X-Possible Special
A Very X-Possible Christmas
Christmastime
Middleton, CO
It was December 24th in Middleton, as usual the entire town was blanketed in thick snow drifts, also as usual, Ron Stoppable was walking toward his best-friend, and soulmate's house. Since before Thanksgiving, Ron has realized he is in love with his best-friend, Kim Possible. Since then, he has been trying to pluck up the courage to ask her out, it was not until the end of Chanukah this year that he finally realized that even if she shot him down, they would always be best-friends. Ron stopped just before he turned the final corner to Kim's house, reaching into his pocket he pulled out a golden, rectangular jewelry box. He smiled and thought, I hope she likes this, I think I know her well enough to know her tastes in jewelry.
Ron smoothed the blue and white striped sweater, down over his torso, and adjusted the shades over his eyes. If this year was like all the others he had experienced in the past, then according to the Possible family Christmas Eve schedule, they should be powering up the Christmas lights, right about… NOW! Sure enough, as soon as he turned the corner to walk down the street toward the home of his best-friend, the kaleidoscope of brilliance flashed right in front of him. The Possible house was the only Christmas light display on the planet that could be seen from space, and Ronald's shades were barely able to prevent him from being struck, temporarily blind as he walked up to the front door. Though they still hurt his now sensitive eyes, it was not so bad, he could handle a little discomfort just to see his KP happy.
Ron put the jewelry box back in his pocket, but before he could raise his hand to knock - it was Christmas, he always knocked on holidays - the door opened, "Oh, Ronnie," Kim squealed with glee as she brought him in for a hug. Ron felt the sparks shoot up and down his spine, as he felt her body press into his, in what seemed to him to be an embrace that lingered a bit longer than their normal hugs.
Kim stepped back and pulled him further inside, her smile could not get any brighter, because now the rest of her family had finally arrived. She looked at her Ron and could not suppress the shivers she felt as she saw him standing in her home. She always felt so giddy whenever she saw Ron these days. Her feelings for him had only grown stronger over the months, she was now completely sure of how she felt about him, and head-over-heels, did not do justice to how much she loved Ron. He was all she thought about these days, when nothing more serious, like homework or missions or training, was occupying her mind, but when she was not doing either of those tasks, she seemed to adopt a far-off dreamy look in her eyes. When she went to sleep, she would kiss a picture of Ron, and when she woke up and saw the same picture she would just begin smiling, and he had not even asked her out yet.
Kim ushered Ron into the living room, where he greeted and was greeted by her family, "Happy Holidays, Possibles," came his blanket greeting them.
"Thank you, Ronald," Anne said, as she followed her sons over to greet their guest, and give Ron a motherly peck on the cheek, "it's so good to see you, dear."
"Your welcome, Mrs. Dr. P," he blushed at her kiss, Anne was as pretty as KP, and he fervently hoped that Kim continued to take after her mom as she grew older, "and I must say you're looking as lovely as ever."
"… Happy Holidays, Ronald," Mr. Dr. Possible greeted his third son in all but name, with a wave from over by the fireplace.
"Happy Chanukah, my dear," Nancy "Nana" Possible greeted while standing next to her son, "it's so wonderful to see you again, Ronald."
"Ron," the tweebs greeted their surrogate brother, as they came to hug him themselves, "what did you think of the lights?"
Ron mussed up their hair, and winked, "I'm amazed you didn't blow-out the city's power like last year?"
"We rerouted the Middleton power grid," Tim admitted, then Jim added, "we learned our lesson."
"They did an awesome job," Kim complimented her brothers, while hugging her arms around them, causing them to blush.
After the greetings, Kim and Ron went over to the couch and got comfortable, while the rest of their family began decorating the Christmas tree. They sat and watched for a little while and just felt the weight of the world wash off of them, their responsibilities as Team Possible were on hold for the holidays, and only a true global emergency would see them called in, for SHIELD and Global Justice. Ron and Kim wanted to tell each other how they felt, but for the moment they were simply content to be next to each other.
It was Ron who decided to break the silence, "So, where are we in the Possible Family Christmas Eve schedule," he asked with a curious smile? He had put away his shades while they sat together, now his golden eyes were visible to Kim, and they just made him even more handsome.
"Just started," Kim answered, "lighting the house is always first."
Ron was subconsciously rubbing his eyes, "yeah, I got the benefit of that tradition first-hand," he said with understanding. Then I looked around, "I don't see Hank anywhere, is he not coming?"
Kim shook her head, "Cousin Hank is spending the Holidays in Dunfee this year, though he did stay long enough to greet Nana before he left."
"When is Eggnog going to be served," Ron wondered, though he knew it was not time yet, "I love that stuff?"
"Eggnog comes after we sing carols, but before the Christmas skit," she answered.
Ron suddenly brightened and picked up the remote, "you're forgetting the most important tradition of all," he stated as he turned on the television.
They caught the tail-end of a news bulletin, "and the search for the three missing hikers, lost for the last five days, was called off this evening, due to heavy snowfall in the Canadian Rockies. Officials say they will continue the search once the weather permits, this is Summer Gale, and we now return you to our regularly scheduled programming."
Kim and Ron looked at each other, they had watched the news coverage for the missing hikers in case Team Possible was called in to assist with the search, but no call ever came. As much as they wanted to help, when they started Team Possible, in order to have a somewhat normal life, they decided that since there were already quite a few heroes in the world, they would never go into any situation unless they were specifically asked to do so. Either through the Team Possible website, or if they were personally contacted, and of course, now that they were Agents of SHIELD, and Global Justice Peace Officers, they could be called up at any time if either agency needed them. So, while it is callous to ignore people in need when they could help them, they needed to wait, until they were actually asked, before they acted.
After the news bulletin, the screen became filled with the imagery of a cartoon snowman, in a cowboy hat, green vest, red mittens, and playing a guitar, while children and cute animals danced around him in circles. "The Six Tasks of Snowman Hank," Kim stated the title with a nostalgic lilt in her voice.
"Every Christmas, this couch, that TV, and my favorite cartoon snowman," he stated with child-like glee, before turning to lay back on the couch, which inadvertently placed his head on Kim's lap.
Kim gasped, because while Ron seemed oblivious to his position, she was most definitely not. She just looked down at him watching the show, and could not prevent the small smile from playing across her lips. This kind of thing already feels so natural to me, she was thinking, this is the most intimate I've ever been with a boy, and I'm not feeling self-conscious about it at all. Kim began to idly run her fingers through Ron's hair, lightly combing through the tiger-like strands, to distract her mind for the moment, she returned her gaze to the television, and asked, "they're showing it early?"
"It's the 4:45 promo," Ron stated confidently, while he did feel Kim's fingers in his hair, it never once struck him as unusual behavior. It just felt natural for her to be doing this sort of thing, like they had been doing it all their lives, when it was actually the first time this has ever happened. He was not taking her ministrations for granted, already in the back of his mind, he was thinking about something he could do for her that she would like. He had finally settled on giving her a backrub later, when he suddenly heard the rumbling sound of heavy-horse powered engines coming from the set.
From off-screen a pack of snowmobiles came barreling through the scene, and plowing through Snowman Hank, without even bothering to deviate around him. Literally and figuratively, steamrolling over Ron Stoppable's heart and childhood, he had moved off the couch seemingly in a trance, his face cast into a rictus of shock, his voice sounded hollow as he spoke, "they canceled, Snowman Hank," he asked in disbelief? Then he asked bitterly, to nobody in particular, "Why is it that everything I come to cherish, gets ripped away from me," he wondered in a growl, "before I'm ready?" He turned around and walked out of the living room, and up into Kim's bedroom, as he passed her, she saw tears beginning to roll down his face.
Kim's Bedroom
Kim came up into her room just a few minutes after Ron, she knew that it was not merely the cancellation of his favorite Christmas cartoon show that had made him so distraught. There was something deeper going on that she did not understand. Ron had really matured this past year, even before his mutation manifested, he had begun to change his priorities, from childish pursuits to things that an adult would find important. While he still loved things like professional wrestling, and sometimes could be found watching TV shows that he used to watch as a kid - well as a younger kid, even Kim admitted that both of them could be immature at times - he was now beginning to look at those things, as mere amusements, that took a backseat to other, more important things.
Kim came up into her room, and quietly sat down next to her best-friend, and hopefully boyfriend, soon, please and thank you, who had kicked his shoes off and was now laying in the middle of her bed, staring holes in the ceiling. She knew that Ron was aware that she was there, even without their enhanced senses they could find each other, anywhere, whether they were in the same room, or on the other side of the planet, they always knew in their hearts where to find each other. So, Kim Possible sat next to him and waited, she waited for him to talk to her, to unburden himself, to confide in her, and know that no matter what she would always take care of him, just as she knew he would do the same for her. He had done just that on quite a few occasions, whether it was preventing her from blushing herself out of existence during her Josh Mankey phase, rescuing her from a villain, or bringing her chicken soup when she was sick, he has never once failed her, when it mattered.
When he was almost killed this year at the end of summer, and then a week later, when he had to give-up Rufus, because naked-mole-rats are a hive-like species of rodent, that needed to be part of a colony for them to remain healthy, she had to take a long hard look at herself, and realize what kind of friend she had been to him. That is, she was not a friend at all, not a good one at least, and a fair-weather one at best, I locked him in a custodial closet, for Christ's sake, for an entire night, and if they hadn't needed to get into that closet to get the supplies they needed to dismantle the decorations for the dance, he could have been trapped in there for a whole weekend, and it was a three-day weekend. Three days without water, and the only thing he would have to eat… would've been Rufus, what could that have done to him?
