Categories > Cartoons > Kim Possible > Centerfold
Chapter 4: Assignment: Iraq
0 reviewsRon gets a story, and and gets a little more than he bargained for.
0Unrated
Chapter 4
Assignment: Iraq
Danger Zone
by
Kenny Loggins
Revvin' up your engine,
Listen to her howlin' roar
Metal under tension,
Beggin' you to touch and go,
Highway to the danger zone,
Ride into the danger zone,
Headin' into twilight, spreadin' out her wings tonight,
She got you jumpin' off the deck, shove it into overdrive,
Highway to the danger zone,
I'll take you right into the danger zone,
They never say hello to you,
Until you get it on the red line overload,
You never know what you can do,
Until you get it up as high as you can go,
Out along the edges,
Always where I burn to be,
The further on the edge,
The hotter the intensity,
Highway to the danger zone,
Gonna take you right into the danger zone,
Highway to the danger zone,
Ride into the danger zone.
It had been a week since Ron's centerfold shoot of Shego, and things seemed to be going great, he had gotten a load of content for the January issue, including a new centerfold spread, and a pictorial that was amazing, but something seemed missing from the issue, something that hit home for him,
"Look, Hef, you wanted some raw footage, and I can get it for you, do you trust me?" Ron asked, looking at Hef with almost pleading eyes,
"Ron, that particular area is a big time hot spot, how would it look if you got greased over there." Hef replied,
"I'll be careful, I promise." Ron replied,
"Famous last words," Hef said, then, finally relenting, he continued, "Alright, I'll allow it, but if you even come home with so much as a scratch, you're going to be flying a desk here at the mansion, sticking to centerfold shots for three weeks."
"Deal." Ron said, standing up,
"One question, Ron, who's going to be your assistant?" Hef asked,
"Brick, of course." Ron replied,
"Not this time, he's confined to his bed on the second floor, doctors orders, seems that he caught some kind of stomach virus, the doctor isn't allowing him to leave the mansion until he's given a clean bill of health." Hef commented, causing Ron's face to fall,
"Oh, that's just prime . . . now who am I going to take with me." Ron said, then, thinking hard, his eyes suddenly lit up,
"Maybe Shego can come with me, she's been dying to go on a location shoot with me." Ron explained,
"Yeah, but those were still in country, this is out in the middle of a war zone, and I highly doubt that Global Justice would let her go there, knowing that we might run the risk of her escape." Hef explained,
"I doubt that she'll go anywhere, she's had a ton of opportunity to escape from here, we've left her alone within the mansion grounds so many times, I've lost count." Ron replied,
"True, but I'll still have to clear it with Dr. Director first, she's behaved well enough to allow this just once, but after that, I'm going to have to say no, Ron." Hef explained,
"Okay, works for me, I'll be upstairs packing some clothes, and equipment to take with me." Ron stated, leaving the room,
"Alright, I'll let you know what happens." Hef said, picking up his telephone, as Ron got up, and walked out of his office.
Later that afternoon:
Ron had just finished packing, when Hef walked into the room,
"We're on, Dr. Director has allowed Shego to go with you, under one condition, she has to have press credentials on her at all times." Hef remarked,
"That's a given, I don't know of many military units that will allow the press around them without the proper credentials." Ron stated,
"Alright, better step on it, Big Bunny takes off in about two hours, destination, Baghdad Airport." Hef said,
"Okay, let me get Shego, and we'll be off." Ron stated,
"Okay, just be careful out there, Ron, I got a bad feeling about this." Hef said, walking out of the office.
/An hour later/:
Shego was sitting in the limo next to Ron, looking at the young blonde haired man she had come to respect as a friend, and a professional, and hoping that it could be something more,
"What's the matter, Ron, you seem kinda tense about something." Shego said, noticing the lines, furrowed deep into Ron's forehead,
"Do I?" Ron asked, in a mock sarcastic tone,
"Yeah . . . would you mind explaining to me where we're going, all you told me was to dress in something comfortable, and not to overdo it on the heavy clothing." Shego mentioned,
"I'll tell you when we get on the plane." Ron said, hoping that Shego would not press any further,
"Come on, Stoppable, talk to me, where the hell are we going?" Shego asked, with a little more force in her voice this time,
"Baghdad." Ron said in a monotone,
"BAGHDAD !" Shego screamed,
"There an echo in here," Ron stated, "yes, Baghdad, I talked Hef into a photojournalistic spread, a week in the life of the American serviceman."
