The students of Middleton High that had gathered in the gym to watch Bonnie Rockwaller battle Kim Possible for the umpteenth time began to flee the scene. Someone was coming toward the gym and the students guessed that it was an authority figure; they were always into the “better safe than sorry” theory. So, now everyone was in a rush to get out of the gym.
Bonnie had no problem fleeing with her cat abilities. She leaped out of one of the open windows, even though they were located twenty feet in the air. Other students used their powers to get away also. Kim went over to her friends when she saw that they had not made their getaway. They scanned the area for some way to get out because the last thing they needed was trouble.
“We’ll go through the window,” Kim said.
“Lemme guess, you got a gadget for that,” Monique commented.
“You know I don’t go anywhere without my trusty grappling hook,” the redhead replied as she pulled out the aforementioned gizmo.
Kim quickly shot the hook out of the window and her friends grabbed onto her. She pushed a button on the side to wheel the line in, which pulled them toward the window. They escaped just in time.
“What is all the noise in here?” Mr. Barkin inquired as he stormed into the gym and found a few unfortunate souls still trying to escape.
Many of the students were not sure what to make of Mr. Barkin. From his pissy attitude, many assumed that he was envious of them because they had careers ahead of them while his career was over. No one knew what happened to him and why he no longer got missions, but he did not get any GJ assignments anymore. He worked at the high school full-time.
There were all kinds of rumors going around among the students as to why Mr. Barkin was now a full-time teacher in a school. It was not even like he was a tutor to someone, but just a member of the school staff. It was hard to respect a guy like that, but he did put fear into the hearts of every student. The rumors might have been a way to deal with the fear.
The students told horror stories that Barkin had lost his powers. Now, there were some occasions where someone’s powers just faded and never came back, which frightened the supernatural humans like nothing else. The students thought that once someone lost his power, then that was enough to force retirement on a field agent. But, with the way that Barkin popped up out of nowhere when something was going against school policies, most students were willing to bet that he still had whatever his power was.
There was also a rumor that Barkin just screwed up royally on a mission and the only way that his superiors could think to punish him was to force him into retirement. There were all kinds of variations as to how he messed up the mission or what the mission was, but the punch-line was always the same. That rumor was also kind of scary because it left people thinking that if they performed so poorly that they could be forced to retire. Now, that punishment was plausible, but no one had ever run into someone willing to say that something like that happened to them.
Then there were just outrageous rumors to explain why Barkin was forever on teen-sitting duty. There was one that said he hit Doctor Director, although most people thought that was like committing suicide rather than just landing someone a forced retirement. Then there was the one about him hitting on Doctor Director, which many people thought was also the equivalent of suicide. Things like rumors popped a lot of the time because deadly warriors seemed to get bored when they did not see any real action for a few weeks, in the boss’ opinion anyway and she thought that the teens just picked up on that bad habit, which was why Barkin had so many rumors going on.
Kim and her friends breathed a sigh of relief as they hard Barkin yelling at all of the poor souls that were still in the gym. They hurried from the area and then had to sneak back into school. They breathed a sigh of relief when they made it back in and they did not get into trouble from any of the moves that they made.
“This is getting annoying,” Monique commented, rubbing her forehead in a stressed manner.
“It’s only getting there for you?” Ron quipped.
“I guess it could be worse,” the wavy-haired female remarked.
“How could that be any worse? Bonnie could be more of a psychopath?” the blonde boy asked.
“Look, I just offer up optimism. I don’t really plan out how things could be worse. A meteor could’ve fallen from the sky. That worse enough for you?” Monique countered.
“That’s good enough,” Ron said and then he turned his attention to Kim. “You know, you’re getting annoying too,” he added, more teasing than anything else.
“How am I getting annoying?” the redhead asked as if she was offended that King Annoying would say such a thing to her.
“You just fought Bonnie the beast and you’re not even breathing hard. That’s uber weird,” Ron commented.
“Did he just say ‘uber’?” Monique asked with a craned eyebrow. Kim nodded to confirm that was exactly what he said. “I hope he doesn’t wonder why he’s at the bottom of the social ladder with that vocab,” Monique stated.
“Ron, if you just took your training a bit more seriously, you’d more than likely be able to tangle with Bonnie just like that, but you don’t take your training seriously,” the olive-eyed teen argued.
“Um…yeah, maybe I could, but that’s just cuz of the mystical monkey mojo and everything. You don’t even have mystical monkey anything,” he pointed out.
“I see, so I should get beat up because I don’t have powers. So, what am I, a freak for not getting beaten?” Kim inquired with an eyebrow arched in curiosity.
