You know who they are, CajunBear73 and the Sentinel103, thanks for finding the 'D'oh's'. I don't know what it is but I keep confusing 'then' and 'than'. Durrdurdur.
Chapter 19
After a few minutes, the emotional tension in the room dropped to a much more manageable level and Carl still had a few questions. "OK, you were there. The way you talk about that action is too involved to be anything but real. But what I asked about before still stands. You're old enough to be an E-4, but an E-6 is hard to swallow." He looked at Sousuke with a raised eyebrow.
"Sir, because of the security concerns, LT Wiseman's former command felt the best way to honorably bring her home was the use of undercover agents. My rank as well as the ranks of my detail are legitimate. I was employed by the same organization as her for nearly six years before I was transferred to Global Justice. Chidori-san and I are active agents. Possible-san and Stoppable-san hold reserve agent status."
Faith didn't quite see it, but Carl was either shocked or horrified. It was a toss-up. "You worked for them for six years. How old were you when you started?"
"I don't know." The Chambers looked confused as Sousuke continued. He recounted his childhood to them and the expressions changed to shocked and horrified.
"What the hell kind of people would put a child in combat situations like that? That's insane!"
"Sir, before you think too harshly of them, two things. First, they tried send me to the foster care of Japan. After seeing what they were fighting for, I refused. They fought to save others like me. Child Soldiers either forced, drugged or brainwashed into fighting for radical causes. I chose to be a part of that."
"Second, they took someone who was little more than an animal, bent on killing anyone even remotely involved with the murder of his family. They gave him a home, structure, discipline, a moral code and a family. Without them, I would either still be in those mountains or dead. Instead, because of them, I have been placed where I could save lives."
"Because of the life I lived before then, training was easy, I already knew as much or more than the instructors about weapons, tactics, silent movement, A.S. operations. I rose through their ranks. And just before I was transferred to Global Justice, I was promoted to Staff Sergeant."
"Carl, what's it matter? They brought Grace home. That's all I care about."
"Sir, I don't regret my time with them. They gave me my life back," He glanced at Kaname. "In more ways then one." Kaname blushed.
Faith and Kim being female caught the reference instantly and Carl was a few seconds behind. One guess as to who was clueless.
"Alright. I still think there's something wrong about it all. But I guess they made the best of a jacked-up situation." He indicated Kim and Ron, "How'd you wind up as part of their team though?" Looking at Kim and Ron, "Last I heard, you guys were doing pretty good on your own!"
Kim and Ron stiffened, they really didn't want personal issues aired like this, but Sousuke was ready for questions like this. Kaname had made sure of that.
"I was also brought in as an A.S. trainer for Global Justice and I am to attend the same college as they are. The Director thought that it would be best for us to combine our teams while we are attending classes. This would allow us to cover each other in the event of an emergency or on missions. Course work will be hard enough as it is without running out on a mission every other day."
He hadn't lied, he just didn't tell the whole truth. After eight years as an Officer that wore Leadership Tabs in Command of Troops, Carl could smell it. The looks on Kim and Ron's faces told him that. But like he had admitted before, operational security took precedence.
"Alright." he looked at Kim and Ron again, "Just so you know, the reason we recognized you two, our kids are rabid fans. I think Ron's new haircut and the fact you're not in your 'mission clothes' is the only thing that threw them off the scent. But that won't last."
The team all looked a little nervous at that. Sousuke looked like he was getting ready to hustle them out of there. Before he could say anything, Kim jumped in. "Can they keep a secret?"
Faith smiled, "Depends, can you make it worth their while?"
Ron looked at Kim with his usual goofy grin, saying, "What ya think? Let 'em in on the 'undercover' sitch?"
Sousuke was looking around wild eyed, thinking, 'Blow their covers?!', until Kaname took his arm and said, "They do this all the time, they know what they're doing."
Kim looked back at Faith with a question in her eyes. Faith smiled even more. "As long as they got to meet you two, that would probably work. Carl."
"I'll be right back."
A few minutes later he led the two preteens into his office, saying, "You know how sometimes the police go undercover to catch bad guys?"
Twin "Yes Sir's" sounded. He just pointed at Kim and Ron. "Who do they look like? They're undercover now."
Eyes grew ten times and jaws dropped. The girl was about to shriek until her brother clapped his hand across her mouth, hissing at her, "They're undercover, don't blow it."
"This is Erin and Phillip. Kids I think you know who they are."
