TheRedKommie asked a question in his last review, the answer to which is. No, I never got lucky enough to be stationed in Japan. I got shuffled between Fort Campbell and Alaska. However, I did take a leave in Okinawa once. That was a blast!

Over The Mountian

Ozzy Osborne

.com/watch?v=4PE7Y04JU6o

Chapter 40 Over The Mountain

After the excitement of Sousuke's proposal died down, most of the diners returned to their seats. Kim and Ron proceeded to lay out the rest of the massive feast Ron had produced. There was the traditional turkey and home-made cornbread stuffing, ham, corn on the cob, peas, potatoes, both mashed and au gratin, seasoned green beans, candied yams, cranberry sauce.

In addition to all the staples of a Thanksgiving feast, Ron had a few surprises on one of the carts. On a warming tray, under a chafing lid were pumpkin, blueberry and apple pies. All of it 'ala mode' with home-made vanilla ice cream kept in a container of dry ice. He also had his 'Seven Layers of Heaven' hidden under another stainless steel dome.

Once Kim and Ron had the food laid out, Ron stepped back and from somewhere produced a carving knife and rat's tail. He started to hone the knife so fast that more then one of the people who knew how uncoordinated Ron could be grew nervous. Kim simply took her seat with a totally unconcerned look, showing complete trust in her guy standing behind her with a flashing blade that was becoming sharper with each stroke.

When Ron started to carve the bird, he asked who wanted what and passed the dark meat first. When he sliced the breast into almost paper-thin sheets, he showed just how sharp the knife was. When he finished, before he set it on the tray he showed her the knife and quietly said, "Thank you."

In the same quiet tone, "I trust you with my life, Ron." She glanced at the other end of the table to the pair who were paying no attention to anyone else, back to him and said, "Always have, always will." Then she smiled an evil grin, "Now a big red button on the other hand….."

"Rrrrr, you.."

She silenced him with a quick kiss, and then said "Let's eat."

Hana, who might have been more coordinated than a regular 15 month old, insisting on feeding herself. But she was still a 15 month old; getting more food on her high chair tray and face and hands then in her mouth. A sitch Rufus was absolutely thrilled about as he scampered from his spot on her shoulders, down one arm, across the tray and back the other arm up to the opposite shoulder. When he zipped across the tray, to Hana's evident delight, any food not on the plate disappeared.

Kaname had scooted her chair a bit closer to Sousuke's, so close they rubbed elbows as they ate. Neither cared, from time to time they would just glance at each other with a dreamy expression and pause their eating to just gaze at each other until something brought them back to the room. The rest of the guests left them to their entertainment, concentrating instead on their own plates.

The women, Ayame included, had similar dreamy expressions with Anne being the worst. Even Ron wasn't clueless enough not to know why she would look from the newly engaged couple to her daughter, then sigh and giggle. The worst was when she would glance at him and wink. He blushed every time she did it. Kim wasn't worried about it. She had already decided that when Ron asked her the same question what her answer would be.

The men didn't have the faraway look the women did. They all had the look of men who thought all was right in the world. Jim and Tim hadn't decided whether to gag and mock the new fiancés (actions they figured would earn them the wrath of every woman in the room, Ayame included and probably the men at the table as well, two of which had killed their enemies in Combat) or to be happy for the couple.

Instead they settled for trying to continue pre-teen flirting with the Japanese girl across from them. To no avail; she was too involved with either trying and failing to get her sister's attention and playing with the toddler to her side, much to the Tweebs frustration and the amusement of everyone else except for Kaname and Sousuke, who didn't even notice.

Groaning, Shunya pushed himself back a bit from the table pulling at his waistband. Not satisfied with the result he had no choice. He said, "Everyone, please excuse me." He reached down and loosened his belt, letting out a relieved sigh. "I haven't needed to do that since the Thanksgiving before Kaname's mother passed away."

He looked at Ron and said, "Young man, if you ever need employment, I am on excellent terms with many of the finest restaurants in New York and Tokyo. Five star establishments, every one. Say the word and you'll have a glowing recommendation. It will be enough to at least get you a working interview and once they taste the way you cook, they will shackle you to the stove to make sure you don't escape."

Ron got his goofy grin and said, "I've had a lot of super-villains try that, Sir. And between me and KP, they haven't been able to yet."

