Disclaimer: I don't own any of the character, situations or locations from the television series Kim Possible. I reap no monetary gains from the use of those things. I write for the strict enjoyment of the process.

Author's Note: This story stems solely from the following quote: "Tell me, O Muse, of the ingenious Hero who traveled far and wide..." Homer - The Odyssey.

Xxxxxx

Travel

Chapter 8

KP To The Rescue

Xxxxxx

"Wade, I need some equipment... now!"

The young computer genius was slightly taken aback by Kim's abrupt demand but knew something was up and that she needed his immediate assistant. He slyly smiled with his fingers flexing over the keyboard and asked, "Okay, Kim. What do you need and what's the sitch?"

It was Kim's turn to be shocked. Wade's use of one of her catch phrases snapped her out of her anger with her father and brought on a light giggling smile. "Sorry to harsh on you like that," she apologized. "My dad caught Ron and I... er... doing something he didn't like and he's taken Ron hostage. They're at the Space Center right now and dad's about to shoot Ron into the nearest black hole."

"You know that's not possible," Wade said as his fingers flew over the keyboard for all of two seconds. "The nearest black hole is sixteen hundred light years away from Earth and the Kepplar Rocket doesn't travel anywhere near light speed. Ron would die of old age long before the rocket reaches the event horizon. Are you sure your dad's not bluffing?" His fingers started to dance across the keyboard once more.

"I'm positive, Wade," Kim answered as she started the car and drove back towards her new house. "I've experienced daddy's wrath before and this time he's way beyond his normal level of angry. No, he fully intends to send Ron off into deep space."

"I think you're right, Kim," Wade said as the picture on the car's Kimmunicator screen changed to that of Ron getting into a space suit with James, his arms crossed over his chest and toe impatiently tapping, sternly watching. "As you can see, Ron is being fitted out for a EVA suit and the ground crew is scrambling to launch the Kepplar Rocket in T-minus fifteen minutes, even though it's not suppose to go up until Wednesday."

"Then I'll need my space suit, Wade," Kim said as she swiftly drove passed Middleton University and turned on to the street where her and Ron's new house was. "If I remember correctly, the last time I used it was a few weeks before the Diablos sitch last year. I foiled Drakken's space laser plot with the grappling gun in its boot."

"Hey, that's right," Wade confirmed with a growing grin as he remembered that particular mission. "But you won't need that clunky old astronaut suit. You have everything you'll ever need in space when you get dressed in your battle suit. I take it you're going to try and rescue Ron after the launch?"

"I will get Ron back," Kim firmly stated as she pulled into the driveway of her new home. "But my battle suit doesn't have a helmet. I'll need the space suit's helmet and oxygen unit when I open the door so Ron can transfer from the command compartment of the Kepplar to the Sloth."

"Your old battle suit didn't have that capability," Wade said as he leaned further into the camera pickup range with a wide grin, "but your new suit does."

"What new suit?"

"I swapped out your old battle suit Saturday while you were out shopping for furniture," Wade smugly said, leaning back in his chair and lacing his fingers behind his head. "You know I'm the only other person who can get into the vault in your closet now. After Ron and your cousin Larry broke in, I changed the parameters of the palm reader so only you and I can open it."

"And you were going to tell me this, when?" Kim jovially begged as she entered the house and went up to the master bedroom. She found the vault in her closet, just where it had been place earlier that morning when her things were brought over from her parent's house. She opened the vault using the palm reader and found the new battle suit hanging inside. It looked the same as the old suit except the blue strips were a little darker in color. Kim turned off the Kimmunicator's camera then quickly changed into the suit as she continued to talk to Wade in 'audio only' mode.

"I was going to mention it when you went on your next mission," Wade answered, sitting up in his chair. "I guess this qualifies as that next mission."

"So, how do I activate the helmet feature?" Kim queried as she turned the video function back on, got a suitcase out of the closet and started to fill it with both her and Ron's clothes.

"You don't need to activate anything," Wade smugly laughed. "The helmet will automatically deploy whenever the air pressure around you gets below a tolerable level. It'll also activate whenever sensors in the new suit detect any levels of noxious or poisonous gas. I was worried that one of your foes would try to knock you out with a sleeping gas so I incorporated those features into your new battle suit. There are one or two other new features, but I'll tell you about them at a later time. Ron's rocket is going to lift off in less than ten minutes."

"Shoot," Kim swore. "I still have one more stop to make before I can rendezvous with the Kepplar."

"You don't need to worry, Kim," Wade chuckled before he took a quick sip from his ever-present soda and continued. "The rocket will orbit the Earth twice to set up its required trajectory to the Sun. That means you have about an hour to catch up to it."

"The Sun?" Kim questioned as she gathered some toiletries from the bathroom. "Dad's always threatened to send Ron to the nearest black hole."

"That may well be," Wade said as he started to type on his computer again for a few seconds and then read what was on the screen to one side. "But the rocket that's ready to launch right now is supposed to be an unmanned probe to the Sun to observe and gather data on solar flares. From the data I can gather from their computers, those mission parameters haven't changed."

