Ron woke up late the next morning. It was already 10am and although he was still on his month-long hiatus from his company, Stoppable Enterprises, he still hated waking up late, and often wondered why he always used to prefer doing so. He had long gotten rid of his old habits of waking up past noon; trying to get two PhDs in three years tends to force that on a guy. But he had spent most of last night tossing and turning in his bed, his conversation Monique replayed itself in his mind over and over again.
What did Monique mean by try my best, and not try my best for Kim? Ron groused to himself. The night's sleep had not given him any further answers.
Grumbling to himself as he slid out of bed, Ron decided to put things off his mind for a moment, and test out his latest invention. At least he hoped that would take his mind off things. Complex and intricate electronics he understood, and quite well. Girls, on the other hand, were a whole different matter. At least technology was straightforward.
You don't break up with someone you love! Ron thought to himself bitterly. That's just stupid...
Ron decided that he would ask Monique about it later again when she came by. Properly filing away that thought for later, Ron quickly washed up and went down to his workshop. After yesterday's tests, the suit was more or less ready; it offered very decent protection, while not limiting his mobility at all. The flight mode was more than satisfactory despite its earlier issues of lacking the proper feedback calibrations. And the red and gold paintwork had properly dried overnight, leaving a very polished and shiny finish.
"All that's left now is a practical field test." Ron muttered happily, and quickly donned the armor, flexing his joints and made sure that everything was in place. Giving his suit one last diagnostic check, he muttered to himself, "Okay… Let's go."
Initiating all repulsors in his palms and soles, Ron zoomed out of his workshop and straight vertically into the crisp morning atmosphere. Ron felt his spirits lifted by the beautiful blue sky, and did a few aerial maneuvers just to break it in. So far, his suit didn't seem to give him any problems. The turbulence didn't affect him as much as he would have thought, as the computers quickly corrected, using minute thrust alterations and subtle body articulation that he barely felt to counteract any sudden and unwanted movements.
Feeling inspired, Ron grinned as he glanced up to the sky. Suborbital was a word that flashed through his mind. Suborbital meant that his suit would need to be traveling vertically at least Mach 4.1, and preferably around Mach 5 to achieve any acceptable distance. Watching the speedometer on his HUD, Ron mused at the possibility. He was just pushing Mach 4, but hey, what the heck? Life was about pushing the envelope, right?
Veering straight up, Ron initiated maximum power on his repulsors, and watched with satisfaction as he started to climb. Past seventy thousand feet, Ron was still happily enjoying his latest endeavor when he suddenly felt stiffness in his left arm. Glancing at the diagnostics showed that everything was working as it was suppose to. Ron tilted his head to look down at his body and realized that a thin shiny layer of ice was starting to form around his joints.
"Uh, oh!" Ron muttered out loud, as his left repulsor suddenly sputtered and died. The ice must have interfered with the suit's ability to adjust according to the computer corrections, leading to an
emergency shutdown of the repulsor to prevent any accidents. But at one hundred and fifteen thousand feet above sea level, that would only lead to a bigger incident.
Before Ron could steer himself back towards a more manageable altitude, the rest of his repulsors gasped and died, and for a moment Ron felt himself floating in midair. The sensation was short lived, as gravity took over and hurtled Ron towards the ground. However, with his momentum, he still climbed an additional ten thousand feet, and he quickly calculated that a fall from one hundred and twenty-five thousand feet would be the equivalent force of… Ron did not have time to imagine the consequences.
As his onboard computer started flashing warning signs, Ron tried to force the joints in his suit to move. "C'mon! C'mon!" Ron yelled at the machine, ignoring the spinning Earth below him. The altimeter was going crazy as the numbers kept shrinking faster and faster.
Ron finally managed to free his right arm and tried to slap his left arm to shake free any frozen condensation that had seeped into the joints. He tried to kick start his repulsors again, and they managed to flare up for a moment before being overridden again by the emergency shutdown.
"No, no, no, no!" Ron cursed as he tried to override the emergency controls. "C'mon, baby!"
Just as the altimeter hit past the two thousand mark, to Ron's relief, he managed to restart all four repulsors. Firing away at full thrusts, he managed to slow his descent, hopefully enough so it wouldn't be lethal, before he felt his entire body crash into the hard, hard ground.