He pointed to the cart and said, "That 'Seven Layers of Heaven' tells me that those 'super-villains' haven't been desperate enough. I'm quite serious, there are two establishments in New York and at least half a dozen I know in Tokyo that would give you a low to middle six figure salary to have you working for them."

Ron was slack-jawed, "Ha, ha, half a million, for cooking?"

"In New York? No. The best establishments there would start someone of your talents at close to hundred thousand American dollars. Tokyo on the other hand…"

He paused, considering, "You see in Tokyo they can find chefs for Japanese cuisine much easier then for Western. So a talented chef experienced in Western cuisine would be given a premium salary. Especially considering the cost of living in Japan. It would likely be 25 to 30 million Yen, say 300 to 350 thousand American dollars. To start."

"For cooking?"

"No, young man, not for 'cooking'. For creating 'Art'. And I can assure you that what you have demonstrated here today was just that. Edible art. I don't have hard figures, but I have reason to believe you will never be, the American term is, 'broke'. But, suffice it to say that as long as you can create that 'art', neither would you lack for employment opportunities."

After the dinner was finished, most of the group helped gather the leftovers and carted them to the kitchen. The rest gathered the dishes and organized them into assorted loads for the dishwasher, rinsing and stacking the rest on the counter for when the current load finished.

While most of them brought up the dishes, Ron, with the help of Anne and Barbara, went about assembling several packages for the guests to take home with them. He had watched the diners carefully to see what they seemed to like the best and packed accordingly.

Once the food was taken care of the men moved several of the chairs upstairs and replaced the folding tables back against the elevator shaft on the roof. Kim left in the Sloth to pick up Wade.

While she was gone she got a call on her cell. Monique had come home for Thanksgiving break from Duke University. She had called the Possible house and even drove by there. Not finding anyone home she called Kim asking to come visit. Kim was ecstatic. Once she had Wade, she drove to meet her BGF and have Monique follow her back to the garage.

Entering the garage, Wade broke off, heading for the stairs. He knew Ron had plenty of leftovers and wanted to dig in. After watching a news special on overweight kids last week, his mom had decided that he needed a diet and had restricted the amount of food on his plate; on Thanksgiving of all days! It wasn't as if he needed a diet anyway. While he hadn't lost any weight, over the last months, the weight he carried had changed to lean muscle. For some reason, both Kim and Ron had this vision of a totally ripped Wade towering over them, arms bigger then their thighs.

Monique exited her parent's car and wasn't impressed at first, "Girlfriend, WUWTP? You live in a garage?"

"Naa, this is just the garage where we keep the vehicles, there's more to this place than meets the eye. It's become our base of operations."

Monique noticed the Duck backed along the wall across from the other cars. She pointed and said, "I saw you on the news a couple weeks ago, during that flood. Girl, I gotta tell ya, I thought you were a goner that time."

"If it hadn't been for Sagara knowing how to jury-rig the Duck, we might a been." She started heading for the stairs down to the Armory. "Come on, I gotta do something before we go up to the apartment."

As they walked, Monique leered and asked, "Sagara? Is that, that cute guy you had with you during the flood?"

As they descended the stairs, Kim knowing her friend said, "Mon, I'm gonna give you a two a pieces of advice about Sagara. First: he's OFF LIMITS, try and make a move on him and his new fiancée will likely rip you apart. She's Combat trained and even though we're home, I'll bet she still has her gun on her."

"Gun?"

Kim's face grew sad and pensive. She opened the palm-lock to the Armory. When the door opened, Kim entered the Armory followed by Monique. "Changing times, Mon."

Along one wall, there was a bench with Armorer's tools and shelves holding locked pistol racks. On the other there were locked racks holding several different types of rifles and automatic weapons. M-4's, AK-74's, FN2000's, M249's and M240B's. Near the back end of the racks were long guns and crew served weapons, Barrett .50 Cal. Sniper rifles and Browning M2 Machine Guns. Even a couple Mk 32 MGL's.

Against the back there was a drum half full of empty brass and stacked wooden boxes marked with things like 9MM, 10 MM and .40 CAL PIS, 5.56x45 and 5.45X39 ball, 5.56 and 7.62 LINK 4-1 FMJ/TRACE, .50 CAL 4-1 AP/TRACE, 40MM FRAG, 40MM ANTI-PERS or 40MM INCND. Other boxes were marked GND/ followed with either FRAG, SMOKE, INCND or FL/BANG.

The young woman could only look around wide-eyed. The only word she could come up with was, "Whoa!"

