Once again my Betas Cajunbear73 and Sentinel103 have come through with blinding speed. Sent this at about 2:00PM and they get it back by 5:00PM. Can you say "Out-freaking-standing! Thanks guys!
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The following weeks were a flurry of activity for the group, with four of them now enrolled in college. The classes varying from Kim's advanced course work and Kaname's slightly easier classes to Ron and Sagara's three-day-a-week schedules.
Wade pored over the notes left behind from his Whispered fugue trying to understand a technology more advanced then the Battlesuit he had built for Kim. He asked for and received permission to move a BK-Unit into his lab. Unless someone, usually either Kim or Kaname forced him out, he rarely left his laboratory/living quarters, except to re-supply his fridge with junk food and soda. There was one other thing he had do daily. He tried to get out of it, to utterly NO avail.
Sousuke reported to GJ headquarters on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the training of the new GJ Arm Slave units. He followed the curriculum he and Dr. Director had laid out. Basic Arm Slave overviews with an emphasis on certain machines. The first twenty Agents were specifically assigned to the BK's. None of the Agents were happy about the appearance of the machine, however, EVERYONE had heard about the fiasco of fifty Agents vs. one Bonta-kun. And the Agents getting their butts kicked by an eight foot hamster in a Bowler hat.
The only saving grace they could see was the Bowler had been changed to some kind of helmet that resembled the U.S. Armys new Advanced Combat Helmet. They still had the huge ears sticking out from the head. But since they contained several of the sensors there was no getting rid of them
The receiving of the BK's was a pleasant surprise to the young NCO for a variety of reasons. First he had despaired of ever selling the machines he had designed for almost the express purpose Dr. Director intended to use them for: low intensity conflicts and law enforcement. He truly believed the machines could save lives and resources of law enforcement agencies through out the world.
There was also the capital outlay that had gone into the research, design, production and modification of the mini Arm Slaves. They had cost him a fortune to get them into the field. With the sale of the 20 machines that had been sitting back in Sengwa he had just broke even, but with the prospect of 50 more over two years, he would net a tidy profit.
Kim was taking a full course load and had classes Monday through Friday. She also had labs two nights a week. Kaname was only slightly better off. Both of the young women were taking full advantage of the education opportunities they had been offered.
Ron had the lightest load scholastically of all of them, with a Mon, Wed, Fri schedule and no night labs. Didn't mean he wasn't busy. First there was Elma Lee. To say he was tired of bumming rides was an understatement. He wanted the car finished. NOW! When he wasn't in school or working on the car, he was training in the Dojo.
And if he wasn't training then he was cooking the meals for everyone. This didn't bother him because he had quickly discovered that while Kaname was quite good in the kitchen, Sousuke left something to be desired. It wasn't that his cooking was inedible, it was just very bland and plain. And Kim, forget it. Besides, to him cooking was relaxing.
Every morning they trained, including, much to his horror, Wade. Sousuke felt he had made some errors in the beginning of his stint as Kaname's bodyguard. Starting with a failure to make her an integral of her own defense. So now Wade was suffering through training the same as the rest of them.
It was Kaname that got through to him though by telling him some of the things she had been through and mentioning that it was only Sousuke, either through his own actions or the training he had given her, that had prevented either her death or mind-rape. Sousuke would teach him anything he could, including to Kim's dismay, firearms. But Wade had to be a willing, if not enthusiastic student. So Wade bore it with a petulant grace. To both Kim and Ron's surprise, he seemed a natural with a pistol. His big hands were easily able to handle both the Colt .45 and Glock 10mm. Sagara explained that Wade didn't have any bad habits to unlearn and he took the instructor's word as gospel. It was the hand to hand and martial arts training that threw him. He hated having to work out that hard, but at least it was only for a couple of hours in the morning
Something else that they trained on was A.S. operations. Once or twice a week, on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays, Sousuke trooped them down the transport tube that GJ had finally gotten around to installing. Inside the Sims he walked them through various A.S. models.
