I do not own the Disney characters named herein, and am only using them for a nonprofit tale meant to entertain only.
Kim Possible: Rogue
By LJ58
16
Kim groaned as she dropped to her knees next to the general, weary beyond belief after that last hunt.
When her hand left her left side, which she had been holding until then, the others in the pen with her all saw the blood staining her sun-darkened flesh.
"You're not going to last much longer with near misses like that," Richard told her gravely.
"Tell me about it. I am starting to think some of these guys have it in for me," she mused grimly as she considered that last close call when it was pretty evident the alien was aiming more at her than the spider behind her.
No one around them commented on that one. They all knew that if it weren't for Kim, the aliens would have already flooded their world. They would have overwhelmed their planet before anyone even saw them coming. Kim had almost died shutting down the Matrix, though, ensuring no one else switched it on. Unfortunately, the catch was they were left on the wrong side of the portal. At the time, she had been willing to make the sacrifice.
At heart, she knew she would have done the same thing if given another choice, but she would have liked a better chance at surviving than she had now. That she was still alive after what felt an eternity of torment in this alien world only confirmed her belief she might in some place akin to hell just then.
"At least we'll have something to eat tonight," she grimaced, trying to lighten the mood around her.
"Yeah, leftovers," another man complained, all of them knowing the aliens took the best, and fed them just enough to keep them alive for their labors in the water crystal mine. Only just barely enough to do so.
The only other female left alive in the group, a once pretty brunette who was regular Army, but no soldier, just a clerk who had been transcribing the scientists' work for their political liaisons, said nothing as she just sat staring blankly around her.
Kim understood. Not everyone could cope with the weirdness factor they were hip deep in just now. Ironically, her lifetime of freak-fighting had made her more than capable of adapting to the bizarre world they had been trapped in after the Matrix was shut down.
Even as they commiserated over their apparent fate, though, Kim realized she was hearing a faint sound that seemed vaguely familiar.
"No….way," she rasped, glancing around, and catching a movement that should have been impossible. Especially here.
She kept her eyes down, praying no one said anything even as she spotted the familiar truck her brothers used to deliver surprises around the house, school, or wherever they might be up to mischief. She had no idea how it had gotten here, but as it rolled right under the feet of an inattentive guard, she literally held her breath until it reached her left foot.
She didn't waste any time.
She scooped up the improbable toy as the general stared at the device as she fumbled with the genetically coded lock, and all but broke three nails jerking open the bed to reveal a fat, silver band with a very familiar configuration.
"Way to go, Tweebs," she almost laughed now, a smile etching its way across her face as she pulled the band onto her left wrist, and secured the device.
"Miss Possible," Richard Flagg asked as several of the others looked around, obviously wondering where the remote control toy had come from. "What is….that?"
"If I'm right, my brothers just handed us the keys to our prison," she said with a smile that was more than a little feral as she eyed the thick watch-face, assessing the intuitive controls that were obviously Wade's design, though the Gemini symbol was obviously a message from her siblings. "I'm just hoping they know enough to keep the door closed in our hosts' faces."
"A watch helps us how," a gruff soldier who had been recently beaten badly for more than once trying to grab a spear, and fight his way free.
To where, Kim was not certain, since they had no way of indicating the aliens had any way off this desert world without whoever had already gone ahead helping. Something unlikely, since no one else had been able to cross either way since not long after those last techs had been dragged through.
"It's not like we need to worry about the time," the man complained.
Kim stared up at the sky, saw the faint glimmer of the rising blue stars that signaled the approach of what passed for night on this planet, and trusting to familiar design, she thumbed a switch. Almost at once, a silvery sheen erupted from the band, and spread up her arm to coat her entire body. Just as quickly, the sheen began to lighten, turning whitish as it congealed to form a very familiar battle suit Kim had been seen wearing in the past. She grinned, then reached for another switch on the gauntlet now covering her Kimmunicator.
"Tweebs, can you hear me," she whispered, almost afraid to hope as she felt a rush of energy coming from just activating the suit.
"Loud and clear, Kim," Jim's voice came over the small, but powerful speaker. "How are you over there? Aside from the obvious?"