They regained the use of their mouths and started firing overlapping questions, "Are you here to catch a bad guy." "I thought you were bringing our Aunt home." "When'd you cut your hair, youlooklikeDaddyintheArmy." "IsShegogoingtoattack?" "OHOHOH, Where's RUFUUUUUS?!"
Ron kneeled to their level and held up his hands, "Listen guys, you can't tell anyone we're here. It's important. No, we're not here to catch a bad guy. Our friend needed help bringing your Aunt home so me and Kim volunteered. We're undercover, that's why I had to get a haircut. When we saw Shego a couple days ago, she and Drakken were in their lair. And Rufus is staying with my sister for a while."
Kim was amazed, "Ron, how did you catch all that?"
"After listening to the Tweebs? Humph, they were easy."
Kim kneeled beside Ron, "Ron's right guys, we're undercover. You can't tell anyone."
Double "Awww Maannn."
Kim looked from one to the other and said, "Hold on a second." She tapped the call button on the Kimmunicator. Wade's image popped up.
"Go ahead, Kim."
She could here the whispers "Oh My God, it's Wade!" "I know, this is so beyond cool!" Kim maneuvered the Kimmunicator so his image was visible to the two frantic preteens.
"Wade, I need you to send a couple of those Team Possible fan club hats to this location. How soon can you get them here? Me and Ron want to sign them before we leave."
Seeing the youngsters behind her, he knew where this was going. "They'll be there tomorrow morning, Kim."
Kim looked back to the two all but drooling kids. "Before you send them out, could both you and Rufus sign them as well, please and thank you?"
Wade could see the flabbergasted faces behind her. He grinned and said, "You got it!"
"Thanks Wade." Kim closed the link down and said, "Now before we leave, how about if we get a picture of you guys with us wearing the hats. After we're gone for a couple of weeks, you can say that we had to pass through on a mission. That'll be just in time for school to start! You just can't tell anyone what the mission was. If anybody asks, you don't know. OK?"
Ron was wearing a huge grin when he put his hand on Carl's shoulder saying, "I feel sorry for you, Dude. Those two are like, beyond stoked!. You'll never get 'em in bed tonight."
Carl groaned "I know. It'll be worse then Christmas Eve."
**********
After saying their goodbyes to the Chambers family, they piled back into the Crown Vic and drove back to the little motel. When they had returned to the motel, the first thing Sousuke had done was pull out a small travel steam iron and steam out the few wrinkles that the Blues had gathered in the last few days. Once he was done, the rest of them in turn did the same thing.
The Chambers had sent them along with enough food even for Ron to be happy about. The motel had a small gazebo set back among a stand of Box Elders near a creek. By couple they made their way there and ate a late dinner under the stars. It was late when they finally returned to their rooms and by unspoken agreement, again by pairs, they turned in for the night.
**********
Kim had decided that she could really get used to this. Waking up with Ron spooned in behind her, generating a pleasant warmth that made it really hard to get out of bed. Unfortunately nature was calling! The sky was lighted by the false dawn so common in rural areas. The sun hadn't even started up yet and she was forced into the bathroom. Grrrrr! When she finished her business in the bathroom, she was surprised to see Ron was getting dressed in his workout clothes.
"RON, you're up? I figured you'd still be down until 9 at least."
"Thank Sagara, we're gonna go running this morning. I figured you'd rather have a dry bed."
"He wouldn't dare."
Ron just looked at her for a second. "This is the guy that threatened to taze me. Yes, he would. He was going to do it back at the warehouse, you think he wouldn't do it here? Besides, we both agreed to have daily workouts with him. And something tells me that if you look out the bathroom window…." He pointed.
Kim ducked back into the bathroom, climbed on the side of the tub and peered out of the small high set window. There, behind the motel was the Sergeant, dressed in a T and shorts, moving through a very fast martial arts kata. She could see the isometric resistance he was applying to the kata. Every visible muscle was, tensed both in forcing the movements and resisting them.
She didn't recognize the art form, but one thing stood out. This was not the graceful flowing Kung Fu she had learned nor any of the other martial arts she had seen. It was a mixture. And it was strictly Combat oriented. Strikes, blocks and parries that were all designed to drop an enemy fast.
It was just another example to her of the difference between them. In the last few days she had been coming to a realization about the difference between law enforcement, like her and Ron working with G.J. and a Solider like Sagara and Mithral. Her hand-to-hand was aimed at disarming and subduing her opponents. Sagara's centered on either disabling or killing them.