Ron never said anything about it to her, he did not seem to even hold a grudge against her for it, and that was only a week after she sided with the other cheerleaders to have him removed as the Middleton mascot, until they all found out that his antics as the Bulldog, was just what they needed to not only keep the crowd happy, but Ron's inclusion has boosted their chances at winning cheerleader competitions. Then, he put his life on the line to impersonate her dad, because his old college friends were being kidnapped by another one of his college friends for laughing at him, where they found out that her biggest pain in the ass, Dr. Drakken, was in fact Drew Lipskey. He had not only been a good friend to her, he was a good friend to her family, and as willing to risk his life for them as he was for her. Then the whole Camp Wannaweep sitch happened, with Gill plotting revenge on Ron, which still does not make sense to her, Ron had actually tried to warn the little bastard of the dangers of Lake Wannaweep. He took responsibility for not just her, but for the other members of the squad, most of whom treated Ron like he was a nuisance, Kim included, sometimes.
It was after that and after seeking counsel from Rabbi Katz, that Ron began to, as he put it, learn, and improve his skill sets, and it seemed to be perfect timing. Because, Ron's mom, Vicky, had told him about the new, joint initiative by the two official, most powerful, international, crime prevention agencies in the world, SHIELD and Global Justice to recruit and train, individuals and groups as independent contractors, as special agents and peace officers, which would give both agencies a pool of trained officers, that they only needed to pay when they needed them. It gave them credentials and conveyed upon the graduates, the authority of both agencies, they have badges for both agencies and access to new sources of information when it was needed.
Then, Ron was nearly killed by her overzealous, eleven-year-old, tech genius, just to test some invention, had his X-gene forcibly awakened, then within a week lost his closest friend, because of some evolutionary quirk of his species. So, she made a promise, to herself, to God, that she would change the way she treated him, to treat him the way he always treated her. She would be his friend, show him that he means everything to her, that he can count on her to be there for him, and make sure he never feels alone. She may have backslid a little when she first met Monique, and still refuses to watch wrestling with him, he's got the tweebs and amazingly enough, Monique herself for that, but since then, has redoubled her efforts to be worthy of the title of best-friend.
It was only once she started to try making an effort to be his friend, that she realized her feelings for Ron started to change. She began listening to her heart more, made a conscious effort to try to pay attention to him, and not Bonnie's bullshit about some so-called Food Chain. Her feelings for Ron Stoppable not only began to change, they began to deepen, her heart would flutter more, when he was around her. Her day would feel that much brighter in his presence and would even carry over through the rest of her day, as long as she could see him. She began to look forward to spending time with him, she felt safe in his presence, especially when he would put his arm around her shoulders, which had nothing to do with his new physique and budding martial arts skills. She could remember feeling this way around him from the very first moment she saw him, all those years ago, when he saved her from those weird kids on the playground.
Ron sighed, "this year was going to be the last time I tried to watch that show, Kim. While I would continue to watch it whenever I could, I felt it was time to start growing up, and stop doing the things I normally did to have fun. My responsibilities as part of Team Possible, as an Agent of SHIELD, and a GJPO, and not to mention my responsibilities as a mutant, has made me begin to reevaluate my priorities. Neither of those are my top priority though, you see, I began to really think about how I wanted my future to go, I thought about the people that I wanted to be a part of my life, and who I hoped would want to be a part of mine," as he was saying that, he sat up next to her on the bed, and pulled something out of his pants pocket.
Kim could see that it was a jewelry box, when he opened it, she saw a necklace made of a gold metal, the chain was a woven rope, but the pendant was one of Ron's ticks, also made of a gold metal. "I was hoping that you would be there, as my best-friend," he paused for a moment to gulp, before looking up into Kim's eyes, "and my girlfriend." Kim was stunned by this gesture, her eyes were wide, and she was breathing rapidly, he quickly turned his eyes down to look at the necklace, "this is to remind you that no matter what, we will always be best-friends, even if you don't want to be my girlfriend. The tick is made of vibranium, and the power source is the same as that of an automatic watch…" he could get no further because he felt her lifting his chin. When he turned his head up to look at her, she pulled his head toward hers, kissed him with a passion even he never knew existed within her, her arms wound around his neck, pulling him until he was pressing into her body. His own hands had grasped her around the waist, and he was pulling her into him, while returning the kiss with an equal fervor of his own.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, but was only a few seconds, they pulled back from each other. The smile on her face was brighter than the sun and her eyes glowed a haunting green, as brilliant as a fairy glade in the spring, it grew even wider when she observed the pleasantly shocked expression on Ron's face. She raised her hand, placing one finger under his chin and closed his mouth, which brought him out of his stupor, and his own beautiful smile blossomed on his lips. "Can I assume that means the answer to the second part of my question, is a resounding affirmative, KP," he drawled, "because if it's not, that's a little too forward for my best-friend?"
Kim grinned in mock offense and slapped his arm, "Ronald Stoppable, of course, it's a yes, the kiss was a girlfriend thing," she said as she got up off the bed, and picked up a wrapped present on her desk, "this is a best-friend thing." Kim extended the gift, and in a gentle voice, said, "Happy Hanukkah, Ronnie."
Ron accepted the gift with a grateful smile and grew a claw, before swiping it across the wrapping paper, then returning his hand to normal. He pulled the wrapping away to find a DVD, with an image of them staring back at them, he smiled excitedly and exclaimed, "hey, that's us!"
Kim took the disk and placed it in her computer, the program booted up to show Kim and Ron, in various stages of their life. From the time they took swimming lessons to this Hallowe'en, when they got home from Monique's party, they were in their transformed states and struck fearsome poses, giving them menacing appearances. Then there were the pictures of Ron, Kim, Hank and Kurt, also in their natural forms, but they were standing together clasping arms, and the slides were accompanied by a soundtrack. Ron and Kurt became more brothers then uncle and nephew, both of them seemed to have been cut from the same cloth, in more than just looks, their personalities were almost the same. Vicky and Laura, Logan's daughters, also accepted Nightcrawler as their brother. There is nothing more important to a Stoppable or a Logan than family, and it takes more than blood to make you family. "It's a cyber scrapbook," Kim explained, then looked at him with a pensive expression, and asked, "do you like it?"
There were tears in Ron's eyes, "It's… it's badical," he declared before turning to his new girlfriend, who just happened to be his best-friend, and hugged her tightly. After embracing her, he pulled back and leaned in for a tender kiss, one she readily returned, they both felt how much they loved each other. Their first kiss was one of passion, and a way to open up their relationship in a new direction, this one merely confirmed, deep down, what they always knew, their love for each other.
The moment was broken, when James Possible called up from the living room, "Kimmie-cub, we're singing carols!"
They stepped from each other, eyes not willing to break contact, but Kim called back, "coming, dad!"
Ron was still choked up over the scrapbook, but knowing how important Christmas Eve was for Kim, stepped back and pointed down the trapdoor, "I'll be okay, KP, I just want to hang on to the moment for a little while longer, go be with your family. I'll be down in a minute to join in once the Egg-Nog is ready," she nodded and turned to go, but he added before she went, "Kim," she turned to look back at her new boyfriend, and life-long best-friend, "I know it may be early, but given how dangerous our lives are, there should never be anything left unsaid between us. So, I want you to know," his eyes bored into hers, hoping they contained every scrap of sincerity he could convey, "that I love you, and I will do everything humanly, or superhumanly possible to show you."
Kim turned back to him and walked until she was nose to nose with him again. She placed her right hand at the back of his head, her left over his shoulder and brought him as close to her as she could, even going so far as to raise a leg and wrap it around his hip. She pressed her heated but clothed core tightly into his swelling, but equally, clothed ardor. Kim brought her lips close to his ear, to whisper to him, but still lowered the frequency as she spoke to him, "do you feel that, Ronnie, do you feel how much I want you, right now, I have never felt like this with anybody? You make me hotter than one of Shego's plasma shots, just by standing in the same room as you," she ground herself further into him, and her breath caught in her throat because of it, "the two kisses we've shared in this one room, have aroused a lust for you within me so intense, that it was all I could do not to throw you down on my bed and ravish you tonight."
"Now, I would tell you, 'I love you too, Ronald Victor Stoppable,' but that word, Love, isn't even a drop in the ocean, compared to what I've felt for you since before Hallowe'en. I was actually worried that my feline instincts - cats are extremely sensitive to scents and pheromones, after all - had taken over my better judgement, but remember the scan I took of you that day? That wasn't really to see if you were who you said you were, it was to check and see if you were emitting some kind of pheromonal signature that had my cat senses on overdrive. What I found out was you do emit pheromones, but after I learned that I did some research on pheromones and while they do tend to control simple creatures like ants and bees and other creatures, they have less influence over more complex creatures, like cats or wolves, which are driven more by instinct than pheromones."
She drew back to look in his eyes but continued to explain herself to him in that lower frequency, "don't get me wrong Ronnie, you emitting pheromones, didn't make my decision for me tonight, I was already falling in love with you before your mutation awakened. You see, pheromones have very little effect on humans, and even if I am a werecat, I am human, and have good reasoning and analysis abilities. Your pheromones are not influencing me anymore than any other handsome male. So I'm sure of it now, my feelings for you are genuine," she stated in excitement, returning to normal human frequencies, "and I can tell you that I am truly in love with you, Ron Stoppable!"
"Kimmie, are you coming down," Anne called up to her, "we can't start without you?"
Kim smiled and kissed Ron with enthusiasm, before turning away to dash down the stairs from her room, but before she moved down them, she turned back and said, "I love you, Ronald Victor Stoppable," before hurrying down the stairs to join her family.
Ron turned back to watching the computer screen, when his Ronn-watch on his wrist, and the Kimm-watch, sitting on the desk next to the computer, beeped. Ron pressed the button which projected a holographic image of Wade into the room, Ron and Wade had collaborated on this upgrade to Team Possible equipment, using the projected HUD from Rufus the Third's control-stick and Wade's holographic technology. The screen was still there and functioned normally, when it was needed, but this allowed all three team members to interact with each other. "Hey," Ron was about to greet Wade by his name, until, "Santa," Ron asked in bewilderment, because Wade was indeed dressed as Saint Nicholas?
