Chapter 11 Of Escorts and Homecomings

Major Kudos and shouts to Cajun Bear 73 and Sentinel 103 for their proofreading

Merida Island Command Level Offices

15:00 Local

06:00 Zulu

01:00 Mountain Time

Commander Mardukus knocked on the door of his Commanding Officer. Upon hearing a lovely mezzo-soprano say, "Enter.", he opened the door and approached her desk.

"What can I do for you, Commander?" the platinum haired young woman asked, still looking at the reports in front of her.

"M'am, we've just received a notification from the Indian Ocean Squadron regarding a KIA's Final Requests."

Tessa's eyes snapped to, straight to the Commander's and with a very firm voice said, "They're granted."

Mardukus had a tiny smirk on his face, he was very proud of his Captain just now. "Don't you wish to hear what they are, M'am?"

Tessa's soft gray eye's turned hard. "I don't care, those Requests are a solemn promise to our Troops. 'Any reasonable request concerning transport, internment and Final Honors will be granted, regardless of their nature.' That is Mithral's promise to it's KIA's, and I WILL Honor that promise. I don't care if they're reasonable or not, they're granted."

"M'am, it'll be hard for Mithral to grant this one."

"Very well, Commander, explain."

"Well M'am, 6 hours ago a recovery team was finally able to infiltrate and retrieve the remains of the Indian Ocean SRT Sergeant Sagara had been attached to last year. As you know, he was forced to bury them onsite. Once the recovery team returned to base, Mortuary Affairs opened the sealed 'Final Requests'. No real surprises, except for one." He paused for a moment.

"And what was the 'Request', Commander?"

"They wanted the remainder of the team to be the ones to escort them home." He passed a folder to her. "Here are the particulars."

Ten minutes later, Tessa was on the phone to one of her NCO's. "Sergeant Major Mao, I need you to report my office, immediately. It concerns a 'Final Request'."

"On the way, Captain." Once Melissa had reached Tessa's office and been briefed, she said, "This is going to be problem, M'am. Sousuke took that mission hard. He won't hesitate to accept, but this is going to reopen a very sore wound for him."

"Under the circumstances, all we can do is ask. We'll have to route the request through his new Command at G.J. I'll call Doctor Director immediately."

"M'am, it's the middle of the night there." Mardukus informed her.

"Doesn't matter, this is too important. She'll get over it. You two are dismissed for now." Once the two subordinates started to the door, Tessa opened her personal contacts listing and found the number to contact Elizabeth Director. The Doctor had given it to her after she had voiced concerns about Sergeant Sagara when he was transferred to G.J. under the Doctor's Command. Placing the call to the G.J. Staff Duty Desk, she was able to convince the SDNCO that the call was important enough to route to Elizabeth's personal phone.

After a couple of rings, a groggy annoyed voice said, "It is one o'clock in the morning. This better be important or else."

"Doctor Director, this is Captain Teletha Testarossa, we met a while ago when Sergeant Sagara was briefed on his current mission."

"I remember you, Captain. It's a little late here, Captain, what can I do for you?"

"We have a need for Sergeant Sagara's services for a very important mission that will last 5 to 10 days."

The annoyed voice turned irritated, "I just got the Sergeant, he isn't even settled in yet. And you're asking to get him back? What mission could possibly be so damned important?"

"Doctor, are you aware of Mithral's 'Final Request' policy."

Irritated turned curious, "No."

"Mithral is a basically a mercenary multinational force. We do not represent any one nation. Therefore, Command makes a promise to our Troops. It concerns KIA's. 'Any reasonable request concerning transport, internment and Final Honors will be granted, regardless of their nature.' We have a KIA that requested an escort an home by any survivors of her team. Sergeant Sagara was the only survivor. We're requesting his presence to take her home."

"He's yours. I apologize, I didn't know the situation. Where do you want him to meet up with the deceased, and where's he going?"

"We'll arrange transport here and her destination is Montana, America. Some place called Porter's Corner."

"The deceased is American?"

"Naturalized, she was originally from Eastern Europe. The 'Next Of Kin' live there. She requested to be sent there for internment."

