Stakeout
XX
Wade, Kim, and Ron left the bakery and walked along the sidewalk as they discussed the plan they had just formalized with Drakken. They reached a small park square at the end of the block and paused for a moment, since the plan would take place later that evening and they would have to part ways in a moment.
"What do you think?" Kim asked Wade. "Is Drakken up to something?"
"I've done a scan of Doctor D Cups-"
"Please don't use that name."
"I've done a scan of the bakery and the warehouse, and I didn't see anything too suspicious. No secret hidden laboratories or doomsday weapons lying around. If he's using this as a front for something else, he's keeping it well hidden. Maybe he has a facility elsewhere that we don't know about."
"And it seems strange that he would specifically invite me to help him catch these thieves if he was hiding something," said Kim. "Even for Drakken, that seems a little absent-minded. But I still smell something fishy."
"Me too," agreed Ron. "I think it might be coming from under that tree though," he said as he pointed to a nearby evergreen. "Should I go check it out?"
Wade ignored Ron and continued discussing the plan with Kim. "Global Justice will be keeping an eye on things, and you'll have a ride ready when we need to move out. They don't know anything more than I do about what Drakken might be up to, though. I have to go home for a while, but I'll be ready to go by tonight."
"Ditto," said Kim. "I think I'll visit my family."
She looked at Ron hesitantly for a moment, not sure whether she should extend an invitation to him or not.
"Uh – do you want to come and say hi to them?"
Ron considered the offer. He did want to take it, as he hadn't seen the Possibles in a long time, but he thought about hearing their questions, dealing with the awkwardness of being there with Kim after everything that had happened between them. And if Kim's mother saw him there with Kim and assumed the two them had gotten back together somehow – Ron couldn't think of anything more embarrassing.
"I think I should stop by my own house, actually," he finally said.
"Suit yourself."
"Alright, see you guys later then," said Wade. "Are you going to want the Battle Suit for tonight, Kim?"
Kim thought about the white and blue-trimmed suit that Wade had designed for her when she took down Drakken's Lil Diablo scheme. Although it could definitely be useful, Kim had found that Wade had a soft spot for experimentation and gadgetry, which meant that the suit's glitchiness and unreliability was enough to make her hesitant in using it sometimes. For her first mission in a while, she decided she'd be better off relying on her usual mission outfit.
"I think I'll pass this time, Wade."
"Suit yourself." Wade was just repeating Kim's earlier comment, but he realized his pun and grinned. "Oh, Ron, do you need a ride?"
"Sure," he said. "It took forever to get here by scooter."
"I'll give you an old Kimmunicator for the stakeout later," said Wade. "I think I have one lying in my car. That way you'll both have one."
Kim was about to leave the square in the direction of her own car when she paused. "Wait a minute," she said. "Wade, you actually have a driver's license?"
Wade nodded. "You know I'm 16 now, right?"
Kim felt herself blush a little, realizing that she did not in fact know that.
"Although I've actually had a license since I was 13. Let's just say the DMV's records are not that hard to hack into."
Kim gave Wade a look of faint disapproval she said goodbye to the two of them. The boy who once refused to appear in public unless he was using a mobile computer screen was now driving around town. It was hard for Kim to picture, but it was just another example of how she had grown distant from Wade, Ron, and her old missions. At least Ron didn't seem too different, although she had barely talked to him during their reunion at the bakery. Maybe things would start to change tonight, she thought.
XX
When Anne Possible watched her daughter wave goodbye on her first day of college, it had been a bittersweet vision. She was immensely proud of her daughter's accomplishments – even as a renowned brain surgeon, Anne knew that her daughter's talent and drive outstripped her own. And yet, despite the fact that Kim had been traveling the world and fighting evil on a day-to-day basis for years, seeing her daughter starting college felt like watching her take a first big step into adulthood. A long-reaching step her little child took as she became a woman, growing older and just a little more distant from Anne.
Kim had lived at home for her freshman year and some of her sophomore year, but very soon after things had fallen apart with Ron, she had moved into the apartment with Monique. Which was another step. A step into adulthood and independence, even though Anne had to remind herself that Kim had always been fiercely independent.
The actual relationship with Monique was another step that Anne had never seen coming. Kim and Ron had been friends since childhood, inseparable as night and day. Peas in a pod. She had been happy to see their relationship blossom beyond friendship, and equally crushed when it had fallen apart so painfully. Kim had been unhappy for a long time, and while Anne was glad she had found Monique, who had certainly been making her happy again, she still thought what had happened was a shame. But her daughter was living her own life, taking a path that Anne could not anticipate. It was hard enough to anticipate the winding paths that her own life took, for that matter.
