The Protagonist System
349 Coming Together Conclusion

The flight back to the Global Justice Network HQ was filled with many questions from a very excited six year old little girl. She wanted to know everything and kept spewing question after question, not really listening to any answers, and Stitch was just as exited about being inside a transport and going to a new place.

Nani sat at my side and looked exasperated at her sister, while also having an indulgent smile on her face. The occasional glance at me had her slightly blush and she would go back to trying to interrupt her sister's constant stream of words by answering her questions.

We came in for a landing and Nani sighed as both Lilo and Stitch seemed to have an energetic infusion at the thought of being released from their seatbelts and unleashed into a new arena to play. I helped Nani corral them and we had a couple guards also form a small perimeter to stop them from going too far away from us.

They led us to the meeting room where several scientists and Dr. Betty Director were waiting for us. The men and a single woman made appreciative sounds as soon as they saw Stitch. The creature stiffened, as if threatened, and looked about to run and hide.

“It's all right, Stitch. There will be no invasive procedures. It's only a topical examination to prove you either are or are not related to this planet's ecology.” Betty said to calm him down. “If you feel like donating a drop of blood or two, I think you'll earn a few valuable favors in exchange, especially from Dr. Amy Hall, our new geneticist.”

I looked from the plumb dark haired woman that used to be the villain named DNAmy, to Betty. “Does that mean my golf course club idea is working?”

Betty smiled and nodded. “We have already recruited half of the people in the files I gave you, just because we offered them exclusive memberships that they know only they have.”

“The spa is the best and I've already tested many of the modified creatures you put into the obstacles.” Amy said and smiled at me. “You did some great work with them, Mr. Stoppable. Perhaps we can collaborate on something in the future?”

“I'll keep an opening in my summer schedule for you.” I responded and she grinned.

“Please, have a seat everyone.” Betty invited us and waved at the empty chairs.

Nani sat and put Lilo in the seat beside her and I sat and put Stitch in the seat between myself and Lilo. The four of us looked across the table at Betty and she looked pleased.

“We'll just have a short briefing about the legal situation, how we've handled the Australian laws and regulations, and what Mr. Stoppable is going to be responsible for from now on.” Betty said and then proceeded to tell the whole room everything we needed to know.

I didn't mind more scrutiny, especially since one of the scientists was Australian and would be staying in my section as a liaison. They had already modified one of the larger rooms near the barracks for Stitch to live in and he growled a little at that.

I reached over, keeping my hand in his sight, and then scratched the top of his head. “It's a living area, not a cage.” I said and turned to the air vent and let out a low whistle.

A moment later, the vent popped open and Rufus rolled out of it, bounced off of the television monitor, and landed in a traditional hero pose in front of me.

“Hey, buddy!” I said and held a hand out for him to slap in a tiny high five. “I see you're having fun and mapped the whole place out.”

Rufus squeaked and grumbled happily.

“Ha! You sneak!” I said and used a fingertip to scratch the top of his head, too.

“What did he do?” Nani asked.

“He set up a regular delivery of Bueno Nacho food to the agent recovery protocol.” I said and she looked surprised. “Every time an agent returns to base, they bring a pile of food with them.”

“That's how he managed it?” Betty asked with a laugh. “I've had an agent trying to track down how random delivery drivers keep finding our supposedly covert vehicles.”

Rufus made a few more noises and gave me a thumbs up.

I laughed. “You can call off the investigation, Dr. Betty Director. He set it up to come out of my section's budget and it doesn't cost you or your agents anything.”

Betty nodded and made a note of it. “With that out of the way, why did you call your little buddy?”

“I wanted Rufus to tell Stitch how he's been treated and what it's like living here.” I answered.

Rufus nodded and walked over to sit in front of Stitch on the edge of the table and they started chatting back and forth with their various noises. They clearly understood each other and continued to talk for a while.

“I've hired Nani as a financial adviser, since my projects are getting a bit too out of hand for me alone to handle them. I also hired Zita Florez as my secretary and assistant. She'll be available next week when her two week notice finally ends and quitting her current job finally goes through.”

Betty made notes for that. “We've already vetted Miss Florez, and her background checks out. We can handle Miss Pelekai before you leave tonight and we'll add the both of them to your roster.”

“Thank you.” I said, grateful for her being so accommodating.

Betty handed me a short list of names. “This is the current member list for the exclusive club. You can set their files aside for now.”