Kaname had an advantage at first, both because she was Whispered and she had had a lot more exposure to the machines. And once again, surprisingly, Wade seemed to be a natural and was right behind her. His affinity for hardware came to the fore with his innate understanding of both the limitations and abilities of the machines.
The gap didn't last long though as Kim's natural competitiveness forced her to improve. What frustrated her to no end was the fact that she couldn't touch Sagara when they strapped on the harnesses. Even if he was in a technically inferior machine. She was more than his match in the Dojo unarmed and had to taken to training both of the Japanese while Sagara focused on training Ron, mostly in either combat techniques or meditation/focusing exercises.
It was after one particularly frustrating encounter when Kaname drew Kim aside one morning after training and mentioned something to the effect of "Sousuke grew up with these things. He was fighting literal life or death battles in them when he was eleven and twelve years old. He is also one of the top rated pilots in Mithril. I can name four or five people off of the top of my head better than any of us, combined, except Sousuke. That's why he's the trainer."
"Remember in the first encounter he had us fighting each other. I was able to beat all of you. Now I can only beat you half the time. And we've only be training a couple of weeks. Here's something to think about, Ronald started off at the bottom of the scoring. And while we've all gotten better. He's improved the most. In a few weeks, I think that Wade and I will be the bottom of the list."
Not that Kaname was happy about that. She had a competitive streak to rival Kim's. But over the last two years she had come to accept the fact that there were people better than her at doing things. She didn't like it, but she accepted it. And that didn't stop her from trying, it merely lowered her frustration levels.
**********
About ten days after their return from Porter's Corner, Drakken contacted them. After he had talked to Ron and Wade, he arranged a meeting in about a week. Both Ron and Wade were being tight lipped about the discussion. Training took on a whole new level when they arrived at the agreed upon location. At first, Ron and Wade were going to go alone with Sousuke to drive them there, but Kim and Kaname insisted they go along as well. Since it was just the five of them they rode over in Eleanor.
Upon entering the massive warehouse, Ron and Wade shocked Kim and Kaname by pulling out their weapons. Wade shucked the Glock Sousuke had sighted for him, jacked a round and pulled some extra magazines, slipping them to a more accessible pocket. Ron pulled the Lotus Blade, leaving it as a Katana. Sousuke went wide-eyed and immediately followed suit. He didn't know what was happening, but seeing the two arm themselves caused alarm bells in his head to go off.
Kim and Kaname were so stunned by the sight, they were frozen. Ron simply pointed to a booth just inside and told the girls "Girls, wait in there. And don't come out for anything."
Kim was flabbergasted, "What????"
"Please! Trust me, OK! We know what we're doing."
Kim snapped her jaw shut, looked into Ron's cocoa eyes and for once in her life followed Ron's order. She grabbed Kaname and dragged her to the booth. Inside there were banks of monitors that showed almost the entire warehouse. On the back wall there were banks of computer towers that were wired into the monitors and had a couple of dozen wireless routers on top of them.
Outside Ron took a deep breath and shouted "GO!" From everywhere dozens of synthodrones appeared. From crates, from trapdoors in the floor, even dropping from the ceiling. They were all armed with Drakken's signature stun staves. Ron advanced into the swirling mass of synthetic humanoids hacking and slashing.
Wade followed behind him, carefully picking his shots, triple tapping as Sousuke had taught him. He didn't always hit, but between the three rounds aimed at each drone, he was able to either drop them himself or slow them enough for Ron to pick them off.
Sousuke hung back. After the first drone Ron had hacked into a puddle of goo, he had figured out this was some kind of a training tool. He only shot at drones that either Ron or Wade looked like they were going to miss.
Inside the booth, Kim and Kaname watched the monitors. They noticed that a bank of computers in the rear of the booth seemed to be recording everything. At first Kim thought that Drakken had double-crossed them. But Ron's telling her they knew what was happening gave her the clue. "Oh My God. It's a shoot house." She looked at Kaname and said, "Like the kind the military use where they use live ammunition. They have these towns, nobody lives there, where they practice things like forced entries and combat patrols with live ammunition."
As Wade had slapped in his last clip, he shouted, "Last mag!" Sousuke was right there. When Wade fired his last round, the slide locked to the rear and he said. "I'm out."
