Chapter 6 - So the Drama - Part 1
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Author's Note:
No sex in this chapter or the next - action and or relationship/character drama instead - sex coming down the pipeline
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Thursday April 27 4:30 PM, After School…
The Library was quiet. The Library was good for studying. The library was free of the various types of bullies that were currently trying to ambush him. The Library was exactly where Ron needed to be right now...
Ron hated being stuck in the library with every fiber of his being.
Over the past four days, Ron had become more than a little sick and tired of hiding out in the library all of the damned time, to the point that it was beginning to feel more like a jail cell than a location to study and read. Whenever he wasn't in classes or being 'tutored' by Monique, he was sitting in an out of the way cubicle and hard at work.
After returning to school with Monique at the end of lunch period, Ron spent all of his third and fourth period classes, as well as the hour since classes ended surrounded by his Biology, Chemistry and S.A.P. (Sociology, Anthropology and Psychology) textbooks...
S.A.P. was the only class that Ron really was pretty good at without any assistance at all, so it was no trouble at all for him to study for it without anyone tutoring him. Chemistry wasn't all that bad either, with the exception of balancing chemical reactions which involved math. Thankfully for Ron, Monique was more than happy to help him iron out that particular area of chemistry, and that was what they worked on together until lunchtime started and they began exploring "biology" instead…
But not everyone was so thrilled to offer Ron support…
During Math class earlier that day, Ron was forced to conceal a moment of extreme surprise, when Kim Possible herself trudged up to his desk to offer him some help studying...
Poorly.
While it was decent of Kim to offer him some assistance, there were several things that she hadn't yet noticed about their current situation... First of all, just the fact that she was offering to help him in the first place could only mean that she had no idea how furious he was with her. While on the one hand, it was convenient to Ron that Kim continued to misunderstand their current situation, it also meant that she hadn't taken a single moment to actually think about how he might be feeling.
It wasn't as if Ron's actions or the motivations behind them were all that subtle after all. He was royally pissed off with Kim, and by now, everyone with even half a brain in their head knew that for sure. Hell, Ron was calling her Kimberly to her face for God's sake, and so far as he knew, no one called her that... The fact that an honest to God genius like Kim wasn't seeing the writing on the wall could only mean that his feelings were of absolutely zero importance in her mind...
The second aspect of their current situation that Kim seemed completely oblivious to, was just how conflicted she actually looked during the moment when she offered to help him. Ron had only needed to take a split second glance up at Kim's vaguely uncomfortable features and tightly controlled fidgeting, and he'd known... If he accepted Kim's offer, she was going to resent him for it.
Ron was nothing but a burden in her mind…
Well, thankfully for Kim, the absolute last thing that Ron needed right now was to spend a couple of hours alone with his ex-best friend. It ended up being yet another highwire act to get through, but Ron managed to act as if he was completely oblivious to anything that wasn't the coursework spread out across his desk, and Kim finally moved on to seek out her new boyfriend.
Over the last four days, Kim and Mankey had become quite the big-couple-on-campus. They could usually be seen in the halls during any free time, being especially cute and disgusting together. Ron shook his head at how out of character it was for Kim to fawn over someone like that. In the past, she'd at least tried not to alienate her friends, but this time even Monique was being pushed to the sidelines.
Following that thought, Ron realized something and scoffed out loud at the absurdity of it all. Far from helping, Kim was actually doing the one thing that could potentially make his situation more volatile... Kim's new and high profile relationship with Mankey was most likely pissing Bonnie off even more than his ridicule on Monday had, and she was going on a tear because of it. God only knows why Bonnie was focusing all of her energy on HIM though, since anyone with eyes could clearly see that he meant literally nothing to Kim.
Maybe Kim was too high on the social ladder to easily target, so Bonnie was aiming for someone who wasn't?
Either way, Bonnie had a hard on for Ron at the moment, and she wasn't afraid to act on it. At this point, entire squads of goons were patrolling the school's various hallways, as if they were defending a really low budget evil lair.
There were two primary reasons why Ron managed to survive his week thus far without much of a problem. A) He was spending the vast majority of his time either in the library, with Monique or at his home and B) his pursuers were all just KIDS... That second reason was turning out to be a surprisingly important distinction. The goons that were trying to attack him were all just teenaged kids.
And Ronald Stoppable was a pro.
Ron was a pro... It was a very interesting idea, and one that he'd never thought about in the past. Up until now, Ron had never realized that he had any actual ability when it came to fighting, but as it turns out, he'd been selling himself short. For the last few years, on a semi-regular basis, Ron was forced to dodge, evade or fight off endless waves of professional henchmen, and while he hadn't emerged unscathed from these fights by any stretch of the imagination, he had emerged alive. The reason that this accumulated experience was so important was simple, and yet surprisingly, Ron had never really given it much thought.
The only people on earth that are even worse at fighting than professional henchmen, are unpaid high school teenagers...
Case in point, Ron had been attacked no less than sixteen times since Monday morning. Every single time he wasn't studying in the library or in class, punches were being thrown in his general direction. The fact that Ron was winning those fights hadn't solved the problem, since there were still plenty of ambitious goons left who were eager to give it a try.
So far, Ron had been able to slip and slide by the punches the goons kept randomly throwing, and every attacker had received a sharp punch to the face for their efforts. It was beginning to get monotonous, and by this point, a significant number of Middleton Highschool's athletes had been laid out on their asses.
While Bonnie had been pushing for a legitimate mob to track Ron down since Monday afternoon, the school's assorted goons had only really started moving in numbers just the day before. Ever since then, Ron had been avoiding the worst of their numbers by using his sneaking and hiding skills. He really wasn't looking to set himself up against impossible odds, so lately he was being very, very careful.
Now that he was done with the library for the day, Ron was looking out a bank of windows, wondering where the goons were waiting for him.
"All I have to do is get away from the school and I'm home free," Ron said in a very quiet voice. He had a very compelling reason to get home for five thirty today, and he really didn't want to be late. Earlier in the day, Tara had briefly dropped by the library, in order to drop a note on top of his textbooks. The plan for the evening was for Tara to come over, help him study a little English as well as the last of his Biology unit, and then help him blow off some steam. Tomorrow morning Ron had his exams, so he was down for both the studying and doing something about his rising anxiety.
Two days earlier, Ron had started running home both for self-preservation and to build up some cardio. What that meant was that he needed to be extremely careful not to be seen leaving the school. Tonight, Ron didn't see anyone at the school waiting for him...
No matter.
Ron wasn't new to this stuff. He knew Bonnie's goons were out there somewhere. After checking and rechecking the area for loitering teenagers, Ron slipped out of the school's rear main door and started running towards his house.
As he ran, a small smile of contentment slid across his face. To his surprise, Ron was enjoying the running. He liked the adrenaline feeling that running caused him, because it made him feel strong. Lately he'd felt stronger than normal and was amazed that a few days of conditioning had managed to do all of that. Oh sure, Ron knew that he was actually a pretty muscular guy, but it didn't change the fact that he was uncoordinated as all hell (and had been since basically birth).
Ten minutes later, as Ron approached his own home and walked up the lawn, he slowed down to a walk to cool down.
That's when he saw them.....
Ten goons emerged from the far side of his house and created a line in front of his front door.
In an instantaneous reaction, Ron was completely livid... Don't high school bullies follow the same rules as super villains? You don't mess with people at home, it's just not done! Ron's footsteps slowed down and then finally stopped, about four meters away from both his front porch and the goons.
"Aren't you guys worried that someone will call the police," Ron belted out in a very loud voice, not so much for the goon's benefit, but for his neighbor Mrs. Jenkins, who was a notorious snoop.
Peter Hill, the self proclaimed leader of the Goons, smiled as he took in Ron's apparent surprise and indignation. "Well, yeah... The Police might be called, but we'll be long gone by the time they actually show up. Won't we boys?"