"Ho ho ho," the young American of African descent, said as a greeting, then seeing who it was, added, "oh, hey Ron, sorry about Snowman Hank," he stated with a disappointed look of his own. Since the whole Monte Fisk incident, and Wade's abuse but subsequent forgiveness by Ron, a true friendship had blossomed between the two boys, with Wade acting as a sort of mentor to Ron when it came to tech, helping him with concepts that the older boy did not understand, and Ron getting Wade to interact more with kids his own age. Wade was still an agoraphobe, but he was more willing to interact with members of his family, especially his uncle, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, aka War Machine of the Avengers, his dad's younger brother.
"It stinks," Ron agreed, "then Kim made me this perfect, best-friend Hanukkah gift, and all I made her was a lousy tick. She may have agreed to be my girlfriend, but we're still best-friends," Ron ranted, "and I vow to never let one overshadow the other." Ron finished his self-recriminations, before looking back at the projection of his young friend, and asked, "so, what's up?"
"Silent night," Wade punned, "I just wanted to wish Kim a Merry Christmas," he added, "thought I could catch her before carol time." Just as he said that, a sound erupted from his computer, and he immediately got serious as he turned back to his computer, "damn, I spoke too soon, we're getting a hit on the site. Remember the hikers that went missing last week," he asked Ron, who nodded for him to continue, "well it seems one of the wives of those men is requesting our help to bring him home for Christmas."
"What are we going to do, Wade," Ron lamented, "Christmas with the fam. means everything to Kim?"
"Yeah, I know," Wade added his empathy to the situation.
Ron suddenly got an idea, "this is one of the benefits of having a descendant of Israel as a best-friend and boyfriend," he stated with determination, "for me, things like Christmas and Easter, are just a means of bringing the family together, and the free candy and food that comes with it. They have no real meaning for me as far as religious beliefs go," he explained.
"What are you getting at, Ron," the eleven-year-old asked with trepidation, though given his gargantuan intellect, he could theorize where his friend was going with this?
"I think it's time for my first solo mission," Ron declared!
"Ron, I don't know," Wade said, with reticence in his voice.
"Well, I do know, this is something that I can do for Kim, as both her boyfriend and her best-friend," then realizing what kind of commitment being a boyfriend meant, "come on, Wade."
"Where are we going, Ron," the hologram asked while following the teenager?
Ron grinned sheepishly, "while as a best-friend, I could get away with sneaking out on this mission alone, as a boyfriend, not to mention an equal partner in Team Possible, that's just not how it's done. See if you can get me a ride up into Canada, and a guide that knows that part of the world," he was already walking downstairs, "I'll go Brief, Kim."
Several minutes later…
Kim, Ron, and the rest of the Possibles, were standing in the foyer of the Possible residence. He was dressed in a uniform very similar to his Halloween costume, but the under armor, still red, was a one-piece, made of a vibranium fiber, in the same way as the Black Panther suit, as was the midnight-blue hooded-jerkin, with crimson tiger-stripes which doubles as circuitry for a camouflage system, it changes colors to aid in blending into the surroundings. The buckles, more traditionally metal, are also vibranium. This suit nearly depleted his bank accounts, but after going through enough missions where he came out unscathed, but his clothes did not, he decided he needed mission-wear that was nearly as invulnerable as himself. He was in his natural body formation, with his eyes in their inert state.
It had taken a lot of fast-talking, for him to convince Kim to let him do this one thing for her, it had only been after Nana, who had once been a decorated Global Justice Peace Officer, back in her day, who convinced her granddaughter, that this was why she had a partner in the first-place. To do things for her, when she was not in a position to do them herself, "this is something Ronald believes he needs to do for you, Kimberly. If he feels this strongly about it, then it is your duty to stand-by him, and support whatever decisions he feels is right, it is as important to have faith in his abilities as it is your own," Nancy Possible said softly, "that is what it means to be partners, as well as best-friends."
Kim had looked at her grandmother, as she began to speak but had turned her head to look up at Ron, and the more she listened, the more she understood. This mission was not simply a way to give her an extra Christmas gift, it was for him to try and see what he could do on his did well against Shego on Hallowe'en, but that was a one-on-one fight, this will be much more complicated. I know he's capable of doing anything if he puts his mind and heart into it. I believe that, but maybe this'll help him believe that. Her shoulders seemed to sag, as she leaned her forehead into Ron's chest, but then raised her arms to wrap them around his neck, "and I suppose it is just as important for a girlfriend, to have faith in the man she loves, beyond all reason, to support him when he wants to prove himself."
She heard everyone in her family gasp, at her revelation, which caused her to turn her chuckling head to face them, all the while maintaining her hold over Ron. All of them were in various stages of surprise, with Nana and Kim's mother recovering first, as both of them already kind of knew how much Kim had fallen for Ron, they had recognized the same looks they once had on their own faces, when they found their soulmates. "No, it's not as important, Kimberly," Nana chuckled, "that just makes it more important than ever."
The tweebs were warring with themselves, over whether to be disgusted about cooties, or genuinely happy for their sister and Ron, they were at a stalemate and never reached a conclusion. Holo-Wade had his, 'I knew it all along,' smirk plastered on his face, it was not all that hard to deduce, after all he spoke to one or both of them nearly every day, and even observed them remotely to be sure they were safe.
The biggest look of shock, unsurprisingly, was worn on her dad's face, but the biggest surprise was on her, when she watched the biggest smile she had ever seen bloom on James Timothy Possible's face, it was the smile of approval. Jim Possible may have had difficulty letting go of his baby-girl, but he was not stupid, he knew it was inevitable that someday some man would swoop in and take his little girl away from him. It turns out, the man his daughter chose did not swoop in from afar, he had been here all along, and James had let him in, "congratulations, Kimmie-cub!" James stepped forward, extending his hand to the young man holding his daughter, "Ronald, I know I don't have to say it, but I'm going to anyway, you be good to my Kimmie-cub," Ron accepted the older man's hand and they shook, "I'm not going to even try to tell you how to treat her, because you've never given me any reason to doubt how much you care about, Kimberly."
"And I never will, Mr. Possible," Ron replied, "as God is my witness, that will never happen, because I love her more than my own life."
They heard the low hum of a set of VTOL engines coming from outside their house, which brought the family outside, as a plane that while as white as the snow around it, looked as intimidating as one of Professor Dementor's Dachshund-Doberman-Rottweiler guard dogs, meaning extremely. It looked to be slightly longer than a Cessna, but it had four jet-engines, with a swept-wing design and twin tail fins. The cabin door opened, and a ladder descended to the ground, and a woman, well more like a teenage girl, came running out of the plane. She had dark, straight hair reaching down to her shoulders, and green-eyes, she looked to be about a year or two older than Team Possible, but the way her eyes assessed them as she approached, that also surveyed her surroundings, showed that when it came to experience, she dwarfed them both. She wore an insulated, long-sleeved jacket, cargo-pants, and hiking boots. She reached them and smiled at Ron, "you ready to go, Ron? Dad's being his usual charming self in there," she stated with a roll of her eyes, "he always gets this way when heading up to his old stomping grounds."
"Aunt Laura," Ron asked, then sniffed the air, and laughed, "well I did want a guide that knew the area, I doubt there's anybody that knows those mountains better than Gramps."
Kim was finally able to relax when she saw who would be with Ron on this mission; there are few people she finds as trustworthy and tough as the former X-23, now code named: Angeline, the daughter/clone of her uncle Wolvie. She let out a sigh of relief, "I'm glad you and Logan will be with Ron in this, now I don't have to worry so much." (A/N: Angeline is the term for a female Wolverine.)
Laura laughed and added, "Well, Ron's family, dad has spoken highly of him, says he's got the makings of a real badass once he matures." Laura grins mischievously, and draws closer to Kim, "and he's cute too, if you don't wise up and stake your claim on him, one of the others is gonna take him for themselves."
Kim looked back at her with a scowl, "well they're too late, he's already mine, we made it official a couple of hours ago."
Laura just giggled and hugged Kim, "I knew you had it in you Kim, we'll make an animal out of you yet," she said before stepping back, and heading back to the plane. "Come on, Rondo, the taxi's waiting," she turned and headed up the ladder.
"Coming Laura, got some goodbyes to make, first," Ron replied, as he hefted a pack onto his shoulders, before coming over to Kim. He smiled down at her, "you know you don't have to worry about me, right KP," he said as he caressed her face, "I'll be back before you know it?"
Kim closed her eyes and leaned her face into his touch, and nodded, "my head does, it knows that you are strong, tough, resourceful, have had good training, and are as stubborn as a mule when you want to be." Kim reaches up with her hand to stop him, and opens her eyes to stare into his, "my heart, it only knows one thing, I love you with every fiber of my soul, Ron Stoppable, every beat, every breath I take is so I can see your smile." Kim grabs him by the collar of his jerkin and brings him down to her lips, the kiss is not long but it lingers in their hearts when they part, "you are never alone Ron, whether I am standing next to you or on the other side of eternity, I am always with you. When you fight, I fight, when you're hurting, I hurt, and if you ever die on me, Ronald Stoppable, I'm going to die right along with you," the intensity he saw in her eyes as she made that vow, took Ron aback, she meant every damned word, then she smirked, "just make sure we're old and grey when you do, and we'll be good."
Ron wordlessly leaned down and while cupping her chin, kissed her softly and gently, he pulled back with a grin, "right back at you, KP," he replied before turning abruptly and walking directly up the boarding ramp. He waved back over his shoulder at the other members of his family, before the boarding ramp closed, the jet lifted off into the sky, and flew off into the stratosphere.