Kim still talked to Anne about her problems, still kept in touch with her family, but the rigors of the collegiate lifestyle meant that Anne did not get to see her daughter as much as she would like. Which was why she was happy to see a familiar souped-up car pull into the driveway, driving a little too quickly for her taste.
"Kim!" she said as she opened the door to her daughter's beaming face. Kim grabbed her mother and pulled her into a bear hug, which Anne enjoyed despite feeling a little bruised and battered by the time her daughter released her.
James Possible, who had also heard his daughter's arrival, appeared at the front door and scooped his daughter up into his own hug. "How's my little Kimmie-cub?" he asked.
"Not bad. Studying hard, as usual."
Anne led her daughter into the kitchen, intent on making her something to eat even though the afternoon had worn on long enough to be equally distant from lunch and dinner. But Anne couldn't help but whip something up when her daughter visited. "How did Monique's designs for the wrestlers look?" she asked as she opened the fridge. "I remember you talking about how excited Monique was about those."
"They looked great. She's really psyched about that job."
The sound of a school bus pulling up outside of the house rattled the kitchen blinds a little. Kim grinned; the tweebs were home. Although her brothers could still be annoying, she had developed a more cordial relationship with them now that they were getting a little older. And, probably, now that she had some distance from them and could more easily retain her sanity.
"We're home!"
Jim and Tim barged through the door and noticed their sister sitting in the kitchen. Jim shot her a mock glare.
"Aw man, she's totally stealing our just-got-back-from-school attention."
"Sorry tweebs," said Kim, stinking her tongue out at her brothers.
Tim sat down at the kitchen table after flinging his backpack unceremoniously on the floor, although a stern glare from James convinced him to pick it up and set it more carefully in a corner before returning to his chair. "So what brings you to Middleton to grace us with your rare presence?" he asked.
"Yeah, I've totally forgotten what you look like," Jim added.
"Haha, very funny. I'm actually here because I'm going to stake out a warehouse later. Wade's got me on a new mission!"
Anne looked back in surprise from the sandwich she had been preparing and narrowly avoided chopping her finger with a knife. "A mission? Really?"
"Yep. It's kind of a weird one, I'm sort of doing a mission for Drakken."
"Working for the enemy," said James with a cluck of disapproval. He tried to grab half of the sandwich that Anne was preparing, but she swatted his hand away. He couldn't be sure, but it looked like she was waving her knife a little menacingly for a second there, too. "College really has changed you, Kim!"
"It's no big. I just have to figure out if he's up to anything. Oh, and I'm going with Ron."
The kitchen fell into an eerie silence.
"Really?"
Kim nodded at her mother and took half of the sandwich she was offered, passing the other half to her father. James would have given his wife a smirk of triumph, but he was also busy being taken aback by Kim's comment.
Anne cleared her throat. "Does that mean the two of you are -"
"No, mom, we're not together again. It was just something Wade wanted for some reason."
"I didn't mean to suggest that, Kim. I was just wondering if the two of you had patched things up a little."
"Oh. Not really. I don't know. We'll have to see what happens, but I don't have high hopes."
Anne was a little disappointed at the response. Still, Kim going on her first mission in a while – and with Ron coming along, no less – was a start. She knew that Kim had been with Monique for a while, and the two of them were very good for each other, but Anne believed that her daughter missed her old friend. And Anne missed Ron herself. Ever since the breakup, he had rarely come by the Possible home, which was unfortunate, but Anne could understand some of his reluctance. Life had a way of making things more complicated over time.
"When are you going?" she asked her daughter.
"In a few hours. But me and Ron are meeting at the warehouse here in Middleton, so I thought I'd stop by and hang out with you guys beforehand. Ron would have come, but I got the impression he felt like it would be awkward."
"That's alright. Just tell him we said hello when you see him, alright?"
"I will."
Before Kim had even begun her sandwich, Jim and Tim drew closer to either side of her with suspicious looks on their faces. "Hey sis," they asked in unison, "want to see our new invention in the garage?"
Kim tried to read their expressions. They could be planning something, and even if they weren't, it was really a gamble as to whether or not their device in the garage would blow up as soon as they turned it on. But then, Kim had always been a risk taker.
"Totally"
XX
The dancing figures on the television enthralled Ron as he watched them twirl back and forth in a colorful blur. Hana was also engrossed in the scene before them. Even though she had long since learned to walk, dance, and perform a number of other headache-inducing acrobatics around the house, Hana still enjoyed watching the Flippies, especially if she was watching it with her big brother.