"You're not going to have them land at that Yuma Base are you? That's a really long drive."

"We don't have much choice. That's about the closest Mithral airfield to Montana."

"Well, I've got a better idea. As long as you don't use that damn gargantuan cargo plane, they can land here. We're about 12 hours closer to Montana. We also have a small base in Butte, Montana. I can have a hoverjet transport the deceased and the Sergeant to Butte from here. Would there be any problems with that?"

"That's very generous of you Doctor. The Sergeant is going to have a three man detail with him. Is that going to have any effect on the hoverjet?"

"Shouldn't be. Are you going to be able to render Honors?"

"It'll be hard because we have to maintain secrecy."

Betty thought for a second and asked, "What happened on that mission?"

Tessa explained how it started out as an operation to remove one of the top five terrorist's in the world and morphed into two day running firefight of ambush and counter-ambush to prevent a nuclear weapon from reaching terrorist hands.

Betty was stunned to find out just how close the planet had been to World War III. "Your problem is solved, Captain. You send me the bio's and your KIA holds a reserve G.J. status. She'll get Full Honors as an American Service member, I promise you that"

Tessa was choking up, "Thank You, Doctor Director."

"Under the circumstances, it's Betty. It would be my privilege to render any assistance. Sagara's on a mission right now. We expect him home in about 12 to 14 hours. As soon as he hits dirt here, I'll place the request."

"Could Sergeant Sagara's former Sergeant Major make the call? That mission hit him really hard and she was one of his debriefers afterwards."

"I have no problem with that. I'll post orders in the morning for the hoverjet to be standing by. Just have the Sergeant give us a call when they're inbound and we'll be ready."

"Thank You, Betty."

"My pleasure, M'am. I have a contact that can tell you when Sagara gets in. You remember the name Wade Load from Sagara's briefing? Well, just have the Sergeant Major log into the Kim Possible website and ask for him. Should take him about a minute to answer, if that. He monitors the site 24/7. A word of warning, make the request from a public server. This kid's a computer security officer's worst nightmare. He hacks us, the Pentagon and the NSA for fun. Nothing malicious, he's just curious. So far we haven't been able to keep him out. It's gotten so bad, we hire him to 'attack' our systems and tell us where to improve 'em."

"I'll pass that along to the Sergeant Major, you have a good night Betty."

"Glad to help. Hope things go right for the transport and funeral. G.J. out."

Tessa called Mao back and passed the information the NCO, stressing the 'computer security nightmare' and the 'public server' parts. Mao went to the internet café at the NCO Club, bought a stein of German Lager and logged into the website. She felt really strange logging into the site of a "Teen Hero" and asking for a kid, but orders were orders.

To Wade Load.

My name is Melissa Mao. Could you please contact me as soon as possible. It is an urgent matter concerning a friend of Sousuke Sagara.

Melissa Mao

Melissa hit the enter key and leaned back in her chair, grabbing the mug of Lager. She had raised the stein to take a drink when the monitor fuzzed for a second. The light of the built-in webcam came on and a window popped open revealing a African-American boy just entering his teens.

"What can I do for you, Sergeant Major?"

Mao just looked at the screen thinking to herself 'What the Hell?'. Lowering the Lager, she had to ask, "How'd you do that and how do you know who I am?"

"Not to sound braggy, but, I'm Wade Load.", like that explained everything. Wade pounded on his keyboard for a second and said, "Wow, either your on a REALLY secure system or you not hooked into anything."

"Let's just say we were warned of your talents Mr. Load."

Wade's face darkened in a blush, "Sorry, it's a habit."

Mao turned on a bit of her 'Drill Sergeant' personality, "Mr. Load, I've heard you're a rabidly curious young man. If you try with our systems what you have with others, you WILL get a visit. You won't enjoy it. The information on our systems could get people killed. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Load?"

Wade gulped and said "Yes M'am!" This woman was scary.

"Good, now the reason I wanted to talk to you had nothing to do with comprising computer security. We have a problem and we were referred to you. I need to talk to Sergeant Sagara as soon as possible. It's not an emergency, but it is very urgent. Can you put me in touch with him as soon as he lands."