Ron slowly got to his knees and crawled out of the crater he had just made in the ground. Other than the sheer physical pain of being hit by the ground and having the breath knocked out of him, his onboard computer had indicated that he was in perfect condition with no broken bones. Flopping on his back, Ron unhinged the face-mask and stared straight up at the blue sky.
"Dammit," Ron grumbled out loud, as he glared angrily at the heavens. "How could I forget such a small detail? Computer, make a note. Fix icing problem." He slowly sat up and looked down at his body. Considering his fall, the fact that the polarized suit of armor didn't suffer a ding was a miracle. "At least you're in better shape than me," Ron grumbled. "Now I know you'll survive being hit by a tank."
As he glanced around his unfamiliar surroundings, Ron called up the GPS computer to triangulate his location. "Hmm… Not bad… Five hundred miles from home," Ron remarked sarcastically. "So there. Flight test done. Note to self, do not go over seventy thousand feet above sea-level until you fix the icing issues."
Ron let a tentative smile of satisfaction grow on his lips as he beheld his finished work. Two weeks, not a bad time from paper to a finished product. Of course, Ron mumbled a silent thanks to Demenz for providing most of the initial programming and designs.
Ron suddenly slammed his fist into the ground. Demenz wasn't supposed to die. It just wasn't… The way he was gunned down with Ron's own weapons… Ron grinded his teeth as he felt rage grip him. Looking at his hands encased by their joint invention, Ron flexed his fingers.
Now it's time for a practical test.
"(Get the women and children out of here! We only want men who can fight!)" the leader of the terrorists, toting an assault rifle and other combat arms, yelled in Arabic at the men running past him. Standing outside a small village of dusty brick houses, he barked orders, only to be punctuated by random firing of bullets. "If anyone resists, kill them!"
He went strode forward to the nearest house and kicked down the door. "Come out!" he barked threateningly into the house, pointing his gun into the darkened room. When there was no sign of any movement, the leader strode in and aimed his gun at the corner of the one-room house. A man crouched in the corner, draping his body protectively over his wife and daughter.
"(Dog!)" the man spat as he marched forward. "(Drag them out of here!)" Two men immediately followed him in from behind; the first grabbed the man by the collar and yanked him off his family, while the second grabbed the child and lifted her over his shoulder.
"(No! Leave my daughter alone!)" the mother cried out. She made a frantic grab for her child's hands, before the leader of the terrorists stepped in and slammed the side of her face with the butt of his machine gun.
"(Stay down!)" the leader screamed at the husband who struggled to shake off the man holding him. "(I said stay down!)" he aimed his rifle at the man squarely between the eyes, his finger tense on the trigger. The man immediately ceased struggling.
The woman laid there sobbing as she stretched out her hand to reach for her child. The leader grabbed her by the arm and hauled her to her feet before roughly pushing her, beckoning her to follow her child. The husband glared murderously at the leader, as he felt a muzzle of a rifle pressed dangerously at the nape of his neck.
"(This one has spirit…)" the leader remarked at the husband. "(But I don't like the way he's looking at me. Kill him.)"
The husband opened his eyes in panic, and as he knelt on his knees, he gave one final prayer before…
A mind-numbing explosion rocked the building. "What was that?" the leader of the terrorist yelled out as he ran outside to take a look. His jaw dropped at the scene before him.
Fourteen of his men lay on the ground injured or unconscious. One of his two trucks lay in smoldering ruin, its driver and gunner burning within the wreckage. Most of the women and children they had kidnapped were huddled against the side of the building, watching in awe at the sight before them.
"Alhamdulillah!" the leader mouthed in shock. The six-foot tall humanoid, encased in red and gold battle armor, stood proudly in the middle of the devastation like the fabled angel of death. Slowly it swiveled its head to look at the man, its glowing blue eyes seeming to burn with the very fires of hell itself, as if its gaze passed judgment the man standing stock still before it.
It took a step forward towards the awestruck man, and the ground seemed to shake beneath its feet. The man could feel his feet trembling as the behemoth advanced closer. In a fit of panic, he raised his weapon and screamed at the unearthly being, squeezing the trigger of his assault rifle.