Sousuke stepped around the boy and shouted "I'm up."
Through it all, Ron kept twirling, slashing and cutting at the oncoming drones. Even though he was armed with a weapons centuries behind the firearms of the other two, he was much more effective at dropping the humanoids. The gashes to the torsos, severed limbs and decapitated heads, opened much larger goo pouring areas than the smaller bullets did.
After nearly twenty minutes, hundreds of rounds and dozens of synthodrones, they stopped coming. Ron and Sousuke were back to back and had Wade between them. Sousuke pulled a spare clip and passed it back to Wade. Wade slapped it home like Sousuke had shown him and the three shifted to allow Wade to cover part of the area. They stood back to back to back, watching to see if it was really over.
The rest of the lights started buzzing and came on. From a hidden door in the booth, there was a chime. A moment later the door opened revealing Drakken and Shego. Drakken walked in and as calmly as you pleased, gently pushed Kim to the side and said "Excuse me Kimberly Ann." He flipped a switch to a microphone and said, "Well, does it meet with your expectations?"
Kim was horrified when Wade hollered, "You know, that was more fun than Zombie Mayhem or Everlot! Let's do that again!"
**********
Kim was sitting there with a twitching eyebrow, glaring at Ron, Drakken and Wade. The only reason Sagara was being excluded was he had NO idea what was happening before they got there. Kaname wasn't amused either, but her frustration level was much lower because, first, Sousuke didn't know what was coming and second, as much as she hated to admit it, it was a good idea. Shego just leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, wearing a larger than her usual smirk.
Twitch "And you didn't tell us about this, why?"
Wade, like a normal 13 year old trying to pass the buck, piped up saying, "It was Ron's idea."
Twitch twitch "And you didn't tell us about this, why?"
"Well, uh, you see, it's like this, uhhhhh Drakken?"
"Oh no, I merely did as you asked. Don't try to include me in your little lover's spat."
At 'lover's spat' Kim blushed and regained control of her rising temper. Taking a breath she said, "Ron, I'm not mad, OK? I'm upset. Mostly because you didn't say anything and you, Wade and Sagara were out there with all those synthodrones. Now why didn't you say anything?"
"Well, because I wanted to make sure it was going to work first." Ron pointed at her with his index finger "And if you'll recall I tried to get you two to stay back at the base."
Kim really tried to find a fault there, but Ron was right. "That still doesn't excuse you for not saying anything when we got here, Ron. Seeing you out there with Wade and Sagara, not knowing what was happening scared the hell out of me. You all coulda been really hurt by those synthodrones."
Drakken seemed offended and said, "Not likely, Kimberly."
"What, I saw their staves from in here. They were live!"
"True, but at this level the effect has been dialed way back. It was mostly a visual effect. Oh you would have still gotten a nasty shock, but nothing like what you're used to. Just enough to let you really know that you've been hit."
"Alright, that's the shock part of the staves, but what about the hits themselves. Those drones were swinging full force. Ron and Sagara have been there, done that, but not Wade. He's just thirteen."
Shego's smirk grew to monstrous proportions, but before she could say anything Drakken beat her to it. "And how old were you when you started your missions?" Kim's jaw snapped shut again and Drakken continued, "Besides, what are synthodrones, how are they controlled? They're organic machines controlled by a computer program. They don't hit too hard unless the safeties are overridden. They can swing at you, full power, and still stop half an inch away. Or hit with just enough force to make certain you know you've been hit. You can even step the difficulty of the scenario up or down as desired, from target practice to lethal. Nothing like life or death to get your attention, eh?"
Drakken had his hands behind his back as he started pacing back and forth, "As your boyfriend mentioned when he asked me to set this up. They're the perfect training tool. He even recommended that I try to market the setup as a trainer to police and military forces. Since I'm trying to 'Go Straight' I still need a positive cash flow. And he only asked me for five percent of the profits, after gross, for the idea. Unfortunately, since he had your little tech meister record the entire conversation, I was forced to agree. However it'll only net him thousands" Drakken threw his hands into the air as his rant continued "but it'll make me milliiiiooons!"