"If it's really that urgent, I can do better then that for you. I can have you online in about a minute."

"Really?"

"It's easy."

"Mr. Load, as long as you don't abuse it, we might have work for you. For right now, do you know where Sergeant Sagara is?"

"Yeah, he's on a private island in the Mediterranean, probably asleep."

"It's six or seven o'clock there, he's up. No, when he gets home will be soon enough. It's going to take three or four days to get things ready here anyway. I don't care what time it is, as soon as he get's home could you call me to let me know?"

"You got it. Can I ask what the problem is, maybe I can help."

Mao thought for a second and decided to trust the young man a bit. "A friend of his needs an 'Escort' home and Sousuke is the only one that can do it."

Wade was puzzled as to why the enigmatic Sergeant was the only one that could help someone get home. "Why's he the only one?"

"It was her 'Final Request'."

Wade wasn't sure what was going on, but 'Final Request' didn't sound good.

**********

The flight home was taking forever in Ron's opinion. After the confusion of the metaphors, Ron had sat back in the seat and started to think. He was worried about the threats Senior had brought to his attention. Who was behind it? Why were they targeting him through his family? How would they strike? Ron's overactive imagination was starting to go into overdrive.

Sousuke had a good idea of what was happening to his new partner. The hyperventilating was a dead giveaway. Sousuke reached behind his back and pulled out a couple of lengths of tube. He screwed them together to make a single one about two feet long. Grabbing the accompanying pouch, he selected a particular feathered tuft and inserted it into one end of the tube. Ron was so lost in his waking nightmares he didn't even know Sousuke was there. Sousuke raised the tube to his lips and, with a forceful puff of air, launched the dart into Ron's chest.

"Owwww, what the Hell? Before I rip you apart, what did you just do?"

"Just a mild sedative. You need to calm down Stoppable-san. I understand you are frantic with worry. If someone threatened Kaname the same way, I would be as well." Sousuke calmly unscrewed the tubes, "But wild worst-case scenario imaginings will not avail you. In order to prepare for the coming danger, you have got to keep yourself under control. In Combat, a Soldier's fears can be his own worst enemy. Do not let your imagination run wild. Learn to think your way through the danger.

Ron was nearly in tears, "But it's my family! Don't you understand that?"

"No Stoppable-san, I don't. My whole family was murdered when I was six."

Ron had forgotten that fact. Hearing it again drained the blood from his face. Sousuke was a walking, talking example things could get worse. "Sorry 'bout that."

"It's not a problem. However, I can compare it to how I would feel if it was Kaname that was threatened. In that, I do understand. It doesn't change the fact that if you lose control of yourself, then there is a very good chance that things will turn out worse than you can imagine."

Ron's voice was miserable, "I don't know, I've got a pretty good imagination."

"Stoppable-san, fears are just that, fears. They are not reality. There is nothing wrong with being afraid for yourself or others, but you can't let the fears control you. Would you believe me if I said I am afraid of heights?"

"Dude, most people I know are afraid of heights, except for Kim."

"No Stoppable-san, I am terrified of heights. Anytime I get more than a meter or so above the floor or ground, I can feel the fear starting to creep up from the base of my spine. Trying to make me freeze, goose bumps raising on my arms. And the thought in the back of my mind is 'Get back down to the ground where I'll be safe.' But I control my fear, I do not let it control me. It's the unknown that frightens you. We are aware of a threat and a portion of its nature. We need a target. With a target most of your fears will dissipate. Their own actions will tell you how to respond."

"Now if you are that worried, then let us call Load-Sensei and have him start an analysis of the information the Senor has given you. We need to know more. And once we know who, when and where, we can start to gather strategic and tactical information. Where do their financial resources originate and how much do they have? Where are they based and what defenses do they have? How many troops do they have, how are they trained and where are they positioned? How are they armed?"