The rest of the goons just nodded their understanding. They knew that they needed to act as soon as possible in order to avoid the Police. Without a single word spoken the ten boys dashed towards Ron, trying to hem him inside of a netlike formation.
Right away, Ron knew that if he turned around to run, the tall thin goon on the far right side would catch him. The guy was a track team sprinter, and Ron didn't have a hope in hell of outrunning him. He also knew he wouldn't get away if he was punched or kicked from behind while trying to retreat, so instead of running, Ron started jogging backwards while keeping the rest of the goons in sight.
But then keeping everyone in sight was the least of Ron's problems…
Ron really hadn't expected the level of enthusiasm that these guys were coming at him with. They were all dashing at him at full speed, which was going to be effective at stealing away his options. There'd be no running for it, and there was no simple way of evening the odds.
Ron would have to fight like he does best...
Dirty and cheap.
It had been a very long time since Ron had even thought about fighting fair against the large and burly henchmen of the world. So far as he was concerned, getting hurt in humiliating ways is an occupational hazard for henchmen, especially if they're attacking a teenage kid. Well, these Goons were about to get the exact same treatment for very similar reasons.
Of course, if Ron were to start throwing crotch shots right away, inevitably his attackers would do the same. It was best that he save that variety of attack for that last ditch effort.
During the seconds that followed, Ron adopted a (fake) wicked awesome ju jitsu pose in the middle of his lawn, and he acted as if he was barely keeping it together as the pack of eager goons rapidly approached.
No one ever figured out why Ron is the way he is, but it's an undeniable fact that he's an unbelievably effective distraction on the battlefield. He runs around, yells, falls, slides, flails, slaps and kicks, and it all comes together to become distraction gold, wasting huge amounts of everyone's time. Ron's only hope at the moment was that the Police were already on their way, and he could stall long enough for them to arrive.
As Ron had figured would happen, the sprinter managed to reach him quite a bit faster than anyone else, at which point the extremely unwise boy immediately tried to perform a dropkick on him. In an immediate and obvious response, Ron sidestepped to the right, grabbed a hold of both the boy's legs, lifted them high into the air, and just like that, the goon's head met earth with a dull, melony, thwack. Over the next few seconds, Ron knew that he was going to be surrounded by many more attackers, so he took the provided opportunity. He kicked the downed sprinter as hard as he could in the ribs. A satisfying crackle was heard, but by then the rest of the goons were fanning out to surround Ron on every side.
Falling into full on spastic desperation mode, Ron slipped and wiggled right and left, and was missed by several punches in a row as he moved throughout the goons' ranks. After ducking a roundhouse kick from the left and then springing back to his full height, Ron punched out in return, catching a fat goon on the nose with a wet and viscous splat. It was satisfying to see the piggy goon go down, but Ron immediately paid for his attack. He'd only been stationary for around half a second at most, but he'd received three punches to his back and a kick to his right thigh.
Of course, there was only one really appropriate response that Ron could make under the circumstances...
He screamed in pain like a little girl.
Ron overreacted in a massive way to the blows he'd just received, and then rolled into the thigh injury as if he was down for the count. Immediately after his performance ended however, he rolled to the side, roll/bounced back up to his feet again, and then cracked another goon right in the ear with a wild haymaker punch.
"You sunovabitch," the newly injured goon yelped out, while cradling his newly bleeding ear, and staggering drunkenly in Ron's direction.
Thankfully, being punched in the ear hurts like a bitch and is disorienting in the extreme, because it allowed Ron to deliver a follow-up front kick to the same guy's stomach that had him dropping to his knees and would probably see him puking all over the lawn. At the exact same time, with the desire to be unpredictable, Ron used the stomach kick to launch himself backwards to God only knows where.
In a fight, especially when you're outnumbered, anywhere at all is better than where you are at any given moment. Ron was right to keep his movements erratic, as two punches and a kick missed his face by just inches as he sailed away from where he'd been standing. That doesn't mean that another two punches didn't connect however, because they did. Despite all of his efforts, Ron was still surrounded by seven boys who were raining punches and kicks on him from every side, and he didn't have the technical skill to avoid them all.
Ron caught the first punch on his pointed elbow, hurting the attacking goon's fist, but unfortunately the second punch caught him flush to the face. Ron was hit in the right eye by Peter Hill, and yeah... it hurt like hell. He'd have to admit that so far as high school kids go, that Peter kid had a hell of a punch. Ron felt the boom, saw the stars, and felt the blood begin trailing down his cheek. His entire body immediately swayed backwards, as if he'd go down like a felled tree.
In an immediate reaction, the goons all paused in place to watch in amusement. Not a one of them expected the moment when Ron suddenly snapped back up from his limbo pose and slammed a vicious right cross right back into Peter's right eye. Over the last three years, Ron had been punched an obscene amount of times. What that meant was that no mere highschool kid was going to knock him out so easily.
As Ron leapt away from the bulk of his attackers, Peter dropped to his butt on the grass, screamed in pain and held a hand over his eye. Ron figured that might be because he'd added a little extra thumb into his punch for the boy's enjoyment. Peter's eye had been poked pretty hard but it should be fine... probably.
Even as Ron tried to use Peter's yelling as a distraction, he was kicked in the ribs from behind and felt a bone crack under the pressure. Then, even as he turned towards his so far unseen attacker, he failed to dodge a punch to his forehead that split the skin of his eyebrow open. Ron was taking damage. His situation was unraveling. He didn't have a hope in hell of keeping up with all of the punching arms and kicking legs that were flying at his body from all over the damned place. There were at least six fresh and active combatants, hemming him in on every side.
Ron had no choice but to move faster, fight harder, tough it out… and hope for the best.
After blocking yet another kick with a knee, wiggling around a knee to the gut and deflecting a punch with a sweep of his arm, someone's fist finally caught Ron in the face again, and he received another kick to his thigh. By performing a random sweep kick to his left, Ron sent one of the goons onto his back, buying him an opportunity. He knew that what he was about to do would cause him some pain because it was far too predictable, but unfortunately he already knew that he was not leaving this fight uninjured.
Finishing his sweep kick while still facing the sprawled out goon, Ron kicked off, sending himself falling in the downed boy's direction. With an arm cocked back and a snarl of rage, Ron dropped onto the tripped up goon, hammering a fist into his chin with all of his body weight behind it. With a dull thud and a guttural groaning sound, the boy was out for the count, and Ron began trying to roll away.
He didn't succeed. It was exactly as he'd feared.
Ron was on his back on the grass and these goons did not want to let him back up. Over the next ten to fifteen seconds, the boys treated Ron's body like a sand bag, delivering dozens of kicks and punches against every square inch of his body that they could reach. Ron had no choice but to cover up his face and wait. He wasn't out of this just yet; he just needed to wait for his opportunity...
There it was!
Lashing out, Ron kicked the vulnerable knee of a boy who'd stepped just a little too close. While the bone didn't break, the kick did send the boy screaming into one of his friends, and they both went down in a tangle of limbs. After rolling into the gap that these two boys created, Ron bounced back onto his feet, making sure to kick the injured boy in the chin in the process.
There... Six down, four to go... Seriously though... this sucked...
At this point, Ron's face was bloody to the point that it was becoming hard to even see. he was injured and tired, and he didn't know how much he had left to offer... but seriously fuck these guys!! Ron wasn't going to lie down for some fucking brat teenagers, and now he was seriously furious!
All of the sudden, Ron started to feel unbelievably energized, as if a bonfire of anger fueled power was leaking out of his core, to saturate his muscles with wrath. At the exact same time, rational thought was dropping away, as if he was experiencing reality through a pulsing, blue tinged tunnel.
Then he started moving.
With a speed and ferocity that he hadn't shown at all so far, Ron suddenly lashed out, caught one of the goons' approaching punches in mid-air, and yanked the boy closer towards his body. At this distance, Ron could clearly see the goon's face, so it was an almost intimate moment, when, with a nearly instantaneous twist of his tightly gripping hand, Ron spiral fractured both the boy's wrist and the midpoint of his forearm.
