Chapter 9: Summer Routine

"Could you run the recording one more time?"

Wade, sitting at his computer, activated the requested file and sent it to the Possibles' entertainment center. Kim and Ron were reviewing the recordings of Fisk's escape yet again. It had been their major point of interest for the past eleven days, ever since the old villain had vanished. The technical guru sighed. While he had yet to develop an interest in girls, he understood that his friends were infatuated with each other and he had hoped that they would have a quiet summer to enjoy with each other.

It wasn't to be. Oh, the summer started out promising abundant 'couple time' for the two teens. Four of their major foes were in custody and most of the rest were on the run. The only things that should have been distracting them from…distracting each other were the odd rescue mission and preparing themselves for the trials. Even the trial preparation wasn't rushed, since there was no way that the courts were going to be ready to try Shego until early autumn, at the soonest. Then came the two pieces of news.

First, Fist escaped from the Human Services Center; Secondly, Dementor had been spotted in northwestern Montana, up near the international border. While Team Possible couldn't do much about Dementor, at least until someone spotted him again, they were able to review the footage of Monty's escape.

"What do you see, KP?" Ron sat next to his girlfriend, wondering what clue she had spotted.

"I'm not sure," Kim confessed. "I just can't help but think that there's something really big that I'm missing. Wade, could you repeat that report on the tunnel?"

"Sure Kim," Wade called the report up on his screen. "The escape tunnel had been bored through both bedrock and soil. The Office of the State Engineer estimates that it took several days, with the final section being completed on the night of the escape. One of the creatures stayed behind and collapsed the tunnel after the escapees, so it wasn't until a week later that ground-penetrating radar was able to locate the other end of the tunnel."

"Several days…" Kim mused. "How did Fist contact Amy?"

"The police, State Patrol, and the FBI are all tearing out their hair on that one," Wade answered. "I can't find anything either. I've fed all of his correspondence into my computer, and I haven't been able to decipher any codes or messages. The FBI's doing the same thing, with the same result, and they have a whole lot more experience than I do."

"Let's get back to that several days part," Ron suggested. "We've seen the recordings of Monty's actual escape a dozen times, but maybe we should look at what he was doing just before that happened."

"That makes sense," Kim agreed. "We sure aren't figuring anything out by watching him jump into that hole for the two-hundredth time."

"Okay," Wade conceded. "I'm backing it up twenty minutes."

The three of them watched this section of the recording three times. On the fourth time, Ron interrupted with some comments.

"There," he said. "See how he gets off the bunk and starts pacing, slowly? He's feeling for something on the floor. Remember, he has bare feet."

"He crosses the point where those things broke in several times," Kim added. "Good eyes, Ron, he was pinpointing where they were going to break in." She frowned. "It's something, but I don't see how it helps us."

"If he knew they were going to break in, why did he drop into that combat stance?" Wade fast-forwarded the clip to where the creatures broke in and Monty appeared to be ready to fight."

"If those things came out of this floor, I'd be going into a combat stance," Ron commented. "Forget that! I'd be running out the door."

"Not if you were expecting them to break you out of a cell," Wade protested. "Wait a moment!" The technical genius rewound the tape to where Fist had originally gotten up from his bunk. "See that?" He asked. "He's acting like he's surprised. He wasn't expecting this rescue attempt!"

"So that's why nobody can decipher his hidden messages to DNAmy," Kim concluded. "There weren't any."

"That also explains his hesitation when those things came out of the floor," Wade added. "He didn't know if they were rescuers or assailants."

"Alright, so we know that this was Amy trying to get her Monty-poo back," Ron supplied. "And it looks like Monty had to decide between her and the loony-bin. What does that tell us? There must be some way we can use this."

"Well," Kim mused. "For one thing, it means that we can find Fisk by finding Amy."

"It also tells us that Amy has a sponsor!" Wade interjected.

"Uh, let's pretend that Kim didn't follow your sudden burst of insight," Ron suggested. Kim gave him a poke in the ribs.