The steel gray eyes of the Soldier reminded Ron of the Arctic when he and Drakken had been stranded there. COLD "Once we have enough strategic and tactical information, we can formulate an appropriate response, hopefully one that involves massively overwhelming firepower." COLDER! "If needed, I can place the Bonta-kuns under your direct command and give you limited authority over the ARX 7." Liquid Nitrogen COLD! "And I can assure you that with both the Bonta-kuns and the Arbalest, you will have a ground firepower superiority against nearly anything except for the Federal Army of a First World Nation."

**********

Kaname had been mildly worried all night and most of the day. To relieve her worry, she had spent that time arranging the kitchen, setting up her bedroom and bathroom and shoving the furniture around in the living room area (with a mental note to leave room for Frankenstein). She placed Sousuke's Fender and amp near the patio door close to where he had it in his old apartment in Japan.

When the landline rang at close to 16:00 local time, she wasn't too worried about who the caller was. It was not a number very many people had. It wasn't even going to be 'visible' to the phone company, let alone going to be published. When she answered it she automatically greeted the caller in Japanese. "Moshi Moshi?"

"Uh, hello?" she heard a young sounding voice.

"Sorry, it's been a few years since I had to answer the phone in English. Who's calling?"

"Uh, this is Wade Load, I got your number from Dr. Director. I figured you'd wanna know that Sagara and Ron are on their way home."

"Great, thank you, Load-san. When are they getting back."

"A two hour twenty minute flight time. Ron's making the pilot fly over your place and they'll jump out at 12,000 ft." She could hear as Wade quickly hammered at his keyboards and said, "That's about thirty-six hundred meters."

Kaname grinned to herself. One of her parts of the mission was starting. She had been waiting for a call from the agoraphobic young teen. "It's also 2.7272727273 miles, approximately, Load-san. I lived in the United States for a few years when I was younger." More hammering ensued.

"Huh? I don't see you online. What site did you find that figure on?"

"I can do the math in my head Load-san."

"…Whoa!"

"Why are you surprised Load-san? You can too."

"No, I can't. I'm good, but not that good."

That's where your mistaken, Load-san. You are that good, you just don't know it. You and I need to talk."

"What about?"

Kaname went a bit melancholy "Your Whispers."

"My what?"

"How long have you heard the voices, Load-san?"

Wade was a whole lot less at adept hiding things then Ron "What voices? I don't know what you're talking about."

"It's alright. Load-san. You're not alone. I've personally met two other Whispered and know of half a dozen others. I'm a Whispered, too."

"A what?"

"A Whispered. That's what they call people like us. You get thoughts and ideas, diagrams and schematics in your minds eye. They take over sometimes and leave behind plans that you've drawn and scribbled on every scrap of paper and flat surface around you. The walls, tables, anything that you can mark on. That's why your able to come up with all the gadgets you do."

"Th, th, that's happened to you too?"

"A few times, before a friend and an acquaintance of mine showed me how to…regulate them. They can't be stopped, but you can learn to control them. Your Whispers broke a pattern. They generally don't fully manifest until puberty. So how long have you heard the Whispers, Load-san?"

Gulp, "Since I was about six." Wade knew he was taking a chance. But he was 'here' and she was 'there'. They weren't in the same room, they couldn't even see each other, so he should be safe from 'them'.

"Would you like to talk about it? I know what it's like to hear them and nobody else can. Your parents think you're 'trying to get attention' or classmates think you're seizetsu, extremely weird. And no one understands. I know someone that has let the Whispers take him to the point his arrogance rivals the Kami's and a girl who has built the most advanced submarine on the planet in an attempt to hide. That's why you're in you're room isn't it?"

"I… I… but."

"Like my friend showed me, I can show you how to regulate them. Would you like to talk, I have little while before I have to finish dinner?

"I, I, I, I think I'd like that."

"Good, my name is Kaname Chidori, please call me Kaname."

"I, I, I, I am Wade, Wade Load."

"Douzoyoroshiku, Load-san. That means 'pleased to meet you."

"D, Doiuzoyiroshaku."

She winced as Wade butchered it. "We'll work on your pronunciation."