"That's not photojournalism, Ron, that's /SUICIDE!/" Shego said, now knowing what Ron had in mind,
"Not if we stay out of the fighting." Ron stated,
"What unit are we covering?" Shego asked,
"Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division." Ron stated, without looking at Shego,
"And they're right in the middle of the fighting, Ron . . . you're /ASKING/ for a pine box, aren't you?" Shego asked,
"No, I just want to get some quality pics out of this." Ron stated,
"Yeah, quality pics of your brain being blown out the back of your skull." Shego said,
"So, we're going to spend a week with a bunch of oversexed leathernecks, this ought to be interesting." Shego replied, her face turned into a slight frown,
"You've been begging to come on a shoot with me, and now, you get your chance." Ron stated,
"Yeah, I've been wanting to go on a shoot with you, not risk my life doing it." Shego replied, a surprised look on her face,
"Shego, this is one of the things I do best, photojournalism, this is what won me a Pulitzer, and it's something that Hef's been looking to break into for some time now, he wants to put some mainstream news into the magazine, and this is his chance." Ron explained,
"Well . . . you'd better hope you don't end up getting buried, along with your story." Shego replied,
"Not gonna happen, we'll be in the rear, with the gear, we're simply there to take a few photos, talk to some of the Marines in the field, and head home, no big." Ron explained,
"Why is it that I have a bad feeling about this?" Shego asked no one.
Baghdad Airport, some time later:
The black DC-9 touched down smoothly on the runway, and the service ladder was taken out to the doors, to allow the two passengers to disembark, one, a stunningly beautiful woman, with long raven hair, green eyes, and greenish colored skin, and a tall, and somewhat lanky male, with messy blonde hair, and brown eyes,
"Welcome to hell." Shego said, as she walked out the door, and into the blazing midday sun,
"Thanks, now, we need to find Colonel Jackson, he's supposed to meet us here." Ron said, now following Shego down the service ladder, and across the tarmac, to the terminal.
Once they got inside, they found a small group of Marines, dressed in urban camouflage, all of them carrying M-16's, and a very serious expression on their faces, it was Shego that made the introductions to the man that seemed to be the leader, as Ron decided to let her do the P.R. work,
"Good afternoon, are you Col. Jackson?" Shego asked a tall, square shouldered older man, who seemed as though he had seen his share of fighting over the years,
"That's me." the man replied,
"I'm Sarah Gogh, and this is Ron Stoppable, we're with Playboy magazine." Shego commented, using her real name, as she had become accustomed to doing so,
"Miss December, I got your centerfold taped to my tent." Col. Jackson said, smiling slightly,
"I'm flattered." Shego replied,
"This the guy that shot the spread?" Col. Jackson replied,
"Yep, that's me." Ron stated, extending his hand,
"Seen some of your work, even when you shot for the L.A. Times, you do some good stuff." the Colonel replied to Ron's introduction,
"That was a while back . . . I like to focus on the here, and now." Ron stated, now pulling his camera out of his duffel bag, and placing the strap firmly around his neck,
"Works for me, son." the Colonel said, as Ron snapped some shots of the Marine escort they were receiving.
Ron and Shego followed the Marines out to a small convoy of vehicles, and were led to the mobile headquarters of the First Marine Division,
"Fifth Regiment HQ is a little further down, I'll have my driver take you to them, the Regimental commander is a Major Knight." Col. Jackson said,
"Thanks, Colonel, much appreciated." Ron said, motioning for Shego to follow him to the car.