Kim answered, "I know."

"Kim, there's enough stuff in here to start a small war!"

She sighed, "I know." She reached behind her back, pulled and safed her Ruger, walking to a set of racks that had the name of each Team member stenciled on it. In each rack was an M4, a shotgun with a pistol grip and a either a holstered pistol or an empty holster. Kim's was one of the empties.

"Kim? Since when do you pack heat?"

Kim started to secure the Ruger in her rack and said, "Since Sagara and Kaname got here. I don't like it, but this pistol is the only reason Wade's alive."

"WHAT?"

Kim closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath, "I'd rather not talk about it. Ask Wade or Ron. No, better yet, ask Sagara! He knows the details and it won't bother him to tell you what happened like it would Ron and Wade."

As they left the Armory, Monique said, "You said you had two things to tell me abut him. What's the other?"

Kim locked the door, answering, "Until he knows you better, DON'T startle him. You probably won't like his reaction and his reflexes are almost as good as mine. The difference between us is, my first reaction would be to disarm you, his might not be."

Seeing the look Monique was giving her, while they were walking upstairs, Kim explained. Telling her friend about Ron breaking up the PDA between the Japanese couple the first night they were there.

"Mon, I'm serious! When Ron hit the glass, I thought time had to have stopped for a few seconds. One instant those two were making out on the line, the next Sagara had his Glock drawn and aimed dead at us. Somehow he had even placed Kaname behind him, shielding her. That was before the empty clip from Kaname's gun hit the floor and she reloaded. And she had the mag in her hand. The only other person I've ever seen that fast was Shego."

Kim grew her evil grin, "HEHE, speaking of Shego…."

When they made it upstairs, they were gossiping like they hadn't been apart 6 days let alone 6 months. Monique had left shortly after the Graduation party to get settled in at her college. Kim gave her a tour of the apartment. Monique was now suitably impressed.

Reaching the kitchen, Monique looked at the large red cylinder on the wall. She cocked her head to the side and looked at Kim. She pointed and said, "I'm not even gonna ask."

"Rrrrrr, I'm getting better. Ron's been teaching me."

"Guess we're gonna have to nickname that boy 'Superchef' then. Speaking of 'Blondie', where is he?"

"They're probably on the patio." Before they got outside, they ran into Ron who seemed to be so distracted he barely noticed Monique.

"KP, guess who called while you were gone."

"Who?"

"Go on, guess."

Kim deadpanned, "Drakken and Shego."

"No, but I do have some food for them. It was Felix! He got in last night and wants to come over. I told him to call as soon as he gets here and I'll let him in. He'll be here any minute." Ron was obviously pumped by the call from his best guy friend.

"You might have to have him park in the lot until the 'rents leave. Mon took the last spot in the garage."

"Oh! Hey Monique! No prob, KP." He bolted for the stairs reaching for his cell as he went. Kim smiled, looked at her BGF and counted backwards out loud.

"3, 2, 1."

"MONIQUE!"

"That's my guy!" Once the hugs where out of the way, Ron apologized, said he would be back once Felix arrived. He bounded out of the living room, down the stairs. Kim led the way to find everyone else outside. Kim introduced Monique to Sagara and the Chidori's

Felix rolled around the Galaxie admiring the mirror-like finish of the Wimbledon White paint. With an awed voice, he said, "Ron, ya gotta take me for a ride, man!"

Ron reached into his pocket, pulled out his keys and tossed them to his friend. With a completely innocent goofy grin he said, "Dude, you're my 'best bud'. You can drive."

Felix looked at the keys in his hands, then back up to Ron perplexed, who was smiling at him totally without malice, "Ron, I can't drive your car."

Ron was clueless, "Why not?"

The wheelchair bound young man was stunned to realize that Ron really had no idea what he was saying. Ron didn't see Felix Renton, paraplegic and student of advanced robotics at M.I.T. All Ron saw was his friend and gaming buddy. The blonde in front of him completely disregarded the wheelchair he was sitting in and accepted him as he was.

Felix had to take a breath to get his emotions under control. He tossed the keys back to Ron saying, "Ron, I really hope you never change. But you oughta drive. Ya think you can open the door so I can climb inside?"

Felix could practically see the gears turning in Ron's head and knew the instant the chair occurred to him. "Felix, I'm sorry, man!"

"Ron, don't worry about. That's one of the reasons you're my best friend. You don't care about it. Come on, let's get rolling."