Ron understood that was one of those questions that needed to be answered delicately, if he answered it at all anyway. Why had he even bothered to open his mouth, he wondered. He should have just let it go, his brain scolded him.
“K.P, I didn’t mean it like that,” he tried to explain.
“No, no, no. I see, if I get beat up, I’m weak, but if I don’t get beaten up, I’m a freak,” Kim commented. Obviously, she was still a little sensitive about not having any powers.
“Whoa, Kim, rein it in, girl. He didn’t mean it like that. You know the boy is just trying to gnaw his own leg off again with the way that he sticks his foot in his mouth,” Monique defended Ron.
“What she said,” the blonde agreed with Monique, even though he knew that she was not exactly complimented him in any way with her words. Still, being dissed was a lot better than being beaten up, not that Kim would ever beat him up.
“Right, sorry I got a little heated there for a second,” the redhead apologized. Somewhere in the back of her head, Kim knew that she was not supposed to be the one apologizing, but the rest of her agreed with what happened because she was kindhearted for the most part.
“So, you ladies have anything planned today after school?” Ron inquired.
“Why, does the Ronster want us to go to Bueno Nacho with him?” Monique countered in a slightly teasing tone because of the name that she had tagged him with.
“Whoa, wait, I never call myself something lame like ‘the Ronster.’ If anything, it’s The Ron or the Ron-man. Get it straight,” the boy protested.
“And these are not lame nicknames?” Monique asked Kim.
“Isn’t it lame by definition to give yourself nickname?” Kim pointed out.
“Okay, I can see you ladies just want to be evil today. That’s cool. I’ll just go find Yori and hang out with her. Ninja school let’s out the same time as regular school, doesn’t it?” Ron asked.
“Boy, why are you asking us? We’re not the ones dating a ninja,” Monique replied.
“Yeah, you make a point,” Ron conceded. “Rufus, when does Yori get out?” the blonde asked his ever-present naked mole rat.
Rufus stuck his head out of Ron’s pocket. Like most animals kept by people in Middleton, Rufus was not a normal pet. He was on the same level of intelligence as his owner almost. Sometimes, they were willing to believe that he was smarter than his owner.
“Two o’clock,” Rufus squeaked.
“Maybe Rufus is dating Yori with the way he pays attention to detail,” Kim remarked.
“Girl, that’s just ew,” Monique commented and she shuddered.
“Totally sick and wrong, K.P. So, do you ladies have a spare moment after school so we can all get some excellent snackage?” Ron inquired.
“I can’t. I left work at the shop to come here,” Monique answered.
“I’ve got training,” Kim said with a shrug.
“You always have work and you always have training. Can’t you skip it just once?” Ron requested.
“We have,” Monique started.
“It wasn’t pretty,” Kim finished.
“No wrestling for a month,” the chocolate-eyed girl explained.
“No base jumping for a month,” the redhead said.
“You guys and your damn caring mentors. Why couldn’t you just get a senile old coot like me?” Ron said with a joking smile.
Truth be told, Ron enjoyed the mentor that he had and he learned a great deal from Mr. North. He just did not learn how to control his monkey powers, which did not bother him in the slightest since that power was totally sick and wrong in his opinion. He did not think that he had to learn much anyway since he knew just what was going to happen to him. He had already decided that he was going to a support agent, which was nothing more than a sidekick to a primary field agent. He was going to tie himself to Kim and just ride her wave of success.
He would have planned to partner up with Yori, but they had a relationship and he liked to believe that they always would. It was against regulations to be paired up with a mate for whatever reasons. They also liked to keep the ninjas together for some reason that was beyond him, so he would have to fight hard to be partnered up with Yori even if she was not his girlfriend. He did not have that kind of effort in him; it was just against his nature.
“What kind of training are you doing, Kim?” Monique asked curiously.
“I think it’s combat,” Kim replied.
“Is it the 15th already?” Monique inquired.
“I guess so. I hope it’s not Will again,” Kim sighed. Part of her training consisted of sparring with one of her peers every first and fifteenth of the month. Surely if her friends knew anything about the regular world, they would have been making jokes about it coming like a government check.
“Don’t let him get you down, K.P. You kick his butt every time you face him,” Ron pointed out.
“He’s just so damn annoying. I’m glad he’s not at school today,” the redhead commented.
“Then we are blessed,” Monique remarked with a smile.
“Amen to that,” Kim concurred.
Kim hoped to whatever it was that controlled the universe that she was not facing off with Will Du. She would take anyone, but Will. Hell, she would gladly face the whole team Impossible before Will and they were almost as annoying. Key word: almost. No one, not even Bonnie touched Will when it came to being annoying.