Family Reunion
Flying high over American airspace, a state of the art aircraft, owned by the mutant superhero team known as the X-Men, was cruising steadily toward the American-Canadian border, headed for a search and rescue mission in the Canadian Rockies. The plane looked like the little sister of the famous SR-71, Blackbird, except it was white, with a crimson windscreen, and its flight designation was known as the X-Jet Mk 5, and was christened Dove II. Despite being the owners of the craft, this was not an X-Men mission, it was a ride being given to accommodate Team Possible, specifically Ronald Victor Stoppable, who had been contacted on their website to assist in the rescue of a trio of missing hikers. The call had come in earlier this evening, on Christmas Eve, from the spouse of one of the missing hikers, and since Christmas Eve was the one night of the year, team leader, Kim Possible took the night off from her work as teen hero, Ron knew she would be reluctant to leave her family tonight.
So, being a dutiful best-friend and her partner on Team Possible, not to mention her devoted boyfriend, as of tonight, Ron had volunteered to go in Kim's stead. This would also be a good way to test himself, to see if the last ten-months of improving himself were worth it, to see if he really had what it took to stand next to Kim Possible and be more than just a distraction, or a buffoon. That was all at the back of his mind right now, most of his concentration was spent going over all the information the previous search teams had sent.
The hikers were a couple of college kids, Paul Cartier and George Baptiste, and their professor, a Professor of Biology, named Dr. Mark Brickman, that meant to only be gone for a weekend, having hiked these parts in the past, but had failed to return to class on Monday, five days ago. According to the dossier, the college kids had no other family, having been on partial scholarships to get into college, and working as research assistants to pay for the rest of their tuition. It had been the wife of the professor that had contacted Team Possible, once the search for them was called off, because of the weather.
Ron looked up from his computer screen, which was built into the back of the pilot's seat, toward the pilot, "Thank you again Gramps, for coming with me, this'll be my first mission without KP, unless you count missions where I needed to come to her rescue. I think you'll be able to tell me without sugar-coating it how I did," he stated, then added, "I think Kim would try to be too nice about it, if I screw-up."
"Well, I'm not much fer holiday cheer, you, me, and Laura needed some family time. I for one wanna get to know you outside of the classroom or the Danger Room, nothin tells someone what they're made of more than a solo. 'Sides," Wolverine added with a rumbling chuckle, "been too long since I've been in this part of the world. It was time to show you, younguns, where this old man came from," he said to Ron.
"I don't do Christmas either," the dark-haired girl informed her nephew, "never got any presents under the tree when I was younger, don't need any now. So, this'll gimme something to do while Kitty, Jubes, and Rahne are home for the holidays," Laura stated, "plus I'm a little rusty on my wintery survival skills, need to brush up, and dad's right it'll be nice to spend some time together, you, me, and him," she stated with a fond smile at her father's back. "You're family Ron," Laura declared with an intense stare, "I love having a sister, me and dad have come a long way toward being a family. Now it's time to include you, and make you feel like a member of our family."
Ron saw the look of daughterly love Laura expressed when looking at her father, then when she turned her eyes on him, he felt her feelings for him. He got a little choked up when he did, a single tear rolled down his cheek which he wiped away, "dusty in here," he muttered.
Laura looked over at him as he wiped the tear away, and playfully punched him in the arm, "aww, did the touching moment make the big, bad, Dire Wolf, cry?"
Ron returned the punch with one of his own, "Shut up, I just got dirt in my eye, Hank needs to dust this bird."
In retaliation for the punch, Laura hooks her arm around his neck and brings his head down under her armpit, pressing his head into the side of her left boob, and with her right fist begins giving him a noogie. "Why don't you make me, little Ronnie-kins, hm, come on tough-guy, tell Auntie Laura how you really feel," then she suddenly began to laugh, and squirm around in her spot? She grabbed Ron's arms and pulled them away from her sides, he had reached around her torso, when she put him in the headlock, and as soon as she started noogying him, began to tickle her flanks. She was trying to sound angry, but could not hide the grin on her face, "you sneaky bastard, how dare you try to take advantage of me, I'm not that type of girl."
"What, ticklish, because I think, I just proved otherwise, the bad ass chick known as Angeline is ticklish," Ron smirked, "that won't strike fear into the hearts of your enemies, will it, Auntie L?"
They stared each other down, for a long moment, before she pulled him into a hug, and kissed his temple. This has always been the dynamic between these two, since the first time they met, that weekend he was trying to learn his powers. Before they even found out that they were family, they seemed to become closer to each other as if they already were family, but more like brother and sister than aunt and nephew. He was one of the few who knew of her past – because she had told him – that did not walk around on eggshells with her. He treated her as a warrior, with respect for her struggles, but he also treated her like any ordinary girl that he did not have romantic designs on, he did not look at her with pity, nor admiration, just as a girl that he saw as a sister. Now that they were truly family, they both threw themselves full force into developing a familial bond.
In the pilot seat, Logan had a secret smirk plastered on his lips. He was happy that Laura was coming out of her shell some more. He also wanted them to be distracted for a little while longer. Three hikers, getting lost for five days, and nobody able to find them, I hope they're all dead, or at least had the forethought to pack extra rations. If they don't and one or more of them gets desperate, it's likely that they'll begin to see each other as food, if they succumb to that hunger and eat human flesh, then they will find themselves on the business end of Tanaraq's Curse.
Somewhere in the Canadian Rockies…
How long has it been since he had eaten anything, three days, ten, the man wondered? When they arrived here, they had been separated from Dr. Brickman, almost immediately by the ugly Asian lady, who had captured them at gunpoint. Since then, they had no contact with their captors, who did not seem to care about them, they must've been after the professor, and we were just collateral to get Dr. Brickman to cooperate. Since their guards have not returned to them, they have not fed them, and they were beginning to feel their hunger, like a stab in the stomach. George was the only one that had tried to resist the Asian woman, which earned him a gash in his side that had not been tended to, and there was enough light in the cell, for them to see the wound was getting redder, the pain had increased according to George, and it was warm to the touch. George had not complained of fever or nausea, but Paul believed it was only a matter of time. George was also starting to sleep more, and talk less, the starvation was probably accelerating the process of infection, in Paul's estimation it was only a matter of time before complications from infection arose, not for the first time, Paul began to pray for rescue.
Dove LZ
The white ship set down in a clearing, not far from where the search crews had ceased in their hunt for the hiking trio. They exited the aircraft, Wolverine began securing the vehicle as soon as they landed, while a fully transformed Dire Wolf and Angeline, scouted the area for firewood and any possible signs that may have been missed. This would be their base of operations, where they would return to for food and rest each day, this was Ron's first solo mission but that did not mean he had to do everything alone. Logan would act as base commander, he would coordinate the searches, and help with the daily post-mortem to assess the different strategies they used in their searches, he would also be giving them classroom instruction on how to survive in frigid temperatures, something both of his protégés should know, not just the one interested in the knowledge.
Ron remained in his natural form, which did not seem to be affected by the frigid temperatures. He did not seem to need any extra layers over his uniform, but then neither did the two next to him. Ron was standing next to Laura, listening to Logan's orders. "The number one rule in wilderness survival," Logan instructed, "never go anywhere alone, even if you need to heed the call of nature, always make sure someone knows where you are, as unpleasant as it is, make sure to stay within earshot of your buddy. To that end, I am going to remain at base-camp, Angie, Wolf," looking at each of them in turn, "you're going to be our primary hunters on this expedition, you're going to be survival buddies. You will take the radios with you, so you may stay in contact with base-camp. You will check-in every hour, on the hour," Logan flat-out ordered them, "I'll bust your asses, if you miss even a single check-in time," he growled, looking at both of them with fierce eyes, "this is not the place to go without communications, if you can help it."
Ron looked at his teacher and noted the intensity in Logan's eyes, he was not speaking to his Japanese teacher. He was speaking to his grandfather, and a superior officer. Ron popped to attention and saluted, "Yes, Sir!"
Laura was just as equally taken aback by her dad's demeanor, he was not really the authoritative fatherly-type, he figured he did not have the right to do that, considering he had never been there, when she was younger. She never really resented that, because as she has gotten closer to him, she came to understand him quite a bit; if he had known she existed and was able to find her, then no force short of Death herself, would have kept him from getting to her, and that is why she has allowed herself to include him in her heart. So, when he issued orders like this, she knew that this was a serious business, so while not adopting any of Ron's military etiquette, she still fully faced him and looked him in the eyes, "Yes, Sir, we will do as you tell us, Dad."
"Good, now since it's too late, and too dark to begin the search tonight. We'll begin tomorrow at first light," Wolverine decided, "now let's set up the tent and turn in," he ordered.
The two teens set up the tent, but when it was finally ready for occupancy, both of them noticed a problem. "Um, Wolverine, sir," Ron began, they had all decided just before they landed, to only use their code names while out here, "there seems to be a mistake here." Wolverine looked at the young man with a raised eyebrow, indicating for him to continue, "I miscalculated the number of people that would be on this mission. I was only counting on you and me being here, so I only brought a two person tent."
Logan had to try hard to prevent himself from smiling viciously. He had to call on all of his espionage training, to make himself give the kid a deadpan expression and ask with a straight face, "So what's the problem Wolf?"
"Where is Angeline going to sleep," Ron asked, then offered, "I suppose she could sleep in the Dove?"
"Nope, she won't be sleeping in the craft," Logan decided, "that's where I'm going to sleep. I don't need to brush up on my winter survival training."
"Um, then where am I going to sleep, Dad," Laura asked? From the surreptitious glances at the tent, then at Ron, she may have had an idea of what her father was going to make them do, and the thought had her blushing.
"You're going to be sleeping in the tent with the kid," Logan informed them, and he could not hide the vicious grin any longer, "the most important thing to learn in winter survival is conservation of body heat." He watched their faces and saw them accept their sleeping conditions. It was not much different in Ron's estimation of sharing a tent with Kim, before tonight that is, then Logan delivered another surprise when he ordered, "now, strip!"