Ron still felt bad about putting Felix on the spot like he did, so he quirked an eyebrow and asked, "You wanna just go for a spin or do ya want the 'E' ticket ride?

"What's the 'E ticket' ride?"

"Well we could just take a spin around town or I can show ya what Elma Lee can really do."

Felix, being like most young people with a 'Y' chromosome just put on a cheesy grin to match Ron's and said "What da you think?"

"Give me a minute." Ron turned and opened one of the lockers in front of the Galaxie's space and pulled out a set of straps. He opened the passenger door and hooked the straps to the roll bar and into buckles in the seat, changing the standard "3 point" seat belt into a "4 point" harness, then did the same to the drivers side. He tapped the button on his wrist Kimmunicator to call Wade. Receiving a response he said, "Wade ol' buddy, I need ya to do me a favor. I'm taking Felix for a ride up Ridgeline Road. Can ya give me overheads?"

"Sure thing, Ron. Just let me get a 'Slurpster' and some snacks and I'll be setup by the time you reach the base."

"Dude, you rock." He turned to Felix and tossed a thumb to the empty passenger seat, saying "In ya go."

Although you couldn't really tell by looking at him, Felix Renton was strong, very strong! Long used to having to move himself around using just his arms and torso, he had developed a significant amount of upper body strength. He hitched himself forward on his chair and grabbed the roof of the car and lifted himself like a gibbon into the passenger seat. He settled his legs in front of him and settled into the seat. He looked at the harness and Ron reached in and showed him how to hook the straps in place.

Ron walked back to the locker and pulled out a couple of open face helmets with built-in commo sets, then climbed in and passed the helmets to Felix saying, "Safety First." He fastened his own harness and started the Galaxie with a rumble. Pushing the button to open the overhead door, he pulled out of the garage into the lowering afternoon sky.

Back upstairs a feminine voice was heard to say, "He's what!"

"Ron said he's taking Felix for a run up Ridgeline. I gotta get into the lab to get him some overhead coverage." In one hand Wade had one of his huge 'Slurpster' cups and in the other was a mounded plate of 'Thanksgiving goodness'. Before he got a response from the bewildered redhead he headed to his sanctuary in the basement saying, "Come on! This oughta be good." He was followed by everybody left in the building.

When they reached the lab, Wade settled into his custom chair and fired up the system as everyone gathered around the bank of monitors lining the wall in front of the genius. First Wade accessed one of the orbiting satellites and focused on the area, then he activated a couple of his custom UAV drones and launched them from the GJ base, setting them on an intercept course and sent the feed to the monitors. At one end of the route was the closed Wannaweep, at the other was the Middleton Ski Lodge.

The State had built a much better all-weather road to the Lodge that approached from the South-West, relegating Ridgeline Road to the North-East to a secondary status. But Ridgeline was the main route up, around and down the other side of Mt. Middleton and the Continental Divide itself. During the winter, if the road was clear, there could be traffic up to the ski lodge and it was a given during in the spring and summer months for the hiking and camping offered by the wilderness area.

But in the fall it dropped off to the point that even the state police and Park Rangers didn't bother to patrol more then once or twice a day looking for stranded motorist's. And with the holiday that traffic almost ceased entirely.

Partly gravel, partly asphalt, Ridgeline was fourteen mile stretch of road that had nearly every type of turn imaginable. From one extreme of a series of chicanes that forced the driver to throw the car from side to side with sheer cliffs rising up on one side and plummeting to the canyon floor on the other to the other extreme of hairpin turns that were meant to be negotiated at a crawl.

Old growth and second generation forest lined the lower portion both ends of the road creating a dense screen that prevented a driver from seeing very far around any curves up to the tree-line around 8,000 feet. The road continued climbing up to a saddle pass above 10,000 feet before dropping off the other side of the ridge down to the Lodge on the South-Western slopes of the mountain. There were places where if you weren't careful, your car would become completely airborne. These were among the most dangerous spots because once the wheels left the road, inertia was the only guiding force left on the car.

The Team had an agreement with the Park Services that, as long as they didn't abuse it, they could use the road as a training area to improve their driving skills and they had all, minus Wade to his pique, driven the route under the tutelage of a couple of professional rally racers.

Sousuke had also insisted that they each take a series of courses for Security and Protective Detail drivers that emphasized offensive rather than defensive driving skills. Courses that taught them not only how to use a car to escape or relying on any built in systems to deal with an enemy, but how to use the vehicle itself as a weapon.