"Not even going to ask. Tell me, are you in control of a working portal?"
"Duh comes to mind. We're just waiting for you to get rid of the extra baggage," Tim cut in, "We obviously don't want any unwelcome guests when you make your move. Then we'll open the door for you guys."
"Smart. Is this what I think it is? Did you guys….copy Wade's design?"
"Copy? Us," Jim huffed. "That is a fully upgraded, and improved Centurion-based nannite body armor. Complete with limited hyper-sped, kinetic refueling to boost your base strength, and….."
Tim took over to declared, "Five terawatt blue lasers capable of stunning, slicing, or dicing in your left gauntlet. With a retractable grapple in your right."
"And," Jim cut in again, "Full stealth. You could slip right past the best night-vision, or IFR sensors, and no one would ever know you were there."
"Tweebs," Kim grinned as she eyed the small band, "You definitely rock."
"Just take care of business, Kim, and let us get you guys, home. We need you back here," the boys told her.
"Your wife needs you," Jim added pointedly as the screen now angled to show a certain green-skinned woman in the background.
"Shego," Kim sniffed, staring at the face of the woman she had not seen in what felt an eternity. Especially as she had begun to fear that there might not be a way out, and she might never see her lover again. Now, she was so close. "You….know," she asked them even as she realized who was there.
"Princess," Shego murmured, looking toward her through that tiny screen, and looking as if she were about to choke for a moment. Then she scowled, and spat in a familiar tone, "Get your lazy butt up already, and do what you do best. Now!"
Kim's smile bloomed, and she nodded at her as she glanced around. Looking to Richard, she nodded, telling him, "General, it's time to show off. Get everyone together, and don't let them separate you when I move."
"But, what you can even you do with a talking watch," another man complained as she stood up, and pressed two buttons on lower half of the device. Almost instantly, the suit began to hum with its own energies, adding to that initial rush with a neuro-amplifying strength that made Kim's smile harden in anticipation. An instant later, she simply snapped off the chains that had been holding her.
"This…..I like," Kim grinned, tossing her chains way before she freed Richard even as two of the humanoids turned her way only then, babbling furiously at her when they realized the change in her as the nearest guard aimed a spear at her. "Get ready, guys," she said, and seemed to vanish in a blur of speed just before a handful of the alien spears appeared in front of the stunned men before Kim was gone again. In Richard's hand, was now also the electronic key to their chains so he could free the others. This time it was obvious where Kim had gone as she set to directly attacking the shape-shifters who were only belatedly realizing something had just upset the balance of power.
One moment, the small encampment had been quiet, and the next the aliens were being tossed around, hammered, and the sounds of flesh on flesh, and even bones audibly breaking filled the stillness as the humans stared around them, still not sure what was happening, but hope it ended well. Then they saw Kim briefly when she paused to glower at one of the aliens.
"You, I remember," she growled, and hit him so hard he flew almost sixteen feet to smash into the low rise of rock that framed the water crystal mines they labored in for so. The man hit so hard they all cringed at the sounds of his bones virtually shattering before the limp body slid down to the sands, and didn't move. Then she was gone again, and the rest of the aliens were now trying to run as they realized something had dangerously tipped the balance of power around them.
"About damn time," one of the soldiers spat, scooping up a spear, and taking a nervous shifter trying to track her in the back by surprise. "Let's put these freaks down," he shouted even as Richard grabbed up his own spear, and forced one of the aliens back when he tried to advance on them, likely thinking to use them as hostages against the newly empowered redhead.
"Form a perimeter," he told the four true soldiers with him. "Guard the support staff, and keep us together. Don't let those freaks even inside the wire."
"Anyone see whatever they use to communicate," one of the techs asked. "We should make sure they can't call for more help before we can get away."
They had already realized there were far more than these few shifters on the planet. Only they obviously couldn't sustain large populations due to the devastated planet's fading resources, and so they had to spread out in order to ration the few resources they had left to feed and support themselves. This, they knew by now, was just one group among many. The larger group that had overwhelmed the research lab from the start when the rift opened was a rare gathering drawn by the Matrix itself when it first powered up without any control programs in place.