"You rock, Wade," Kim chuckled as she closed the suitcase and headed back down the stairs.

Xxxxxx

"You can't do this, Dr. P.," Ron yelped in panic as the rocket scientist strapped him into the pilots seat of the Kepplar Rocket. "I don't know how to fly this thing."

"I most certainly can do this, Ronald," James sternly said as he checked the harness one last time and then looked over the controls on the panels in front of the blond boy to make sure they were all properly locked so that Ron couldn't change them by randomly pressing any of the buttons. "And you won't need to fly this bird. The flight plan is already locked into the navigation computer. You just need to sit back and enjoy the ride."

"No, I mean you can't send me to a black hole," Ron quibbled. "The closest one like a gazillion miles away and I'll never make it! I looked it up on the internet!"

"You don't need to worry about a black hole," James evilly chuckled at the boy's distress.

"I don't?" Ron questioned in relief at that news.

"No, because this rocket is scheduled to circle the Sun," James sternly said. "The experiments on this rocket are designed to monitor and interact with solar flares, then send the data back here to Earth."

"Whew!" the blond boy sighed in relief. "I'm not headed for a black hole." Then it hit him. "Wait a minute. I'm headed for the Sun? I'll burn up! I don't have any sunblock with me!"

"Don't worry Ronald, you probably won't even notice if you get sunburned," James said as he stood up and headed for the hatch leading to the gantry. "The equipment on this tub is well shielded from the Sun's rays but you'll be too disoriented from hyperthermia and heat stroke to notice." With that he ducked out through the hatch and slammed it shut, sealing Ron in.

"Hyperthermia and heat stroke!" Ron yelled as the engines roared to life and shook the entire rocket violently. His panic amped up when he suddenly thought about something even more important than his future health. Ron started to pat down his space suit as he hollered, "Rufus! Buddy! Where are you!"

As the Kepplar Rocket lifted off the pad, Ron remembered that the naked mole rat was still asleep in his pants pocket which was in the space center's dressing room lying on the bench with the rest of his clothes. In his panic and all of the confusion, he'd forgot to transfer his little friend to a pocket in the suit.

Ron let out a huge breath in relief. At least Rufus was okay; although he'd have to tell Mr. Dr. P. to find the little guy so Kim, or maybe Jim and Tim, could take care of him from now on.

Xxxxxx

Kim exited the building where Dean Stoppable worked. He had come through with flying colors, giving her the two small items they had talked about at the cookout. Mr. Stoppable had told her that they were going to be ready today but she hadn't had time to pick them up any earlier because of all the deliveries at the house. She pocketed the two cards in one of the battle suit's hidden pouches, got in her car and took to the skies.

Once airborne, Kim turned on the Kimmunicator in the dashboard and said, "Talk to me Wade. Where's Ron right now?"

"You're in luck Kim," Wade said as he checked something on another computer screen off to the side and then rapidly typed on his keyboard. "Ron is just completing his first orbit so rendezvousing with him shouldn't be a problem. I'm sending a flight program to the Sloth so you only need to set the autopilot and hang on."

"I'm ready," Kim stated as she switched on the autopilot and was immediately flung back into her seat as the three rocket engines in the trunk of the car flared into high gear. As the Roth SL Coupe zoomed up through the upper stratosphere a small hiss of escaping oxygen was heard around the doors and windows. A helmet swiftly unfolded from the collar of Kim's battle suit and encased her head.

"This new suit rocks, Wade," the redhead commented as she spotted the Kepplar Rocket in the distance and growing bigger every second. "Now, is there some way to communicate with Ron to tell him that I'm here to take him back down to Earth?"

"Of course," Wade smugly smile as he tapped three keys on his keyboard and the image on the Kimmunicator changed from Wade to that of a panicking Ron. He was still struggling to get out of the four point harness that had him snugly strapped in the pilots seat.

"Ron, can you hear me?" Kim called out.

"KP?" the blond boy yelped in surprise and feverishly looking around the cabin for a few seconds before he spotted his girlfriend on the communications monitor in front of him. "Where are you and why are you wearing a helmet?"

"I'm just outside the Kepplar on your port side to take you home." Kim let out an exasperated sigh when she saw Ron looking to his right. "No, the other port."

Ron turned around and saw the Sloth pull up beside the command cabin window on his left. "Oh, there you are," Ron happily chirped. "I'll be with you in a minute, just as soon as I get these seat belts unlocked." He pulled and pried at the harness and circular buckle, but it wouldn't budge. "I think Dr. P. mighta welded me in here. I can't get 'em undone."

"Ron, that's a four point harness," Wade condescended as his image appeared on the communication's screen. "It doesn't operate like a normal seat belt. You just need to slam the palm of your hand on the round buckle where the four straps come together on your chest."

Ron did as he was told and the four harness straps snapped open and drifted away from his chest. He got up out of the seat and walked, the artificial gravity of the rocket doing its job, over to the hatch. Ron turned to look over to the communication's screen and said, "I'm ready to transfer to the car, KP."

"I hear you, Ron," Kim said as she leaned over and opened the passenger side door to the Sloth with ease since the interior and exterior atmospheric pressure had already equalized.