**********

Kaname had spent the time talking with Wade productively, by getting the welcome home meal for the returning Ron and Sousuke ready at the same time. She merely activated the speaker phone and went back to cooking. The stew from last night had an even longer time to simmer and Kaname had added broth as needed to keep it fresh. She already had the dough ready, so the rolls only took half a hour to bake. She laid out three place settings; with chopsticks as well as Western utensils.

A little over two hours passed while the two talked, when Wade told her, "Kaname? Ron and Sagara are jumping soon. If you wanna go to the roof you should see them."

"Thank you, Load-san" One thing she had thought about with Wade was becoming too familiar, too fast. He was still a boy just entering puberty. Letting herself become 'familiar' without the buffers of the Japanese language could be a problem, even dangerous. The English language lacked the structure and rank/hierarchy pro-nouns and suffixes of Japanese. It would be very easy to lead the boy to the wrong conclusions if their new 'relationship' wasn't handled carefully.

She suspected there was no stopping him from developing a crush. Kaname was under no illusions about her appearance or the fact he was a boy on the cusp of becoming a young man. With what the two of them were going to have to do in the next few weeks, the crush was a foregone conclusion. She had even considered having a talk about that very thing with him to explain a few things, like the love she felt for her very hair trigger boyfriend.

Not that Sousuke would really hurt the boy, but he had once filled the wall behind a few punk gang members full of bullet holes with a Steyr SPP and called it 'resolving the situation peacefully'

It wasn't going to be fun, but she thought it would be better to arrange a demonstration for the teen. From ages 19 to 25, six or seven years isn't nearly the gap as it is between 13 and 19. Particularly without the traditional Japanese Senpai/Kohai protections. Maybe she should start by teaching the boy about Japanese cultural protections.

She opened the door that led from the main room to the garage roof, and stepped out into the lowering sunshine. She heard Wade over the speakerphone tell her "They're coming from the East." Kaname looked up into the Eastern sky for any sign of them and couldn't see either the plane or her Beau and his friend. Finally she spotted a contrail moving Westward nearly overhead and two specks separated from it..

Sousuke was evidently thinking of her because one of the specks started trailing smoke as they dropped. The two quickly separated as the one trailing smoke dropped faster then it's companion. She vividly remembered the only time she had gone out of a plane (unwillingly) after being attached to the Clueless Catastrophe.

She watched as the figure trailing smoke tracked back and forth across the sky as he fell and fell and fell and fell and "Oh God, he's falling!!!!" Finally at what seemed the very last possible instant the drogue emerged and jerked the figure to a near midair halt deploying the parafoil. He guided the chute towards the roof of the building, where unbeknownst to him, awaited a 'Doom in Blue Hair'. Kaname was not pleased.

In a bit of improvisational genius, Sousuke was using Kaname's hair as an impromptu windsock to tell him the wind speed and direction. He made a mental note to have a real windsock installed soon. He performed a hook-turn and approached the roof from the South. He flared and landed with a little turf-surf collapsing the ram-air canopy behind him.

Ron had maintained a stable box position rather then the much higher speed Delta track Sousuke had used. They went out of the plane and linked up long enough for them to make sure the other was alright and on track. Then Sousuke spun away, popped smoke, and entered Delta, plummeting towards the ground at nearly double Ron's speed of over 110 mph. Not knowing what was going on Ron did something he normally wouldn't do. Stayed in freefall. And he didn't like it. He watched as the lunatic traced S-curves on his way to the point where he popped his chute and landed on the roof of the building.

Kaname watched as Sousuke gathered his chute and cleared the way for Ron's landing. She was trembling with anger and terror. She had made a promise to herself that she wouldn't hit the Soldier unless he did something truly bad.

"Sousuke, before I pummel you, you have thirty seconds to explain yourself."

The two of them had agreed to use English as much as possible while they were in America, so the Japanese threw him for a second.

"Explain what, Kaname-san?"

Sousuke looked confused until he looked down at the wadded-up chute. Answering in English, "I was in a hurry to get home to see you, Kaname."

She stood there with her jaw working for a moment and said "Well in that case, Sousuke. Okaeri nasai." (Welcome Home!) And wrapped him in a hug that would put an Anaconda to shame.