As the newly breathless and keening boy dropped to his knees to cradle his newly useless arm, Ron rapidly swiveled around in a 180-degree turn, so that he could release a snarl of feral rage and FINALLY land a hard roundhouse kick on the piece of shit goon who'd spent the entire damned fight hitting him from behind.
Ron's sweeping kick was so powerful that everyone heard several of the sneak attacking boy's ribs snap, and he was launched several meters backwards through the air. Everyone, including Ron, watched the boy as he ragdolled across the lawn and then they stared at him as he curled into a little fetal ball… They took in the boy's newly sobbing form with their mouths hanging open because seriously... Where the hell had that come from?
In his surprise and dismay, Ron suddenly felt the indescribable energy that he was feeling drop away, leaving him with barely enough strength to remain standing on his newly wobbly legs. Nevertheless, he slowly squared up his arms again, all while staring blearily at the two remaining goons. If Ron had the energy left to do so, he'd have wiped the blood out of his eyes, but he didn't, so he could just barely make out the silhouettes of his last two remaining adversaries.
A moment later, when the two boys' blurry forms suddenly dashed down the street towards the park, Ron was so far gone he wasn't even aware that the fight was over. He continued jostling back and forth with his arms squared up in front of his face. The sound of blood pounding in his ears was so deafening, he didn't even hear the sound of sirens as a trio of Police cars surrounded his property.
The three Police Officers that approached Ron from their various vehicles must've recognized that he wasn't going to react well to being grabbed at the moment, so they decided to remove the other eight boys first. Slowly but surely, Ron came back to reality, and took in his surroundings with newly cognizant eyes. During this time, he noticed that the Police Officers were cuffing the boys sprawled out across the lawn, which in turn implied that he himself wasn't being treated as the aggressor in this incident.
Over the next few moments, Ron slowly dropped down towards his knees, where he finally managed to wipe some of the blood out of his eyes.
Police Constable Lebreton carefully approached Ron, from a direction that he could be seen, so that the kids wouldn't startle and lash out…. He'd seen camera footage of Tuesday night's hostage taking, so he knew that this kid could move, and after seeing all of these boys scattered on the ground, he didn't want to provoke a fight reaction out of him. He started by introducing himself and asking a very simple yes or no question. "My name is Constable Lebreton. Are you Ronald Stoppable of 148 Greenstone Road?" In a slow but broad movement, Constable Lebreton gestured towards the house at Ron's back.
Ron could probably have replied out loud, but he didn't want to test out his sore jaw yet, so instead he just nodded.
Constable Lebreton pointed to a neighbor's window and then back at himself. "Your next door neighbors called us on your behalf. They said that you were being attacked at random by ten teenage boys, but we've only found eight here. We need to get a statement from you, but first we need to get you some medical attention."
After gesturing for patience from the Police Officer, Ron silently worked his mouth open and shut for several seconds in a row. Finally, he figured his mouth was still in working order, and he drew in a deep, relieved breath. "I don't have a problem with that plan, Officer."
Forcing himself back up to his feet, Ron waved towards his snooping neighbor with far more enthusiasm than he really contained. He had to. He owed her one. The Police may have arrived too late to save him from injury, but at the very least, Mrs. Jenkins saved him from spending the night in a jail cell and then missing school tomorrow.
Speaking of which…
"I don't have a problem with anything you've said so far, but I do have a concern," Ron continued while looking Constable Lebreton in the eyes. "I need to make it to school tomorrow. I have some final exams that I need to take."
"Isn't that the very least of your concerns at the moment?" Constable Lebreton was a little dumbfounded.
Ron almost missed Constable Lebreton's words, because he was too busy waving forlornly at a teal Volkswagen Beetle that was slowly driving passed his house. When he did catch up to the situation, he just scoffed and shook his head. "Would you believe me if I said I had a study date with a beautiful woman tonight?"
Lebreton didn't scoff but he did grin just a little bit. "I'd believe you if you told me this study date is the motive behind the attack. Teenage boys are savages."
As Ron and Constable Lebreton walked towards his cruiser they both looked a little too amused to be appropriate under the circumstances.
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Friday April 25 7:00 AM
When Ron woke up in an uncomfortably firm and starchy bed in Middleton University Hospital, he was only thankful that for once he actually remembered why he was there. Ron was no stranger to waking up in clinical environments or foreign cells, with no memories of how he'd lost consciousness in the first place. Compared to that, this was a refreshing change of pace.
This time for sure, Ron knew that he'd been kept overnight at the hospital for observation because the doctor highly suspected that he had a concussion. While he highly suspected the exact same thing, he'd still wanted to walk out of the building's front doors last night. The exams that he was scheduled to write today had become of singular importance to him. He wanted to go to Japan. He wanted to see what changes he could make in himself. He didn't want to be a burden on the people around him anymore. He wanted to take himself seriously and have other people do the same…
It was time to go...
Mrs. Dr. Ann Possible, AKA Kim's mom, walked in just as Ron was getting out of bed without permission.
"Ronald Stoppable sit back down right this very instant," Ann snapped at Ron, in a tone that he was programmed to obey.
Instantly, Ron dropped back onto the bed, without a single thought towards disobedience. Mrs. Dr. Possible was like a second (or first) mother to him, and lately he hadn't seen anywhere near enough of her. Following the moodulator incident, he stopped being invited over by Kim for several weeks straight, at which point he was invited to visit again, but only on a very random and sporadic basis.
"Hey Mrs. Doctor P. How are yah?" Ron spoke cheerfully while smiling and saluting, and he was very clearly trying to make light of his current situation. "I was just about to go to school, so if you could just show me to the door?"
In response to Ron's question, Ann just stood there and stared at the boy as if he was insane. Following that moment however, she rechecked his medical information, confirming for herself just how bad his injuries actually were, and then crossed her arms under her chest. "Are you aware of the shape you're currently in Ronald?"
Ron smiled again even as he nodded and said, "well yeah. I have one broken rib, three cracked ribs, one sprained wrist, a minor concussion, stitches above and below my right eye and a ton of cuts and bruises."
Once again Ann could only stand there with a vacant look on her face, because it did appear the boy knew how bad his injuries actually were... Then she took a very deep breath to try and calm herself down. "Okay then... Knowing about all of those injuries and being in the shape that you're in, why is it so important that you go to school today, Ronald?"
For several moments in a row, Ron just stared up at Ann Possible, as he allowed an extremely serious expression to grow across his face. "Well... Ann... There's the really important reason and then the fringe benefit reason."
Ann raised her eyebrow in a way that screamed expand on that please.
Ron grimaced at the look he was receiving. While he could basically read Kim's mind through her face, he could also get a lot out of Mrs. Possible's expressions. Right away, he could tell that a vague answer wasn't going to fly. Not this time. Not if he wanted to get out of here any time soon. It was time to spill his guts. "Okay, okay first and most importantly, I'm going to be out of the country starting next week, so my final exams are today."
In response to Ron's vague statement, Ann had several million follow up questions. She controlled herself however and stuck to the main point. "And the second reason?"
"These injuries were caused by a ten strong pack of highschool bullies, who attacked me on my front lawn last night," Ron pointed out, despite the fact he knew Ann knew that much already. "These bullies believe that they can get away with their actions, because so far, in the past, they always have. They think I'll become afraid just like everyone else has in the past, and once again there'll be no consequences to their actions. If I don't go in to school today, these boys will claim that I've been scared off, and nothing will change. I'm going to go to school today, so that all of the fighting I did yesterday isn't just senseless violence..."
At the tail end of his explanation, Ron smiled winningly at Ann, and he waited...
After several very long moments passed by, Ann finally graced Ron with a somewhat wan smile in return. She also muttered out the word boys as if it was a curse word.