He used the satellite looking for the one thing no law abiding person, organization or warm-blooded animal tried to hide. Heat. Using the thermal imager, he scanned for man-made heat sources. The only man-made things he found was the outskirts of the city and the ski lodge itself. Even the abandoned Wannaweep only showed ambient temperatures. He spotted signs of animals, deer, coyotes, a few bears, 'Is that a cougar?', but nothing in the vicinity of the road.

In the Detroit Steel, the radio flipped open and Wade gave Ron the all clear. Ron approached the former Wannaweep, the nominal starting point, at close to 50 MPH, almost double the speed their former vice-principal Steve Barkin drove the bus transporting the cheer squad to a faked competition years before and came to a sliding stop.

Looking at the entrance, a shiver crawled down his spine. He might have beaten the place twice, three times if you counted his first disastrous visit during his eleventh summer, but Wannaweep would always be a place that gave him the willies.

Seeing his expression, Kim knew what was happening. She called over the commo link, "Ron?"

"It's no big, KP. Not gonna be here long anyway." He looked at his friend in the passenger seat. "You set there, Felix?"

Felix had gotten a bit nervous on the trip up here because he had never seen Ron drive like he had so far and it showed. "Uhhh…"

"Felix, I've driven a scooter at better than 100 miles per hour. But you say the word and we'll turn around right now."

Felix looked at the changed young man beside him and saw the same goofy grin he had seen for years. There was a difference though. Under the goofyness was something else. Confidence.

He tightened his harness before he grabbed the helmet, he said, "Let's do this!" Lacing the helmet strap, he positioned the mic for the built in commo set

Ron put on his helmet, saying, "Alright! A couple things I'm gonna need your help with first." Ron asked Wade to load a set of pacenotes to the onboard system and Felix to read them to him as they went. All Felix had to do was read exactly what was on the screen.

Because of the route and the speed he was going to be moving, Ron was going to be forced to rely on the rest of his Teammates to warn him of changes in the road and dangers ahead. Wade to watch ahead for other cars, people and animals in the road and Felix to tell him what the road was going to be like.

Wade added with a smirk, "Remember Ron, the best time so far was Kaname in Eleanor at 12 minutes 40 seconds."

The only member of the Team that had a faster time than Kaname was Kim, but she had used the Sloth and had flown up and over. Kaname had ridden with everyone and knew that everything else being equal, cars, terrain and weather, Sousuke and Kim would be the leaders. She also knew there was little chance of Ron bettering her time. These thoughts weren't a slight against Ron's driving skills, instead it was a testament to Eleanor, Kim and Sousuke. Eleanor for how Sousuke had built her, Kim for her reflexes and instincts and Sousuke for his training and hard earned skills.

Ron settled himself deeper into his seat, pulling every bit of slack out of his harness and first cracked his knuckles then his neck. Once he was set, he looked back at the screen, "Wade?"

Over The Mountian
By Ozzy Osborne
.com/watch?v=4PE7Y04JU6o

START

"Three, two, one, GO!"

As soon as the word was given, Ron floored the Galaxie, sending twin rooster tails of gravel and dust into the air behind them, the rear end fishtailing side to side. The first part of the route was densely forested with fir and pine trees, dotted with patches of snow, making it hard to know what the road was like ahead of them. With the Sun below the shoulder of the mountain, the Eastern side of the mountain made for a dimly lit twilight forest requiring the use of the incredibly bright halogen high beam headlights.

Over the mountains,
Take me across the sky.
Something in my visions,
Something deep inside.

Only Wade's set of pacenotes and Felix calling them out kept Ron on the road. Felix would call a direction and Ron would line up for it blindly, prepared to make only tiny corrections. Once again, Ron found himself in a situation were he had to implicitly trust his Teammate.

Where did I wander,
Where'd you think I wandered to.
I've seen life's magic,
Astral plane I travel through.

Driving on the loose surfaced road required a different set of skills than driving on asphalt or concrete. The rear-wheel drive and loose surface created a massive under-steer situation. This forced Ron to try and enter the turns tight and then slide around the sharper turns, at times almost sideways.

I heard them tell me that this land of dreams was now.
I told them I had ridden shooting stars,
And said I'd show them how.