"Don't worry," Kim said, reappearing just then with an armband like many of the shifters wore in her hands. "I shut down their communications from the start. We don't need more of these things getting through."
"Is it safe to open a portal," the female clerk asked quietly, her voice thick with long denied hope.
"Almost. We have to get away from here. Remember, the Lorwardian Matrix doesn't open a door, per se. It opens an area vortex that works as a dimensional interface. Fortunately, whatever the boys used kept the gate small enough to go unnoticed. We can't count on that if they try opening a gate large enough to get us home, though. That said, we don't want more of these things going with us, so we have to risk the open desert before they open the gate. So, everyone ready to move."
"Your brothers know what to do?"
"Already filled them in," Kim nodded at Flagg, not bothering to share their disgust at being underestimated in setting up pan-dimensional vortex gateways under hostile conditions. "And we have coordinates a quarter mile southeast where they'll open a portal home in exactly...ten minutes."
"Ten minutes," one of the techs moaned.
"It's only a quarter mile. We can make it if we go now. So, let's move, people," Flagg spat. "Before we draw the wrong attention. After all, we don't know what kind of check-in system they used."
"Agreed," Kim nodded. "General, lead the way, I'll take the rear to ensure no one follows us. Remember, ten minutes," he was told as she gave him the alien band that would guide him to the coordinates. "In eleven, we're stuck right back where we started, because the element of surprise…."
"I understand. Move, people," Richard spat, a spear in his own calloused hands as he led the way out of their prison settlement. Nor did he miss her gesture as everyone went past Kim on their way out of the small wire corral where they were kept under constant guard for so long.
He nodded back, and wasn't even surprised when one of the techs was suddenly sucker-punched by the redhead, and slammed into the ground by a hard fist before he could join the refugees in fleeing for home.
"Go," Kim shouted at the last few men who gaped at her move, the obvious shifter returning to his true form only after he had been pummeled unconscious.
KP
"You're telling me we're going to be turning this lab into an alien interface when you open the gate," Dr. Director exclaimed in stunned horror as they explained just how the gate would work. "Do you realize the implications of…..?"
"Duh," both boys exclaimed. "It's obviously how so many of these weirdos got here in the first place," Jim concluded.
"Yeah. Someone probably didn't bother to read their four-dimensional phase harmonics," Tim added. "It's pretty obvious that Kim shut the thing down, but not before someone had opened a very large vortex that intersected with our world. Considering the numbers that could have been present in that area…."
"We could already have a sizeable incursion," Will rasped.
"Very sizeable," Shego grimaced.
"How do we know we won't repeat the same mistake," Dr. Director demanded now, eyeing the humming Matrix that the boys were now working on as they prepared to open a directional vortex to rescue the captives in that alien dimension. Kim Possible just one of them.
"Because we're not morons," Tim huffed. "That's why we directed Kim to an area away from those creatures, because even unconscious, the vortex might have allowed them to enter our world. But we're going to open a pin-point vortex, under controlled guidance with ANI helping, which will only let one body enter at a time, letting us ensure nothing, or no one else gets through."
"There are almost twenty people out there from what Kim reported. If you're only bringing them through one at a time…."
"We might not be able to risk this rescue," Will said curtly. "Maybe we should just shut it down now, and destroy that thing now so….."
"Two reasons that won't happen," Shego growled, and stepped in front of the two agents.
"Yeah, us," Jim and Tim glowered at the pair.
"Actually, let's use some common sense, errand boy. One, I will hurt you," Shego told them. "Badly. Second, you're not thinking logically here, Bets."
"Don't call me, Bets," she spat. "And what are you saying? You really think that I'm missing something?"
"Duh," the twins huffed.
"Think," Shego cut them off. "Someone shut this box down when the shifters first got onto this world. Maybe it was Kim. Maybe someone else. Still, someone else had to know enough to get an alternative gate up, and running, though. How else could they continue this…..obvious invasion."
Dr. Director frowned.
"Still, any kind of dimensional transference would require an enormous amount of power," she speculated.
"The cold-fusion reactor," Will realized.