Ron really was lucky that Ann was such a strong willed and pragmatic woman, because she didn't try to tell him that violence was wrong or sermonize him about pacifism. Instead, she was visibly, noticeably worried about the cost he'd had to pay with his body, and he loved her dearly for it…
Over the minute that followed, Ann watched from the sidelines as Ron slowly rose back to his feet and shrugged off his hospital gown. He was already wearing pants, but to her surprise Ann was able to take in both his naked torso and his arms for the first time in several years. To say that she was shocked at the dozens and dozens of scars that littered his entire body from his shoulders to his calves would be an understatement.
After successfully containing the gasp of alarm that wanted to slip from her lips, Ann Possible drew in a very deep and slow breath instead, and then fisted her hands at her sides. She'd always thought that Ron was reluctant to go swimming without a body-suit because he was suffering some standard issue body-issues. Now that she was looking at his eight pack stomach and well defined arms, Ann could say for sure that Ron's muscle tone really wasn't his primary concern...
The boy had been hiding his body… hiding the injuries… all this time… all along… and no one ever noticed…
Whipping around to look away from Ron as he finished throwing on a dark gray hockey jersey, Ann struggled to conceal the rising concern, outrage and sadness that she felt from appearing on her face. All this time, all of those missions... THE PROMISE... Not for the first time, Ann felt intense anger towards her husband for forcing that promise on Ron, when he wasn't even old enough to know what he was getting into...
Completely missing Ann's painful moment of revelation, Ron finished covering himself with one of his baggy jerseys and was ready to head to school. After turning back towards his friend and neighbor, Ron gestured at his pocket, and Rufus ran up his leg to go back to sleep. Then he was forced to make a coughing noise to get Ann's attention because she appeared to be distracted with something written in his medical chart.
After turning around to regard the impatient teenager, Ann suddenly jingled her car keys atop her palm. "How about we make a deal, Ronald. I'll let you go to school, and I'll even drive you, but for the length of time you're in my car, you honestly answer any question that I ask."
Ron immediately smiled and stuck out his hand to shake.
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Kim Possible didn't sleep as well as she could have and had a bit of a headache as she walked down the stairs to eat her breakfast. She was greeted by her brothers, and her father who was fixing breakfast for everyone, which was… weird… The man could burn water…
"Dad, why are you making breakfast," Kim asked warily.
Mr. James Possible looked up from the toast he was currently vaporizing, in his surprise. "Oh! Kimmie cub, I'm making breakfast today. Your mom's visiting someone in the hospital this morning."
"Oh, that's too bad," Kim offered, as she sat down, grabbing herself an apple on the way. "Anyone we know?"
James turned towards Kim and then hesitated before he responded… "Well... I wasn't going to bring it up until we knew that he was okay, but..."
Kim gasped in alarm. "Is it Josh? Is Josh okay dad?"
James frowned into the sink where Kim couldn't see his expression, and then he slowly shook out his head. "It's not that, Kimmie. I'm not talking about young Mr. Mankey."
Kim smiled brightly for a moment, then frowned and quirked her head. "Then who, dad?"
After turning to regard his daughter, James just stared at her for about ten whole seconds before he finally replied. "Ron was admitted to the hospital last night after being attacked in front of his home. Apparently he was in a fight with quite a few schoolmates of yours."
Instantly and thoroughly, all of the blood drained from Kim's face and her eyes widened open in alarm. Then, she was moving at full mission speeds, as she ran upstairs to retrieve her Kimmunicator. When she wasn't immediately able to find it where she thought she'd left it, Kim tore apart her entire bedroom looking for the little pink device, and she kicked the crap out of herself the whole entire time.
"This is completely unacceptable," Kim ranted at herself. "What if there had been a mission!"
The answer to Kim's question was immediately obvious. She would've been completely unreachable! It was quite literally a miracle that so much time had passed without a mission already!
After catching sight of a pink object half concealed under her bed, Kim instantly dove towards it, slammed her fingers over several buttons and then waited.
Eventually, Wade popped onto the screen looking tired but alert. "What's up Kim?"
"Wade, I need you to access Ron's GPS chip to check his vitals. I just found out that he was in a big fight and was injured last night."
Wade gulped even as he began typing at completely absurd speeds. The bullying was this bad!? Wade had spent the last two days building Ron a brand new futuretech computer/unrestricted satphone exactly like the Kimmunicator, and had forgotten to check up on the bullying issue. Dammit! Thankfully, it wasn't long before he had Ron's GPS tracker active and could see the state of the boy for himself.
"According to the chip, Ron's vitals are strong if not a little elevated," Wade explained with a long, loud sigh of relief. "These elevations may be because of pain, medicine or several other reasons, but they're all within acceptable ranges. Either way, Ron's awake, alert and moving around. Readings say he's currently leaving Middleton hospital."
After sliding bonelessly onto her bedroom floor in relief, Kim just stared up at her ceiling for almost half a minute. Then, when she finally managed to slow down her breathing, she rose back to her feet and regarded her Kimmunicator. "Thanks Wade, I appreciate the Intel."
"No problem," Wade sleepily assured. "When you see him tell him I'm glad he's okay. I'm going back to bed." Wade disconnected from the line.
"Bye Wade," Kim muttered back as the boy hung up. God she felt like a terrible friend. Why didn't it even occur to you that it might be your best friend of twelve years who's hurt, Kim thought to herself. Why would mom be visiting Josh without me in the first place?
Kim rubbed her palms against her temples, easing away the mental strain that just thinking about Ron seemed to cause her these days. Ron had been causing her a lot of stress for quite a while now. The boy clearly had issues lately, and she just couldn't figure it all out. The boy had been in over a dozen very one sided fist fights since Monday morning, and it was all anyone could talk about. He'd laid out like half of the sports complex of their school at this point, in a violence spree for the ages, to the point Kim worried he might ruin Team Possible's public image!
Needless to say, Kim was also sick of having to defend Ron to Josh and his friends all of the time! Josh especially kept pushing her to stop associating with Ron altogether, and since he didn't understand why cutting Ron off wasn't an option, Kim wished she had a much better explanation to provide for him.
While rising back up to her feet and shaking off her most recent state of rising panic, Kim recognized the fact that she couldn't put it off anymore… She and Ron were going to need to have words, like ASAP.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
"SHE DID WHAT?!!"
When Mrs. Dr. Possible started swerving her car through a turn in an extreme fit of rage, Ron immediately regretted answering her question. He was scared that in her surprise and anger, Ann would crash her car, killing them both.
"Look Ann! Breathe! Relax," Ron called out over the sound of squealing tires. "There's nothing you can do about this! You telling Kim off won't help change anything. What she did is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself."
With that said, Ron stopped talking altogether. He was banking on Ann's curiosity calming her back down.
It worked like a charm.
Ann stopped accelerating like a lunatic and finally picked a lane to drive in as she waited for Ron to continue his explanation.
"The PROBLEM," Ron continued in a slow and measured tone of voice, "is that Kim is embarrassed to be seen with me because she has no respect for me. A SYMPTOM of the problem was her pushing me into a janitor's closet."
"I still think we need to address this with Kim," Ann began.
It wouldn't change anything even if you did," Ron interrupted.
Ann visibly struggled to keep her eyes on the road as she waited for Ron to explain what he just said.
"I'm absolutely certain Kim didn't intend for the deadbolt of that closet to lock, but it did, and the weekend I spent stuck in there has had a huge impact on me," Ron continued into the new silence filling the car. "Being stuck in that closet forced me to understand exactly how much my life is affected by Kim and her opinion of me. I won't go so far as to say I have regrets, because you basically raised me, Kim's always been there for me until now, and the experiences that I've had on the missions are completely invaluable. I just don't think I'd feel like a complete failure because I'm not a professional level martial artist, gymnast, Surgeon, physicist, without Kim's involvement."
"Are you still my daughter's friend?" Ann asked the question both bluntly and without warning.