They approached the headquarters of the Fifth Marine Regiment a few seconds later, outside was a tall, well built man, about Brick's height, and weight, and with a haircut that reminded Ron of his former High School principal, Steve Barkin,
"You Major Knight?" Ron asked, getting out of the vehicle first, followed closely by Shego,
"Yep, that's me, you the photographer that Playboy sent out here?" Maj. Knight asked,
"Yep, and this is my assistant, Sarah Gogh, Miss December 2005, and one of Playboy's top journalists." Ron stated,
"Sweet, it's kinda dull around here, we could use a bit of color to spruce things up a bit." Maj. Knight replied, looking carefully at Shego,
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Shego replied, staring hard into the hard-nosed features of the man in front of her,
"Shego, cool it, you're supposed to be doing P.R., this is not the way to give us a positive outlook." Ron said under his breath,
"She's a feisty one." Maj. Knight commented,
"You have no idea." Ron replied, having known Shego longer than anyone in the area.
Day seven of the shoot:
Ron and Shego had seen a lot of the area, taking as many pictures as they could along the way, and interviewing as many of the Marines in the unit as they could, until they had come up to a small ridge line near the center of the city,
"We think that there might be some enemy activity up around the corner, they might be well entrenched, so be ready to take cover when we tell you." came the voice of their escort, a Gunnery Sergeant that was one of the platoon N.C.O.'s,
"How do you know they're still around the corner, Gunney, they could've moved on by now." Ron stated,
"Not a chance in hell . . . we've kept this place wired for any movement, if they even breathed the wrong way, we'd know about it." the Gunney replied back,
"Let's hope they don't get a bad case of itchy trigger fingers." Shego commented,
"Same here." the Gunney replied, but that was not to be the case.
Without warning, shots rang out over the horizon,
"/HIT THE DECK!/" came a voice from the front of the column that was walking up the road,
"/DAMMIT!/ I /TOLD/ you this was a bad idea, Ron!" Shego said, lying flat in a prone position, looking straight ahead,
"Keep your heads down." the Gunney said, pushing them down into the street, and moving up toward the front of the column, when another shot rang out, they watched their escort fall, wounded,
"/SNIPERS!/" came a voice from the front of the line,
"/FALL BACK, AND REGROUP!/" came the voice of another from near the middle of the column,
"/NO GO . . . WE'RE PINNED DOWN!/" came a voice from Ron's right, he looked to see a young private, fresh from infantry training, take a shot , and move no more,
"Damn . . . we're getting picked off like fish in a barrel here." Ron said, now looking around, he watched two more Marines near the front of the column get hit, although not serious from where he was lying,
"I'm going up there." Ron said to Shego, as he stood in a crouch, and began making his slow progress toward the wounded men,
"Ron, you damned fool, you're gonna get killed, how the hell am I going to be able to explain that to Kim?" Shego said, now getting into a crouch, and following Ron to where he was heading, she watched him grab a medical kit from a dead corpsman, and begin to tend to the wounded,
"Gimme a hand, Shego, we need to dress these wounds, and prep them for evac out of here." Ron said, now bandaging a wound on the back of one Marine that was still alive,
"Easy, we got you, you'll be just fine, Marine, now lay still." Shego said, trying to find a way to comfort the wounded young man, that couldn't be much older than Ron,
"/LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!/" Ron shouted, grabbing onto the Gunney that had been their escort,
"C'mon, Gunney, I got you." Ron said, hefting the man into a standing position,
"You heard the man, let's bail out." came a voice from right behind Ron, who was pulling the Gunney and attempting to take pictures as he moved, that's when it happened, Ron felt something rip into the flesh of his right shoulder, he cried out in pain, although he never wavered in his progress.