She heard Ron grumbling about socks and went back to the bedroom to see him rooting through his mission pack. She walked over to hers and tossed him a spare pair he had in hers. Over the years they had learned to keep at least a minimum amount of extra stuff in each other's packs. You never knew when one of the packs might get lost.
Ron thanked her and finished getting ready. He paused at the door, walked back to her and gave her a quick peck on the lips saying, "Be back in a while." then headed out the door.
Kim was stunned by what happened. Not the fact that he kissed her, they used to do that all the time and they had started slowly doing it again. What had her speechless was it was so…..domestic. It was something she had seen her parents doing for years.
She started getting ready for her own work-out wearing a goofy grin to rival some of Ron's best. To her it was one of the surest signs that she and Ron were back on the right track. As she finished getting dressed, she restated her vow to herself that she would NEVER let him down again.
**********
When Ron returned an hour later, he was sweating worse than she had ever seen him, even on the football field. She was concerned for a minute until his joking manner returned, "That guy, pant, was definitely, pant, trained at, pant, Yamanouchi."
"That bad, huh, Ron?"
He looked at her with a baleful eye and said, "The worst part, pant, was when he said, pant, he's running, pant some more sprints." Ron shook his head, "pant Dude's a machine. pant Worse than you. Wants me back out there in a few minutes for some katas."
When Sousuke returned, he gathered up them all up and went to the back of the building again. Kim began by working through her own katas. She had spent the time they were running, working with Kaname doing stretches, isometrics, push-ups, sit-ups, crunches and a variety of in-place exercises.
She watched for a few minutes as Sousuke first started Ron on set of Tonfa exercises they had both learned at Yamanouchi. Once Ron was going, he turned to helping Kaname, walking her through the same kata he had performed earlier, albeit at a much slower pace. From time to time, he would stop her in mid-strike and subtly reposition a wrist, adjust her stance, move her elbow to tighten her defense, make a point about situational awareness, gently guiding her in improving her hand-to-hand skills. Kim could see problems though. Sousuke wasn't female. There's a vast difference between male and female when it comes to the skills he was trying to impart.
On average, men are stronger than women. Sure there are exceptions, but the fact remained that Sousuke was much stronger physically then Kaname. And that affected the way they had to do things.
Being on average smaller and built differently, females also generally have a lower center of gravity. This affected the way they moved and the moves each was capable of.
Kim could tell Sousuke was an excellent teacher, probably perfect for someone like Ron, but he didn't have the experience to make the adjustments between the sexes. There was another problem. He was too close to Kaname. He had a hard time separating boyfriend from instructor. Sometimes, when you're training someone, you have to be willing to slam them to the ground. Brutally!
After an hour of training, he called a halt. Before they hit the showers, Kim asked to talk to everyone. Sitting in the shade of the Box Elders she laid out what she had seen, with a few suggestions. "You're good, probably one of the best I've seen. But I think you need to concentrate on Ron, while I take over for her."
"I won't dispute you, but why?"
"Because you're not a girl."
Now he just looked confused. "Being a female shouldn't have any bearing on what you're taught. What does being female have to do with teaching combat skills. One of the most dangerous assassins I've heard of was female."
Ron was confused, Kim was stunned and Kaname beamed at his answer. Kim looked at Kaname and said, "He doesn't have a sexist bone in his body does he?" Back to Sousuke, "That's not what I mean. We're different in the way we have to do things. Girls move differently than guys." Sousuke looked at Kaname and blushed causing her to blush. Kim was grinning like a fool. "I see you've noticed."
She grew serious again, stood and said "Kaname, come here, Sagara, you too." she had Sousuke hold up his hand as a target. "Hit his hand, hard as you can like he showed you." When Kaname did so, Kim had her reset and subtlety changed the way Kaname threw a punch, using more hips and less shoulders. The result was a dramatic increase in power. Sousuke was surprised, it had never occurred to him that the subtle differences in body structure could make such a difference in training.
"There's another reason. You're too easy on her. You don't realize you're doing it, but you're a lot more willing to push Ron than her."
"Kaname?"
"I wasn't sure, but I think she's right."
"Very well, if Kaname is willing to accept you as a trainer, I have no issues."
Ron groaned, "Oh man, now I've got him fulltime."