The bullets seem to zing off the being, as it continued to unflinchingly close in towards its target. As the man drained his magazine of bullets, he fumbled beneath his tunic for a refill; unfortunately for him, the hulking machine was before him. With ease, it picked the man up with its right hand and flung him aside into a stone wall. The leader of the terrorist felt consciousness slip from his mind as his vision quickly faded.
The behemoth continued on with its rampage.
"Commander Possible," a nervous agent urgently called to Kim who was keeping an eye on things in the Global Justice command room. "We have some activity about four hundred miles west of Kabul. I was wondering if there's an operation going on there currently."
"Show me, Agent Coutier" Kim marched over to his terminal as she peered at the live satellite feed on the monitors. "What am I looking at?"
"That is a village which we suspect has ties to the terrorists," the agent briefed her quickly. "The terrorists might have been using that as a weapons depot to resupply. So far, in the last fifteen minutes satellites have detected three major explosions in the area, and the live feed shows several smaller explosions in the last two. It looks like a munitions dump just been blew sky high…"
"Global Justice does not have any operatives in the immediate area," Kim replied crossly, as she watched the screen.
"So do you think the Army?"
"Maybe…" Kim remarked dryly. "But it's unlikely… They would have alerted us if they were launching an operation in the area. Otherwise if there was a screw-up, it will be one major mess to clean up… Agent Johnson," Kim turned to shout across the room at an agent sitting in a corner cubicle. "Get me General McAllister, Kabul Central Command and Control. I want to know what's going on. Agent Coutier, keep monitoring this, and let me know if anything else is happening."
"And we have a forth explosion," Agent Coutier remarked. "It's like a warzone down there."
"Dammit, there are civilian lives down there," Kim cursed. "Someone is being reckless."
"I have the military on the line," Agent Johnson yelled back. "They don't have any operations in the area either, but do have a global hawk en route for surveillance, and are asking if we need a feed?"
"Tell them ASAP, please and thank you..." Kim muttered absently, before gritting her teeth, "Dammit, what the hell is going on?" Kim muttered aloud to herself. "It could be one of our allies. But we'd better be careful until we find out."
"Commander Possible," Agent Coutier immediately called for her attention again. "We've got a new development; there's a strange radar reading… An object is moving away from the area at super-... Make that hypersonic speeds."
"Object? What kind of object?" Kim snapped as she watched the little blip on the monitor zip away from the explosions. "Plane? Helicopter? Missile?"
"I don't know," Agent Coutier shrugged as he brought the image to center on the moving object. "It's too small to be an aircraft of any sort… I almost missed it on the radar, usually the computer dismisses something that size as a flock of birds but at the speeds it's moving… It has to be man-made."
Kim reached down at her console and tapped in a few commands, then her authentication challenge and answer. Immediately after finishing her entries, a young looking lieutenant commander in a GJ issue blue jumpsuit came up on her vid-link screen. "How can we help you, Commander Possible?"
"Lieutenant Commander Jameson, I need you to scramble two of our F-37s, preferably with an intercept load-out, and they are authorized to use full military power. Their ROE are fire under direct order from myself or Director Director, or if fired upon. Before we go shooting, I want radio and/or visual contact on this bogey," Kim ordered. "Whatever it is, we better hope that it's not hostile." She briefly glanced at Agent Coutier, "Coutier, can we get a better satellite visual?"
"No, it's too small and fast," Agent Coutier remarked.
"Then track it, don't let it out of our sight," Kim ordered.
"F-37s in the air, ETA in twelve minutes."
"Good, thank you, Lieutenant Commander Jameson" Kim replied seriously. "I want that thing out of restricted airspace immediately."
They watched carefully on the screen as the radar continued to track the high-speed object's movement. Agent Coutier's jaw almost dropped in surprise at the speeds the object was maintaining. "Holy sweet Mary mother of Christ… That thing has to be out of this world. It must be some secret weapon the Russians or the Chinese are developing. Our F-37s are barely catching up to it."
"Watch your language, agent," Kim reprimanded him crossly. She didn't like the way the object seemed to be flaunting itself. Some aspect of her agent's remark suddenly made something click into place. Secret weapon, advanced technology… Could it be? Whipping her cell phone out of her pocket, she flipped it open and pressed the speed dial, and waited as it rang through.
