The calvary arrived ten minutes after Ron had knocked Antropy out, this time being a small team of Global Justice who was led by Dr Director herself. By this time, Yori and Ron had sent the other ants fleeing while Kim watched from the shadows. The latter stood out in the open, waving to the helicopter that brought the agents in as they landed on the roof.
"Ms Possible?" Dr Director shouted over the whirling blades of the helicopter as she hopped out to meet her. "You've secured the QBFG and Antropy?" At this point, the rest of the other Global Justice agents had already spread out throughout the penthouse.
"Yes!" Kim shouted back. "Ron and a friend of ours is taking care of the vermin problem right now."
"Much appreciated! Then all my team needs to do is to run clean up over here. We can't thank you enough for making our job easier for us," the older woman grinned at her. Then she gestured at Kim to follow her into the penthouse, which she did.
"So what's going to happen right now?" Kim asked casually, looking at the penthouse. "I'm going to debrief you about the sitch?"
"Actually there is something that I want to talk to you about. Our agents had examined the Arizona site carefully before the Go City incident. And..." Dr Director held up a PDA with a picture on the screen.
Curious, Kim glanced at the screen for a few moments before her eyes widened. "Is that picture for real? It's not PictureShacked or anything?" she asked.
"I'm afraid not. You really are looking at Anthony Mancuso, six hours ago at the Arizona site," Dr Director said grimly.
"So...who exactly were we fighting just now?" Kim asked her quietly after a moment of stunned silence.
"That's what we hope to find out, Kimberly," Dr Director placed a reassuring hand on Kim. "I don't think it was some mass hallucination though. Our instruments picked up the activation of the QBFG so what happened just now really did happen. Get some rest, Kim. You and your friends deserve it. We'll call you if there's anything that you need to know." With that, Dr Director took her leave.
Kim nodded her head, her face ashen as she took a seat. What in the world was going on here? Who exactly did she fought just now? All these questions disappeared when Ron and Yori walked into the penthouse and she got up and went over to them, giving him a big hug.
"Whoa...Kim...what's with the loving?" he joked as he returned the hug. Yori looked at Kim, a little concerned as well.
She took a deep breath and smiled at him. "Just wanted to make sure that you're here. And yeah you are. C'mon...let's get something to eat," she said, taking his hand. "Same place?"
"Oh yeah," he grinned and Rufus popped out of his pocket. "Uh huh," the latter said.
"May I join too?" Yori asked, raising her hand. Kim nodded. "The more the merrier," she smiled at her as the three of them left the penthouse.
PB
She didn't tell them about what Dr Director had told her earlier. It was probably for the better, she reasoned as she watched Yori attempt to swallow the naco meal that Ron had bought for her. Besides, why spoil the only piece of really good news that they've had in days, that they've defeated the bad guy and he won't be bothering them again any time soon?
"That...is a unique taste..." Yori was saying after she finished swallowing the naco.
"So was that good or what?" Ron asked, beaming at her as Darnia joined them at their table with her order. They had gone to pick her up after leaving the tower and she was quite eager to get something to eat too.
"It is..." Kim covered her smirk as she watched Yori squirm trying to figure out what to say. "...a pleasant taste to you and a different one for me, Stoppable-san. What are you eating, Possible-san? Salad? I think I shall go and order some for myself," Yori quickly stood up and went to the counter.
"What is something I said?" Ron raised an eyebrow as he watched Yori hurry off. Kim simply shrugged and said, "I think she found the experience to be quite unique and..."
Beep, beep be beep.
She glanced down at her watch and saw from the caller ID flashing on the screen that it was Dr Director. "Excuse me. I've got a call to take," she said and walked away, leaving Ron and Darnia to stare at each other suspiciously.
She walked a fair distance away from the others and once she had made sure that the coast was clear, she activated her watch. "Well...did you find anything?" she asked.
"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Dr Director asked.
"Give me the good news first."
"You did fight Antropy aka Anthony Mancuso earlier today; we found him on the 65th floor just like you said."