"Tadaima." (I'm Home.)

WHACK! "Don't scare me like that again, you understand me?"

Sousuke almost committed a grave error in his answer. He almost said 'I hear you.' Kaname never liked that answer. In her mind 'hearing' and 'understanding' were not synonymous. "Yes, Kaname."

"Good, dinner's ready, so hurry and get cleaned up. I made those rolls you like so much." The minor tick of his expression told he was looking forward to dinner.

Once the Soldier popped his chute, Ron followed suit and drifted to the roof on a much more restrained track. Even as clueless as he could be, Ron figured out what was up when they embraced. 'He missed her, guess I can understand that.'

Ron landed with his usual gracefulness, meaning the only reason he didn't go over the side was his falling pants had caused him to trip and stumble into the railing before going over. Once he was back on his feet with Sousuke's help, he looked at the Soldier in askance. "Dude, I thought you said you're afraid of heights?"

"I am, Stoppable-san."

Pointing to the sky, he asked, "Then what was that H.A.L. performance we just saw?" (High Altitude Low Opening)

"As I said, I'm afraid of heights, my first instinct is to get to the ground as quickly as possible. Also, I control my fear, I do not let it control me. And lastly, Kaname was waiting. Please, let's get cleaned up, Kaname has dinner ready. She made plain rolls." Sousuke said the last with blank face that had a gleeful glitter in the eyes.

Ron chuckled and shook his head. "You're a piece of work, man, you know that? Let's go."

The two young men headed to the showers. Sousuke used the one adjacent to his room and Ron used the one downstairs. Sousuke only took his normal five minutes to shower and shave, while Ron was almost thirty minutes finishing up. Sousuke and Kaname were upstairs in the living room/dining room portion of the apartment quietly talking about the setup of the apartment and Ron was still downstairs when his cell rang. Ron answered it, finding Wade on the line.

"What's up, Wade?"

"Hey Ron, Kim called me to let me know she'll be back from her mission in about half an hour."

"And this concerns me, why?"

"ALRIGHT, THAT'S IT!" Ron pulled the phone away from his head before Wade's volume exploded it. "Ron you get your goofball ass to a computer, I wanna look you in the face!"

"Wade?"

"Shut Up! Ask Sagara and Kaname if you can link through that A.I., Eleanor. Wait a second, never mind, I'll call them." Wade put Ron on hold for a minute, when he came back on the line, Ron could hear the menace in the tech geniuses voice. "Ron, you will get to Eleanor's webcam and monitor before the echo dies, or I swear to God, your life will be a living Hell. ATM's won't work, traffic lights will stay red, automatic doors won't open, elevators will lock in basements, escalators will run backwards, prices will ring up wrong for you. I'm tired of this crap and we're gonna hash it out.

**********

After listening as the irate preteen asked for permission to link through Eleanor and giving him an affirmative, Kaname said, "Think I'll add another place setting." She suspected there would be a fourth for dinner.

**********

Kim arrived back in Middleton with a split lip and bruised knuckles that hurt like hell, but she felt pretty spanking! The nerve of that…WOMAN! GRRRRRR! How dare she even threaten to do that. Wasn't Drakken (Uggggg) enough for her. About halfway through the bout, Kim realized that Shego was playing her to get a better fight. As much as Kim hated to admit it, Shego was right when she said that Kim could use a workout too.

The fight was just what the doctor ordered. She was more relaxed than she had been since before the split. Her mind was clearer too. Things were starting to come into focus. Her Father's words last night had really hit home. It wasn't that Ron had wanted to do what he did Graduation Day. And after hearing about some of the bad guys Sagara and Kaname had faced from someone she knew, she was willing to at least entertain the idea that sometimes you're better off not even trying to capture someone.

There were dangers in the world she had never known about. Dangers that had been forced into her face for the first time. And the learning experience wasn't pleasant by any means. She had been made to draw out and examine a part of herself that most people never knew was there. And the conclusions were startling. She still wasn't sure 'How far?', but she was no longer afraid to ask the question.