"What," the two teens exclaimed, and it was hard to tell whose voice was higher, but Ron found his voice first? "Uh, Grandpa, I've just begun to start my relationship with Venatrix. I don't know if it would be a good idea for me to see another woman, in the all-together…"
"Stow it, Dire Wolf," Wolverine ordered! "I told you this is about heat conservation, and the only way to do that is skin to skin contact. You can keep your boxers on, and Laura can stay in her bra and panties, but the more skin contact the better."
"Are you sure, Dad," Angeline asked? "I mean I trust Dire Wolf not to try anything, he's family, and even if we weren't blood related, I don't peg him as that kind of guy. I'm far from shy about my body, I could put some supermodels to shame," she declared while fingering her hair, "but are you sure this is the best method for learning?"
"Better to get used to this sort of thing in a controlled environment, than when an emergency crops up," Logan confirmed while also nodding, "trust me, when you're freezing to death, any warm body you can use to stave off hypothermia will be all you need, whether its male or female, aunt and nephew, father or daughter, even the still warm carcass of an animal you managed to kill. When it comes to immediate survival, necessity always outweighs morality," he instructed them, and gave a hard look at Ron, "and it damn sure takes a backseat to who you're dating, is that understood?"
Ron pops tall again, and replies, "affirmative, Sir!" Then turns to his friend who just happens to be an older girl, "I'll go first and be under the blankets, before calling you in," he suggested, "that way I won't be ogling you when you come in to undress. Since we're close enough to the same height, I'll volunteer to be the little spoon to your big spoon, so my hands don't stray into any forbidden territory."
At her nod of acceptance, he entered and stripped-down to his boxers, which had a Christmas motif with the words, HO-HO-HO, randomly placed at different spots around the garment. Ron quickly situated his gear on his side of the tent, and got into the sleeping bag, just remembering to keep it open for Laura. "Okay, Angeline, my back is to the tent flap," Ron promised.
Ron heard the tent flap open and close, then he heard the snapping of buttons, followed by the sound of a zipper, followed quickly by the opening of the sleeping bag. Ron felt two round mounds pressing into his back, followed immediately by two arms encircling his chest from the back.
Laura could feel the tension in Ron's body, and she knew where it came from, she was not exactly immune to the proximity of the virile male she pressed herself against. She liked the feel of Ron's broad muscular back putting pressure on her breasts, and she could acknowledge that he turned her on, she was fairly sure that her pheromones were attacking his senses and sending his hormones into overdrive. His pheromones definitely were doing it to her, and they damn sure did not care that they were aunt and nephew. All the pheromones seemed to care about was the chance to mate, but despite having animal senses, they were human beings and had reason to keep their urges at bay. She decided to acknowledge their situation, because she really did care about Ron, only partially because he was her blood, and it would let them get some sleep to begin their search, so with a sigh she finally spoke, "so is this the first time you've been naked, or almost naked with a woman, Ron?"
As soon as she began to speak, he tensed even more, "no, me and Kim have been on enough missions together, that we have had to see each other in various stages of dress a time or two." He paused then asked a moment before asking, "how about you, Laura?"
"Yes, this is the first time I've been nearly naked with a man," she informed him, "and I'm not going to lie, your body is pleasing to my touch, Ron. You're a strong, intelligent, and good-looking man, and you're body arouses me somewhat," Laura admitted, "if you were not with Kim as her boyfriend, nor my nephew, I would have no problem fulfilling that role in your life, but you are Kim Possible's boyfriend, and my nephew. I cherish the friendship that has blossomed between me and her, you and me, and would never do anything to jeopardize those bonds." Laura could feel him relax against her, then asked another question, "do you believe that Kim, would think our current position was a form of cheating, that you were being unfaithful to her, by sleeping with me?"
"That is my biggest fear, yes," he answered, "our romantic relationship is still fragile, and I wouldn't want to jeopardize it before it even started. That being said, no, I don't believe she'd see it as cheating, once she understands the circumstances, especially since I won't be trying to hide it from her."
"Do you feel anything at all," Laura asked, the insecurity blatant in her voice, "when I press against you?"
Ron just started laughing, he wanted to reach back and pat her, but stopped himself when he realized he would be touching a nearly naked, hot teenage woman, and though he could not see her, he could guess the expression of shock at his outburst. As sudden as he began, Ron suddenly cut his mirth short, and grabbed her arms that were starting to tighten around him in anger, "Laura, you may be my aunt, and I may be in love with KP, which I don't foresee that changing very much, if at all, in the near future. Please understand that I am a teenage boy, and my body doesn't yet acknowledge our blood ties. You, Laura, are a hot, healthy, slightly older, teenage girl. It is a good thing you placed your arms around my torso, because if you had done it at a lower elevation, you would know quite well what your touch has done to me."
"You mean you're…" Laura was aware that she was blushing, and she knew, he knew the same information.
"That's right, Aunt Angeline," Dire Wolf said to his friend, "I am very aware of your body's attributes right now. At least we know for sure, that my blood flow is moving properly," Ron continued, "there is no indication of hypothermia setting in at the moment," Ron finished while still chuckling.
Laura dug her fingernails into his flank, "you're lucky you're like a little brother to me, Stoppable," she growled through her teeth, as he gritted his teeth, grunting in pain, "otherwise I'd be sticking more than my fingernails into you."
"I love you too, sister Angel," Ron told her warmly, "now let's get some sleep, we'll have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. Good night," and his breathing slowed as he immediately dropped to sleep.
Laura stayed quiet as he fell asleep, she had a fond smile on her lips, Oh, Kimmie, you're sooo lucky he is my nephew, and you have finally become an item, and that I love you as much as I love him. He is everything a real woman would look for in a man, and he's still a teenager, strong, smart, and so sweet and sensitive. I wasn't kidding when I told you that if you didn't stake your claim on him soon, then Jubilee, Rahne, and Kitty, would've gone after him, themselves. She looked at the sleeping male in front of her, her smile changing from mere fondness to warm and loving, "good night, brother Wolf," before kissing the back of his neck, and leaning her head against him and falling, lightly into sleep.
The next day found them awakened before dawn, by the bark of their base commander, "Wake your asses up," he roared so loud and sudden, that they immediately shot up and into fighting stances before the sound had fully died out! "You have three-minutes to get dressed and be out here ready to start searching," Logan roared again, "the last one out here, has latrine duty tonight!"
The two teenagers wasted no time, as they scrambled to get their clothes on, they were moving with such haste, they never even had a chance to notice each other's state of undress. Angeline was the first with all her clothes on and started for the tent flap, before her male survival buddy. Dire Wolf was only a second behind her in dressing, and started for the flap as well, but it was too small for more than one person, resigning himself to the horrible smells of their refuse, until he got a brilliant idea about how to change that fate.
"Snikt," he extended a single claw on his right hand, and slashed his way out of the tent, yet here is where the real Ron Stoppable character began to emerge. Instead of rushing ahead to beat her out to her father, Ron grabbed Laura by the shoulder to stall her, "we emerge together, Angel," he began, as soon as she turned back to him, "I have a gut feeling, this is a test about how we will function as a team, not to see who can get out of a tent faster."
"How do you know, Wolf," Laura asked with a raised eyebrow, "dad is fully capable of imposing that penalty?"
"I don't know for sure," Ron admitted, but as her brows shot up in alarm, he continued quickly, "but if we go out there together, he'll have to find another method for who has latrine duty. If I'm wrong about his intentions, I'll volunteer for the detail regardless of who he assigns for it," Ron promised, "I swear in the name of Yahweh."
Laura looked at him silently for a moment, but considering their three-minutes was almost up, she really did not have a lot of time to make her decision, she chose to go with her own gut. She grabbed his hand to pull him even with her, before they both emerged in step, almost at a march, to find Wolverine standing next to a modest campfire, putting two plates of food on one of the logs next to the fire. He watched them approach the fire with an approving grin, "which one of you came out first," he asked?
"He did," Laura told her father…
"She did," Stoppable reported to his commander…
"Really," Logan asked disarmingly, "I think you're both lying to me," he snapped, then he gestured toward the food, "whoever confesses the truth can have some food! The one that lied to me will get latrine duty for the rest of the mission," then with a dangerous look in his eyes, added, "and is going to have a Danger Room session with me, to talk about the importance of being honest with your commanding officers!" Logan let those thoughts percolate in their minds for a second, then asked again, his voice still menacing, "now, who emerged first from the tent?"
Ron and Laura looked at each other and seemed to come to the same conclusion, with a nod to each other, they turned and gazed back at their mentor and parent, and said together, "We did!"
Logan glared at both teenagers for a very tense few minutes, before a proud smile blossomed on his grizzled face, "it's nice to know my daughter has enough sense to know which of her loyalties are more important. Her loyalty to her teammate, or to her commanders and the organization she belongs to, that goes for you too Stoppable. Even though you were as startled as Laura, you still had the intuition to see underneath my initial orders to the heart of what I was looking for," Logan's gaze began to pass between them as he spoke, "you weren't sure if that was the right course of action, but you did it anyway because you were following your gut. You were even willing to take the consequences upon yourself if you were wrong, which is how a good leader acts when they're unsure of their plans," Logan flashes another smile at them, "good work, kids. Now, come and eat, we got a long day uh searching ahead of us," he said, reverting to his normal mode of speech.
The Search
The hunt for the hikers began as soon as breakfast was over. They were a few miles from where the previous search teams, with more people, had been combing the area for the hikers. With it being just the two of them searching, Dire Wolf and Angeline decided to use a simple method as a search pattern.
They would start off at base camp, and make circles around it, always keeping it in the center. They moved out in concentric circles, and they marked their progress on the map every night. The only addendum Logan made to the plan, was to insist that they walk in that same pattern on the way back to base camp, "sometimes, when you're eager to cover more ground, you miss something on your first pass. Plus, it'll get you familiar with the territory, which will help you in case of blizzards," he explained, "one tip of the trade, when one of you is making your hourly check-in, the other should be scouting for fix points, and marking your progress on the map. You should take turns doing it so both of you are familiar with the process, and so both of you would know what to look for if you got lost, or separated for some reason."