"Okay...so what's the bad news?" she asked a little nervously.
"He's been...out of commission for approximately 67 hours."
Kim frowned and shook her head. "That's...that's..."
"Impossible? That's what I thought too but now I'm not so sure. My team managed to get the tower's security videos and we've taken it back for analysis but from what I've seen so far, it was dead man walking and fighting all the way."
Kim was about to reply when she heard a sharp shriek. Looking up, she saw that Ron, Darnia and Yori were staring at something on their table. "Never mind I'll call you back," she said and rushed back to her friends. "What's..." she stopped and stared at the army of ants on their table, arranging themselves to spell words on the table.
Congratulations, Ms Possible and friends. You have defeated the colony and prevented us from taking over your world. We concede this defeat to you but you may rest assure that the colony will return one day when you least expect it. Just not today of course. We give you our word on that. Farewell, Ms Possible. We look forward to the day of our return and your defeat.
Then the ants immediately dispersed, leaving the four of them staring at the table and their food. After a minute, Ron raised his hand. "You guys want to order something else or do we go to Cow and Chow?"
"Something else. I don't eat beef," Darnia said quickly. "Can we change tables too? That was just too weird."
Kim nodded in agreement. But it did look like this particular crisis really was over, she thought in relief as they changed their table.
PB
Hours later, Kim and Ron were finally alone in her car as she drove around aimlessly in her car. He watched her silently, apparently realizing that she was troubled but decided to give her some time to collect her thoughts. Finally she sighed and drove her car out of the city.
"Kim, is something wrong?" he asked at last, as they were sped along the road.
She was silent for a while more before she said, "Ron...would you want to do this for the rest of your life?"
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?" he asked her in confusion.
"This. Fighting off bad guys one after the other, only for them to come back again, threatening to kill us as payback for what we did and..." she was silenced by a deep kiss from Ron.
"What was that for?" she asked after breaking off from the kiss. Luckily the tweebs had installed an auto-driving functions for this sort of emergencies.
"KP, you're worrying too much," he grinned at her. "You said it before: you'd never back down from this life ever, not when people still needs your help and we can help them. Besides, now we've got Yori helping us, she's just as good as you are and the two of you are one heck of a team. So what if the bad guys keep coming back. We'll keep on stopping them, that's what Team Possible does. The sky's the limit for us," he said, petting her cheek.
"Did you just steal my line for that pep talk, Ron?" she asked, trying not to smile at the truth in his words. They've done too much good to simply quit just because they've just faced a villain who has power from beyond the grave.
"Well...yeah...but you have to admit: your line is just as suited for this sitch right now."
She laughed, feeling the gloom fade away as she did so. "Yeah...so I guess this also means that our team has actually expanded huh?"
"Are you kidding? Two kick-ass women, a super-powered me, a tech genius and his backup? No one is ever gonna stop us, ever!"
Rufus climbed out of Ron's pocket and up onto his shoulder, punching his cheek lightly. "Hey!"
"Right...sorry buddy. Forgot about you," he grinned at the naked mole rat. "Oh, and you know what else, KP?"
"What?"
"No more Dean Mancuso to tell you that you should stop your hero business."
"I'm pretty sure him being the bad guy and dead has quite a lot to do with that," she said, her tone being a weird mix of wryness and solemnity. She couldn't say that she wasn't glad that he was gone but...maybe she'll find the right words later...who knows?
But she did know one thing: she was glad to be alive today and that she could still save the world with her friends and boyfriend. And no matter what else that comes along, she was definitely going to keep on doing this until her time was up.
And nothing was going to ever change that
THE END
Author's notes: Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's read this little story up to its conclusion, who's written little notes and who's followed and favourite-d this story. It was a lot of fun writing this although I did have some problems at the end (mostly with trying to find the right way to end this fic). It's been seven years since I last wrote anything meaningful so I had to write in bite sized bits just to get the hang of writing once more. Will there be more after this? Who knows? No promises on this side.