Ron's mouth opened and then shut several times, before he looked up at the ceiling of the car and drew in a very deep breath. "Look Ann... Kim's a huge part of my life. I can't just not care about her… that's impossible. I'm also committed to keeping my promise to Mr. Stoppable, which is why I'm going to train in Japan. I'm just not sure if I can be that close to Kim anymore. It's hurting me..." At this point, Ron was speaking both quietly and carefully, because truth be told, he was figuring out his feelings as he went along. "Up until a few months ago, Kim was my whole entire world… but that isn't a healthy mindset for me to continue having. Kim isn't capable of returning that level of devotion from me, because I'm not cool, fashionable and popular, and she's become a girl that highly values that stuff… I'm not her priority anymore, so I need to look to myself..."
Mrs. Possible gave Ron a sad sideways glance, because unfortunately, she couldn't argue against what he'd just said. After a moment, she collected her thoughts and began speaking again. "So you're completely furious with Kim, that anger was projected onto Bonnie and she was humiliated, which led to you fighting off dozens of attacks all week, and culminated in a street fight against ten goons in front of your home. Now you plan on skipping the country to get away from my daughter and maybe learn how to be a ninja?" Ann listed the events to Ron in an even tone that was carefully devoid of sarcasm.
After shaking his head, Ron smiled fondly at his surrogate mother. "Not fair, Mrs. P. When you say it all in order like that it sounds like I'm spiraling out of control... Well yeah... fine. That's the gist of it I guess. I think I should add that I'm not leaving the country to get away from Kim. Yes, I'm completely furious at her, but she's still not the reason I'm going. The larger issue here is that deep down, I can understand why Kim would be embarrassed to be seen with me, and I know it's not healthy for me to feel that way. I don't know exactly when it happened, but at some point, I started hating myself. I had no idea how low my self-esteem really was until I was stuck in that closet and beating the living hell out of myself. I honestly felt like I don't have a damned thing to offer anyone, so why should I expect respect from someone as special as Kim? Now I see how messed up those feelings are, as well as how important it is that I improve myself."
Ron drew in a deep breath as he abruptly decided to turn the conversation in another direction. "Ann... Do you remember the moodulator incident?"
Ann was already completely overwhelmed by what she was hearing, so at Ron's question she only managed to nod mechanically. She did remember the moodulator, as well as the chaos that it caused.
"Well… After the incident, Kim denied it, but it was obvious to me that she was pretty torn up about her reputation taking a hit," Ron explained with a sigh. "She was facing ridicule at school because she kissed me in public while under its influence... I never told this next part to Kim, but in the days that followed, I secretly went around telling everyone a story. I spread the news that Kim lost a bet to me and the kiss was the penalty for losing. While doing so, I never took the time to think about how much damage I was doing to myself. For a single day, I believed that Kim was in love with me, and then the next day, I was making up excuses on her behalf…"
Turning back to look Ann in the eyes, Ron gave her a rueful little smile. " Putting aside all of my teenage melodrama, I'll sum up the current situation for you... Kim's currently embarrassed to be seen with me in public and she sees me as a nuisance whenever we work together… and I'm done with it... I never signed up to be a liability."
After snapping out of her shock at the finality in Ron's words, Ann shook out her head, squeezed her steering wheel and chewed at her bottom lip. "My daughter's a teenager, Ronald. She's embarrassed by a wide assortment of silly things, is completely controlled by her hormones, and has no idea what she wants or needs. Not only that, but I seem to recall a certain study saying that the Ron Factor increases mission success rates."
After scoffing to himself, Ron saw the frustrated look Ann was giving him and he knew he needed to explain. "The Ron Factor is a study about blind luck, not skill, Ann. I lose my pants, trip, knock over a goon with a freeze ray, and it hits the monster piranha or I lose my pants trip and smack the self-destruct button. The only skill mentioned in that study that I agree with is that I'm gifted at distraction. On missions I go in loud, clumsy and disruptive. Then, when I'm inevitably found and roughed up by the hired help, I give Kim the thirty seconds she needs to complete the mission."
At first, Mrs. Possible didn't know what to say. She vividly remembered all of the scars littering Ron's body, and was forced to suppress a shudder. After a few moments passed, she turned back towards her unofficial eldest son and released a painful little sigh. "Ron... I'm… I'm just concerned that you're leaving without addressing these issues. Won't they just grow worse while you're gone?" Ann didn't bother asking about Ron's parents. They probably wouldn't even notice that he was gone.
Ron just nodded in response. "That's the plan..."
Mrs. Dr. Possible looked at Ron with shock written plainly across her features. "Explain yourself right this instant, Ronald!"
Mrs. Dr. P looked as if she was about to try the PDP (puppy dog pout) on him, so Ron looked straight ahead as he did what she said. "Mrs. Dr. P... It's actually IMPORTANT to my plans that I leave for Japan without addressing these issues with Kim. When I get back, I want to become something along the lines of a colleague or a mission alternate. I still want to keep Kim safe, and I want to continue helping people, but I refuse to be the long-suffering, whipping boy, loser, sidekick. I have no intention of continuing such a self-destructive arrangement. The reason I don't want Kim to know about the changes that I'm trying to make is because it's possible she might try to stop me. In the past, she's alternatively held me far too tight and then pushed me away at her own convenience. If she finds out what I intend to do, she might follow that same old pattern purely out of long habit. While I admit there's only a very slim chance of that happening considering her current attitude, I still have no intention of giving her any warning."
Ron stopped speaking for a moment so that he could spear Ann with his eyes. "And you won't warn her either. You won't say a word..."
It wasn't a question, Ron looked deadly serious.
Ann looked vaguely ill at this point, but after several moments passed, she nodded her understanding. She was careful not to actually make any promises, but she did understand Ron's point.
Ron nodded back, but he also noticed that Ann wasn't making any promises, so he started piling on the persuasion. "If I had a direct confrontation with Kim right now, it would cause far more problems than it would fix. Kim's been pushing me away since the moodulator incident, over four months ago, and when we do spend time together, she's started yelling at me about every variety of nonsense. Then, of course, this week is off the charts bad. I've been attacked by goons over sixteen different times since Monday, and yet she doesn't seem to be the least bit concerned for my well-being… What I'm really getting at is… I already know that I'll lose my temper in a really big way if Kim suddenly attempts to approach me as if she's an involved, concerned friend... It's a recipe for disaster, and one I'd rather avoid.
Very suddenly, Ann was forced to chew on the inside of her mouth to keep from begging Ron to reconsider his plan. It didn't seem fair to force Ron to put up with Kim's abuse, but deep down she wanted to do so anyway. Ron and Kim really were good for each other. Kim pushed Ron to excel and Ron kept Kim from becoming a hopelessly neurotic, obsessive compulsive, perfectionist. Not only that, but Kim loved Ron like family, if not more. Anyone who'd ever seen Kim's intensely jealous reaction to women even looking in Ron's direction could see that much.
In the end, Kim's more recent callous attitude made absolutely no sense to Ann at all, and could only be attributed to a particularly bad case of teenage hormones…
Oblivious to Ann's inner struggle, Ron continued his explanation. "Hopefully this summer, I can gather together an identity of my own, beyond just the fact that I'm Kim Possible's friend." Ron smiled and injected some optimism into his voice. "I think a good old fashioned training montage is exactly what the doctor ordered. I'll have achieved two objectives by the time I get home. One, I'll be better capable of protecting myself, and two, I won't be a sidekick anymore. Right now, I'm an afterthought in Kim's mind, but in five months I'll be completely forgotten. That might sound sad now, but it'll save us a lot of fighting in the future. I need to do this. The way I see it, I have no choice."
As Ron spoke, they'd arrived at school and Ann was pulling them into the drop off lane.
Ann shook her head again as she willed herself not to cry. She could tell that Ron had indeed made up his mind, and trying to persuade him otherwise would be a complete waste of time. With that much in mind, she turned to give the boy a very careful but thorough and lingering hug. "You be careful out there Ron. I want to see you just as soon as you're home. You hear me, as soon as you're home?"