"Want to dance?" she suggested.
"I dunno Han, Ron isn't feelin' the groove right now."
Ron didn't know if it was the hypnotic languor that the swaying dancers seemed to be instilling in him, if it was the emotional stressfulness of the day so far, or some combination of the two. He had tried to take it easy and treat his first meeting with Kim in a long time as no big, but it was, in fact, pretty big. Maybe he was just starting to feel its delayed effects. The awkwardness of Drakken and Hank being there during his reunion with Kim, throwing him off with their unexpected steamy romancing, probably didn't help matters.
"Isn't it almost time to go?" Ron's mother asked him as she and her husband walked into the living room.
"Pretty soon. Another hour or so. Drakken had to spend some time setting things up at the warehouse first."
"I see," said Dean. "Are you looking forward to going on a mission with Kim?"
"I guess."
Dean had noticed that his son had been acting ambivalent ever since he came home to visit for a while before going on whatever this warehouse stakeout was. He and his wife did not always have the closest relationship to their son – Dean's actuarial duties tended to suck away his time – but he knew that things had been bad, perhaps even nonexistent, between Ron and Kim Possible.
His son had been in a funk for a long time, and Dean had never been the greatest at connecting with Ron, except on the occasion that he put on a cape and demanded to fight supervillains with him. But, again, actuary work did not leave a lot of time for battling evil. Unless, by the phrase 'fighting evil', one meant fighting the dangers of uncontrolled risk and liability with proper financial management. But that probably wasn't what the phrase meant.
"Do you think the two of you are patching things up?" Dean said, unknowingly echoing the sentiments of another parent in a nearby house.
"No clue," admitted Ron. "KP and I have been on the outs for a little while. I dunno if that can change, or if either of us really even want it to." He looked at Rufus, who had been dancing with Hana in front of the television. "Hey buddy, are you gonna be tagging along on the mission with me?"
Rufus looked at Ron and twitched his whiskers in an indecipherable emotion. The mole rat's head shook after a moment of consideration. Rufus was not a sophisticated soul – although, for a mole rat, he was a genius – but he was well aware of what had happened between Kim and Ron. He had felt obligated to be angry at Kim at first, since Ron was his owner, but he didn't know what to think anymore. Rufus just wanted to be around both of them and enjoy a nice Naco in pleasant harmony, the way things had been in the past, but he knew that this mission would probably be a big, oozing pile of drama. And he wasn't in the mood for drama.
"Suit yourself," said Ron. "Oh, by the way, I brought you a cupcake from Drakken's place. They're alright. Nowhere near as good as my stuff, of course, but I snagged you one anyway."
Ron knew he was fibbing a little; the cupcakes were disturbingly good, although it was still true that they did not quite measure up to his own baking skills. He pulled the cupcake out of his cargo pants pocket, removed it from the napkins he had used to wrap it, and threw it over to Rufus.
"It's a little squished, sorry."
Rufus waved his tiny claws in a dismissal of Ron's apology. As far as he was concerned, when free food was involved, no apologies were ever needed.
As the mole rat dug into his cupcake, Ron noticed Hana looking up at him again as her show blared on the television and giving him a familiar face, which ladies of all ages seemed to employ as a kind of innate bargaining chip: the puppy dog pout.
"Alright alright," he said. "Get over here and let's dance!"
XX
One of Drakken's patented Cupcake Containment Chambers – or Triple C's, as he liked to call them - sat in the middle of the warehouse floor, blinking and letting the occasional electronic beep ring out. It had been filled with Drakken's cupcakes – or his D Cups, as Kim was loathe to call them – and it was ready to ship out. Not that any of the warehouse workers were planning to ship it anywhere. Instead, it would stay there in the middle of the warehouse. Until someone took the bait.
Kim and Ron had finished their family visits and arrived at the warehouse a couple of hours ago, where they had been waiting in a concealed corner behind a number of boxes and keeping an eye on the chamber as Drakken's workers set it up and filled it with cupcakes. Some of the workers were still milling around on the factory floor and pretending to work, although it was mainly a ruse to maintain a sense of normalcy.
Kim looked over at the operations manager, who had been sitting between her and Ron for the last hour or so. Assad Sacke had a black eye, which she assumed he had gotten during the last cupcake thief attack. He was also one of the more depressing conversationalists that Kim had met; the last hour had been a steady stream of Assad describing various things that had gone wrong with his life in the past, as well as a description of the failure of his marriage with his ex-wife. His stories were depressing, although he seemed to be surprisingly chipper about them sometimes. None of Assad's tales had been prompted by Kim. But then, maybe it beat sitting in awkward silence with Ron for hours on end while they waited for Drakken's mysterious ninja cupcake thieves to strike again.