Thus, heeding Wolverine's advice, they began walking their search pattern. While the area immediately around camp was quite level, as soon as the search party got out beyond a few yards from camp, the terrain started to become more treacherous. The trees became thicker, it was lucky for them it was winter, because at least the underbrush was not there to hinder visibility and movement.
Out of a motivation to be thorough, their pace was slow-going, and they looked with more than their eyes. Angeline had inherited her father's animal senses, and females of most species have much keener noses than their male counterparts. Dire Wolf's own senses inherited from his grandfather aided them, and he kept his Eyes of Heaven in the Eye of Insight stage, which remembered everything about the trail and never allowed anything to escape his notice.
As the crow flies, when they decided to pack it in for the first day, they had only covered about a football field's length of distance from base camp. Which was a little over, six and a half miles, total walking for the area they covered. Which they reached at about midday, knowing they had to cover the same distance back, they elected to turn back, and head for base camp.
They made it back to camp and made their reports to their trainer. They started to say that they did not find anything, and just left it at that, but he rebuked them for that with, "I said, gimme a report on what you found, not what you didn't find." Therefore, they backtracked and gave a more detailed explanation of what they found today. Not just what they saw, but what they experienced with all of their senses.
Ron called Kim and updated her on today's developments. He told her about his sleeping arrangements with Laura, and about last night. Kim was totally secure about it, she said, "I trust you, Ron, you've never given me a single grain of doubt, about your fidelity to me. I also trust Laura," Kim continued, "we've become good friends, and I know that she is true and loyal." Then Kim took on a sly grin and finished it with, "even if she wasn't related to you by blood, she wouldn't try anything as long as you and I dated. I am looking forward to training with you in wintry weather survival, when you get home, Ronnie," Kim stated in a husky voice, and a sultry smile, "and the sleeping arrangements and attire don't have to change much. I've read that you get even better heat conservation when you are facing your partner."
"You are a cunning temptress, Kimila," Ron declared in a deep voice, "you shall never ensnare me, in the pleasures of the flesh, foul succubus." There was a warning glare from Kim about calling her a demon, until his arrogant face degenerated into a lascivious leer, "no, I will be the one to tempt you into debauchery, my dear."
Kim just returned his leer with one of her own, and her voice just dripped sexiness, "we'll just have to see, who corrupts whom first, Big Boy. My passion for you is an inferno," she concluded with a lascivious grin.
After he and Kim signed off, they had another small lesson in wintry survival. Ron may have been a little overzealous, this morning, when he ripped through the tent. Now it was useless to them for sleeping, luckily the forest was covered with thick snowdrifts, and one of the biggest was piled up at the back of the landing zone. It was piled up against the embankment, and was thick and densely packed enough to allow them to build a snow-shelter. They used the undamaged side of the tent as an entrance, and dug out an egg-shaped room in the snowdrift. It actually felt warmer in their snow-shelter then on the previous night in the tent, but Wolverine still insisted they keep spooning for the night. "The shelter is fine, but you still need to practice heat conservation."
The next morning, Laura and Ron awakened without any impetus from their mentor and parent/grandparent. After breakfast they immediately returned to the search, and the place they stopped the day before. It was about a quarter along their second revolution when they came upon something unusual, but also familiar to Ron. They found a series of deep depressions in the snow. They were the tracks of a rabbit and a rhinoceros, but they all belonged to the same organism. "Oh shit," Dire Wolf said with a devastated tone of voice, "not her!"
Angeline turned her head sharply at his exclamation, "What, what's wrong?"
Ron just pointed his finger at the tracks, "I am afraid I know what happened to the hikers, and if what I think is right, they didn't get lost… they were captured."
Laura was still looking perplexed, as she studied the tracks. "The rear set of tracks looks like rabbit tracks, but they're bigger than any kind of rabbit I've ever seen. The front set looks like rhino tracks, but what are giant rabbit tracks doing on a rhino?"
"Because the person that made it wanted it that way," Ron told her, "we're dealing with someone who knows the DNA molecule so well, they named her after it." Ron radioed their position to base camp, before he began explaining who he suspected was the mastermind behind the three missing hikers. "Her name is Dr. Amy Hall, and she chose to become a geneticist for one reason and one reason only, I'll let you guess what that could be."
Laura looked at him to tell her, but the challenging look in his eyes said that he actually wanted her to make a guess. "I'm assuming from your attitude toward her that it wasn't to cure cancer, or any other diseases that have plagued humanity since the beginning of time, or any other selfless purpose. So I am going to go with hubristic reasons for her specialty, so I will guess… recognition for her work in scientific communities," she put up, but with no change in Ron's face she knew that it had been rejected, so Angeline took another shot, "to make money," and again she missed. "Because she liked science," she asked weakly, then with a lack of any response, Laura gave up in frustration and demanded an explanation, "fine, you tell me why this Dr. Hall, became a geneticist?"
"To make, Cuddle-buddies," Ron answered with a sharp look in his eyes.
Laura blinked rapidly, as she made sure she heard her friend correctly, "huh, I don't think I heard you right, I thought I heard you say this egghead of yours learned about genes so she can make Cuddle-buddies."
"No, you heard correctly, Dr. Amy Hall, aka DNAmy, is an extreme collector of the toy. She and many other little girls tend to turn off their brains when they try to collect one of a kind Cuddle-buddies," Ron answered her, "it's a disease that tends to crop up, even in the most level-headed, young women."
"Come on, it can't be that bad, it's just a stuffed animal," Laura vehemently scoffed, "I mean they're cute for sure, but how can anyone take it that far? Surely, they can't be that bad," she spat a little too passionately, and Ron began to look at her closely, studying her eyes and chin, while she turned her eyes away from him shyly, "do you even know someone into them?"
"Kim," Ron answered, as he began studying Laura's face, then he stepped away to study the rest of her. Her attitude reminded him of something or someone, then his eyes widened as he recognized it, he had seen these symptoms before, on the features of a person much closer to him. "Oh no, tell me you don't have it too," Ron pleaded, "tell me the vibe I'm getting from you is a mistake, that I'm reading you wrong. Tell me, you're not… a Cuddler, please?"
"No such luck, bub," came a grizzled voice off to the left, and almost as if he was materializing out of nowhere, Logan appeared beside him.
"Yeah, I am afraid your Aunt Angeline's one true female flaw is that she tends to go gaga over those stupid stuffed animals," Logan told his grandson.
"Come on, dad," Angeline demurred by hiding her face in her hair, "I am not that bad…"
"You mean, you're not as bad as Kim was, and still is, in the right circumstances," Ron volunteered. "I think one of the reasons she started up her website was so she could earn money to buy Cuddle-buddies." Then he became uncharacteristically serious, "nobody is as bad as DNAmy though. Kim and most Cuddlers are content to own the toy, Amy wants real live Cuddle-buddies, animals that nature never intended."
"DNAmy is twisting nature's creations for her own benefit," Laura declared in a snarl, "and not even a useful benefit."
"Should we follow these or head back to base camp, and report in," Ron asked them?
"You tell me, sidekick," Logan gave him a challenging grin, "this is your Op, me and Angeline are just tagging along?"
Ron thought hard about the smartest move at this point. He took out his phone and took several pictures of the tracks and the direction they were leading. Then marked their own position on the map, then turned back to base camp, "one thing SHIELD and GJ hammered into our heads, when in doubt radio in," Ron remembered, "and it makes sense, if something happens and we're captured, KP and other forces will be able to find us faster."
Three Witches with Capital Bs
Not far from where Team Dire Wolf broke off the search the tracks led to a dense section of evergreen trees. They rose into a small incline that led up to the apex of the climb. Once there, if you took even one step further, you would fall to your death. Because in front of you would be a natural ravine, which expanded out into a deep valley. There were enough trees down in the valley, to think that in spring and summer it was a beautiful place to live, and rich with life.
For most of the way down, the sides of the valley were so steep, a mountain goat would have trouble scaling them. In the summer, a series of waterfalls from multiple sources dropped to the bottom of the escarpments. There was a single collection point, close to the center of the depression, which more than likely drained into an underground aqueduct system, because the valley was not full of water.
The only way for anything to get down to the bottom, was to take a small winding road, barely large enough for a single vehicle to follow. It led all the way down to the bottom, and halfway down, it widened to a hogback ridge, looking straight-out over the valley floor.
It stood some 46 meters away from the wall itself, and was made of solid granite. It was unnaturally smooth, and obviously man-made, or at least modified for human use. Carved into the rock face behind the ledge, was a tunnel, which eventually led to a set of doors that looked like jail cells.
Inside the cells, two men had been imprisoned. Their names were George Marion Baptiste, and Paul Bartholomew Cartier, they were American students, who had come out to this part of the Canadian Rockies with their Professor, Mark Brickman to conduct experiments on local indigenous wildlife. What they got instead, was captured by an ugly female scientist and her equally as ugly, asian assistant with knives for fingers. The Asian woman had taken their professor as soon as they had arrived, and when George tried to protest, she slashed him in the gut with her witch fingers.
George's wound had been left untreated and had a yellowish discharge, and was not healing on its own. Paul was actually thankful for the severe temperature because he thinks it has been keeping George's infection from progressing too far. Paul did not know how long that would last, because even if George had fainted from the severity, he was beginning to talk in his sleep.
To make matters worse, they had not been fed, like at all. Their captors had either forgotten about them, or they were trying to starve them to death. Hunger was doing strange things in Paul's mind, there were times when he would look at his friend and wonder what he tasted like. Whether he should wait for him to perish and then taste of his flesh, or if Paul should end George's misery now, and save himself?