The friends enjoyed their time together and they were upset that they had to part ways at the end of the day. They would like to spend more time together and they all wondered if they begged their mentors enough if they could get a day off just to hang out; it was something that other students got. Ron could easily get that time off while Monique was certain that she would get that “are you crazy?” line that her mentor had perfected. Kim could already hear Doctor Director asking what she had done to earn any downtime.
Monique and Kim both knew not to stupidly answer the questions from their teachers. The chocolate-eyed girl had once thought that maybe if she confirmed that she was crazy, she would be able to go hang out with Kim for a while; Kim had been off due to an injury and she had been looking for company that would not stuff a whole naco in her mouth. Once she affirmed that she was crazy, Monique’s teacher than began treating her as if she was seven all over again. She had to run boring errands, like making coffee or going to the corner store for almost a whole month.
Kim had only once dared to answer what she had done to desire downtime. First after she spoke the words, all of her training was upped until she could not make it through the tasks. When she was lying on the gym floor, arms and legs heavy from training with weights attached to them, her tongue hanging out of her mouth like she was an overworked dog, Doctor Director had approached her and informed her that now she had earned her downtime. Kim could not even make it home that night. She slept on the gym floor. Never again.
The redhead trotted to the main center of Middleton. She was looking forward to her day because of the fight that was coming. It was different from what she usually did with Doctor Director. Her training was mostly solo work. She sparred with her training room equipment or every now and then with Doctor Director herself. The different human contact on the first and fifteenth was a welcomed change.
The sparring had started when she was fourteen. It was not as much of a challenge as she thought that it would be. She would wipe the floor with her peers rather swiftly. After a while, only specific peers were brought in to fight her and they usually had outstanding powers. She still won. Sometimes, she got banged up pretty good, but she always won. No matter how many times she got hit, she managed to stand back up. It seemed that to beat her in a fight now, the opponent would have to kill her.
“You’re smiling a bit too much,” Betty commented as her pupil entered her office. They always met up in her office because she was almost always there when she was not with Kim.
“Too much? Oh, what about now?” Kim asked as she let her smile drop a little bit.
“Why are you so happy? It’s only combat,” the older woman pointed out.
“But, it’s like bungee jumping.”
“If I were anyone else, I would think that you have weird hobbies, Kim. You get so hyped up on combat days, even though you know what’ll happen,” Betty commented.
“It might change today.”
Betty laughed a bit. Kim was such an optimist. The girl had to be bored in all actuality and probably had to think happy thoughts to avoid realizing just how dull fighting really was for her. Kim did not see herself fight, the way her body mocked her opponents and begged for a real challenge.
“Is that actually her body mocking people?” Doctor Director wondered.
“So…who’s today’s opponent?” Kim inquired, which threw off her teacher’s thoughts.
“You probably don’t want to know.”
Kim groaned; that was code for Will Du. The redhead was starting to wonder if she was being punished for something. It was the only way to explain why she had to fight Will, especially since Betty knew how much she could not stand that boy.
The pair exited the office and they went to a section of the gym that was set up for sparring. Kim was only let into that part of the gym for her matches on the first and fifteenth. Other than that, she did not have any reason to be in the place and Doctor Director ordered that she not be let in because Betty did not want Kim having any wild sparring matches. She really did not like for Kim to have unauthorized fights, but she was aware of what happened between Kim and Bonnie, not to mention others like Bonnie.
Kim waited on the padded floor. The gym was set up to gather data much like Kim’s special training room. One day, she figured that she might have to check out her file to see what kind of data Doctor Director had on her. She did not have much time to think on that as Will entered the gym.
“So we meet again, Possible,” Will said in a clipped tone.
“Um…yeah,” Kim said. Through out her life, Kim had often wondered what the hell was wrong with certain people because of the way they acted, but with Will was a reoccurring thought with her because, seriously, what the hell was wrong with him?
“You will be vanquished,” he vowed.
Kim wondered if Will read too many knight or samurai books with the way he talked sometimes. Or it might have just come with the territory of being a dick, she considered, not that she would ever say that out loud. She often did wonder what crawled up his ass and never left. There was the possibility that it just came with the family name Du.
Will Du stood before Kim in his rigid, straight stance. He was dressed in a dark blue jumpsuit because he was now officially a GJ field agent thanks to the fact that he recently turned eighteen. He seemed to think that made him better than everyone who was still waiting for a birthday to make them eighteen. His stance even screamed arrogant bastard and that he was superior to everyone.
“Whenever you two are ready,” Doctor Director informed them over an intercom.
“I will vanquish you, Kim Possible,” Will said as he crouched down into his fighting stance.
“Um…okay,” Kim replied. What else was she supposed to say? And why in the world did he have to call her by her whole name when they started fighting? She got into her fighting stance.