Sousuke offered to let Kaname take the first shot at the shower while he hit the road again for another couple of miles. When Sousuke made it back about twenty minutes later, they were all standing by the car. Kaname told him to hurry up because they were all hungry and waiting on him. When he came out five minutes later, showered, shaved and dressed, both Kim and Ron went "Whoa." and Kim passed a five dollar bill to Kaname. Ron said, "If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't a believed it. How can anybody get ready that fast?"
"I had three minutes to get ready when I was in training, Stoppable-san. I had an advantage though, I wasn't shaving yet."
**********
After breakfast, Kim and Ron tossed their mission pack in the trunk and they all drove back to the Chambers' home just in time to see a delivery truck pulling away. Ron looked at Kim with a grin and quipped, "Good ole reliable Wade. Let's go face the music. I bet those two are climbing the walls"
Sousuke knocked on the door and from inside they heard the voices of two ecstatic preteens shouting, "They're here, they're here!" Once the entered the homestead they found each of the kids was holding a box with their names on them. While the kids nearly mugged Kim and Ron, Carl pulled Sousuke aside saying, "I don't even wanna know how he knew our kids' names."
"Sir, there are very few people in the world more dangerous behind a computer than Load-sensei."
After the Chambers' kids had a chance to settle down, Faith said, "Miss Possible, there was another box left here addressed to you!?"
"Good, Wade got to it in time." Kim then whispered a question to Faith who just smiled and said "Follow me."
Kim looked at Phillip and Erin and said, "Now you guys wait a minute and we'll be right back. Sagara you're with Ron, Kaname, you're with me." the puzzled Japanese pair followed along wondering what she had in mind.
When Kim and Ron returned a few minutes later, you could have heard a pin drop. Both of the kids had gone completely silent, for there stood their Hero's, dressed in 'Mission Clothes' right down to the gloves. And right behind them, stood Sousuke and Kaname dressed in the same 'uniform'.
After the pictures, that included a 'secret' set including Sousuke and Kaname, as promised, Kim and Ron signed the hats. What surprised everyone but Ron, Kim had Sousuke and Kaname sign them as well. The Japanese duo was reluctant until Ron had the idea of signing them on the inside in Kanji.
Kim explained to the kids that Sousuke and Kaname were new team members and that Team Possible wanted to keep their new members a secret as long as possible. Both kids promised not to say anything until they heard about them on the website.
They left the Chambers saying they would see them at the service. They returned to the motel and carefully changed into their Dress Blues. This would be the first funeral for Kim and Ron that they could really remember. Kim had been too young to remember either her Aunt's or her Grandparents' funerals and Ron hadn't been to any that he could recall.
Kaname remembered the service for her mother all too well. And Sousuke, he had seen enough to last a lifetime.
**********
The service at the funeral home didn't last long. Faith said that her sister didn't want a long drawn out ceremony. The room was filled by people from the community with a lot of them wearing the dress uniform of their former branch of service.
When she was moved to the hearse for transport to the family plot on a hill overlooking the homestead, she was moved by a detail from the National Guard Post in Butte. Six men in Class A's carefully moved her back out to the waiting hearse. Once again, from the time she left the building until she entered the hearse, everyone in uniform 'Rendered Honors'.
When they left, they immediately picked up another set of Sheriff's and State Police motorcycle Troopers that led them through then out of town heading towards the Chambers' homestead.
When they arrived at the plot of ground that had served the Chambers family for generations, there was a platoon of National Guard Troops from same unit as the Bearers back at the funeral home. Nineteen of these Soldiers were acting as the funeral detail and the rest were there to help set up and take down the pavilion and chairs.
Like many Guard units, these men and women knew each other outside of their military service. Two of the Soldiers had been in the band in high school. The Post Commander knew for a fact they had been in the band. He was the Vice Principal. And when these two young men had enlisted into his unit, he asked them to perform a very solemn duty. Would they continue to play for Fallen Warriors? So it was that this National Guard unit had a Drummer and Bugler.
Along with the Drummer and Bugler, there were the seven Soldiers and an NCO acting as a Rifle Squad and eight more acting as Bearers. In overall Command was the Post Commander, a Lieutenant Colonel. He had what was arguably the hardest job of the entire detail. He was the one who had to pass the flag to Faith. He could have handed the job to one of his subordinates. He had more then enough Majors and Captains to do so easily, but he felt duty bound to perform this final act of Honoring a Fallen Service member himself.
The convoy came to a stop and everyone exited the cars. Once Faith had given the go ahead, the drummer started sounding a half-tempo tattoo. A lot of things started happening at the same time now. You could here the commands being given to the Rifle Squad. The Sergeant marched them to a spot about 50 meters from and parallel to the grave. "Detail HALT. Left FACE. Order ARMS. Parade REST."