"Ron . . . you've been hit." Shego said, now spotting the small diameter hole in Ron's right shoulder,
"It's gonna have to wait, Shego, we need to get out of here, so we can be medivaced out." Ron replied, still not paying attention to his shoulder, which stung badly, Shego nodded, but still worried about Ron, she was hoping that he wouldn't end up bleeding to death, as he seemed to be losing more blood than the human body should contain,
"Ron, you're bleeding like a stuck pig, slow down, before you end up doing more damage to your shoulder." Shego begged,
"No, right now, these Marines need help more than I do, and I want to make sure that they get it." Ron said, finally making the turn around the corner, and out of harm's way,
"Ron, sit down . . . right now." Shego said, now pushing Ron onto a small ledge, she quickly began rifling through the medical bag, and found some sterile dressings, and compresses that she could use to dress Ron's wound,
"You crazy fool, you could've been killed, you know that, don't you?" Shego said, as she tied the dressing over his chest,
"Small price to pay, if the cost is an entire platoon." Ron replied,
"Very funny, Ron." Shego said, making the last adjustments on the dressing, and leading him to the only remaining corpsman of the platoon, a young Navy corpsman that was swamped with wounded,
"He got one in the shoulder, not too sure how bad it is, I need you to look at it for me." Shego said, allowing Ron to sit down, the corpsman pulled back the dressing, to look at the wound,
"Well, there's not too much there, simple flesh wound, but he's going to need some stitches for it." the corpsman said, pulling out a small pouch of sterile sutures, and a pair of forceps,
"Uh . . . what are you going to do with those?" Ron asked,
"I'm gonna take the bullet out, what else." the corpsman said,
"Uh-oh, this might be a bit painful, Ron." Shego said, now holding Ron in place,
"Thanks for the warning." Ron said, as the forceps were pushed into the hole in his shoulder, he let out a grunt of pain, and winced slightly, but never backed away from the corpsman, as his skillful training came into play,
"There you go, all done." the corpsman said, now covering the closed up wound a fresh gauze bandage, and allowing Ron to get back to the landing zone,
"Alright, Marines, and people, we need to get to the LZ now." the Officer in Charge said, now helping the Gunney back up to his feet, and toward where they had landed only a week beforehand,
"Keep with us, you two, we don't need to lose a reporter, and a photographer in the process." a young radio operator said, now showing up on Ron's left, as another Marine came up on Shego's right, and four more came in, two in the front, and two in the back, they arrived at the landing zone a few hours later, winded, and beaten up, but still not defeated.
Assignment: Iraq
Danger Zone
by
Kenny Loggins
Revvin' up your engine,
Listen to her howlin' roar
Metal under tension,
Beggin' you to touch and go,
Highway to the danger zone,
Ride into the danger zone,
Headin' into twilight, spreadin' out her wings tonight,
She got you jumpin' off the deck, shove it into overdrive,
Highway to the danger zone,
I'll take you right into the danger zone,
They never say hello to you,
Until you get it on the red line overload,
You never know what you can do,
Until you get it up as high as you can go,
Out along the edges,
Always where I burn to be,
The further on the edge,
The hotter the intensity,
Highway to the danger zone,
Gonna take you right into the danger zone,
Highway to the danger zone,
Ride into the danger zone.
It had been a week since Ron's centerfold shoot of Shego, and things seemed to be going great, he had gotten a load of content for the January issue, including a new centerfold spread, and a pictorial that was amazing, but something seemed missing from the issue, something that hit home for him,
"Look, Hef, you wanted some raw footage, and I can get it for you, do you trust me?" Ron asked, looking at Hef with almost pleading eyes,
"Ron, that particular area is a big time hot spot, how would it look if you got greased over there." Hef replied,
"I'll be careful, I promise." Ron replied,
"Famous last words," Hef said, then, finally relenting, he continued, "Alright, I'll allow it, but if you even come home with so much as a scratch, you're going to be flying a desk here at the mansion, sticking to centerfold shots for three weeks."