In the shallower curves, he hugged the outside of the curve and dipped to the inside at the apex exiting to the outside on the other side. The huge car built during the height of the Cold War drifted side to side as Ron, slinging the steering wheel first one way then the other, powered through a series of chicanes, gravel flying behind them. Only on the limited straights did the speed of the spinning rear wheels match the actual speed of the car.

Over and over,
Always tried to get away.
Living in a daydream,
Only place I had to stay.

As they climbed higher the trees became shorter and forest thinned more and more, allowing longer sightlines. At one point, approaching a hairpin turn, Ron terrified everybody not on the Team, especially his buddy Felix. Like a rocket trying to change course, he threw the car into the turn so hard they were literally going backwards and sliding through the turn until he was lined up with the road on the other side.

Fever of a breakout,
Burning in me miles wide.
People around me,
Talking to the walls inside.

On another, Felix had no clue how close things were, but the overhead drones caught the action. Ron's mother screamed and everyone else was horrified as Ron skidded through a curve, front wheels flickering left and right steering into the skid, at more then 60 MPH according to the indicators on the screen, the headlights not even pointed close to the direction of travel.

I heard them tell me that this land of dreams was now
I told them I had ridden shooting stars
And said I'd show them how

It wasn't the speed that frightened them. It wasn't even the fact the curve had no guardrail and a 100 foot drop off. It was the fact that his over rotating rear wheels were inches from the edge, throwing gravel over the side as he screamed through the curve.. They closed on the saddle pass that led to the other side of the ridgeline and down to the Lodge. A small rise at the top lofted the car into the air at better then 100 MPH. It flew a couple dozen feet and WHUMPED to the ground, gravel scattering as the suspension absorbed the impact without a bounce.

Don't need no astrology,
It's inside of you and me.
You don't need a ticket to fly with me,
I'm free. Yeah!

When they reached the ridge they broke into the light of the Sun setting in the West, blinding them for a second before Ron reached up and flipped the visor down. Seconds later, Ron's face grimaced as he nearly stood on the brakes to scrub speed and enter another hairpin, the huge Brembo's slowing the car as the antilocks squalled. Using the same reverse-drift technique as before, he lined up on the last stretch of road that led to the Lodge. The road surface changed to asphalt and Ron really got on the pedal.

Kim looked at the time and asked, "Wade?"

Never taking his eyes off of the monitors, he guessed the question, shook his head and said, "He's not gonna make it. It's not his fault though, it's the car. Elma Lee isn't a WRC Rally car. She's neither designed or modified for this kind of work. The only reason Eleanor does as good as she does is all the technology build into her. Just traction control makes a huge difference. That's not counting the active suspension, manual transmission and the AI handling the suspension. But I gotta tell ya, he's doing better than I thought he would!"

One screen showed the occupants and speakers carried the sounds of the car engine rising and falling with the changing demands of the driver. Felix had the overhead handle with one hand and a grip on the center passenger seatbelt with the other, his face a mixture of terror, excitement and adrenaline fueled rush while he called out the directions. Ron's was nearly a stone mask, eyes darting to take in the route, looking for the best line to take in the curves, hands palming the steering wheel left and right. Some of the curves were clipped so close that dust rose where the inside tires dropped off the pavement for a second.

Guitar Solo

There was one point everyone really thought Ron was going to lose it when he came through a chicane a hair to fast. The rear end fishtailed and he wound up to far too the outside of the curve. He instantly let off the throttle, but just as he got control back, the left front wheel rolled up the berm on the side of the road forcing the car to nearly roll over.

Over and under,
In between the ups and downs.
Mind on a carpet,
Magic ride goes round and round.

Most of the males sucked air and all of the women except Kim screamed and even she felt her heart rise into her throat as the left side of the car rose. On instinct, Ron turned to the right, into the roll and brought the car back onto four wheels. The asphalt surface made for tremendously better traction than the previous gravel road allowing Ron to make the most of the huge tires under the car.

Over the mountain,
Kissing silver inlaid clouds.
Watching my body,
Disappear into the crowds.

Slacking off of the more violent oversteer he had used on the looser gravel and allowing the car to track the chicanes, he still power over steered through the tighter curves, front wheels darting left and right in the arc to maintain controlled, if only barely, skids. As they skidded through a turns, smoke was pouring off of the over-rotating rear tires. Elma Lee would likely need a new set of rubber when they got back to the garage.

They dropped further down the other side of the mountain, passing the treeline again, reentering the same type of forest as the other side. The quartz halogen highbeams lighting the passing trees and scrub in a green tinted blur.