"Don't forget to close the hatch after you leave," Wade said over the com-system in Ron's helmet.

"Why?" the blond boy questioned as he worked the latch mechanism and opened the hatch. "If I leave the door open, will it cause major drag on the ship and throw off the flight path or something?"

"No, Ron," Wade said with a sly smile. "The drag in space is practically nonexistent but the hatch is part of the ship's defenses against heat and solar radiation. If you leave the hatch open, excessive radiation and heat will enter, fry all of the electronics and ruin the experiments."

"It'd serve daddy right," Kim growled as she watched her boyfriend/fiancé close and secure the hatch, drift over to the Sloth and get in. "What he was going to do to Ron is tantamount to murder!"

"Not really," Wade said as he typed on his computer keyboard. "Let me tell you everything about the Kepplar."

Kim smiled after hearing all about the Kepplar's mission parameters. She told Ron to get in the back seat of the car and to cover up with the blanket that they had purchased in Hawaii, essentially hiding himself from the Kimmunicator's camera. Then she turned to Wade and said, "I need to talk to dad, please and thank you."

"Give me one second, Kim," Wade responded as he typed on his computer keyboard and finished with a flourish. "There. Your father had to leave the control room for a few minutes so they're getting him now. And just to let you know, I started recording video of Ron in the Kepplar just before you launched into space, then I looped the images and started broadcasting back to the Middleton Space Center before you rescued him. I also masked the Sloth's profile so it didn't appear on their radar screens."

"So essentially," Kim said with a growing smile, catching on to what Wade had done, "daddy doesn't know that Ron and I are headed back to Earth." Just at that time, the Sloth reentered the atmosphere and it was flying through the air like it was a normal jet plane. "If that's the case, let me land and then give me a minute before I talk to him."

Kim quickly touched down on a deserted, back country road and pulled over to the side. She knew that what she was about to do was going to be hard on her, but her father deserved it; especially if Wade was right about the Kepplar's design. (And Wade was always right.)

Kim started to imagine the worst possible thing that could ever happen to her; becoming permanently separated from her beloved Ron. He had always been a part of her life, but now Ron was everything in her life. She couldn't imagine a day going by without his quirky smile and offbeat humor. And now that they'd become intimate, Kim couldn't imagine going a day without his touch, either. She would never be able to get to sleep at night without him lying next to her, spooning into his back. Ron was her new Cuddle Buddy and her nights would never be the same if she only had her plush pal to snuggle with. Now that she and Ron were engaged, she could never go back to Pandaroo.

Kim's eyes started to well up, tear running down her cheeks, and she rubbed them hard to redden her cheeks and around her eyes. She looked over to the dashboard Kimmunicator and sobbed, "Okay Wade, put him through."

Dr. James Timothy Possible's image came on the screen and he gasped when he saw his daughter in such agonizing distress. "Kimmie-Cub, are you okay?"

"Okay?" Kim howled in anguish. "How can I be okay when you just murdered Ron, the man I love?"

"Ronald isn't dead," James reasoned with his distraught daughter. "He's just taking a little trip to..." he was abruptly cut off.

"...To the nearest black hole," Kim interrupted her father, obviously in sheer agony and completing his sentence. "That means Ron is gone forever! You probably only gave him enough food, water and oxygen for four or five weeks, just so you could draw out the process and torture him." She started to heave and sob again to block out his next words.

"But Ron's okay, honey," James reassured Kim. "He's not going to a black hole. The Kepplar is just making a circular trajectory around the Sun and will be back in less than a month. And he has plenty of supplies. I made sure of that."

"Ron! Oh Ron!" Kim wailed in faux grief. Wade had told her and Ron about the true mission of the flight and that plenty of supplies were on board. The tech-genius had also inspected the specification of the rocket and told them that a human could survive the trip. Though he would get a little warm when the rocket circled the Sun, Ron would've survive because the ship was well insulated against the Sun's intense radiation and heat.

"Ronald will be okay, Kimmie," James tried to reassure her one more time.

"No, daddy!" Kim barked in pain, sniffled and wiped her eyes. She firmly stated, "My life is over now that Ron is gone. I've come to a decision. I'm not going to college in the fall. I'll join Global Justice."

"But you told us that you'd never work for Global Justice," James yelped in surprise. Kim had told her parent about GJ's highly unethical spying on her and Ron, but not exactly what that spying entailed. James got the impression that GJ may have planted miniature cameras in her room or planted a tracking chip on her; that they had been monitoring Kim as she changed clothes and that she fear that her ethics may be compromised if she worked for them. He thought those were the main reasons why she wanted to move out of her room and into the new house near campus.

"I don't care any more," Kim softly cried, her head hung in shame. "My life is ruined anyway. I might as well give up on my ethics, too." She looked up at the screen, into the eyes of her father and said, "Good-bye, daddy. I'm joining GJ and volunteering for the most hazardous missions they have. Maybe I'll be killed on one of them since Ron won't be there to watch my back. Then I can be with him forever." She quickly reach out and turned off the Kimmunicator.