"How do you know they're going to come back?" she asked Assad.
Assad shifted in position to try to wake up his legs, which had fallen asleep while he was helping the two teen heroes on their stakeout. "We don't know for sure," he said, "but the past few times they've stolen the cupcake shipments, it was only a few hours after we started getting the shipment ready. Almost like they knew we were doing it beforehand. They've got to be keeping tabs on our operation somehow.
"This last time, they seemed even really impatient about grabbing the cupcakes – they didn't even get a full Triple C's worth of cupcakes. Hopefully they'll realize their mistake and notice that we've got more ready to go, and maybe come back to get a full load of loot this time."
Kim nodded as she watched the Cupcake Containment Chamber sitting merrily away in the center of the room. It was a sinister looking contraption: bulky, angular, and black, with blinking buttons and a few coils of silver tubing that curled out of its metal sides and then back in again. Not something in which Kim would expect to find cupcakes. She got the feeling that Drakken was having a little trouble letting go of the supervillain motif when it came to his designs and equipment. Even the employees at the bakery had worn uniforms that looked more like henchmen outfits, although Kim hadn't ruled out the possibility that they really were henchmen.
She and Ron – along with Assad – were concealed behind some boxes and crates where they could keep an eye on the warehouse floor and hopefully catch the thieves in the act. Kim cracked her knuckles, looking forward to her first fight in quite a while. They were hoping to capture at least one or two of the thieves and try to get information from them, seeing as the security camera footage had been useless and neither Wade nor Global Justice had found anything useful about recent villain operations.
It would be a strange fight, however, since Kim would have to actually hold back a little. Drakken had also planted a tracking device in the Containment Chamber itself. Ultimately, they wanted to let most of the thieves feel like they'd won the fight and get away with their cupcake cargo, returning to wherever they came from. By doing so, hopefully they would lead Kim and Ron right to their lair.
Or ninja hideout. Or base of operations. It varied, depending on the enemy.
"Anyway," said Assad, wanting to continue the cathartic discussion of his personal life while he waited with Kim and Ron for their quarry to arrive, "That was when I realized that Layla had just been using me the whole time. And marriage is supposed to be about the give and take, right? Well," he laughed, "I guess it kind of was in my case. I gave and I gave and I gave, and she took and took and took!"
Kim nodded listlessly as her shoulders slumped. She and Ron had agreed to take turns napping during the stakeout, since they didn't know when the thieves would arrive and they had no idea how much sleep they'd get once they were in pursuit of the cupcake cargo. Wade was keeping an eye out on things to warn Kim and Ron before the thieves arrived, and Global Justice would provide a plane ride once they started their pursuit, but until then, it was a waiting game. And Assad seemed determined to make that wait as slow as possible.
"I told her, Layla, you've got me on my knees here, begging you darling, please – what else do you want from me? Do you know what I mean?"
Kim yawned in reply.
"So how did you get into the world saving business, anyway?"
"I had a babysitting website," said Kim, "and it just kind of sprung up from that."
Now that she put it into words, Kim realized it was kind of a strange path to take.
"Interesting," said Assad. "How well does it pay?"
"This is actually the first mission I've ever asked to be paid for," said Kim, "since I'm not big on helping my former enemies out. But it's not like Drakken and Hank are gonna pay me squat."
"What, so you help people for – for free?"
Kim nodded, and Assad looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head.
"I used to work at Smarty Mart before I took up this job," said Assad. "The pay there was horrible, and Drakken and Hank had a better rate even though they told us that if we tried to unionized we'd be vaporized in a cloud of human particulate."
Kim frowned. That sounded too supervillainy for her tastes.
"Dude, I work at Smarty Mart too! Do you know Mr. Barkin?"
"Know him? He tried to fire me before I found out he wasn't even a manager! But that was only after I left for three weeks without pay."
"Er, that's rough, I guess?"
Assad nodded vehemently. "I was sleeping on the couch for most of the day during that little break. Let me tell you, Layla wasn't happy about that at all. This one time..."
Kim began to nod off as Assad went on another tangent about his ex-wife. Ron was talking to Assad more than he was talking to her, not that she knew what she'd say. What a way to spend the beginning of her weekend. She was still on the fence about whether this mission was a waste of her time or not. Either way, it was a good thing that Ron had the first watch, because at this rate, she would not be staying awake for long.