"Bingo," Shego spat. "And, as I recall, you all but handed it to them."
Betty looked less than happy as she considered what that reactor meant in the wrong hands.
"They have to be planning something big. A large transference that would give them immediate superiority. Because even if they've gone unnoticed until now, a sudden power-up on any truly large scale would draw a lot of attention, especially if….."
"I don't think you get it, Bets," Shego told her. "Think a little more like a villain," she smirked. "Henches, with alien tech, drilled with military tactics?"
Dr. Director frowned as she glanced at Will, and then looked at Shego.
"You've been stealing that military tech for the past year. Are you saying….?"
"They haven't been preparing for a simple coup. They're store-housing enough firepower to arm a global army. One that is likely just waiting on their cue," Shego told her. "At least, that's as much as I've been able to figure out. I just don't know where, or how it's going down. Until now. The reactor was the final clue, and like I said, you all but handed it to them."
"Then the Henches….?"
"Most are either already aliens, or dupes. It won't matter when they open that gate, though. Because I'm betting when they do it, they plan on more than just a few of them slipping through this time. This time, I am guessing, it'll be everyone. Or everything. The group already here are likely just setting the stage to ensure no one stops them from doing it."
"All the more reason not to risk anyone else coming through on this end," Will spat at her. "Possible obviously made the call herself if she was cut off last time. We don't dare risk…."
"Don't be an idiot," Shego spat. "Who else is going to know these guys better than her right now? She might even be able to tell us more of how to best fight them."
"Or even stop them before they open their gate."
They all looked at the twins.
"First, we'd have to know where they're setting the stage," Dr. Director told them. "Then I'd have to figure out how to get help that wouldn't try to arrest us first."
"Phase two," Shego told them. "Remember Stoppable's plan?"
"Luna One," Will frowned.
"Anyone they stuck in cold storage is someone they didn't want to face. My brothers among them. I say we open the cell doors, and conscript everyone we find."
"We already had some very dangerous felons incarcerated."
"Who better to defend our planet," Shego cut Will off. "After all, if we lose, they lose, too. Trust me, villains are selfish. They're not going to want to share the spoils with….out-of-towners."
"I believe I can agree with that," Drew remarked as he walked into the lab just then, looking more himself as he had somehow acquired a pair of dark slacks, and a dark blue shirt he now wore in place of the hospital gown. "Shego, I heard there was a genuine scientific marvel down here, and….. Oooooo," he cooed as he stared at the Matrix inside the shielded room before him.
"Back off, Lipski," Dr. Director growled. "There is no way you're even touching that device considering what's at stake here."
"Besides," Jim declared.
"We have everything under control," Tim nodded firmly.
"Please," Drew demanded. "You expect me to believe that mere children have been able to harness.…?"
"Sorry, Dr. Director," James Possible said as he appeared once more just then. "He slipped past us while I was explaining to that Senior fellow how you initiated a cascading design in robotic intelligence to program a functional AI's base personality."
"As if you know the first thing about real robots," Drew shot back at him.
"My designs follow Dr. Porter's own schematics….."
"Please," Drew huffed. "That hack? I've built better robots in my sleep."
"Enough," Shego swore hotly, and pointed to a nearby console. "Boys, two minutes, and counting. Ignore the moron, and keep your eyes on the ball."
"Gotcha," both saluted.
"Dr. Possible, get Drew out of here. I know all too well how he overcomplicates anything. We do not need him complicating this operation."
"Shego, that hurts," Drew complained.
"Want something that will really hurt," Shego growled as her hands started to glow.
"Going," Drew said, and left with surprising haste as a smirking Dr. Possible left with him.
"Good luck, boys," James tossed over his shoulder.
"As if we need luck," they muttered as one.
Anne had returned just then, too, and looked around.
"Are they really going to try it now?"
"Thirty seconds, and counting," Shego told the neurosurgeon, who looked as pale as slate, though she looked hopeful. Still, she had not been present when they had finally actually spoke to Kim.
Dr. Director thought the woman looked like someone who was not daring to hope too much after so much disappointment in the past. Or so anyone else would have seemed in her place.