"Deal." Ron said, standing up,
"One question, Ron, who's going to be your assistant?" Hef asked,
"Brick, of course." Ron replied,
"Not this time, he's confined to his bed on the second floor, doctors orders, seems that he caught some kind of stomach virus, the doctor isn't allowing him to leave the mansion until he's given a clean bill of health." Hef commented, causing Ron's face to fall,
"Oh, that's just prime . . . now who am I going to take with me." Ron said, then, thinking hard, his eyes suddenly lit up,
"Maybe Shego can come with me, she's been dying to go on a location shoot with me." Ron explained,
"Yeah, but those were still in country, this is out in the middle of a war zone, and I highly doubt that Global Justice would let her go there, knowing that we might run the risk of her escape." Hef explained,
"I doubt that she'll go anywhere, she's had a ton of opportunity to escape from here, we've left her alone within the mansion grounds so many times, I've lost count." Ron replied,
"True, but I'll still have to clear it with Dr. Director first, she's behaved well enough to allow this just once, but after that, I'm going to have to say no, Ron." Hef explained,
"Okay, works for me, I'll be upstairs packing some clothes, and equipment to take with me." Ron stated, leaving the room,
"Alright, I'll let you know what happens." Hef said, picking up his telephone, as Ron got up, and walked out of his office.
Later that afternoon:
Ron had just finished packing, when Hef walked into the room,
"We're on, Dr. Director has allowed Shego to go with you, under one condition, she has to have press credentials on her at all times." Hef remarked,
"That's a given, I don't know of many military units that will allow the press around them without the proper credentials." Ron stated,
"Alright, better step on it, Big Bunny takes off in about two hours, destination, Baghdad Airport." Hef said,
"Okay, let me get Shego, and we'll be off." Ron stated,
"Okay, just be careful out there, Ron, I got a bad feeling about this." Hef said, walking out of the office.
/An hour later/:
Shego was sitting in the limo next to Ron, looking at the young blonde haired man she had come to respect as a friend, and a professional, and hoping that it could be something more,
"What's the matter, Ron, you seem kinda tense about something." Shego said, noticing the lines, furrowed deep into Ron's forehead,
"Do I?" Ron asked, in a mock sarcastic tone,
"Yeah . . . would you mind explaining to me where we're going, all you told me was to dress in something comfortable, and not to overdo it on the heavy clothing." Shego mentioned,
"I'll tell you when we get on the plane." Ron said, hoping that Shego would not press any further,
"Come on, Stoppable, talk to me, where the hell are we going?" Shego asked, with a little more force in her voice this time,
"Baghdad." Ron said in a monotone,
"BAGHDAD !" Shego screamed,
"There an echo in here," Ron stated, "yes, Baghdad, I talked Hef into a photojournalistic spread, a week in the life of the American serviceman."
"That's not photojournalism, Ron, that's /SUICIDE!/" Shego said, now knowing what Ron had in mind,
"Not if we stay out of the fighting." Ron stated,
"What unit are we covering?" Shego asked,
"Fifth Marine Regiment, First Marine Division." Ron stated, without looking at Shego,
"And they're right in the middle of the fighting, Ron . . . you're /ASKING/ for a pine box, aren't you?" Shego asked,
"No, I just want to get some quality pics out of this." Ron stated,
"Yeah, quality pics of your brain being blown out the back of your skull." Shego said,
"So, we're going to spend a week with a bunch of oversexed leathernecks, this ought to be interesting." Shego replied, her face turned into a slight frown,
"You've been begging to come on a shoot with me, and now, you get your chance." Ron stated,
"Yeah, I've been wanting to go on a shoot with you, not risk my life doing it." Shego replied, a surprised look on her face,
"Shego, this is one of the things I do best, photojournalism, this is what won me a Pulitzer, and it's something that Hef's been looking to break into for some time now, he wants to put some mainstream news into the magazine, and this is his chance." Ron explained,
"Well . . . you'd better hope you don't end up getting buried, along with your story." Shego replied,
"Not gonna happen, we'll be in the rear, with the gear, we're simply there to take a few photos, talk to some of the Marines in the field, and head home, no big." Ron explained,
"Why is it that I have a bad feeling about this?" Shego asked no one.
Baghdad Airport, some time later:
The black DC-9 touched down smoothly on the runway, and the service ladder was taken out to the doors, to allow the two passengers to disembark, one, a stunningly beautiful woman, with long raven hair, green eyes, and greenish colored skin, and a tall, and somewhat lanky male, with messy blonde hair, and brown eyes,
"Welcome to hell." Shego said, as she walked out the door, and into the blazing midday sun,
"Thanks, now, we need to find Colonel Jackson, he's supposed to meet us here." Ron said, now following Shego down the service ladder, and across the tarmac, to the terminal.