"DREW, focus. Kimmie remember?"
"Oh right, thank you Shego."
"Anyway, as I was saying, with fifteen levels of difficulty, and this only being level four, neither your boyfriend nor your techman were in any real danger."
Kim still wasn't happy. She passed her glare to Ron. Twitch
"You're right, I should have told you and I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure it was gonna work first."
They spent the rest of the day going over the various scenarios and settings and running through a few times. They discovered that there were enemy drones, neutral drones and allied drones. While running through the shoot house you had to take out the enemies while avoiding hurting the neutrals and allies. There were pure stealth missions and straight forward assault missions.
After watching a few missions, Kim had no choice but to call Dr. Director. She had to see this. The training potentials were beyond staggering. You could have full-up live-fire missions with mobile reacting enemies and neutrals and not have to worry about hurting bystanders.
When Betty showed up, she was skeptical at first, until she watched Sagara run through a POW escape mission where he first had to breakout of confinement, then either avoid or neutralize enough enemies to effect a full out escape. They had conceded his 'week' of planning and preparation and let him have the opening.
Betty asked Drakken what setting the system was running on. When he said 11 she asked what that meant. Drakken told her that for the proposes of the scenario the guards were very well trained and alert normal humans. They weren't superhuman, but they were comparable to the guards in GJ holding. Drakken could attest to the quality of those guards. The only reason he had been able to escape so often was Shego.
Betty watched from the control booth as Sagara first broke out and 'killed' the first guard by breaking his neck. Sousuke stole the guard's keys and weapons and proceeded to slaughter the opposition. He didn't bother with stealth at all. And while he didn't go out of his way to find enemies, avoidance seemed to be at the bottom of his priorities. If a guard came close they went down.
And Sousuke varied his methods causing 'confusion' in the ranks, forcing 'them' to think there was more than one escapee. This had the effect of thinning the forces against him as they spread out to cover more fugitives. And because they couldn't concentrate on one enemy, he only had to face twos and threes instead of squads of eight to ten.
Eighteen minutes and thirty-two seconds after breakout, Sousuke was clear and the computer gave him a better then eighty-one percent chance of escape. Behind him he had left a trail of dead that gave Betty the willies and even Shego was slack-jawed. In all of her escapes, no one had died. Lots of busted up people, but no deaths. And the first thing Sousuke did was drop the enemy permanently.
During the debreifing, he mentioned that since he had been a "Prisoner of War", that meant the guards were enemy combatants and should be treated as such. He stated that he would have used different, non-lethal methods had the scenerio been set in a civilian prison.
For Betty, it was a sobering performance by her subordinate that led her to the quiet decision to only turn him loose if she really had to. Another surprising piece of information came when she asked Drakken when he had gotten the idea of the shoot house. Imagine her surprise when he hemmed and hawed and finally pointed at Ron and said, "It was his idea, it's all his fault."
**********
It was a gloriously clear Saturday. The weather was beautiful, they were caught up on the homework front and, after taking the time last night, the common areas had been cleaned. Both girls knew their respective boyfriends had plans for them that evening. Kim and Kaname were going shopping at the mall in preparation of the evening.
They had just arrived, parked the car and were walking towards the doors when a van crossed in front of them. The side door opened to reveal several men wearing magenta uniforms with Greek letters on the front. They were holding some kind of ray guns or Tazers aimed at them when one of them said, "Get in!" Kim instantly shifted to mission mode, but before she could move, he held up a remote of some kind, "Surrender or the mall and its patrons suffer."
Kim recognized the goons of Gemini and the WWEE. She wasn't ready to risk innocent bystanders so she glanced at Kaname, who had shifted into a combat stance. She didn't like it and she could tell that Kaname wasn't happy about it either. They shared a look and decided to bide their time. They were no sooner onboard when they were searched. Both of their Kimmunicators were tossed to side of the road along with Kaname's BDA.
The men onboard the van thought they had made a clean quiet getaway and had at least few hours before the girls would even be missed. And they would have been right, except for one small detail: Kaname had driven Eleanor.