Then again, nothing about the Possible family could be considered typical.
"Activating portal sequence, ANI," Jim declared as the Matrix began to glow brighter than before. "Stand by," he told Shego. "We're not picking up any alien bio-signatures, but that doesn't mean anything considering there is going to be a lot of factors in flux around the interface."
"Don't worry," Shego said, standing near the only exit to the sealed mini-lab. "If it's not human, it's not getting past me," she growled.
"Should I call Ronald," Anne asked Betty.
"He's better off watching for a new attack up there just now," the woman told him. "We still don't know what the Navy might try next. You can bet they know we have the Matrix by now, and they are bound to be worrying about what we plan to do with it."
"Goes without saying," Will muttered.
Anne gasped as the very air near the Matrix shimmered, and a silhouette suddenly formed before it solidified, and a very ragged General Richard Flagg himself was standing staring around him in wonder.
"It worked," the man exclaimed, and looked around in genuine surprise at the two teen that shoved him aside.
"Move it, buddy. We're still working here."
"This way, Richard," Dr. Director said, gesturing to the man even as she considered she had all but handed over most of GJ's secrets to an imposter without even knowing it.
Not good. Not good at all.
"After I have a look in your eyes, buddy," Shego growled as she stopped him at the door.
"Of course. I think Possible got rid of our last spy, but you can't be too sure in these circumstances," the man told the green-skinned woman without even lifting the spear he still carried in his left hand.
The man stood and let Shego study him carefully, then she moved aside, and let him out of the lab door.
"Welcome home, Richard. We're going to need you," Dr. Director greeted him.
"I'll bet. How bad are things?"
"Bad enough. We believe they're about to open up a major gate to let their entire species flood the planet. We just don't know when, or where, yet."
"This might help," Richard said, holding up an curiously shaped gauntlet. "Possible took it off one of the aliens. It lets them communicate."
"We can use that," Tim declared, and Dr. Director nodded as she took it from the officer, and put it on their nearby work bench.
By then, two more men had come through, and were cleared by Shego.
Then a woman came through, and she looked ready to break down in tears when she looked around, and saw she was apparently back on Earth.
"This way," Betty gestured at her after Shego checked her. "Don't worry, you're safe here now," she told the distraught woman.
"Uh-oh," Tim murmured just then. "Kim, do you read me?"
"I hear you," Kim's voice came over the interface.
"We have four alien bio-signatures coming your way. Fast."
"I know. Can you speed things up?"
"Not without destabilizing the gate, and letting something else in before we can stop them," she was told as Jim glanced at something, and shook his head at his brother.
"All right. Do what you can, but if you have to shut it down, do it. We'll manage," Kim told them as the ninth body came through.
"Just keep coming, and try to hold them off long enough for us to get you all back," Jim told her. "We might never get another chance like this," he told her pointedly.
"No big, guys," Kim shot back, and then fell silent as Shego just glowered at the monitor, unable to make out Kim just then for the crowd of people all vying to be the next home.
"No big," Shego muttered darkly. "One of these days..."
"Eleven," Tim reported as the next man came through.
"How close are those aliens," Anne asked the boys.
"Too close," Jim grimaced as he never took his eyes off their equipment.
"Inversers," Richard asked, his own soldiers taking posts around the lab, obviously not ready to relax themselves even though the techs, and civilians gratefully trailed up the steps indicated to find sanctuary, and refreshment.
"Unknown. Wait….. Oh, no," Jim rasped.
"What is it," Shego shouted.
"Look for yourself," Tim said, looking pale himself now as their monitor shifted from the group of anxious humans staring in one direction, to a group of four, huge arachnids moving directly toward the group of humans standing in the middle of the dunes.
"Three to go, and Kim," Jim said as another body materialized.
Then they saw Kim running away from the gate, holding spears in both hands as she raced right at the four spiders that were converging on their helpless prey.
"Damn it, Kimmie," Shego swore, and then watched the seventeenth man stumble through the gate.
"One to go," Jim called.
"Can you send me through to help her," Shego demanded, starting to walk past the man after a quick check of his eyes.