"Okay, after The Diablo Incident, the FBI investigated Amy as a known, former associate of Drakken's," Wade began. Kim and Ron both nodded; this was old news. "They found her on a work release program, teaching advanced genetics at a university in California. The Feds dug deep and couldn't find anything wrong. She still had her cuddlebuddy fascination, but she wasn't trying to make living ones."

"They kept a discrete eye on her for the next couple weeks and reviewed her previous transactions," he continued. "They concluded that she was a slightly eccentric, scientific genius with no real social skills." Wade frowned. "Gee, who does that remind you of?"

"Wade!" Kim and Ron groaned at the same time.

"Jinx, you owe me an evening dancing!" Kim reacted before Ron could speak.

"Ah, man!"

"Back to the issue," Wade smiled. "After Fisk made his move at the make-up prom, she continued to work for a few days, then she vanished. The Feds froze her assets but she hasn't made any effort to access them. Now, the equipment she needs to produce these…altered creatures is expensive."

"So she needs someone to fund it," Ron concluded.

"And not just anyone," Kim added. "I'm willing to bet that that kind of price tag means a major corporation."

"Or a government," Wade supplied. "I wonder if her sponsor knew about her plans to recover Fisk, or that she was building these creatures." The youngster snorted a laugh. "Who knows, giving her the resources to recover Monty just might be part of her compensation package. Anyway, if you don't mind, I'll call our suspicions in to Global Justice. They might be able to get some more mileage out of them than we can."

"Please, and thank you," Kim said. "You rock, Wade." Wade gave his friends a warm smile and signed off.

"So KP, what do we do about this?" Ron asked.

"I don't think that we can do all that much," she confessed. "Just keep our eyes open and keep working out."

Ron nodded. It was what he had figured. "What do you have planned for the rest of the day?" He asked his girlfriend.

"I'm meeting with Tara and…Bonnie," the last name came out as a low growl. "We're putting the final touches on the choreography for the workshop next week. How about you?"

"I've got three yards to do today, then my shift at Riverna's," he informed his girlfriend. "Then Oscar and I'll meet up for our evening workout. Care to join us?"

"I'm thinking yes at the moment," she replied with a smile. His remark about the yards gave her a very warm feeling towards her boyfriend.

A unit from the Colorado National Guard was currently deployed in the Middle East. When Ron found out that several of the members lived in his neighborhood, he decided to maintain their yards while they were gone. He mowed grass, trimmed hedges and trees, and generally kept the yards looking good for the soldiers on duty. He scheduled his work for when the soldiers' families were not at home, so they wouldn't be tempted to pay him for his work. Ron Stoppable was profoundly grateful to those wearing his Country's uniform and while the yard work wasn't much, it was at least something he could do for them.

As for Riverna's, Ron had managed to land a job as the pasta and pastry chef. It was good work for him, since he had flexible hours. His responsibilities consisted of making sure that the restaurant had enough fresh, hand made pastas and desserts. He was; however, going beyond that and having the manager explain the business process behind the food. Suddenly, terms like overhead, payroll, discretionary spending and depreciation had real meanings for him, not just words in his business class. Kim was very proud of him.

Finally, there were the evening workouts with Oscar. While she and Ron sparred for two hours every morning, he did his strength and conditioning workouts in the evenings, with Oscar. She, Felix, and Cindy were welcome to join the two, and she and Felix usually did. Felix showed up in a non-motorized wheelchair and shocked everyone with just how fast he could go on the roads. While the boys were good natured and polite, Kim felt a little out of place. Then she realized what was going on: male bonding. It was just her luck that her boyfriend's idea of male bonding consisted of running, sweating, weight training, and the like; rather than sneaking alcohol or ogling girls. (Not that she minded Ron ogling her; she encouraged it. She ogled back.)

Kim snapped her mind back to the here and now as the subject of her reverie stood up. She stood up, as well.

"You be careful with Fist on the loose," she instructed her boyfriend. She spun him to face her and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him close.

"Always, KP," he answered, ducking down for a quick, goodbye kiss.

Kim would have none of that. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulled him in and clamped her mouth onto his. Several minutes later, a breathless, flustered…and very happy Ron Stoppable stumbled out of the door to start on his day.