"Ah, hello?" a darkly jovial voice called through the phone.
"Ron?" Kim dropped the pleasantries immediately. "What are you doing? Why is it so noisy over there?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Ron's grin was evident in the sound of his voice. "I'm just taking a drive with the top down. Terrific weather we're having today, eh, Kim?"
"Right, Ron," Kim cut him short suddenly. "Ron, we have a situation here. We have a terrorist hot spot in Afghanistan being attacked by an unknown object that just flew away at supersonic speeds. Do you have any tech in the area?"
"Tech?" Ron sounded genuinely surprised. "What makes you think I have any tech in that area? Afghanistan is a long way from home, you know. And there are no Bueno Nachos nearby."
"Call it a crazy hunch," Kim replied frostily, as she bit back on a completely different retort. "It's just that that was the area where you were held captive by the terrorists. Between your escape, the proximity to the incident, your sudden intent on terminating your weapons division and your top secret project for the last two weeks, I just have to ask, is that your doing?"
"Nah, chill, Kim," Ron replied lightly. "That completely has nothing to do with me."
"Good," Kim remarked. "Because we have two F-37s within firing range and we're going to shoot it down since it's not responding to radio communications..."
"What?" Ron yelped in surprise, causing Kim to flinch her head away from the phone. "Hang on a minute, Kim!"
"Commander Possible, the F-37s are engaging as ordered," Agent Coutier suddenly called out.
"Hang on, Ron," Kim said quickly to Ron before turning her attention towards the agent. "Put them on speaker, and relay their guncams to us, I want to know what's going on…"
"… is Red Two, we are getting a lock on the target." A first voice sounded over the speakers.
"This is Commander Possible," Kim spoke out loud. "Do you have visual contact?"
"We see it," Red Two reported over the radio. There was a short pause before the pilot continued. "What the hell is that thing?"
"What do you see?" Kim commanded urgently.
"It's… I don't know, sir," Red Two replied hesitantly. "It appears to be a man in a suit of armor."
"What?" Kim almost dropped her phone in surprise. "Could you confirm that, Red One?"
"What he said, sir," Red One answered, her voice certain but flabbergasted. "Man-sized object with limbs… It's definitely not one of ours, I've never seen anything like that. Could be Chinese."
"Still no answer to radio hails?" Kim asked neutrally.
"None, ma'am" Red One and Two replied in unison.
"Shoot it down," Kim ordered immediately.
"Roger. I have a firing solution," Red Two reported in. "And firing…"
"Kim!" a teeny voice screamed from the phone in her hand.
"Oh sorry, Ron!" Kim hurriedly raised the phone back to her ear and apologized to Ron. "Look, I'm in the middle of something now, I'll call you back later."
"No! Wait! Kim!" Ron shouted each word between gasps of breaths.
"Ron? What's wrong with you?" Kim asked as she felt a surge of concern. "What's going on? You sound out of breath." Her attention was suddenly snatched away again by yelling that came through the radio speakers.
"Holy shit!" Red Two shouted over the radio. "The bogey just dropped a chaff and did a complete one eighty! I've never seen anything move like it!"
"Shit!" Red One screamed. "It's behind us now!"
"Break left! Break left!" Red Two called, "Pancaking!" His voice suddenly strained as the view from his gun camera spun crazily one hundred and eighty degrees to both his underside and right. Through his facemask's microphone, the sound of the engine straining and Stoppable Enterprises repulsor maneuvering jets firing to twist and flip the multi-ton craft was easily audible over his labored breathing. Finally the plane righted itself from its extreme flip and turn maneuver, the repulsors firing just long enough to bring it back up to speed before cutting out to cool down.
"What's going on?" Kim ordered through the radio, as her heart seized in panic. She watched attentively at the radar screen as three blips seem to chase each other randomly across the screen.
"It's on my tail!" Red One shouted.
"I got your back! It's in my sights… And… Firing guns!" Red Two shouted, before a series of small little explosions were heard as his fighter's Stoppable Enterprises twin 20mm rotary cannon started firing. After a momentary burst, Red Two reported in, "I hit it! I think I did… But it doesn't seem to be slowing down! Hang on, switching to missiles…"
"Hold fire, he's on me!" Red One barked, her gun camera footage obscured slightly by a foot wedged solidly in the outer skin of her jet. "Trying to shake him! Red Two, regain lock as soon as you're able!"