When the Galaxie entered the final mile and a half straightaway near the Lodge, Ron pushed the pedal to the floor and snapped on the supercharger, trying to pull every single horse from the 428 he could get. Smoke rolled off the rear wheels and their heads snapped to the headrests from the additional power.

A mile and a half later, roaring past the entrance, Ron killed the supercharger, stood on the brakes again and whipped the wheel around to face the car back the opposite way, coming to a screeching, squalling halt, hollering as he did. "Wade, Time?"

Don't need no astrology,
It's inside of you and me.
You don't need a ticket to fly with me,
I'm free. Yeah!

"Not bad, not bad at all Ron. Time thirteen-oh-eight"

"Awww, man!"

All of the Team knew where this could go. Self-doubt and a pity fiesta on the part of the blonde. Before anyone else could say anything, Sousuke barked at the image on the screen, "Stoppable-san! Would you try and outrace a Hayabusa on your modified scooter?"

"No. Even with the rockets the 'busa would blow its wheels off."

"Then don't try and compare your time with Kaname's. Eleanor is a much more advanced machine. On an open road, you would have the advantage. You just maintained an average speed of….." He broke off trying to do the math in his head.

At the same time, Wade and Kaname interjected "Sixty four point two Miles per Hour." "About Sixty-four."

"Thank you. Nearly Sixty-five miles an hour over rough roads that would normally take three times as long. That is an impressive run considering the vehicle. Only our instructors from the WRC in official cars could have done better. An accurate test would have all of us using the same vehicle. Also while we have all had the same training, you lack the real world experience needed to improve. That will come with time and practice."

"I guess you're right. But, I still think I coulda done better."

"Load-sensei recorded your run. Later we can analyze the data to see where."

Ron put the Galaxie in gear, "Alright, we're on our way back. We're gonna take it a lot easier so we'll be there in bout an hour."

Back at the garage the monitors receiving the feed from fhe UAV's orbiting overhead showed the rear end of the white car drift to the side and a bit of smoke coming from the rear tires as Ron hammered the throttle heading back the way he had come. Everyone began to drift back upstairs to continue with the evenings activities. Everyone that is except for the mocha colored young woman who was looking at the screen showing the returning Galaxie in shock.

Kim noticed her friends blank look and said, "Monique?"

Monique glanced at Kim and returned to the monitors, "Kim, who the hell was driving that car?"

Kim was confused, "Uhh, it was Ron."

"No it wasn't! Other than Felix, there wasn't any screaming! Even when he nearly rolled it, he didn't utter a peep! Both your mom and his screamed when it happened. I screamed and I wasn't even in the car! Now who was driving?"

"Remember what I said about things changing? Well, Ron's been one of those things."

"Kim, for as long as I've known him, Ron's almost been afraid of his own shadow sometimes! I was scared for him just watching."

"There's been a lot going on you haven't heard about, Mon. Part of it I think Ron's been growing up. And as much it tears me up to say it, but a lot of it's been because of Sagara."

"Why him?"

Kim settled into one of the chairs, "Because he was willing to do something I couldn't. He wouldn't take any excuses from any of us. He was willing to just about torture us to get his point across. If Ron goofed on a mission, I'd just blow it off saying 'Head in the game, Ron.'" Kim sounded smarmy for the last. "But Sagara would look and figure out what was wrong and explain it to him."

Kim pointed to Wade's sleeping area. "For Wade, after he moved here, Sagara drug him into the Dojo and started tossing him around and teaching him about firearms. And today was the first time in months Wade hasn't been wearing his body armor and his Glock. And that's only because he went to his 'rents today. "

At the words 'Body armor and Glock', Monique's eyebrows went up and her jaw dropped. Kim saw the look and chuckled. "I guess we've just gotten used to it. Sagara was assigned as Wade's body guard…"

Monique interrupted with, "Bodyguard?"

"Don't ask! But because of what he learned from his last assignment, he decided to quote," she lowered her voice to a gruff tone, "'Make the protectee an integral part of his own defenses.' unquote. GJ even gave Wade a badge and made him a reserve agent. The kid arrested 24 of Gemini's agents by himself after they tried to get in here, kidnap him and break through into the GJ tube in the foyer there." She pointed to the tube way entrance. Kim shuddered and chuckled again, "It wasn't pretty."

"And what about you? What's he taught you?"