After immediately calling Sousuke, Eleanor engaged her covert pursuit mode. She followed the van to a deserted area where it was drawn into a hoverjet. Eleanor thought to herself, "Now that's just cheating." She passed the information to Sousuke and returned to the base.
**********
Ron was in the process of ripping apart one of the training dummies while screaming. He was in a blind fury after taking the Sloth to the location of the discarded Kimmunicator and Kaname's BDA and recovering them.
"Stoppable-san!" He turned to see Sagara standing there pointing a Tazer at him. "At the first hint of blue, I will drop you where you stand!"
"You bastard!"
"You need to calm yourself, Stoppable-san!"
"How the Hell do you expect me to do that? And how the Hell can you possibly be so calm? Kaname's missing along with Kim!"
The Tazer never wavered, "I am aware of that. And I am just as frantic with worry as you are. I'm calm because going on a rampage will merit the situation nothing. We have to be able to focus in order to find them. We need information, we need a location and we need a target. Once we have those, we can plan what to do. Now once the enemy is in sight is another matter."
"I have given Load-sensei the frequency of a locator beacon Kaname should have with her. For nearly any kidnapper, it would be an innocuous piece of jewelry. But if his sensors are as good as I suspect, then we will be moving in less then an hour. Will you be ready, or should I requisition more training dummies?"
Twenty minutes later, Wade had a location. He called for Ron and Sagara to meet him in the lab. It was the first time Sagara had been there and the first time he had seen BK-Unit 1 since Wade had brought it down there. The rear of the machine now had much longer fur in the back. It looked shaggy, like a long haired animal instead of a short fuzz it used to have. Sousuke shook his head. He was there for a mission brief to rescue Kaname and her companion.
Wade took a breath as Ron looked at him. "Ron, it's Gemini."
"That freak? Where we going and what's our ride?"
"I tracked that locator Sagara clued me onto. It led to a base in the mountains about a hundred and fifty miles to the north. I was able to get some overheads from a passing Russian bird. Can't take the Sloth, the terrain's too rugged to land. I also spotted some serious radar coverage, so we can't come in and land with a hoverjet. But there's a scheduled cargo flight that supposed to pass overhead in about 40 minutes. I was able to get them to shift their flight path off to the West and around the base. So we'll have to have the bird mimic the cargo plane's flight path to keep them from getting suspicious. Then we'll HALO from about 40,000 feet, hit the ground and.."
"Wait a minute, Wade. What's this we crap? You're staying here and giving us backup."
"They're my friends too, Ron! I'm going with you."
"No, you're not."
"Yes I am."
"NO, you're not!"
"YES I AM! They're my friends too!"
"NO, YOU'RE …"
"Stoppable-san!" When Sousuke had their attention he looked at Wade, "Load-sensei, where would you be able to provide the most benefit to the mission?"
"Well, I could be a lot of help onsite!" Grey steel just bored into the dark eyes of the young genius. "They're my friends, too!" The tech-guru sounded anguished. Kim had been his friend ever since he had taken over her website and he had bonded with the Japanese girl that had been showing him how to control his Whispered state.
Sagara just hammered him with those cold steel grey eyes asked him again "Load-sensei, where would you be able to provide the most benefit to the mission?"
Wade's shoulders slumped, "Here."
"Then where do you think you should be?"
"It's not fair, they're my friends too!"
"And we have a better chance of bringing them home safely if you're providing us technical support with all the resources at your disposal. Just because you're not going into the field doesn't mean your contribution doesn't count. You've seen the reports of some of the operations I was involved with in Mithril?"
Wade silently nodded. Sousuke put his hand on the boys shoulder, "Then understand this, none of those operations would have ever launched without personnel just like you. People that have never even seen the enemy, yet they were as responsible for a victory as the Soldier at the frontline."
"If you want to make a change in how you participate on missions, you will have to prove yourself. However once you do so, I will be your greatest advocate." Wade's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "But NOT NOW. This is a decision that should be made carefully and with a clear head. Not in the heat of crisis. For now, we need you here. Now how are we to get to close to the enemy?"