Once they got inside, they found a small group of Marines, dressed in urban camouflage, all of them carrying M-16's, and a very serious expression on their faces, it was Shego that made the introductions to the man that seemed to be the leader, as Ron decided to let her do the P.R. work,
"Good afternoon, are you Col. Jackson?" Shego asked a tall, square shouldered older man, who seemed as though he had seen his share of fighting over the years,
"That's me." the man replied,
"I'm Sarah Gogh, and this is Ron Stoppable, we're with Playboy magazine." Shego commented, using her real name, as she had become accustomed to doing so,
"Miss December, I got your centerfold taped to my tent." Col. Jackson said, smiling slightly,
"I'm flattered." Shego replied,
"This the guy that shot the spread?" Col. Jackson replied,
"Yep, that's me." Ron stated, extending his hand,
"Seen some of your work, even when you shot for the L.A. Times, you do some good stuff." the Colonel replied to Ron's introduction,
"That was a while back . . . I like to focus on the here, and now." Ron stated, now pulling his camera out of his duffel bag, and placing the strap firmly around his neck,
"Works for me, son." the Colonel said, as Ron snapped some shots of the Marine escort they were receiving.
Ron and Shego followed the Marines out to a small convoy of vehicles, and were led to the mobile headquarters of the First Marine Division,
"Fifth Regiment HQ is a little further down, I'll have my driver take you to them, the Regimental commander is a Major Knight." Col. Jackson said,
"Thanks, Colonel, much appreciated." Ron said, motioning for Shego to follow him to the car.
They approached the headquarters of the Fifth Marine Regiment a few seconds later, outside was a tall, well built man, about Brick's height, and weight, and with a haircut that reminded Ron of his former High School principal, Steve Barkin,
"You Major Knight?" Ron asked, getting out of the vehicle first, followed closely by Shego,
"Yep, that's me, you the photographer that Playboy sent out here?" Maj. Knight asked,
"Yep, and this is my assistant, Sarah Gogh, Miss December 2005, and one of Playboy's top journalists." Ron stated,
"Sweet, it's kinda dull around here, we could use a bit of color to spruce things up a bit." Maj. Knight replied, looking carefully at Shego,
"Take a picture, it'll last longer." Shego replied, staring hard into the hard-nosed features of the man in front of her,
"Shego, cool it, you're supposed to be doing P.R., this is not the way to give us a positive outlook." Ron said under his breath,
"She's a feisty one." Maj. Knight commented,
"You have no idea." Ron replied, having known Shego longer than anyone in the area.
Day seven of the shoot:
Ron and Shego had seen a lot of the area, taking as many pictures as they could along the way, and interviewing as many of the Marines in the unit as they could, until they had come up to a small ridge line near the center of the city,
"We think that there might be some enemy activity up around the corner, they might be well entrenched, so be ready to take cover when we tell you." came the voice of their escort, a Gunnery Sergeant that was one of the platoon N.C.O.'s,
"How do you know they're still around the corner, Gunney, they could've moved on by now." Ron stated,
"Not a chance in hell . . . we've kept this place wired for any movement, if they even breathed the wrong way, we'd know about it." the Gunney replied back,
"Let's hope they don't get a bad case of itchy trigger fingers." Shego commented,
"Same here." the Gunney replied, but that was not to be the case.