She owed her Dad for breaking the equation down on to a manageable size. The whole sitch after Graduation was a major stumbling block for her because it was too big. Ron's actions, the Lowardians, her fears and doubts, why he reacted so badly on the Dementor mission a couple of months ago. She had been trying to think about everything as a whole and it wouldn't balance. And that had thrown off her sense of 'Control'. Once the control she had over herself went, the rest of her life had come down like a house of cards.

It was time to start to get it back, starting with how she had treated Ron. She could only hope he would forgive her, because if nothing else, she really wanted her best-friend back.

When she was about thirty minutes out, she called Wade and had given the pilot the coordinates to the Middleton High field. She intended to land at the field and walk home from there. While she was banged and bruised, she wasn't crippled. She felt the plane adjust course and assumed it was the pilot making a correction. She was putting on her chute when the pilot called her forward to say the autopilot had them on a different course. It wasn't much but it would throw off her landing at the MHS field. Right then her Kimmunicator beeped at her. Between the course change and the fact she had just talked to the recluse genius she started to get worried. Hitting the accept she said, "Go ahead, Wade."

"Change of plans, you're going to Sagara's. Ron's there, you need to talk."

"Uh, I'm not so sure about that right now." She knew she needed to talk to Ron, but she wasn't sure what to say and felt she wasn't quite ready.

Wade's eyes blazed for a second and he pounded on his keyboards. Suddenly the craft entered a hard climb. As it climbed it rolled to the left, once they hit vertical, they hammer headed, started to fall and rolled to the right exiting the maneuver in the same heading they were on before. "Get the point. You're going to Sagara's, deal with it. I've called your mom. I'll have some clothes sent over. Wade out."

The pilot looked at her with more then a hint of fear and said, "Ms Possible, I don't know what this is about, but I suggest you do what the boy said. This plane ain't supposed to do that."

"Yeah, I think you're right."

**********

Kim was met on the roof by a puzzled and abashed Ron, who asked. "Did we to tweak Wade?"

"I know I did, not sure about you."

"He said something about how my attitude sucks."

"What'd you say to him."

Ron started rubbing the back of his neck and looking around, "Yea, uh, hmmmm."

"Come on, Ron. We've known one another long enough not to beat around the bush like this."

"Well, he called me to say you were on your way back and I uh, I kinda blew it off. I think I was a little smarmy about it."

She was hurt by the answer, but not surprised. "I don't think I need to tell you what I did."

"Nope."

"Wade said we need to talk."

"Told me the same thing."

"OK, let's start at something obvious, but easy. How'd you get so good so fast Ron? I would've had a hard time fighting Sagara like you did yesterday. Probably would've won, but I'dve had a fight."

"Kim, how long have we been going on missions?"

"Five-six years."

"You think in that time I didn't improve? Course I got better, I just kept it hidden."

"But why, Ron? That's one of the things I've had such a hard time with. I mean, one day, you're my loveable, goofball partner and BFBF. The next, you're taking on bad guys that stopped the world cold. You don't have any idea how hard that was to accept. Why?"

Ron sat heavily on the roof in the rays of the setting sun. "Because. I was afraid of scaring you off. Looks like I was right."

"You dope, the reason I lost it so bad was it came out of nowhere! GOD RON! Haven't you ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy. You thought I would freak, so instead of improving over time like anybody else, you hid it and it blindsided me!"

Beep Beep da Beep, Beep Beep da Beep

**********

Ten minutes ago, Wade felt like hitting his head against his keyboards, "I don't believe I forgot!" In all the excitement of finding out he wasn't the only one that heard the voices, talking to what he knew was a very beautiful woman and his tweak with Kim and Ron, he had completely forgotten about the hit on the site last night. He placed a call to Sergeant Major Mao, waking her up in the process.

A bleary voice answered, "Moshi Moshi?"

Wade had figured out that meant 'Hello' in Japanese. "Sergeant Major, you said to call you as soon as Sergeant Sagara got home."

Shaking her head to clear the fog of sleep, she said, "Mr. Load? Could you patch me through to him?"