The first time those kinds of thoughts entered his mind, he had quashed them rather ruthlessly. But as time passed, the thoughts kept returning and became harder and harder to suppress, thoughts such as he's my friend, were giving way to you could put him out of his misery, as a good friend would. Paul was beginning to scoot himself closer to George…
Outside of the cell, further down the tunnel, was another wall of granite, this one was broken only by a large, silvery metal door. This one was circular like a wheel, and large enough that a herd of elephants could be driven through it with room to spare. The obvious mechanism for opening it was for it to roll to the side, and it was meant to keep out something powerful. Because nothing short of the Hulk would be strong enough to open this door from the outside, and even Banner would need a few minutes to breach it.
Inside the wheel, was a complex set up for scientific research, it was a maze of corridors, mostly darkened with only a handful of lights on to conserve energy. They also became a bread crumb trail all the way to the administrators of the facility, which numbered only three.
Three women to be exact, they sat at terminals that contained video feeds from several cameras, leading down the exterior tunnel. The women could not be more different from each other.
One of them was a rather dumpy looking woman, with dark-hair in a salad-bowl hairstyle. She was heavyset with a pudgy face, and a gap in her teeth. They say you should not judge a woman by her appearance, well for once, the inside is a fair representation of her exterior. Her name is Dr. Amy Hall, aka DNAmy. Amy is the world's foremost engineer in genetics, with a special talent for gene-splicing. She is also an obsessive collector of Cuddle Buddies. This could describe any collector of the toy, but most collectors of Cuddle Buddies, called Cuddlers, are content to own the plushy. Amy wanted real live Cuddle Buddies, which was why she began studying genetics in the first place.
The second woman in the trio, was a woman with a more streamlined body, meant for decisive action. Her name when she was born is Yuriko Oyama, she is the daughter of Kenji Oyama, the scientist who invented the process for bonding adamantium to bone. When he was killed, she swore revenge upon those who wronged her family and homeland, which includes anybody that received the benefits of her father's research, specifically Wolverine and his daughter. Not a mutant, she has somehow traded her original flesh and blood body for a synthetic, cybernetic version.
The third woman among the trio, was also the most unusual, with blue-skin, scarlet-hair, and yellow-eyes, and not a stitch of cloth touching her form. Her name was Raven Darkholme, to nearly every person who knew of her, she was called Mystique, aka Ron Stoppable's grandmother. To the two men sequestered in the cell outside, she was Professor Mark Brickman, she can change her form to mimic anybody she meets. Her current benefactor had tasked her with collecting blood samples of a specific entity that could only be found in the wilds of Canada, but only under very specific circumstances.
"These two are worthy of respect, for gaijin," Lady Deathstryke asserted, "many would have succumbed to their base instincts, long before now."
"Possibly," Mystique agreed, "this wouldn't be the first time in their lives they had faced adversity."
"Oh, I just wish they'd hurry up and eat each other, so I can get my money, and go to the Cuddle Buddy Con in Nevada next week," Hall sulked.
The two warriors looked upon DNAmy with contempt, they may have little to no remorse for what was about to happen to those men, they at least recognized them as people. They could respect their tenacity, but all Amy seemed to care about were those damned dolls of hers.
Enemy of Man
Ron and the search party made it back to the landing zone. They had taken a little longer reaching the campsite than usual, because they were busy making sure their tracks in the snow would not give away their base camp. They were finally getting around to opening communications to home base, which was actually just to Wade and Kim. The two members of Team Possible, not on the mission, came on screen as soon as they received Ron's call. They were both wearing hideous Christmas sweaters, and wearing troubled expressions on their faces.
"Hey, Ron," Kim began as she checked out her boyfriend in his natural form, "how is the search going?"
"Well, we're making progress, and we may have stumbled upon the reason they went missing in the first place," Ron reported. "I'm sending Wade some pictures of tracks we found today," he continued, as he hit the send button for emailing the pictures. Wade put them up in an inset screen as they came in, and as he studied them, they caught their breath.
"DNAmy," came Kim's astonished reply, as she also recognized what kind of animal made these tracks. "That's from her Rabbit-Rhino monstrosity," Kim concluded.
"Yeah, I felt the need to update you if we happened to run into trouble and needed some help," Ron declared. "I don't foresee the need, but better safe than sorry," he added, "it's just DNAmy and her mutated menagerie. People are one thing, but those things she calls pets, have no right to exist in nature," Ron declared, and the two watching him on screen thought they saw a halo of flames surrounding him for the moment. It was an orange flame with an aura of azure around the fringes, it seemed to surround him and they thought they saw his eyes change to that same color motif.
Kim and Wade shared a look, before turning back to Ron with concerned expressions. "Ron, we did some digging on our client, Maria Brickman, the wife of Mark Brickman," Kim began, "and we couldn't find anything indicating that he was ever married."
Logan and Laura, had been listening in on the conversation, from behind Ron, they were experienced enough in espionage to smell a trap when they heard one. Ron was not far behind them in that regard. He may have been a kid, and new to the game, but he had enough common sense to know that if their client was not who they thought she was, then she lured him away from home for a reason. Kim's Christmas hiatus was not a secret, it was even written on their webpage.
Ron was about to respond to their statement when, "AHHH, ahhhh, Ahahahaha," which sounded way too much like the screaming shriek of a woman about to die! "AHHH, ahhhh, Ahahahah," came the same shriek of a woman being murdered!
The moment Logan heard it however, he was immediately alert, and moving around sniffing the air, "AHHH, ahhhh, Ahahahah," neither Ron or Laura have ever seen him this concerned. "What's going on, Grandpa," Ron asked urgently, even as he muted his feed from Kim, who was asking the same question?
"What is that noise, Dad," Laura asked specifically, "it sounds like children being butchered, but not exactly?"
Wolverine nodded at her assumption, "It's known as the Wendigo, it's the result of a curse, laid over the Canadian wilderness by ancient gods, to prevent anybody from becoming cannibals. If that happens, the offender will transform into a raging beast, filled with nothing but the desire to consume human flesh. They are strong enough to take on the likes of the Hulk and give as good as they got," he explained to them, "and there is only one way to kill one. You gotta cut off its head," he explained to his kids. "The sound you hear, sounds different for anybody hearing it. Department H thinks it is slightly psionic in nature," Logan told them, "to me it sounds like men dying, very close to the voices of men in my command that I've lost. To each person it's different, and that's because the call is meant to lure in the only prey a Wendigo will go after: humans."
"AHHH, ahhhh, Ahahahah," came the voice of the Wendigo?
"What about the search," Ron asked, dubiously, though by the sound of his voice, he was just seeking confirmation for what he already suspected?
"If we have a Wendigo on our hands, that means at least one of them is already dead," Logan answered brutally, "and most likely eaten by the man the Wendigo used to be."
"AHHH, ahhhh, Ahahahah," the sound of the Wendigo was getting closer.
"...used to be," Laura asked?
"The person the Wendigo was, no longer exists," Logan informed them, "whoever they were before the curse is no longer there. They're worse than animals, because animals will still care for their young, even for a short time," he taught them, "a Wendigo will turn on their own flesh and blood, even their children, regardless of age."
"Isn't there a way to turn them back to their former selves," Ron asked his grandfather?
"If there is I don't know it," Logan said, in disgust, "and it likely involves hefty magic, which I don't have."
"I've never killed anybody, grandfather," Ron admitted, "I mean it has always been a possibility on our missions, that we could be forced to kill to protect our lives, and the lives of others, but it has never been the only solution available to us."
"I'm sorry, Ron," Logan stated sincerely, "this won't be any consolation, but don't think of it as killing someone, think of it as putting him out of his misery."
"AHHH, ahhhh, Ahahahah," the sound of the Wendigo was almost upon them!
Ron looked back at the monitor, she saw Kim and Wade yelling at him to talk to them. Ron reached down and shut off the mute button. Before they could begin speaking to him Ron overrode them with, "Kimberly Ann Possible," which immediately quieted the line, "whatever happens tonight, please know, that I love you with all my heart," he looked into her eyes as they went wide from using her full-name, "and I will explain everything, when I return to you!" With that he turned off the communicator, but not before Kim's eyes went huge at something she saw behind Ron as he signed off.
Back in Middleton
Kim sat in her room, stunned at the abrupt way Ron cut off communications. Just before the screen had cut off, she thought she had seen a huge monster coming from behind Ron. He called me, 'Kimberly Ann Possible,' not out of anger, but so I would hear him, as if he was uncertain if he would survive. He wanted the last time he told me he loved me to be special, in case he wasn't able to say it to me again. That can't be how he meant it right, he can't believe that he won't be coming back? We have so many things to do together, we have to go to both of our proms; to pick the same college or at least ones as close to each other as possible, and be together in a coed dorm, or a small apartment where we can learn to live together.
I never intended to wait until marriage before losing my virginity, he's supposed to be the one I gave it to; him and only him. I want to do so many things with him, I want to dive in and tackle life together. It is still too early in our romantic relationship to talk about it, but Ron has always been there when I dreamt about my wedding day, either as my groom, or just as my Man of Honor. I never even thought about who I was going to marry, as long as Ron was there, and if he were to be the one I would marry, I would feel just that much more honored to change my name to Kimberly Ann Stoppable.
Wade, on the monitor, had been trying for the past couple of minutes to get Kim's attention. "KIM, KIM, KIM," he shouted!
This served to jolt her into wakefulness, "Wade, what is it," she demanded, "what're you yelling at me for," she snapped?
"Kim, I've been calling your name for the last few minutes," he rebuked her. "I was telling you I had triangulated their location and had a ride up there so you could go and rescue them," he explained.
Kim's first reaction was to jump on Wade's information, and go get her boyfriend, but something stopped her. She remembered all the things that were said between them, ~Please have faith in me, KP~the day I lose faith in you, will be the day I die~this is something Ron feels he must do, as his partner it's your duty to stand by him~that goes double for girlfriends~
"No, Wade I can't go rescue him," Kim stated in a rush, then in a more moderate voice elaborated, "he wanted to do this without me, to prove himself to me. He can do this, whatever he's up against he'll be okay," Kim reassured him, and herself, "he wanted to do this without me he can get himself out of it."