I nodded and read the list. I wasn't surprised it was full of the more higher class villains I had met over the years. An exclusive club definitely appealed to them.

“I have a recommendation of who you should approach next, if you're willing to hear it.” Betty said and used a remote to change the monitor from the map of Australia to a blank screen.

“Hit me.” I said and turned to look at it.

Betty clicked the remote again and a young woman appeared on the screen. The video played and showed her clearly shoplifting an expensive purse, then it flickered to her selling it for cash and then using the cash to eat at an expensive restaurant. She also had a small following of photographers while she did the whole thing, which was kind of funny.

“This is Camille Leon, a socialite that was disowned from her very rich family.” Betty said and changed the video to show a heavily bandaged face. “She's also had extensive plastic surgery recently that changed her on a fundamental level.”

The next picture was of her as two different people wearing the same outfit.

“She's using her shapeshifting abilities to commit various small crimes to maintain the lifestyle she has grown up with and she refuses to live as anything else except as a popular socialite.” Betty said and turned the monitor off. “As of this moment, we haven't officially noticed her, as her schemes are all self-serving and barely impact more than a few stores in the expensive part of Hollywood.”

I had to chuckle at that. “She's committing grand larceny with petty crimes!”

Betty smiled at me and nodded. “Like I said, we usually deal with things that impact a city, a country, or the world. An ex-heiress behaving like that is barely an interesting story to share in the break room.”

“I get it. She'll be perfect as an infiltration specialist for my squad, especially if I can keep her in the lifestyle she's accustomed to.” I said and Betty nodded again. “All right, I'll head out as soon as Nani and Stitch are looked over.”

“Excellent.” Betty said and motioned to the scientists. “You have half an hour.”

The scientists cheered and swarmed over to our side of the table, scooped up Nani, Lilo, Stitch, and Rufus, then they were out the door and gone from sight.

“They were supposed to stay here.” Betty said and slapped a hand over her face.

I chuckled and stood up. “I guess I don't have to wait to start my mission.”

Betty waved me away with her hand and stood. “I need to keep an eye on them before they break my promise without meaning to.”

I followed her out of the meeting room and we split up for me to go to the hangar attached to the training area assigned to me. I met Adrena Lynn near the barracks and she looked happy to see me. I barely had the word 'mission' out of my mouth and she was suited up in a uniform and followed me into the hangar. My personal hovercraft was there and looked all fuelled up and ready to go.

“Thanks, fellas.” I said to the men working nearby and they pulled the wheel blocks out of the way and gave me a thumbs up. I had experience flying a plane, so it was easy to orient myself to the new layout and I familiarized myself with the controls, including the hover mode.

Adrena talked to the air traffic controller as I brought the power up and signalled the men to open the hangar bay doors. I taxied out onto the small tarmac, because it was a hoverjet and not a normal one, and it didn't need a long runway. I engaged the hover option and the thrusters aimed downwards to gently lift us off into the air.

Yes, I could have just stepped to California and came back just as quickly; but, I wanted the transport to be accepted as a normal way of travelling. There was no real point to having it, otherwise. Plus, other people of my squad would be learning to fly the thing as well and they wouldn't be restricted with living at the base.

“What's the mission details?” Adrena asked me when we reached a good height for safe flying.

“Oh, so now you want to know?” I asked with a chuckle and she chuckled, too.

“I only just finished learning all the base's procedures and I needed some air.” Adrena said and reclined slightly in the co-pilot's chair. “So spill. What are we going to do and where?”

I thought about teasing her and not saying anything, and instead set the autopilot. I turned to her and smiled knowingly. “We're heading to Hollywood to track down a certain Leon Ex-heiress to bring her into the squad before the cops get her.”

Adrena looked surprised for a moment, then she laughed. “We're going after Camilla?”

“You got it.” I said and explained why.

She looked intrigued when I told her about the new additions to the squad. “I think I'm looking forward to having someone else besides Rufus staying with me in the barracks.”

“That's understandable. Living alone sucks.” I said and turned back to face the controls. “I'm sure that Dr. Betty Director will lift some of your restrictions soon.”

“Hopefully.” Adrena responded. “She mentioned during my last briefing about you putting us all through a week of hell, too.”

I nodded. “Training starts next week after my exams and I'm not restrained in my own movements because of school.”

Adrena gave me a searching look. “You're just playing along with that, aren't you?”