"The gate isn't set up that way," Tim told her. "We deliberately limited the power fed into the vortex so we didn't have any accidents, or power surges to tip off the wrong people. Kim's on her own," he said grimly as Jim swore even as the last man came through. "It also makes it a one-way passage."
"We have new multiple signals coming toward the gate," Jim reported, watching even as Kim ducked one spider, launched a spear into the belly of another, and then ducked a third while trying to run around the last.
"Kim, you've got more company coming. A lot more. Get to the gate. Now," Jim shouted.
"What about…..?"
"Everyone's clear. It's just you," Tim shouted. "Move it!"
Kim jumped up into the air, launching her other spear into the side of a second spider even as the last arachnid turned, and tried to snatch at her while she was airborne.
By then, she was already tumbling across the sand before coming up on her feet, and suddenly running faster than anyone would have expected as she raced for the gate even as seven, huge transports loaded with humanoid shifters appeared on the horizon behind her.
Then the gate shimmered, and an instant later, Kim appeared, and raced halfway across the lab before she could stop herself just short of running headlong into a wall.
"Hyper-speed rocks," she grinned, and turned to stare around her.
"Closing the gate," Jim reported, and simply shut down all power to the Matrix, and closed even the viewer that showed them the alien world. The last glimpse was that of four enraged spiders turning on the arriving humanoids.
"Hold it," Dr. Director spat before Shego could even approach the redhead who was now staring fixedly at the green-skinned woman. "Let's see your eyes, Possible."
Kim turned to her, and smiled.
"No big," she said, and opened her green eyes wide. "Do I pass?" Then she grunted as Shego abruptly grabbed her, squeezed her bodily, and all but swept her from her feet.
"I thought I lost you," she cried, and buried her face in her tangled, matted hair. "I thought you were...gone," she rasped in a suspiciously thick voice.
Anne stared at the pair as Kim's arms rose to return to the embrace, and she let the green-skinned woman hold her.
"I missed you, too, Shego," she told her. "I never stopped thinking about you. Never."
Dr. Director cleared her throat audibly, and both turned to stare her way.
And Kim blushed in the same instant as she saw Anne Possible staring at her with a pointedly bland expression.
"I take it you two have something to share," she asked her daughter.
"We've got an incursion," a voice abruptly came over the intercom speaker just then. "All points, lock down, and prepare for hostiles. We have an incursion."
"Uh, guys," Kim frowned, looking around.
"Short story," Jim cut in before anyone else could speak. "We're all on the run, hiding out on the Seniors' island…."
"Surrounded by the Navy, who is apparently trying to kill us," Tim went on.
"And other than that, it's business as usual," Jim shrugged even as the building over them rumbled ominously.
Kim glanced around, eyed Shego, and then looked to her brothers.
"Tweebs, secure the Matrix. General, help them guard it. No matter what, no one gets near that thing. Mom, you'd better stay down here. It's likely the safest place. Shego, you're with me. Let's go," she said, and ran for the steps.
"Yep, business as usual," Shego grinned, noting that even sun-darkened, thinner than usual, and a bit disheveled, Kim was still charging headlong into trouble without hesitation.
She couldn't help but grin as she ran after her.
"Will, backup the boys," Dr. Director ordered him. "I'm going up to assess the situation myself. Stay sharp."
"Understood."
"Do we have anything better than these pig-stickers," Richard asked Will as he held up his alien spear.
"Oh, we can help with that," Tim said, and pointed the man to a nearby equipment locker in front of a sealed vault door.
Richard stared at he opened the locker, and stared down at a half dozen, gleaming portable rail guns.
"Be mindful of your targets," Will told him as the officer lifted one of the weapons. "Those things can tear through steel without hesitation."
"I've trained with the prototype," Richard admitted. "I'm just curious how you got these."
"We took them off some of the shifters when they tried to grab us," Jim told him as the four other soldiers armed themselves, and moved to cover the room from all angles.
"That's the only door in, or out of here," Will pointed down the short hall. "If I say fire, shoot to kill. We're being targeted by people that won't hesitate to do the same."
"We know," Richard growled pointedly.