Ron smiled a sad, little smile of his own, before hugging Ann back just a little bit harder. "You've got it Mrs. Possible... Ann... You're family after all."
After gingerly rising out of the car, Ron walked towards the school, with as much dignity as he could possibly muster.
Mrs. Possible just sat there in her idling car for almost half an hour, as she worried over her daughter and her oldest friend. Oh Kimmie... What have you done?...
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kim arrived at school with half an hour to spare and immediately set to looking for Ron. She needed to get to the bottom of his new violent outbursts, but there was a problem. The boy wasn't at his locker or any of his normal haunts. She couldn't think of anywhere else in the school that he'd end up, and she was running out of time before classes started. Giving up, Kim moved back towards her locker, where she saw Monique waiting for her.
"There you are! I want all the information," Monique demanded, just as soon as Kim was within earshot.
"Is this perhaps about Ron?" Kim hedged, not quite sure yet what was being asked.
"Of course it is," Monique immediately exclaimed. "There are all sorts of absurd rumors going around about him going postal and attacking a bunch of guys from our year! Some say that he put them all in the hospital; others say that he's the one in the hospital! Everyone agrees that the Police were involved! They're saying that Ron was arrested, not that I believe that stuff mind you. Still... I need the details! Have you spoken to Ron at all lately? Have you seen Ron today?!"
Kim blanched at the thinly veiled, manic intensity in Monique's eyes, before she tried to address the girl's many, many questions. "No," she blurted out as she suddenly realized that it'd been at least four days since she'd had a real conversation with her friend. "I haven't spoken to Ron. I've been busy with Josh lately, while Ron's been studying and punching people in the face. God help me that boy is out of control... I did contact Wade this morning, and he said that Ron's vital signs are fine. According to Wade, Ron was leaving the hospital, so he wasn't in jail..."
Despite Ron's orders and her own ongoing conflict of interest, Monique was becoming seriously worried now. Kim didn't seem to care that Ron was being attacked every two damned minutes, which was about as out of character as Kim could possibly get. She did briefly sag in relief when she heard that Ron was okay, but then she straightened up again to give Kim the stink eye. "Oh I know you've been busy Kim. It's been hard to get you alone for even a single second these days..."
"Sorry, Mon," Kim replied sheepishly.
"No biggie," Monique slowly replied. "More importantly, I seriously think you need to talk to your boy, Ron. I'm not joking, Kim. You need to talk to your FRIEND, as soon as possible."
"That's the plan," Kim muttered to herself, in a dark and frustrated tone of voice.
"No, seriously, Kim, I really think you should start considering Ron's point of…" Monique's warning was suddenly interrupted, when there was a loud commotion down the hallway. Then, without a word, both Monique and Kim started trying to push through a thick crowd of people to move closer to the disturbance.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Since Ann ended up dropping Ron off at school pretty early, he decided to spend the time in the Library completing some last minute Biology revision. If anything underscored the fact that something was drastically different with Ron these days, then it would have to be the fact that he was studying both alone and voluntarily.
All things considered, Ron wasn't all that concerned about passing his exams anymore. He just didn't want to have to explain to anyone why he was covered head to toe in bruises and bandaged up cuts. Even with his advanced healing rate, his body was a mass of brown and purple and the stitches on his face weren't a pretty picture. Even the school Librarian looked like she wanted to break her self-imposed vow of silence, to ask him what the hell had happened. On the one hand, the librarian's concern was heartwarming and on the other hand, it was just more staring. Everywhere he'd gone all damned week he'd been stared at, and it was getting old. Taking a deep and calming breath, Ron started packing up his stuff, favoring an injury on his left wrist.
When classes started in twenty minutes, Ron would be expected to report to the Vice Principal's office, where he'd be issued the exams that he'd write throughout the morning. After he finished his exams, he'd have to wait somewhere in the school so that the tests could be marked. He needed to make sure that he'd passed all of his classes, before he could leave for Japan the following day.
Emerging from the Library, Ron started walking through the different hallways towards his locker. As he walked, crowds of staring students parted around him as if he was Moses and they were the Red Sea. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what these kids were thinking by the looks on their faces, but there were definitely some common themes. There was the normal stuff like dislike and contempt, but Ron was seeing a surprising amount of awe and some fear as well. It felt surreal to be given a wide berth, but he put the feeling aside because right now he had a job to do.
Ron was spinning the combination to his locker when he caught sight of a very large shadow moving up behind him...
Pivoting around on the spot, Ron just barely managed to duck and then sidestep a one two combo of fast-paced punches that a mountain off a teenager was throwing at him, before he leapt two meters to his right and carefully contained a wince. Now definitely wasn't the time to reveal any kind of weakness. There were two goons standing in the spot Ron had just vacated and behind them was a very unexpected person.
The smaller of the newly arrived goons was Jake, the guy who first attacked Ron on Monday morning. The second, much larger goon who just attempted to cave in the back of his head, was a Linebacker from the football team named Joe. Finally, standing imperiously behind the two large and angry goons was Bonnie Rockwaller herself.
Needless to say, Ron was seriously sick of Bonnie at this point, to the extent that he immediately felt his teeth clenching, and his fists tightening at his sides. Another thing that was making Ron angry was the fact that dozens and dozens of different people were watching what was happening, and yet once again not one of them were moving to go get a teacher….
Ron would have to fend for himself… again...
Sigh...
In the seconds that followed, linebacker Joe squared up his hands again and started yelling at Ron, but since he was a terrible actor, it was pretty obvious that he was speaking mostly for the benefit of the crowd. "You're definitely going to suffer now, Loser! You've damaged our wide-receiver's eye and our tight-end's right arm. Neither of them can play football for the rest of the season!!"
For several seconds in a row, Ron didn't respond to Joe's words at all. He just tilted his head to the side with a confused expression on his face. Following that, he took a deep breath and just let himself ask the question. "Wait... Can you play football from jail these days?"
The football goon immediately started laughing at that. "Yeah right! All of their parents are important people!! As if they're going to see the inside of a jail cell. You, on the other hand, are going to get what's coming to you, because we all know where you live..."
It was in that moment, hearing that threat, that Ron knew he was going to have to finish this little gang war once and for all before he left the school for the day... It was officially time that someone learn a thing or two about… consequences…
In a single explosive instant of extremely purposeful movement, Ron dashed clear across the hallway, grabbed Joe the jock's punching hand with both of his own, and then brutally jerked the boy's thumb backwards with every ounce of his strength. The audible ripping, popping sound of a thumb muscle being torn and a bone being dislocated was immediately followed by a girly scream as Joe stared in horror down at his newly destroyed hand.
Quickly stepping to Joe's right side, Ron gave the goon one of his trademark stiff jabs to the chin, dropping the newly dizzy boy down to his knees. In the past, Ron would've stopped there but no, not this time. Reeling back, Ron kneed the kneeling goon right in the face, causing a wide spray of nosebleed blood to hit the floor. Less than half a second later the goon helpfully soaked up the blood splatter with his own semi-conscious body.
Without giving the downed goon even a second glance, Ron jerked his face towards Jake, giving the boy a menacing look that promised blood. "Jake... I seriously insist that you disappear, before I permanently cripple you."
With wild and fearful eyes Jake looked at Bonnie, then at Ron, then he threw up his hands and backed away, melting into the crowd.
Stepping quickly past Joe's newly crumpled body, Ron moved to within inches of Bonnie, forcing her back and flush against the locker behind her.
It was time for Ron to perform some Oscar caliber acting, so as he physically hemmed Bonnie in, he also focused all of the anger he contained, into a single, white-hot point. He took all of the anger that would normally be spread out to the dozens of people harassing him, and he focused it all squarely upon Bonnie alone. With that bit of mental gymnastics accomplished, he was in character, and ready to make with the scary...
After quickly scanning the crowd with an expression on his face that promised pain to anyone who interfered, Ron speared Bonnie in place with eyes containing a level of malevolence no one present had ever seen before...