Will frowned and Kim could practically read his thoughts from the look in his onyx eyes, the eyes that he was so proud of. He called her worthless with his gaze and demanded to know how she thought that she could possibly measure up to him. He called her every cheap insult that he had ever heard in his life with those haughty eyes of his. Black gems that dared label her a whore, a kissup, a bitch, a weakling, and an infinite number of things. Those raven pools that were supposed to be so calculating and unmasking and when they looked into her olive eyes that were sprinkled with gold, they seemed to find out what they really were. Those self-righteous charcoal eyes were worthless.
Will Du, special ability: information gathering. Will had a talent that was called “scanning.” Scanning involved one or more of the five main senses. In Will’s case, his technique was in his eyes. He looked at an opponent and his eyes read the body, feeding him information on how to take the opponent down. His eyes never lied to him and he trusted them completely, except when it came to her.
Will hated what his eyes told him whenever he stood before Kim. She was so normal, no powers, nothing special, nothing outstanding at all. Her stance was lax at best, as if she did not know what she was really doing. His eyes should be telling him different things when he scanned her for weak points and vulnerable areas. But, what did his eyes offer him aside for garbage on her, telling him that he would never defeat her. His scans always came back the same with her: unbeatable.
The young man charged Kim just thinking about the lies that his eyes were feeding him on her. He could destroy her. He was a trained GJ agent with the ability to read any human and find out her weak spot and she was normal. She had nothing to her name. She was not even worthy of her name. His eyes had to be lying, he concluded.
He threw a punch that she easily avoided. He was not deterred and continued to attack. Surely, he would be able to get passed her defense, he told himself. If only his eyes worked properly when he fought her; any information that he received failed against her. He would go for an open spot, only to meet her forearm, guarding against his attack or she would hop out of the way just in time.
Sometimes, he dared consider that she was not human. But, his eyes told him that she was as they scanned her for something to help him. Not to mention there were all the experiments that he had the pleasure of hearing about since he had a sister that worked in the medical diversion. How could she be a normal human being and yet so skillfully avoid his attacks and fool his precise eyes? It did not make any sense to him.
Kim fought Will like it was an exercise to make it fun for herself. She ran from him just to work on her somersaults or see how quickly she could avoid a strike that she saw coming a mile away. She felt like she was moving in slow-motion against him most of time. She did not even look to counterattack him or the match would end quickly and she would have to go back to her usual routine. At least when they fought, he did not speak, often anyway.
Will leaped away from Kim after going through his first series of attacks. He was panting while Kim was fine. He stared at her with near hatred in his eyes, silently demanding to know why a bitch like her could dodge him so easily. She never had an answer, mostly because he never asked out loud. No one in their right mind would ask such a thing of Doctor Director’s pupil with the boss in earshot.
Betty watched the pair engage each other a second time. She always noticed how in control Kim was of everything and she seemed well aware of that fact. She knew that the redhead was not aware that she had a swagger to her that most people probably missed. Kim’s body language often said to her opponents “I could crush you, but I don’t feel like it right now.” It was saying just that to Will; the thing was that Will could pick up on the message thanks to his eyes. Her other opponents at least did not have to be aware that her body mocked them as they went at her, but Will knew.
Will could see that Kim practically laughed at him in her head, which made him angry. He went at her with more power, hoping to take her head off if he ever landed a blow. She dodged, dodged, dodged, and then countered out of nowhere. She hit Will with a kick while turning a back flip. He fell back and she had drawn first blood, as usual.
Kim landed in her fighting stance, knowing that Will would charge her again. For someone with such talented eyes, she did not think that he used them wisely. She had no idea that his eyes were useless against her. All they kept telling him was that he would lose, that he could not defeat her, and that she was superior to him. He refused to accept that.
The redhead kept calm as the young man charged her again. He came at her with powerful blows that she avoided as if she was made of water. Sometimes, he could feel his bare hand graze her naked shoulder; she was wearing a tank-top. It was not that he had nearly landed a punch, but that she did not want to move any further than she had to dodge. And then the next thing he knew he was staring at the ceiling because she had kicked his feet out from under him.
He stood back up and went at her again, only to find himself looking at a familiar sight, the ceiling. He knew that ceiling by heart. He knew spots on the ceiling that if he was looking at them, they told him what part of the floor that he had been dropped at. Eventually he could not get back up.
He was too tired and in too much dull agony. She always stood a few feet from him, just watching him on the ground. Her body still mocked him, even if she did not mean to. His eyes still told him that she was unbeatable. She was superior. He closed his eyes. They had to be lying.
Next time: Shego is introduced into the story.