"Just bear in mind, a few Henches here are on our side just now," Will added. "I'll tell you if a friendly shows. Anyone else is fair game," he said, and simply kept his hand over his own sidearm. "Most of the enemy are in black, so if you see them, shoot without question. Oh, unless they're ninja. We have some with us now."
Will paused as the general frowned, and then went on.
"Never mind, you'd never see these guys coming anyway," he added.
Overhead, the building had stopped shaking, but they all knew that didn't mean much. Not in their world.
KP
"Stoppable-San," Hirotaka suddenly appeared near the front door where Ron spoke with Robbie. "Yori just called from the far side of the island. A small sub was found parked just off the beach. It was empty, but could have carried at least six men. She has yet to find them, or their trail."
"Viper," Ron spat instinctively, and turned back toward the house. "Go to the hangar, guard the aircraft. That may be their secondary target. But they'll be coming for the house for certain," he said, even as they both stared up at a thin vapor trail as a small missile rose out of the jungle, and arched down toward the villa. "Robbie, send an alert," he said as the Hench grabbed his radio.
Even as the alert sounded over the public intercom, another ran came running up the path toward the house.
"Stoppable, we just heard. I think I saw….. Down," the Hench shouted, and dove himself even as they all jumped behind trees as the missile went off, rocking the very ground for a moment.
Part of the roof was now gone when they looked up, but the house itself still stood.
"Senior-San builds well," Hiro murmured.
"Send the alert to everyone," Ron told the dazed Hench. "Get to the hangar," he told his friend, even as he jumped up to race around the house, and the far side of the jungle where that missile had apparently originated.
Ron was racing past the house even as he saw a streak of black, and Yori flung herself at the two men in Henchco black and silver that sprang out, obviously having planned to ambush Ron as he passed them.
"Go," the young ninja shouted at him as she engaged the pair. "I shall handle these pretenders," she told Ron as she easily deflected their attacks with her bladed fans despite the fact they used long swords.
Steel rang on steel for several minutes after Ron ran on into the jungle, and then a third man appeared, and almost speared Yori from behind.
Even as a blast of green flame exploded from behind her, and sent the man flying face-first into the nearest tree.
"Better watch your back, ninja-girl," Shego quipped.
"I knew you were there," Yori told her, and deftly dropped one of the men attacking her before the other faltered, and tried to flee.
Only to run into a smirking redhead wearing a silvery-white jumpsuit who dropped him with a single, practiced kick to the jaw. The very audible snap of his jaw spoke to how hard she had hit him.
"Possible-San," Yori blinked in genuine surprise, momentarily losing her composure for the briefest of instants. "It is good to see you back, and well," she recovered, and began tying up the unconscious men.
"It's good to be back. Where did that missile come from?"
Yori pointed.
"Fukushima, and at least two more men likely came with him. I don't know where they are, but Stoppable-San went to face the rogue. He charged us with protecting the house, and the hangar."
"Hangar?"
"Hirotaka-San is watching our aircraft. I was keeping anyone from reaching the house."
Shego looked up from the last man they bound whose jaw was already noticeably swelling. She found it hard to care.
"All human. None of these pawns will know much, if anything. We probably need the boss for that," Shego complained.
"Hai. Ron thinks Viper, as Fukushima now calls himself, has his own plan in progress that exploits this madness."
Kim nodded.
"Sounds like the kind of thing he would do, based on what Ron told me about him. Shego, help watch the house. I'm going to help Ron, just in case if he needs it," she added when Yori glanced her way.
"You will find Stoppable-San is more than capable now," Yori told her quietly.
"I don't doubt you," Kim replied. "But that doesn't mean we can take chances. Any of us," she said, and turned and raced into the jungle the way Yori had pointed.
"She seems to be well," Yori commented as they stood over the three men, wary for anyone else that might yet jump out.
"She's half-starved, still bleeding, and needs a real bath, and rest," Shego murmured, staring after Kim. "But I doubt she'll slow down that long until she figures out how to stop this nightmare."
"Hai, that sounds like her," Yori agreed.
Shego said nothing to that as they both stared after the redhead. Only Shego's eyes showed any true concern.
To Be Continued…..