Bonnie, for the very first time in maybe... ever, looked absolutely terrified.
Good.
After leaning even closer to Bonnie's body, Ron flattened his palm against the locker at her back, and spoke directly into her ear. "Listen here Bonbon… I fight against the real villains of the world. I deal with killers, rapists, sociopaths and megalomaniac geniuses, and I still get my homework done. One thing I DON'T do... is deal with this Highschool, kiddy, bullshit that you value so highly… which is the reason why I've always just allowed you to have this insignificant little kingdom of yours… Well things have changed now Bonbon, and you're the one who changed them… You, Bonnie Rockwaller... sent your goons… to attack me… at my HOME."
Ron's voice was a low toned and feral growl at this point, and Bonnie was shaking like a leaf. Ron didn't care. He was nowhere near done… "Here's the thing Bonnie… Judging by your actions so far this week, you clearly want me to take an… interest… in your life. I think you'll find that I know exactly where YOU live as well... I break into, and then completely destroy, high security lairs, on a regular basis... Bonbon... I own a large arsenal of tools, and I've learned how to get around unnoticed. If this manhunt of yours has proven just one thing to me, Bonnie, it's that you think you're completely untouchable... Well you're not… not at all… and now I'm going to prove it to you... I'm going to take an INTEREST in your life now, Bonnie. I'm going to take an interest in your family, in your friends, and I'll be paying your home a series of little visits… We'll see if you enjoy the same variety of treatment that I've been receiving at your orders…"
In that moment, as Ron's glacier blue eyes bore a hole straight through her forehead, Bonnie felt the purified malice that he was directing at her, and she recognized just how much she'd been underestimating the boy. Ronald Stoppable was so unbelievably furious with her right now; he didn't give a rat's ass about doing the so-called "right thing" anymore. She'd managed to push him far, far beyond the breaking point now, and the chains of moral righteousness that he'd been laboring under had shattered into thousands of pieces. Ronald Stoppable was a seasoned infiltrator and saboteur who was breaking free of Kim Possible's impeccable moral standards, and as such, his existence was far too frightening to imagine.
In that moment, Bonnie had no doubts whatsoever that Stoppable could, and in fact would, systematically destroy her whole entire life. He'd destroy all of her property and reveal all of her secrets. He'd terrorize both her friend's and her parents until she had no one left to turn to. He'd never be caught and she'd never know when to expect him. He'd tear down her entire world around her and she wouldn't be able to do a damned thing to stop him…
Bonnie felt like she might pee herself in fear, a feeling that grew even worse as Ron cupped her chin tightly in his free hand, and began speaking again in a low impatient growl…
"Now… Bonbon… I know from long experience that you're unbelievably slow on the uptake, so I'm just going to ask the question," Ron growled after forcing the girl to look him in the eyes. "Do you understand that there are CONSEQUENCES to your actions?" Do you understand what'll happen to you if I ever even SUSPECT that you're targeting me?"
The tone of Ron's voice left no doubt whatsoever that if Bonnie didn't understand, then she'd learn to regret it very, very soon…
All at once and very quickly, an explosion of stuttered words were pouring out of Bonnie's mouth in a desperate and uncoordinated jumble. "I.. I understand, an..and I'm s..sorry!! It's over! I'll I'll t-tell everyone tha.. that I know th- that you're waaaay off limits."
As if to underscore the validity of her words, Bonnie's knees chose that moment to buckle, and she ended kneeling up on the ground right next to Joe.
"WHAT'S GOING ON OUT HERE!!" As Mr. Barkin yelled at the assembled students, everyone in the entire hallway stopped in their tracks. Everyone just stared at both Ron and Bonnie, waiting for the screaming match that they knew was coming.
It was Bonnie who broke the silence.
"Joseph here fell flat on his face and he also hurt his hand, so I was just checking on him," Bonnie yelped up towards the Vice Principal. "If you don't mind, I think Joe needs to go see the nurse."
At first, Joe managed to give Bonnie a look of betrayal through the tears in his dimly lit eyes, but after catching Ron's eyes over her shoulder, he blanched in fear and nodded his agreement.
"Fine," Mr. Barkin replied loudly but casually. It was as if he didn't care enough to investigate any further. "Go you two. The rest of you only have four minutes until classes start! Go now!"
Ron and Mr. Barkin continued to stand there as everyone else rapidly filed away. Mr. Barkin did raise an eyebrow when a passing boy yelled at Ron that he absolutely must grow a beard!
When they were finally alone, Mr. Barkin turned towards Ron, scrutinizing him for several seconds. Following that, he said something that was very true and in a very matter of fact voice. "You look like shit Stoppable."
With no other way to respond, Ron just laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Uhhh yeah, it's been one of those weeks. I'm not feeling quite as pine fresh as normal."
As Mr. Barkin continued to give Ron a very serious look, it became increasingly obvious that the older man knew exactly what happened before his arrival.
"You played a very dangerous game just now, Mr. Stoppable. I don't condone violence." Mr. Barkin looked both pissed off and impatient.
Ron was nearly one hundred percent sure that he was about to be expelled.
"I don't like violence in school, but I hate victims who just take abuse as if it's normal. Watching you these past few years has been making me furious like you wouldn't believe. You go fight super-villains and then just take constant flack by highschool bullies? What a crock."
With that said, Mr. Barkin abruptly turned away and started walking towards his office. He looked over his shoulder as he moved and called out. "Well come on, Stoppable! We need to give you those exams this morning."
Ron was jolted out of the shock that Mr. Barkin's words had just caused him and he jogged over to join the ex-military man.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Kim and Monique had only managed to catch the second half of the confrontation, because there'd been way too many people in the way to get any closer. They'd been too far back in the crowd to intervene, but had clearly seen what Ron had done to Joe's hand, the punch, the knee to the face, the threats, and the ultra-sinister expression on his face.
Kim was completely shocked by the suddenness and the brutality of the violence, as well as Ron's obvious lack of anything even resembling hesitation. What is going on with Ron these days? He's filled with so much anger now... Is he the same Ron I've always known? Kim suddenly found herself worried that Josh was right and Ron's behavior was bad for Team Possible's image. She was also completely stunned by the extent of Ron's injuries. He was covered head to toe in bandages! What was he even doing here today? Just to take the exams? Was deserting her and the missions such a huge priority to him right now?
As Kim Possible slowly but surely became spitting angry at Ronald Stoppable, Monique was left just shaking her head in a mixture of concern and confusion. Personally, her panties were completely soaked after watching a much more assertive version of Ron tear shit up, and couldn't even begin to understand Kim's problem with the boy finally learning to defend himself.
Then Monique saw that Kim was finally about to speak to Ron, so she merely waited on the sidelines, hoping to help the two of them iron out their differences…
As everyone dispersed to go to their classes, Kim started moving in Ron's direction, but then she suddenly heard someone calling out to her from behind... "Hey Kim!" It was Josh calling to her from further down the hall. Kim looked at Ron, then back at Josh, then back at Ron, and then finally she jogged off in Josh's direction.
For the second time in just as many minutes, Monique lost her opportunity to give her closest friend the warning that she needed oh so very badly, and she was left just standing there with her hand outstretched in the redhead's direction...
Shit…
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For the very first time all week, Ron didn't have any studying to do when he finally re-emerged from the highschool's main offices, and the timing was good because it was lunchtime, and just in time to meet up with Monique. He cued up for a lunch of dubious quality like everyone else and then looked for a place to sit. He was keeping an eye out for signs of danger, but the jocks were avoiding even looking in his direction.
Ron smiled in relief and then smiled even wider when he saw his good friend Felix sitting off in the distance. You could easily tell it was him even from clear across the room, so he marched confidently in the boy's direction. Felix was a dark brown haired kid in Ron's grade and a mechanical genius. While he was confined to a wheelchair, with all of the gizmos inside of it he was probably more physically capable than anyone in the room.