Her tone of voice sounded harsh, even to her ears, but it was as much for her as it was for Wade. It was not pride that took Ron to where he is now, it was a test of himself and his training. He wanted to prove his worth to himself, he never had anything to prove to me, he was proving it to himself. If I ride in to 'rescue' him, he might think I don't have faith in him. "It's not like he's alone, Wade" Kim told him, "I'm good at what I do but compared to Wolverine and Angeline, I am an amateur, he's got two of the best watching his back."
Scion of the Phoenix
"Get him away from the Dove," Logan ordered, "or we're walkin' out of here!"
Dire Wolf dove to the side as a big meaty paw came slamming into the ground. He twisted back, bracing himself against the frozen ground, and delivered a rising drop-kick to the creature's flank. Dire Wolf's Eyes of Heavenly Form were blazing, and he instinctively used his telekinetic powers to augment his attack. One interesting fact about his eyes, stages one and two, were still present in and even enhanced by stage three, so in addition to the force of a telekinetic shove, which could be seen as a golden burst of energy, the psionic equivalent of a flaming knife was thrust into the beast's side. This had a more amber appearance making it feel like a furnace had been unleashed in the Wendigo's guts.
The only outward indication of this attack's effectiveness was when it howled in pain. "AHHH, AHHH, AHAHAH!" The shove pushed the Wendigo out away from their sole means of leaving this place.
Angeline augmented Wolf's attack, with a series of acrobatic taekwondo kicks and punches. The first one she came sailing past Ron as the beast stood from his attack, with a flying front-kick to its sternum, back spinning in mid-air into an ax-kick formation. Unlike her male relations, who have three claws per hand, Angeline only has two claws per hand, her fifth and sixth claws are located in her feet. They all just chalked it up to gender-variance, with their natural purpose being to defend her from unwanted advances. "Snikt," she extended her foot-claw from her heel, which had a natural curve, the main cutting-edge facing up along the lines of her body.
If the Wendigo was a natural creature this maneuver would have opened him from chest to groin. Angeline continued her rampage when she reached the ground by dropping to her knees, "Snikt, Snikt," and slashing through the giant's femoral arteries. These wounds would have crippled or killed any creature native to Earth, and a few of them from other worlds, but the Wendigo's healing factor was almost as fast as his enemies' version. He was on his feet as good as new quickly, the wounds inflicted by the daughter of Wolverine almost gone. The wounds Dire Wolf inflicted were still there, something everyone in the fight noticed.
The wounds themselves looked to have been cauterized by an intense heat. The Wendigo looked down at the still open wounds, then back at the boy, and snarled at him in anger. Now was when Dire Wolf took advantage of the beast, to see for himself if it could be saved. He raised his eyes to stare directly into Wendigo's eyes.
Inside, his mind was like a raging storm, a cyclone the size of a typhoon, Ron was flying through what was left of the mind of George Baptiste. He saw the last few days for him, before he succumbed to his hunger, and bit a chunk out of Paul's forearm as he came closer to him. He remembered his change, how painful it was, not just physically, but psychologically it warped everything about him into concepts like PREY and NOT PREY. George had enough control at first, to force the Wendigo spirit to classify Paul as NOT PREY, though Ron very much doubted there was enough left of George to accomplish that trick again. The mind storm was not simply destroying what was left of George's Self, it appeared to be consuming it and leaving nothing behind. He saw the face of a known Global Justice fugitive, Lady Deathstryke before it was scoured away by the storm and he was forcibly expelled from its mind.
Dire Wolf staggered back as his consciousness returned to his body, "Oh, God in Heaven, that was just wrong-sick." Then he looked at the Wendigo with an ultra-serious face, "well Wolverine, you were wrong and right at the same time."
"Yeah, about what," he asked as the three members of the Logan-clan squared off against the brute in front of them? Wolverine extended his claws, "Snikt, Snikt!"
"This is one of the hikers we were looking for," Dire Wolf answered, he brought his hands up into a ready stance, "it's George Baptiste. The one thing you were wrong about was the condition of the other hiker, he is alive, or was when the Wendigo left the cell they were being kept," "Snikt, Snikt," Dire Wolf continued as he popped his own claws, "that means we can save at least one of them. You were also correct about something else, the thing in front of us is no longer human, and we don't have any way to bring him back. It's more merciful to put him out of his misery than leaving him alive like this, plus there's no telling how much damage he can cause. He could go after other people, which we cannot allow to happen," with that Dire Wolf charged full into the teeth of the Wendigo.
Dire Wolf slashed down through the monster's chest, right through its heart. "AHHH, AHHH, AHAHAH!" The Wendigo roared in mortal fear and slashed down with its massive hands. It was stopped by the arrival of Wolverine and Angeline thrusting their claws into its paws. As his elders restrained the brute, Dire Wolf knelt and jumped straight up a good nine-feet, as he ascended all six of his claws raked up through the Wendigo. It left a row of burning scorch marks and fiery energy in their wake. At the apex of the jump, he flipped and twisted in mid-air, he came down with his claws, cutting through the creature again.
He did not know how he knew but he sensed an immediate threat, "release him and get away," he ordered! His relatives did as he told them, retracting their claws and leaping away, just as Dire Wolf did. As soon as they did, there was a sudden amber-gold flash of light, resembling a sunrise. It was silent, then a noise that sounded like thunder, "Crackoom," happened! When they turned back there was nothing left of the monster but fine white ash, as it fell and mingled with the snow.
Conclusion
By the time the Logan Clan found the cave and the door, their suspects had escaped. They found Paul in his cell, he explained how they had stopped to retrieve a dart from the floor, filled with blood, and left without so much as glancing at him. It was a dart, meant to extract blood from an animal at a distance, for study. Something Paul was quite familiar with since he was hoping to be a wildlife conservationist.
As they waited for medical personnel to arrive to properly take care of the hiker. They had wanted to give him food, but Wolverine informed them that it was dangerous to consume too many calories after going hungry for long periods of time. So they gave him water and multivitamins, to help his body manage until help could arrive.
He gave his statement, telling them that he had seen three women walk by his cell, as they left. He told them about their appearance, especially the naked blue-lady with red-hair, which surprised them all. Dire Wolf and Wolverine scoured the base with Logan leading them by scent to her quarters. They found nothing of note, except an attaché case with the name [ESSEX] inscribed upon it. There was a letter in the briefcase,
"Ronnie,
So sorry I missed you, but grandma had to deliver the Wendigo blood to her current employer. He is not a man to trifle with, or let down on a deal. I hope you had a Happy Hanukkah, and tell your mother she's doing a good job raising you. Of the three babies I made, Kurt and your mom are the two I am most proud of, as for Creed, well he definitely lends credence to the notion of eating one's own young.
I am glad you remained hidden for so long, but you may be required to come out of the shadows, sooner than you wish. I dare say you have beautiful skin and I love your eyes. Anyway, If you're reading this then you prevail over Wendigo, as I believed you would when I sent out the request on the Team Possible website. Just don't let your success make you big heady, some people will be more subtle and Insidious than others.
Anyway, see you later, grandma's got to run, I want to be In the control room, when my students get hungry.
Love, Mammaw Raven. (aka. Professor Mark Brickman, aka. Maria Brickman)"
P.S. Listen to your grandfather. He and I may be on different sides of the morality barrier in life, but he is a man of experience, it'd be foolish to ignore his words.
"Well," Logan began, "it's not bad advice, the worst thing anybody can do after defeating a monster like that is to get cocky."
"I get it, Gramps," Ron nodded, "I do feel more confident though, but it also came at the expense of an innocent man. Not something I am proud of," he admitted.
"One rule I always live by for things like that," Logan began as he turned to leave, "when the job is done, walk away."
"What about the Wendigo blood, Grandpa," Ron asked?
Logan turned back to his grandson with a smirk, "you know Department H at one time, tried to replicate the Wendigo curse with science. The thing about the curse, it's not physical even with the body transformation, it's a phenomenon that warps the soul."
At the Home of Nathan Essex
A woman was suspended naked to a wall, she had watched as her employer massacred her Cuddle Buddies. She was exhausted from crying and pleading with him to stop. She looked up and saw trails of blood and viscera flung on the walls and even up to the ceiling.
Only the head of her Haronoceros could be seen in the gloom of the room. His head had literally been ripped off in front of her. Amy still remembered the look on his face when he had died. The look was like a child pleading with his mother to save him, but she could do nothing.
From the shadows a metallic boot traipsed into the meager illumination, provided by a nearby light source. Amy followed the boot as the figure entered the light more fully, until she came to a face that she once admired, but now feared to her core. It was white, like the plaster on the wall, his hair, and likely his head was so flat you could rest a dinner plate on it without worrying about it falling. It would look rather comical until you saw the rest of his face.
Below eyebrows that rose sharply, his eyes were as red as blood, with no pupil. His face was adorned with a square mustache and beard, and his forehead had a red diamond ️ in the center. If she had not already pissed herself several times during the course of their session, she would have done it again.
"Now, Dr. Hall," came his cold, emotionless tone of voice, "my rage has been slaked, now I can mete out just punishment upon you, for attempting to swindle, Mr. Sinister." As he spoke an eponymous smile grew upon his face, "I went ahead and released your hired help and paid them as agreed, they at least accomplished their directives. You had the audacity to try to pass off baseline human DNA as the genome I required, I taught you everything you know about genetics, and this is how you repay me?"
Amy could plead that she did not know the contents of the phial, but she had already tried that. All he seemed focused on was that she had failed him, he must have been having a bad day or something and needed to vent his anger. Lucky her. Her screams of agony reverberated around the room as Nathan Essex worked on her. He was skilled enough to only push her body and mind so far, he could not afford to break his toy too soon.