Ron went home and gathered the tools he needed to do his chores. While the Monty sitch made him nervous, he was determined to not let it dictate his life. He knew that Kim would back him up if Monty made his move. Both teens used this as another excuse to spend time with each other. Besides, he had a couple of 'aces up his sleeve,' so to speak.

His first hidden asset was Wade. The boy genius had provided him with a new wristwatch, which included a tracking chip, a panic button and a cell phone. If Ron got into trouble, he would hit the panic button. Wade would then track his location and activate the cell phone's microphone. The boy genius would determine if the call was a real emergency or a false alarm, then send assistance to his location.

His second hidden asset was the Middleton Police Department. While they hadn't assigned a unit to shadow him, they had been alerted that an international criminal might attack him. For this reason, they were ready to roll assets to Ron's location whenever Wade called them.

Not even Kim and Wade knew about Ron's third hidden asset. When Monty escaped, Ron held a long, meditative consultation with Sensei. The old man had insisted that Ron take the Lotus Blade for his defense. Ron spent over an hour in deep meditation, calling the blade. It was only after the blade arrived (cutting a limb off of one of the Stoppables' trees and frightening a pair of nesting woodpeckers) that Ron realized that he had no idea how to carry it with him without being obvious about it. While the blade could assume the shape of any weapon, carrying a weapon, be it a sword, tonfa, or bo, wasn't a good way to remain 'under the radar.' Ron had spent another hour coming up with a solution.

Ron smiled as he stepped into his house then up the stairs to his room. He hadn't been too sure about his idea since he was afraid that it would dishonor the blade. He had contacted Sensei again. The old man not only assured him that his idea wouldn't dishonor the blade but he praised Ron on his cleverness in coming up with a method of keeping the blade hidden in plain sight.

Locking his bedroom door behind him, Ron recovered the blade from its case in his closet. With a slight effort of his will, the blade took the form of a set of hedge clippers. Whenever Ron did his volunteer yard work, he carried the Lotus Blade in this form. When he worked at Riverna's, he carried it in the form of a kitchen knife. The Lotus Blade was able to project a sort of emotion back to Ron, and it seemed to take a childish glee in the deception.

Ron went to the garage and filled up the lawnmower's fuel tank. Then he packed the Lotus Blade, as well as a rake, a hoe, and a pruning hook, into his dad's old golf club caddy. He was actually a little nervous about this, as well. If Duff Killigan ever heard about what he was using the caddy for, he was sure that he would be dealing with a short, irate, violent, Scottish golf-fanatic as well as genetically altered psychopath. He shrugged his shoulders and decided that it was all part of growing up.

Ron went about the rest of his day without incident. As always, he felt a little guilty about using the Lotus Blade to clip hedges and cut food at the restaurant. When he first came up with the plan, he had intended to use mundane tools for the job while just keeping the blade in the area. However, the blade projected disappointment whenever he used another tool that the blade was mimicking. If the blade was in the form of hedge clippers, it didn't want Ron using another set of clippers. When he informed Sensei about the sitch, he swore the old man was amused.

Finishing at the restaurant, Ron went home and had just enough time before his parents got home from work to prepare dinner. Dinner was a pleasant time for the teen, as it gave him a chance to talk with his parents. Tonight, they discussed his activities, his father's work, his mother's progress in therapy, and the latest news from the adoption agency. Ron's 'never be normal' motto continued to prove true; most kids found themselves alienated from their parents during their teenage years, while Ron was growing closer to his.

That evening, he and KP walked to the school gym, where they met with Oscar. The Middleton Athletics Boosters Club had arranged for adult supervision at the gymnasium and track, so high school students were welcome to come and work out. Kim, Ron, and Oscar went to the track and started with a two-mile run, with Kim beating the boys by a good forty yards. Then it was back to the gym for tonight's scheduled workout, which happened to be weight training. Kim excused herself and worked on the machines while the boys went to the free weights.