Without warning, shots rang out over the horizon,
"/HIT THE DECK!/" came a voice from the front of the column that was walking up the road,
"/DAMMIT!/ I /TOLD/ you this was a bad idea, Ron!" Shego said, lying flat in a prone position, looking straight ahead,
"Keep your heads down." the Gunney said, pushing them down into the street, and moving up toward the front of the column, when another shot rang out, they watched their escort fall, wounded,
"/SNIPERS!/" came a voice from the front of the line,
"/FALL BACK, AND REGROUP!/" came the voice of another from near the middle of the column,
"/NO GO . . . WE'RE PINNED DOWN!/" came a voice from Ron's right, he looked to see a young private, fresh from infantry training, take a shot , and move no more,
"Damn . . . we're getting picked off like fish in a barrel here." Ron said, now looking around, he watched two more Marines near the front of the column get hit, although not serious from where he was lying,
"I'm going up there." Ron said to Shego, as he stood in a crouch, and began making his slow progress toward the wounded men,
"Ron, you damned fool, you're gonna get killed, how the hell am I going to be able to explain that to Kim?" Shego said, now getting into a crouch, and following Ron to where he was heading, she watched him grab a medical kit from a dead corpsman, and begin to tend to the wounded,
"Gimme a hand, Shego, we need to dress these wounds, and prep them for evac out of here." Ron said, now bandaging a wound on the back of one Marine that was still alive,
"Easy, we got you, you'll be just fine, Marine, now lay still." Shego said, trying to find a way to comfort the wounded young man, that couldn't be much older than Ron,
"/LET'S GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE!/" Ron shouted, grabbing onto the Gunney that had been their escort,
"C'mon, Gunney, I got you." Ron said, hefting the man into a standing position,
"You heard the man, let's bail out." came a voice from right behind Ron, who was pulling the Gunney and attempting to take pictures as he moved, that's when it happened, Ron felt something rip into the flesh of his right shoulder, he cried out in pain, although he never wavered in his progress.
"Ron . . . you've been hit." Shego said, now spotting the small diameter hole in Ron's right shoulder,
"It's gonna have to wait, Shego, we need to get out of here, so we can be medivaced out." Ron replied, still not paying attention to his shoulder, which stung badly, Shego nodded, but still worried about Ron, she was hoping that he wouldn't end up bleeding to death, as he seemed to be losing more blood than the human body should contain,
"Ron, you're bleeding like a stuck pig, slow down, before you end up doing more damage to your shoulder." Shego begged,
"No, right now, these Marines need help more than I do, and I want to make sure that they get it." Ron said, finally making the turn around the corner, and out of harm's way,
"Ron, sit down . . . right now." Shego said, now pushing Ron onto a small ledge, she quickly began rifling through the medical bag, and found some sterile dressings, and compresses that she could use to dress Ron's wound,
"You crazy fool, you could've been killed, you know that, don't you?" Shego said, as she tied the dressing over his chest,
"Small price to pay, if the cost is an entire platoon." Ron replied,
"Very funny, Ron." Shego said, making the last adjustments on the dressing, and leading him to the only remaining corpsman of the platoon, a young Navy corpsman that was swamped with wounded,
"He got one in the shoulder, not too sure how bad it is, I need you to look at it for me." Shego said, allowing Ron to sit down, the corpsman pulled back the dressing, to look at the wound,
"Well, there's not too much there, simple flesh wound, but he's going to need some stitches for it." the corpsman said, pulling out a small pouch of sterile sutures, and a pair of forceps,
"Uh . . . what are you going to do with those?" Ron asked,
"I'm gonna take the bullet out, what else." the corpsman said,
"Uh-oh, this might be a bit painful, Ron." Shego said, now holding Ron in place,
"Thanks for the warning." Ron said, as the forceps were pushed into the hole in his shoulder, he let out a grunt of pain, and winced slightly, but never backed away from the corpsman, as his skillful training came into play,
"There you go, all done." the corpsman said, now covering the closed up wound a fresh gauze bandage, and allowing Ron to get back to the landing zone,
"Alright, Marines, and people, we need to get to the LZ now." the Officer in Charge said, now helping the Gunney back up to his feet, and toward where they had landed only a week beforehand,
"Keep with us, you two, we don't need to lose a reporter, and a photographer in the process." a young radio operator said, now showing up on Ron's left, as another Marine came up on Shego's right, and four more came in, two in the front, and two in the back, they arrived at the landing zone a few hours later, winded, and beaten up, but still not defeated.
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