"Mind if I sling some food into my mouth while sitting next to you, good sir?" Ron smiled down at his friend as he waited for the boy to respond.
While Felix did smile up at Ron in return, he also pointed at him in accusation. "Ah, who is this stranger in front of me?" After his initial teasing, Felix looked Ron up and down, and his face took on a look of concern. "You know Ron. If you want to borrow a wheelchair, I do own a spare..."
After gesturing at his various wraps and bruises, Ron waved an arm in a dismissive fashion. "Oh these? These are just next year's fashion. I'm a trendsetter."
"And this is why I'm never going to be considered fashionable," Felix immediately responded."
Both boys grinned as Ron settled into a chair across the table.
It wasn't long before Monique crashed down into the chair next to Ron, with enough enthusiasm that she slid about a foot and a half and slammed into the side of his body. "Okay now, you've gotta know I'm going to want to know everything right? You look like you went toe to toe with Pain King, Ron!"
While Monique's use of their shared hobby did make Ron smile, he also felt like busting the girl's balls just a little. "Umm... You wouldn't settle for, there appears to have been a sequence of events that were completely out of my control, would you?"
Monique closed her eyes and laughed for just a single moment before giving Ron the stink eye instead. "Not a snowball's chance in hell there, Stoppable. Give me the intel…"
At first, Ron intended to just fill in Monique about the night before, but soon enough, he was also giving Felix a recap about the events of his week so far. Ron's story started at his confrontation with Bonnie and moved on from there, leaving out the closet incident and the fact that he'd become sexually active. He outlined how he'd been repeatedly attacked by Bonnie's goons, then ambushed at home by the ten guys, and then finally what happened earlier that day.
Monique was deep in thought by the time Ron was finished relating his story. While up until recently she hadn't thought to investigate, now that Ron was officially about to leave, she was legitimately beginning to worry about Kim. Her best female friend clearly needed her help, and for that to happen Monique needed to know why Ron was so pissed off at her. Turning her attention back towards Ron, Monique crossed her arms over her chest. "I think Ron... that I'm missing an important piece of this story. There's got to be a reason for you losing your temper on Monday, and I think I know what it is."
Cutting to the core of Monique's sleuthing, Ron held up a hand and said "stop right there Mon. I know what you're getting at, and Kim has nothing to do with anything I've done this week."
Monique smiled in triumph at Ron's completely transparent denial. "Yes, Ron. You're exactly right, Kim hasn't been involved, and I think that's exactly what's got you so pissed off."
After staring at Monique for a few very tense moments, Ron looked down at the table and his all but forgotten lunch. He was surprised that Monique wanted these answers, but if she really wanted them then he didn't mind giving them. It was only fair under the circumstances. He was going to be relying on her for something from this point forward, so the least he could do was explain the reason why. He needed her to be there for Kim, now that he wasn't going to be.
Looking up again to catch Monique's eyes, Ron drew in a very deep breath. "Well… Mon... You're wrong and yet you're right at exactly the same time. Kim isn't the reason I'm getting into fights anymore, but she was the reason I was upset on Monday morning… I'm done with her, Mon. I'm not going to be Kim's friend anymore. She'll need you to pick up the slack."
"Wait you're like… completely quits with her?" Despite everything she'd seen so far this week, Ron's words still managed to render Monique into a state of abject shock. Until right this second, she'd never really thought that Ron was this committed. This was huuuge. Ron and Kim went back before prehistoric times, and most people believed they were a together-forever type, power friendship.
"I think the best I'll be able to handle is colleague and casual acquaintance," Ron quietly supplied. "I'll be around, and I still intend to go on missions when I get back from Japan. Whether or not Kim actually wants me to continue going on missions with HER, will be another matter entirely. Lately, she's been acting like I'm nothing but a burden, an embarrassment and an unwelcome distraction from her love life."
As Ron briefly returned to eating his lunch, Monique's eyes scanned the cafeteria for Kim. One thing was becoming increasingly certain with every word that Ron said. This was definitely a conversation that the redhead should be taking part in.
Then, when Monique finally found her friend, she groaned and double face-palmed herself in long suffering.
There Kim was... sitting with Josh, right in Ron's line of sight. Point of fact, Kim and Josh were currently being completely disgusting together, flirting like a romance montage in an eighties movie.
"Well that's not helpful," Monique muttered, before she returned her attention back to Ron. In the seconds that followed, Monique mentally kicked the crap out of herself for being so damned obedient all week just so that she could continue getting stuffed full of dick...
Both Ron and her parents were right after all... She is selfish!
Squaring up with Ron again, Monique committed herself to improving the situation however much she could. "Look, Ron... I know things between you and Kim are strained at the moment, but Kim has never found you embarrassi…"
"Don't give me that crap, Monique," Ron suddenly interrupted without even looking up from his food. "Last weekend I spent fifty-plus hours locked in a Janitor's closet, because my so-called 'best friend' Kim pushed me in. She pushed me in because Mankey was walking down the hallway, and she was too damned ashamed to be seen with me."
At this newest revelation, both Felix and Monique went wide eyed and completely quiet. No further questions were necessary. All of Ron's recent actions suddenly made far too much sense. The man was waaay beyond merely pissed off.
He was over it...
Ron took yet another deep breath to calm back down, before he continued his explanation to Felix. "The school that I'm visiting over the summer is kinda special. I might just surprise you with how much I can achieve while I'm gone. It's martial arts based and exceedingly strict. Hopefully, I'll be pretty formidable when I return."
Felix had been quiet up until now, but he interjected because Ron was forgetting something. "Hey Ron, don't change too much. We like you the way you are."
While Monique loved muscles and thus approved of Ron coming home even more jacked than he already was, she also agreed with Felix. "Yeah, Ron. Get back to spreading that Ronshine will yah! Besides we've all seen you tearing the assorted sports teams a new one this entire week. I'd say that you ARE formidable."
Ron smiled but he also shook his head. Monique didn't quite get it, but that made sense and he wasn't surprised. "I'm good at fighting dumb teenagers, Mon, but not the supervillains of the world. Under those circumstances, I'm as helpless as a baby... Listen, I'll miss you guys this summer. Don't tell anyone, but I'll probably be in Japan quite a bit longer than the couple weeks that this exchange is supposed to last. I'll be back by the end of August at the earliest."
Monique was forced to act surprised because she'd already known how long Ron was going to be gone. Then, a moment later, when Felix looked to her for help, she asked the question that she knew he wanted her to ask. "Does Kim know how long you'll be gone?"
Ron just shook his head.
Monique let out a sigh again because her guilt was getting worse by the second. She'd allowed things to slide all week and now Ron and Kim were never even going to talk about their problems. "You do realize that Kim's going to be super, mega, ultra pissed off at you then right?"
Ron shook his head again because he highly doubted Kim would react anywhere near that strongly. "Kim doesn't need me, and she isn't hesitating to let me know it. She'll be fine."
Monique couldn't really disagree about how indifferent Kim was being to Ron recently, but she wanted to anyway, purely out of loyalty. "Ron, please don't give up on Kim. She cares about you."
When Ron nodded in response to her words, Monique could see that he wasn't even trying to disagree.
"Oh, I know that she's fond of me like some kind of pet or mascot. She just doesn't respect me as a person or a friend." Ron's words were twice as damning because of how deadpan and matter of fact they were.
As the third period bell went off, Ron slowly rose to his feet and turned back to his friends. "I have to walk over to the Principal's office and collect my final exam grades. If I've passed my exams, I'll be leaving for Japan in the morning. I still don't own a cell phone, but I'll call you both when I return to the country."
As Ron walked off, Monique turned towards Felix and vented all of her frustrations into one sentence. "This isn't going to end well at all."
Felix nodded his agreement. "They're either going to kill each other or marry each other. I've been saying it since day one, and I'm not changing my opinion now. I'm just a little afraid that this is going to end in a bloodbath..."