Wade was shocked by the Soldier in front of him. It sounded like Sagara had just said he was willing to allow him in the feild. Sousuke looked the teen in the eyes and nodded. Between the two of them, there was an unspoken agreement.
Wade turned and pulled the recovered Kimmunicators from a workbench. He plugged them into a terminal and uploaded several files. He handed them to the field agents in front of him. Then he activated a monitor and pointed out things as he talked.
"You'll have to HALO from 40,000 feet, you should try to land about here. There looks to be a blind spot in their coverage here, so you should be able to land unobserved. You'll move out from there to about here, there's a lot of thermal bloom so I think it's either a vent or an opening. I can't get you any better information until you get onsite. Once you get close enough, you can use the Kimmunicator to scan the area. Then…..
**********
"Please relax Kim-san" Kaname said very quietly.
"Grrr! How can I relax? We've been kidnapped, our Kimmunicators have been taken, your gun's gone and we're trapped in a room we can't get out of without some kind of distraction."
"Why did they take your bracelet?" she kept the quiet voice.
"Huh? Because it's my Kimmunicator, same as yours was. That's how Wade contacts us."
Kaname gave Kim a significant look, then looked at the cot beside herself. Kim got the clue and took a seat. Kaname almost murmured forcing Kim to sit closer. "I see, I'm just glad they didn't take my bracelet. It was a gift from Sergeant Sagara. He gave me a pair of flash-bang earrings at the same time. They were so cute. He's so thoughtful like that. He always wants to make sure I'm safe."
Kim was starting to pick up on the emphasis. Her bracelet, Sergeant Sagara, not Sousuke, camouflaged flash-bang earrings, Sagara's pre-planning, HER BRACELET!!! "You know, We're going to need a good distraction to get out of here, Kaname."
Kaname looked at the clock just outside of the cell. "We were captured, what, about 2 and a half hours ago? We'll have all the distraction we could want in about thirty minutes. Sousuke should be arriving soon. Probably with Ronald-san. And depending on how aggravated he is, we'll just have to see what Sousuke's response will be. I hope for our kidnappers' sakes, he doesn't decide to use Al. That's not counting Ronald-san.
They talked quietly for a little longer when a large man with swept-back hair, a neatly trimmed goatee and a metal hand came into the alcove outside their cell. Kim immediately went into snark mode. "Hello Sheldon."
**********
Just before Sousuke dropped into the transport tube, he paused. Something was nagging at him. Ron watched him expecting him to drop. Sousuke went and checked the perimeter security cameras and couldn't find anything, but the buzz wouldn't go away. He spoke to Wade from the front of the tube. "Load-sensei, something is wrong. I'm not sure what. Would you do me a favor?"
"What do ya need?"
"Until we get back, get into the lab and hit the security lockdowns. This is too convenient. I suspect this may be a trap to pull your security away."
Ron's head popped up and looked at Sousuke. "You're right, this does feel kinda trappish. Wade?"
"I can always tag along!" Wade looked at Sagara to see cold, cold, cold grey steel. "Alright, I'll do it."
"Thank you."
They had taken the transport tube to G.J. base and commandeered a hoverjet and pilot, for once NOT Agent Du. He was off of suspension but was still grounded. The G.J. pilot was surprised by the assortment of weapons the infamous "Fifty-Agent Sagara" was laying out on the deck of the aircraft. He was going through each one, field stripping it, reassembling it, checking the action and making sure he had enough ammo.
The Agent was even more shocked by the "Sidekick". Ron was sitting cross legged, eyes closed with a VERY grim expression in meditation, holding a glowing blue Bo across his knees. That wasn't the shocking part to the Agent. The shocking part was that he was hovering about 6 inches above the deck.
Like most of the local Agents, he had seen the videos of Ron's Graduation and the Dementor mission from a few months ago, but this just drove home the difference between Ron and rest of the Agency. Unlike an unnamed 'Top Agent', he had come to the conclusion that Ron Stoppable was one man you DID NOT fuck with. And for the first time in his G.J. career, the Agent truly felt sorry for the bad guys.
**********