Kim pondered for a second, "I'm still working on that. But a part of it is that no matter how much it galls me, I can't win a hundred percent of the time."

She stood saying to her friend, "Come on, you're gonna wanna be here later."

"What for?"

Wearing an evil grin, Kim answered, "I have a surprise cooked up for my Dad. And I wanna make sure evvvvvreeybody is here to see it!"

However, much to Kim's chagrin, when her and Monique finished climbing back up to the party she found the Stoppables were in the process of leaving.

Barbara explained "We have to get Hana home before she gets cranky. It's way past her nap time and Gene has to get ready for another speaking engagement tomorrow."

"It's no big. I was just hoping you could stay a bit longer. We were gonna have Sagara play later while the rest of us did Karaoke. Excuse me. I have to powder my nose." Kim hid it well, but most could tell something had her tweaked about the information. 'Grrrrr, I never thought I would understand Drakken. My revenge is denied me! Rrrrr! It's all right. Christmas! Christmas is coming! And then Daddy, I'll get you back for those 'Bubble Butt' videos.'

Omake Time

The Beast just wouldn't die! They had been lucky so far in being able to drive IT into an abandoned lot after IT had crashed through the side of the garage.

Ron was putting the training Fukushima had given him to good effect by keeping the Hell Beast at bay, preventing it's escape. He would leap in and slash a few times with the Lotus Blade in the form of a Naginata, then, when the Beast turned to attack him, jump out of range.

When Ron cleared the line of fire, either Sagara, Kaname or Wade would open up. Kaname was placing aimed three-round-bursts from her M4 in likely looking vulnerable areas. Wade was darting around, hammering away, emptying full magazines from his FN2000 into the Beast. Sagara was alternately calling over his headset for both Close Air Support with Rockeye's and Napalm and clergy to perform an exorcism.

At the same time he was watching for openings to fire his MK32 Multi-shot Grenade Launcher loaded with either High-Explosive or Incendiary rounds. Whenever one presented itself, he would fire at the Beast. The problem was that IT seemed immune to the damage from the HE rounds. The Incendiary rounds on the other hand would get the Beast's undivided attention. He never thought he would wish for one of those WWII terror weapons, but what he really needed was a flame-thrower. IT seemed to truly fear fire. Hopefully when Al arrived they could turn the tide against the Beast.

Wade, running out of ammunition for the machine-gun, drew his trusty Glock 29 10mm and another full mag. Wade waited until Ron was between him and IT, hollering at his Teammate, "RON SLEDGEHAMMER!" and charged the blonde.

Ron paused in his assault shifting the Lotus Blade into a Bo, holding it aimed at Wade, end close to the ground. Wade stepped onto the Bo and Ron heaved him into the air, launching the younger teen in an arc thirty feet above the Battlefield.

"AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" Wade screamed a battle-cry as he descended, unleashing 10 millimeter rounds at point blank range into where he hoped the head of Hell Beast was. He had nearly emptied the weapon before landing on the Beast, he was firing so quickly. When the slide locked back, he thumbed the magazine release by reflex, slammed the ready mag in place and hit the slide release and reloaded the weapon, resuming fire. The action had taken barely a second.

Halfway through the second clip, the Beast had gotten tired of the pain of point-blank 10mm fire and tried to swat the annoyance on its back. Wade dove to the side, hitting the ground in a roll and darted away to take a position near Kaname, with the Beast trying to follow him. Just as Wade landed there was a deep boom driving IT back, away from the boy.

Even Shunya and Ayame had been enlisted for this emergency. Sagara had the older man grab one of the .50 caliber sniper rifles and go to the roof of the garage and fire at the Beast whenever he had an opening. Ayame was below the parapet frantically trying to reload the 10 round magazine her father had just ejected with the 5.5 inch long by .8 inch wide ammunition.

The Beast recoiled from the large anti-installation and material round, bellowing its' fury, trying to find a way to escape it's tormenters.

And where was Kim while all this was happening? Well, she was squatting against a wall in the kitchen, arms wrapped around her knees, slightly rocking and muttering, "It was supposed to be Chicken Cacciatore!"

AN: The .50 caliber Browning Machine Gun round is HUGE for a man portable weapon. Think not? Consider this. Neither the 5.56x45mm NATO round for the M16/M4 series nor the 7.62x39mm Soviet round for the AK47 series weapons are as long as a Dollar bill is wide. But the .50 BMG is LONGER than a Dollar bill!