XX
You're so pretty, Kim. And I gotta give it to you – your sense of fashion is just a little bit better than mine!
Kim basked in the warm glow of Monique's attention. She felt a pair of sleek arms wrap around her, toned by hours of gym exercise enhanced by the workout tips of Steel Toe and Pain King. Monique's figure only got more stunning with age.
Thanks, Mon. You always know just what to say, don't you?
The two of them were curled up on the couch as they watched one of Kim's favorite shows, Captain Constellation. She used to hate it, but once she got an apartment with Monique in college and saw her family less often, she had started watching the reruns of the show because it reminded her of home. And, amazingly enough, Kim's appreciation for cheesy sci-fi had changed with age.
You know, KP, I'm really glad we made up, said Ron as he sat on the couch beside them. I should have known that you were right about everything. I just needed to grow up a little. And now the three of us get to be friends again and watch Captain Constellation together!
Kim gave Ron's shoulder a squeeze, glad to hear him acknowledge the truth. I'm glad you wised up, she told him. After all, I usually know what's best.
Everything was right. Everything was the way it should be. It was just too bad that it was a dream.
Somewhere in the depths of Kim's sleeping mind, she knew that it was a dream even while she dreamed it, but she was still enjoying herself. A few more moments of bliss passed her by before she began to notice a faint beeping sound that kept growing louder. It was not coming from her dream apartment. It was coming from the waking world.
A different sound ripped through her dream. A clattering sound, almost like a vent hitting the floor. Kim blinked and woke up as her dream faded away into the haze of darkness that enveloped the warehouse. Someone had turned the lights off, and the room was unusually silent. She assumed most of the workers had already left as the stakeout wore on. Once her eyes got adjusted to the gloom, she noticed Assad Sacke sleeping on the ground beside her. Ron sat beside him, slumped against one of the crates, and as Kim peered more closely, it was obvious that he was also asleep.
"Rrrgh, Ron!"
So much for one of them keeping tabs on the Containment Chamber. She glanced quickly out from her hiding place amongst the crates and saw that it was still there, a few of its lights glowing malevolently in the darkness. Kim wondered how much time had passed since she had fallen asleep, and looked at her wrist only to realize that her watch was making the beeping sound she had heard in the dream. She pressed a button and saw Wade's face pop into view, looking a little panicked.
"What's the sitch, Wade?"
"Kim – behind you!"
Kim whirled around just in time to see the outline of a black-clad figure rushing towards her in the darkness. A thick boot sunk into her chest with a thunk as she flew backwards and hit the crates, sending them sprawling across the warehouse floor. Nice one, Kim thought. Clearly she was a bit more out of practice than she had expected.
She got up from the scattered crates and noticed Ron and Assad waking up from the sudden clatter, but several more dark figures began to surround them. A grille on the ground behind the figures told Kim that they had snuck through a ventilation shaft instead of coming through the loading dock door like last time.
"We saw you guys were setting up an ambush," said one of the masked figures as he took a step closer, "so we decided we'd give you a little surprise of our own."
Kim felt a little defensive – they definitely wouldn't have surprised her if Ron had stayed awake. "That kick in the chest?" she said. "So not going to happen again."
"All we want are those cupcakes."
"Why?"
The masked figure took another step closer instead of replying. Kim could tell by his body movements that he was getting ready to fight, and she let herself loosen up a little as she prepared to take revenge for being caught off guard. She may have just been sleeping, but getting a boot to the chest had a way of putting her senses on full alert.
Kim looked over her opponent. He was clad in what looked like a ninja outfit, but he was fairly bulky for a ninja. Kim wondered if she was stereotyping ninjas based on Yori and others she had seen at Yamanouchi. The man in front of her seemed to be the leader of the group. His ninja friends, who were almost as musclebound as he was, were busy tying up Ron and Assad, who had woken up too late to fight back. She'd have to focus on the leader, not that it mattered – his ninja buddies could grab the Triple C set up as bait and make off with it. All according to Drakken's plan.
"Are you going to step aside?" the man asked.
"Where's the fun in that?"
"Good point," the man said. "I was looking forward to fighting you anyway."
Kim could make out a smirk through the dim light of the warehouse.
"Yeah," she said as she got ready to make a flying leap. "I think you'll get a real kick out of it!"
XX
Notes - The story is now finished (other than general cleanup and editing) so I think I will be posting the chapters a little bit more quickly now. No particular schedule because I'm lazy and hate being obligated to update, hehe, but maybe once every two or three days, something like that.