Wanting to make up for forgetting, he said, "If you have a computer and webcam, I can do better then that. I can have you face to face." Kim and Ron would have to wait, something told him this was more important.

"Give me five minutes to get ready."

"Just go to the website when your ready Sergeant Major."

"Alright, see you in a few, out."

**********

Kim looked at the offending device "Grrrrr, Go Wade."

"Kim, I forgot to do something. Could you take the Kimmunicator to Sagara?"

"Why?"

"Please, it's important, it's about a friend of his."

Kim could see the pleading in Wade's eyes. She looked at Ron, who nodded. "Alright, hold on."

Ron followed as she walked into the living room area. Her mouth started watering instantly as she was hit by the wonderful aromas of baking bread and something delicious, "I don't know what you guys are having for dinner, but it smells great."

"I set a fourth place, you're welcome to join us."

"Think I'll take you up on that. Sagara, Wade wants to talk to you." She removed the Kimmunicator and handed it to the Sergeant.

Looking into the miniature monitor, he said, "This is Sagara, go ahead."

"Can you pan the Kimmunicator around the room for me, Sergeant?" When Sousuke complied he said, "Set the Kimmunicator on the table pointing at the blank wall."

Sousuke looked confused for a second and Kim took the device from him, saying "Here, like this." When she set it on the table a beam emerged and coalesced into a 60 inch virtual monitor.

"Go ahead Sergeant Major." Melissa's face appeared on the wall.

"How's it going, Sousuke?"

"Mao! I'm pleased to hear from you, though surprised."

Melissa's expression turned somber. Sigh, "I hate for it to be under these circumstances though. This is an official call, Sergeant Sagara. Mithral is asking you to Escort someone home. This is being asked as part of a Final Request."

Sousuke was the only one in the room that caught the capitalizations. He snapped to attention and said, "It would be an Honor, Sergeant Major. Who am I Escorting?"

Melissa looked at him with sad eyes. She KNEW how hard he had taken that mission. To Sousuke, the fact he prevented terrorist from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon, didn't make up for the loss of the other five members of the Indian Ocean SRT. One in particular. This was going to be hard for him.

"Lieutenant Grace Wiseman."

Everyone could tell that Sousuke wasn't expecting that. Even Kim and Ron could see that Sousuke looked like he had just taken a gut shot. With a stricken face and tremulous voice, he whispered, "Gray." In his nightmares, he could still hear the screams over the radio as Gauron butchered the team while he was in a fight for his life against someone that had been like a brother to him.

**********

He hadn't seen the sun for days. The bunker complex was enormous, at nearly 200 meters on a side and six levels deep, and other then the main opening, only very well camouflaged vents going to the surface.

Once they had replaced the fuel oil in the generators they were able to disconnect from the national power grid, effectively adding another layer of security. There would be no unexplained power drains to point the way to the bunker. And since the exhaust was vented into the fast flowing, turbulent River Rhine, even the heat bloom would not be noticeable.

The German engineers of seventy years ago had never even dreamed of thermal imaging when they were trying to camouflage both the noise and smell of the generators from prying Allied spies and scouts. Little did they know their efforts would still be effective into the next century.

He was currently going over a listing of another chamber when something caught his eye. "Zhose fools! Had ve used zhis in '43 und '44, ve could have stopped ze Americans in zeir tracks! Ze Red Ball Express would have ground to a halt!"

"No matter, ve can use it now und it will bring the American military to it's knees. With ze death of nearly thirty percent of zeir troops, zhey vill be crippled because zhey will be overloaded trying to take care of zhe dying. Ve just need to develop a delivery system."

The ranting Dementor made a brief return "VE SHALL SUCCEED VHERE ROMMEL FAILED. VONCE ZHE NATIVES ARE DEAD, ZHE VAST RESOURCES OF ZHE AFRICAN CONTINENT VILL BE OURS FOR ZHE TAKING."

"It vas a very clever idea of Josef's, using melanin to target zhe Untermensch of zhe Vorld. Melanin-X vill be our capstone on zhe road to triumph."