"Copy, Red One" Red Two answered, before growling triumphantly, "He's off, and... Oh, shit!" The radio chatter was suddenly interrupted by a loud explosion as Red Two screamed over the radio. "I'm hit! I'm going down! Punching out!"
"Red One! Report!" Kim yelled into the radio. "What happened?"
"There was a midair collision, sir!" Red One shouted into the radio. "Bugger pulled a maneuver out of nowhere after I dumped him, unfortunately Red Two was in his way... I've never seen anything move like that before!"
"Where's the target?" Kim asked urgently. "Did it disintegrate in the collision?"
"I don't know…" Red One reported. "I'm not picking it up on my radar… Oh wait, there it is! It's below me and veering away!"
"Do you see Red Two's 'chute?" Kim asked in concern.
"Hang on, yes, yes I see a 'chute!" Red One called back. "I'm turning back in pursuit!"
"Good," Kim breathed a sigh of relief. She signaled Agent Coutier to call in the pick-up crew. Whoever was responsible for this was definitely going to pay.
"Kim!" Ron's voice was starting to sound hoarse from yelling her name.
"Oh god, sorry Ron, it's just that I'm handling an emergency here!" Kim apologized as she raised the phone back to her ear. "I'll…"
"Kim! Listen to me!" Ron's voice screamed through the phone. "Stop firing! It's me!"
"What do you mean it's you?" Kim asked suspiciously.
"It's me! That object that your planes are shooting at is me!" Ron howled in desperation. "Call them off!"
"So you do have tech out there!" Kim's eyes narrowed, as she felt a strange new desire to throttle the life out of her best friend for lying to her.
"Not exactly!" Ron blabbed breathlessly. "It's actually me! I'm actually out there in a suit! Your men just pumped me full of lead! Call them off!"
"Oh god," Kim gasped as she realized what her friend was up to. Turning to her agents, she ordered, "Call Red One off, now. Return to base, we're breaking pursuit."
"But sir…" Agent Coutier started to speak.
"Just do it," Kim barked quickly. "It's out of restricted airspace anyway. And there's no way that we can take it down without endangering more than we already have..."
"Right," Agent Coutier radioed in the orders.
"Ron," Kim turned her attention back to the phone conversation at hand. With an icy tone, she spoke, "I just called them off. You have a lot of explaining to do."
"Ah, right, Kim, thanks," Ron sheepishly replied between deep breaths. "Meet you at my place in four hours?"
"You'd better count on it," Kim growled angrily as she slapped her phone shut.
"Ma'am!" a junior agent called out as she rushed over with a printout in hand. "This was taken just before the bogey went out of visual range by the army Global Hawk..."
Kim looked at the printout, scowling as she did so. The super high definition image showed a gold and red armored man, with lead smears from bullets, dents and pockmarks on its shell, but otherwise unharmed. It was flying with feet angled back and arms pointed back, the unmistakable glow of Stoppable Enterprises high energy repulsors visible on the hands and feet. Yeah, you definitely have a lot of explaining to do for almost killing yourself! Kim thought to herself, her angry scowl being replaced by a livid glare, as if she were trying to crumple the paper with her eyes alone.
Author's Notes
Woot! Back online! After two weeks? Has it been two weeks? Have I been profusely apologizing in my replies to reviews? Has the world changed so much in so little time?
Action's picking up, and there doesn't seem to be any change in Ron yet. I mean, after his revealing conversation with Monique, he doesn't seem to want to put much thought into it, and instead in his own reckless manner went ahead and did whatever he liked. I don't know, he's kinda like a kid with a new toy. But I think it's time for Ron to meet Kim, and perhaps, I think this argument is going to be epic.
So I was sort of wondering if the action was alright? Coz I tried to keep this one short, it barely reached 4k words. It might be a little closer to the movie, but then I tried to put it from a different perspective. So here's to hoping that would work better rather than lengthy descriptions (much to the chagrin of the hidden military nerd in my beta, kgs-wy).
And of course when Hurricane Kim makes landfall…