At the same time the Bearers were pulling Lieutenant Grace Wiseman from the hearse. They kept her at waist level because of the uneven ground and carefully moved her to the waiting lowering device that would lower her into the ground and sidestepped into place. The Lieutenant Colonel stood at the head of the grave. Once they had her in place the Bearers stood at 'Attention'. They waited as everyone took their seats and the Minister spoke over her, never moving, except to blink and breathe.
The Team sat, as requested, just behind the Chambers. Sousuke and Kaname, Kim and Ron. When the Minister had finished, there was a pause, and then the Rifle Squad NCO ordered "Attention." Everyone stood and the uniformed personnel went to 'Attention' as the Squad snapped to. "Port ARMS." Rifles left the ground in unison, being held at forty-five degrees, muzzle up and to the left, four inches from the chest. "Half Right FACE." They pivoted forty-five degrees to the right. "Ready." Right feet shifted to shoulder width. "Aim." As one the rifles came up to thirty degrees aimed over the casket. "FIRE." BLAM. Back to Port Arms. Because they were firing blanks, in one split second motion, they pulled the charging handle of their M-16's to the rear, ejecting the spent round and sending a new one into the breech. As occasionally happens, a spent cartridge flew and landed in the collar of one of the Soldiers. The just fired cartridge had contained a miniature explosion a second before and was quite hot. He didn't even twitch.
Kim, Ron and Kaname thought they were ready for it, but they, along with every civilian there, flinched when the rifles fired. The Veterans never moved. "Aim, FIRE." BLAM "Aim, FIRE." BLAM "Half Left FACE" Forty-five degrees to the left "Present ARMS." From Port Arms, the rifles were snapped to the front vertically, muzzle up, magazine out, left hand on the fore grip, right hand on the stock. At the Rifle Squad Leaders command, the uniformed personnel brought their right arms up to their brow. After the last few days of hearing the Command, even Kim, Ron and Kaname didn't miss a beat.
The bugler started sounding the mournful tones of Taps and the Bearers started the careful process of folding the Flag that had covered her halfway around the world into the peculiar, yet familiar triangle. It is folded this way as a remembrance of the Tri-Corner hats worn by the Soldiers of the Revolutionary War.
When the Bugler started playing, Kim could feel the tears going down either side of her face. When he finished Taps, the command came for 'Order ARMS'. Glancing to the left she could see Kaname crying and Sousuke was wearing the hardest face she'd ever seen. Like iron. To her right, Ron had the tears standing in his eyes. Without thought, Kim reached to her right only to find Ron's hand groping for hers as well.
Just before they finished folding the Flag, the Commander carefully placed seven empty brass cartridges into the folds of the Flag. They continued as before, carefully removing any wrinkles, making sure the folds were perfect. When they had finished folding the Flag, they tucked the end into the final fold and the lead man formerly presented it to the Detail Commander.
He stood for a moment as the Bearer detail faced the foot of the casket and marched away. When they were on their way, he stepped over to Faith, took a knee (there was a small rug placed there just for this) and spoke in a very solemn tone. "Ma'am, as a representative of the President and the United States Army, it is my High Privilege to present you this flag. Let it be a symbol of the grateful appreciation this nation feels for the distinguished service rendered to our country and our flag by your loved one." There was no doubt the he truly meant it when he said 'High Privilege'.
Faith looked at this man who had trained with his Troops for days making sure they were flawless, spent hours making sure his uniform was perfect, just for the off chance they would be called. Then he had driven with his Troops for over an hour, only to stand here for two more in the heat waiting for them to arrive. All of that for this moment and say those words. What else could she say but, "Thank you."
He stood, took a half step back, slowly saluted, turned and walked back to the bus that had brought him and his Troops here, waiting for the time when everyone left and they could disassemble the pavilion and take up the chairs.
The people stood and waited while Faith looked down the hill to the place where she had made a home. Where she had hoped for her sister to come and live. She looked over the hill to the view beyond. Far off in the west she saw the clouds lowering on the peaks of the Rockies. It would probably rain in the next day or so. She looked back at the grave where they had started to lower her down. Once the casket was settled on the bottom, she walked closer and stooped down picking up a handful of dirt. She looked down and started letting the dirt slip through her finger saying "Welcome home, Grace.
**********