And You And I

Chapter 18: Mother's going to keep baby healthy and clean

It was late afternoon when Kim finally parked the Sloth inside her parents' garage. She'd messaged her mom earlier in the day to tell her that she'd be late and half expected to be chewed out over it. However, because she had been using the time to do something 'normal', her mom had simply told her to have fun and come over when she was done. I bet she makes me stay longer after dinner to make up for it though, Kim thought as she climbed out of her car, given her current disposition towards me.

She entered the house, an eerily accurate replica of the original and called out, "hey, Mom, it's me."

"I'm in the lounge, Kimmie," her mom replied.

Kim headed in the direction of her mom's voice, but her foot froze mid-step when her ears pricked up to the sound of something mechanical descending from the ceiling. Her eyes shot in the direction from which it had come and caught sight of what looked like an auto-turret. Oh, crap! Instinctively she dived to the side as the weapon fired, missing her by mere millimetres. "TWEEBS!" she yelled at the top of her voice as she had to continually dodge repeated blasts.

In the living room door, she caught sight of Jim and Tim's heads appearing.

"Cool," Jim said enthusiastically, "it works!"

"No, it doesn't," Tim countered, "it hasn't hit her once!"

"TWEEBS!" Kim yelled again as she scanned the hallway for options. "Turn that thing off!"

She caught sight of Jim pulling out his cell phone. "True, but she is providing excellent data for us to analyse."

Tim nodded in agreement. "However, that targeting system is going to take a lot of work if we want it to be able to disintegrate someone with her reflexes in one shot."

"TWEEBS!" Seeing that her brothers had no intention of disabling their latest creation, she had no choice but to do it her way. Darting towards the wall nearest the auto-turret, she ran up and along it in an arc and sprang towards it; the gun unable to turn and fire fast enough. Catching it mid-flight, she pulled down hard and wrenched it from the ceiling. It died in her hands as she tossed it on the floor at the twins' feet. "Analyse that!"

"AWW," they said in unison, "Mom, Kim ruined our auto-turret!"

"I think your sister is entitled to come into the house without being shot at by your defence system," her mom then said as she appeared behind them.

"But, Mom..." they both said before yelping as her mother grabbed them both by the ear.

"Now, both of you get rid of that silly little turret of yours, clean up the mess it's made of my walls and floor and then, as an apology to your sister, go to the garage and make some free improvements to her car."

"But...but..." the Tweebs stammered, but they quickly stopped when their mother gave them a stern look.

"Go, now," the woman commanded and released Jim and Tim's ears.

The twins scooped up their now destroyed auto-turret and scampered up the stairs, leaving Kim alone with her mom.

"Kimmie," her mom then greeted warmly as she closed in for a hug.

"Hi, Mom," she replied as they embraced; forcing herself to stifle a wince from her ribs.

When they separated, her mother looked her up and down. "I like what you've done with your hair."

"Thanks. I just got it done at Raul's." She turned around so her mom could see the back. After having lost more than an inch to Drakken's death-ray and then having to remove another half-inch worth of singed ends, she'd gone all-in and allowed the stylist to cut it down to just below shoulder-length, thin it out and give it a choppy look. However, she had resisted his offer to put some different shades of red, orange, yellow and even blonde, through it, so that she would look like a lit match; maybe next time.