“Pretty much.” I answered. “I could teach everything there and could graduate if they allowed it without me attending enough classes to earn the course credits.”

Adrena's searching look changed to a needy one. “Can you tutor me with a few things?”

I thought over the schedule I had drawn up and nodded. “I've scheduled personal time for a few hours every day, besides for meals and sleeping, so if you want, I can get you up to speed on whatever you need.”

Adrena smiled and nodded back. “Thanks, Stoppable. You're all right for a goody-two-shoes.”

That made me laugh. “You're hilarious!”

Adrena smirked at me and turned to the navigation console and input the destination for Hollywood, California. “We're set for waypoints and on course.”

I looked down at the monitor in behind the flight controls and saw the markers. “Got it. Adjusting flight path.” I said and adjusted us marginally to line up with the invisible line that would take us to the next navigation marker. “How have you been adjusting to life on the base?”

Adrena started talking about how different it was from her normal life and how it was nice to have somewhere to call home and not have to worry about the police showing up or arresting you when you went outside to buy groceries.

*

It was surprisingly easy to recruit Camilla Leon as an agent and they were barely on the ground for more than ten minutes before they lifted off again and were headed back to base. Just the promise of high pay was enough to get the ex-heiress to agree and she didn't hear about the perks of the job until Adrena told her about them all, including the offer of a room at Ron's mansion after the entire training course was done in three months.

Ron politely declined the casual offer of a blowjob and joining the mile-high club from Camilla.

Adrena gave her a pointed look and then looked at Ron. “That was an option?”

He spent the rest of the trip back to the base explaining, which was how both women learned about Tara's overall authority over his perfect penis and how she was the one to judge their viability. There were also only two others so far, Bonnie and Nani, and he was doing the three of them to their satisfaction.

Both women silently resolved to talk to Tara about themselves and their need to have a man to be there for them as well, since neither of them ever had such a thing before and felt like they should be a part of whatever it was Ron and Tara were building together.

After they landed and disembarked from the hoverjet, Adrena escorted Camilla to her debriefing, since she knew about how it was handled, and Ron went to where the examination of Stitch was being held.

The place was a complete mess, the scientists were very excited about the results of their experiments, and Nani sat on the floor with two sleeping beings cuddled up on her lap. Ron quietly laughed at it all and helped her bring Lilo and Stitch to his assigned barracks and put them to bed.

*

It was a relief to be dropped off at the mansion early on Monday morning. I had made sure to time it properly to have a shower and dress in a school outfit that Tara picked out for me, and bid Nani a good day and I'd see her after school. With no more cheer practice, all of my afternoons were now free.

I drove my motorcycle down the street to Tara's house and parked. I stepped off and Tara was already out of the house and hugged me. She put on her jacket and helmet, closed the seat, and let me climb on before she did as well and cuddled into my back.

We had final exams all week, so it was going to be both busy and boring for me. Well, it could have been boring if I didn't have several girls to tutor and help along when they needed it, and they would. They wanted to do their best for their final marks, after all.

The days seemed to fly by, with two exams every day, and the week ended with Tara and Bonnie being very pleased with themselves over how well they did during their exams. They had solid 3.8s and might even have 3.9s for their scores. Applying for colleges would be a breeze with marks that high.

*

That first week of training was brutal for everyone involved, even Dr. Betty Director, and she couldn't have been happier about the whole thing. She had been a little worried that all Ron Stoppable was doing was gathering hot women to have sex with, and he would be wasting her time and her base's resources.

Betty was delighted to realize Ron was head and shoulders more experienced and knowledgeable than any of her top agents and he was really close to being better than her. That was unheard of and she was quite turned on by the prospect and gave her blessing for Ron's training regimen and approved Ron's Covert Squad, or RCS for short.

She also covertly approached Tara King and inquired about the process to become one of their members in secret, only to receive a polite no. Ron's love was only for those women that needed it and it wasn't for a casual bump and grind with no commitment, just because they were horny.

As a secret agent, Betty fully understood the restriction and let the matter drop. She had no time for an actual relationship and wouldn't ruin things for the other women that did. It didn't stop her from regretting that she couldn't participate or wondering how Ron was keeping so many of them sexually satisfied.

Spoiler

This was as close as I could get to Tara, except her eyes are too big. Oh, well. It's surprisingly difficult to find good appropriate pictures.

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