily and cracked his neck. His eyes widened though; Kim and Yori had already ran up to him and they began pummeling him, punching him and kicking him for all their worth.
"Where. Is. Ron. Stoppable-san." Each word was punctuated with a hard punch or kick to Antropy's body and he stumbled away from the two girls in a daze.
"Didn't I just tell you that I have no idea where the boy is? I swear, youngsters these days just can't pay attention to a single word you tell them," he grumbled. Despite the blows he had taken, he didn't seem to be hurt at all, only rather mildly annoyed.
"Okay...this might be a little bit harder than expected..." Kim glanced over at Yori, who nodded in agreement. Their breathing was still easy but given that Antropy had already taken several blows from them and was acting normally.
And to make matters worse, Kim could hear faint sounds of chittering coming from all over the house. Her breathing started to come out in short gasps as one thought raced throughout her mind: they're coming to help him.
"Possible-san...we have to retreat," Yori murmured to her, voicing out her thoughts before she herself could say it. Kim nodded, feeling both relief and disgust at the same time. Stupid phobia of giant bugs, she complained bitterly to herself. She turned and followed Yori as the latter smashed a nearby window and the two of them jumped out of the house.
As they raced away from the house, they could hear Antropy laughter echo in the streets: "Farewell, Kim Possible and friend. The next time we meet, I will have more of mine come out and play with you!"
PB
"I hate losing," Kim said angrily as she sat on a bed in a hotel room two hours later. Fortunately for Yori and herself, Antropy did not seemed interested in chasing after them: the ants didn't swarm out of the house like Kim had feared they would. Rufus had climbed out of Kim's pocket and was lazing on the bed as well, picking at some of the food that he had scrounged out from the room's mini bar.
"I agree, Possible-san. We have lost twice to this man already and I do not like it," Yori said, sitting down next to her. There was anger on her face but there was also exhaustion and Kim felt it as well.
"Ladies, are you alright?" Wade's voice chimed in, prompting Kim to lift up her hand.
"Yeah we're fine. How about Darnia? Did she make it out of the dorm room okay?" During their flight from Antropy, Kim had sent a text to her room-mate, telling her about the dean and that she should flee GCU for now.
"She's good. She's already contacted me and I've sent her your location. She'll be heading over to meet up with you soon. By the way, just wanted to tell you that I've already finished the scans for the piece of quartz gold that you sent," Wade said.
"Anything interesting about it?" she asked.
"Based on the composition of silica, oxygen and gold found in it, this particular piece isn't a native of Australia like Yori suggested. It's local."
"Really? As in found in Go City?" Kim asked in surprise.
"Not that local. Try Arizona. There's a series of abandoned quartz reef mines there and Darnia's found some reports from local news stations about mysterious things that were seen traveling to and fro the mines. No pictures have been taken and any team sent to investigate has never returned. The first of these news was dated to about ten days ago."
"Great! When can we get a ride to Arizona?" Kim asked, pleased at this development.
"Four hours. In the meantime, you two should get some rest. The olfactory sensors of the Kimmunicator tells me that the two of you reek. Get some sleep , food and freshen up. And I'm not taking no for an answer. I love you Kim and I love Ron too, but there's no way I'm going to risk losing the two of you because the rescuer is too tired to make the jump." The Kimmunicator screen flickered out after he had finished that.
She sighed and lay down on the bed. "So...time for awkward girl-talk while we wait for our ride to arrive?" she asked Yori.
"Or perhaps we can ask my ride?" Yori suggested.
"You have a ride?" Kim sat up immediately. Yori nodded and went to the telephone, dialing a number and waiting a while before she started talking to someone in Japanese. After a brief chat, she set down the receiver. "We will leave in thirty minutes," she said and bowed to Kim.
"Spankin'," she grinned. "Alright...we've got half an hour to do prep for this mission. I'd suggest we'd do what Wade said we should do. I so do not want to have this funk on me for any more than necessary."
"Yeah...funky," Rufus agreed, pinching his nose in a combination of disgust and agreement.
PB
Forty five minutes later, Kim and Yori were on a helicopter heading towards the west and it felt good, mostly because the two of them had gotten in a quick shower, a fresh change of clothes and a quick bite to eat before meeting up with Yori's ride.
Wade, of course, found out about the new ride that Kim had gotten and he wasn't too pleased about it. "Kim, I'm worried about you and Yori! The two of you are pushing yourselves too hard! The risk is too..."
"Wade," Kim said softly, cutting him off. "That's going to be a risk that I'm going to have to take. Ron told me once that he couldn't imagine life without me. Well, I can't imagine life without him either and I'm going to do everything that I can to make sure that he's back with me safe and sound." Yori nodded her head ever so subtly as Kim said that.
He sighed and shook his head violently. "Was I this stupid when I was crushing on Monique?" he asked.
"Well since I've never made a love ray to get my crush to fall in love in me...I'd say yes."
"Fine...is there anything that I can do to help the two of you lovebirds?"
Kim spluttered in shock as did Yori. "Excuse me?"
"What? You two are ones who are so desperately in love with Ron that you're willing to risk everything in order to save him," he rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I've already uploaded your flight trajectory to the helicopter. Is there anything else that I can do for you?"
"Oh...er...nothing...no wait! Just see if you can get a scan of the mines and where the ants are most likely to be located in. Please and thank you!" Kim said quickly and turned off the Kimmunicator. Yori gave her an sheepish smile and looked away, the smile quickly fading as she grew solemn, looking to be deep in thought.
"What's the sitch, Yori?" Kim asked the other girl after giving her a moment to herself.
"Nothing, Possible-san...just thinking about what we're going to encounter when we're infiltrate the mines. Whether we'll be able to face up to Antropy, his minions and accomplish everything that we've set out to do."
"Of course we will. We will because we have to. When we go to the mines, we'll find Ron, rescue him, find Antropy, kick him all over the place until he knows well enough to never come back again and bother us," Kim said firmly.
"You sound very confident, Possible-san."
"Comes with having saved the world at least twenty times now. You'll get the hang of it," Kim said blithely.
"If I may ask, Possible-san?" Yori asked a minute later.
"Hmmm?"
"Do you ever think of what would happen if you fail?"
Silence. Then Kim exhaled once. "To be honest...yeah. And it scares me a lot to think about it. And that drives me, pushes me because if I fail, the man that I love will die as well as everyone else in this world that I care about."
"So you draw strength from the thought of failure?"
"Something like that. What about you? Do you ever think of what would happen?" Kim asked back.
"I...have never given it much consideration until today," she hesitated a little.
"And?"
"I do not want to lose to our foe again. That much is certain," she said with a wry smile. Then she closed her eyes, looking like she was trying to rest as much as she can before they arrive at the mines.
Good idea, Kim thought and closed her eyes. It's looking like it's going to be a very long night indeed.