The three teens worked out hard, but had fun while doing so. They exchanged joking, critical comments about each other's puny musculature (the adult on duty had to shake his head, since these 'kids' were clearly stronger than most adults) and their pitiful physical condition. The highlight of the workout came when Ron, after finishing a bench-press set greater than his body weight, declared himself 'King of the Noodle-Arms. Finally, their limbs trembling with fatigue, they lurched out of the gym. They agreed to meet the next night (it would be wind-sprints night) and that Saturday. With that, Kim and Ron headed back towards their neighborhood while Oscar left to catch a bus back to his.

Kim and Ron held hands as they walked down the darkened streets. He wanted to put his arm around her but since he had just finished an intense workout, he decided that such a gesture would be more offensive than romantic. Instead, the teens talked.

"So," Kim asked. "Have you peeked under the tarp to see your surprise?"

"No, I don't want to spoil it," Ron informed her. "Besides, we should finish my new room this Saturday, then my 'rents can present it to me themselves, in front of my friends."

Kim smiled at that. Ron's new room had become another bonding device between him and his friends. She, Oscar, Felix, and even Cindy showed up and helped him with his ongoing project. It was sort of sad that it would be finished this Saturday, but then again, now they would have more time to spend on the traditional, summer-fun sort of activities.

"What's the sitch with the adoption?" She asked, snapping herself out of her reverie.

"I don't think that anything is really going to happen until I'm out of my old room and the 'rents have it converted into a nursery," he answered. "That's another reason I'm trying to get the job done as soon as I can."

"Looking forward to being a big brother?" She smiled, warmly, at her BFBF.

"Yes," he answered. "Surprising, isn't it?"

They walked for a few minutes in silence, just enjoying the peaceful night and each other's company. Finally, Ron spoke up again.

"KP, I have a favor to ask."

"Just ask."

"I need you to keep an eye on me when the adoption goes through."

Kim just looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"I've been an only child for so long that I'm afraid I'll get jealous and do something…stupid."

"Ron, you've practically been the tweebs' big brother for years. You're going to be a great big brother."

"I don't know, KP, this is different. With your brothers, I've only hung out with them while I was hanging out with you. Now, I'm going to be a big brother for real. I'm going to have to be someone to look up to. You know, a role model."

"Ron Stoppable, you're going to do just fine but just to humor you, I'll agree. I'll keep an eye on you and let you know if you start doing something foolish…in a bad sort of way." She spun him to face her and gave him an impish expression. "I happen to like my goofy boyfriend."

Ron wasn't as foolish as he sometimes let on. He had learned to read Kim's expressions and actions at an early age. Sure, the recent alteration they had made to their relationship had added some new expressions and actions, but he had picked up on them very quickly. Right now, Kim wanted him to kiss her. She wanted him to kiss her, passionately, for the next several minutes. Ron would have been hard pressed to find a reason not to do so, even if his brain was firing on all synapses. As they were standing on a quiet, dark street, it was quite some time before they found a good enough reason to stop. Finally, they stood with their foreheads touching.

"Drop by tomorrow morning?" Kim asked him.

"Absolutely. Right now, I think that I need a hot, steamy meeting with a shower."

"Me to," Kim giggled, while both teens thought how nice it would be to share that shower. To wash each other's backs and feel each other's hands on…

Beep, Beep, Be-Beep.

"So what's the sitch?" Kim's trademark answer came out with more of a growl than she had intended.

"Uh, we've got a lock on Dementor," Wade answered, somewhat tenuously. "He's in northwestern Montana. He's been active in and around an abandoned mine. I'm checking sources but I'm willing to bet that it's one of Drakken's secret hideouts."

"You rock, Wade," Kim said, with a sigh. "When can you have our ride ready?"

"Ten minutes."

"Can you make it twenty?" Ron asked. "We just got done working out and right now Dementor could probably smell me a mile away."

"Sure thing," Wade answered with a look of relief. "That must be why the two of you are so flushed and out of breath right now."

"Uh, yeah Wade. That's it. See you in twenty."

"Wade out."

A/N:

Again, big thanks to Joe Stoppinghem for Beta Reading. Hope everyone's enjoying the story. Thanks or reading.

Best wishes,

daccu65