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Ron's Path to Manhood

Prologue Chapter: To Be Aware of the Path

Hours after Rabbi Katz left, Ron Stoppable was sitting on his bed and looking over his newly signed Bar Mitzvah certificate. He was feeling very confused. For all his enthusiasm earlier today about officially becoming a man, at least in the eyes of his family and religion, he felt hollow somehow, like there was a piece he was still missing.

There was an issue within himself that needed figuring out.

Standing up, he glanced over at Rufus who lay sleeping on his pillow – the naked mole rat did not so much as twitch at the towheaded boy's movement. Satisfied that he didn't wake up his friend, Ron went over to the full length mirror near his door and looked at himself, meeting his reflection's eyes and literally staring himself down. He wasn't sure why he wanted to nor did he understand what he hoped find, but after nearly a minute, the memories of the past few days' trials and mishaps came flooding into his thoughts.

He saw himself at the start of the day before yesterday, showing off his personal history as well as the initial debacle that finally ended tonight: the Bar Mitzvah certificate. He remembered how scared he was when he discovered that there was no signature on the bottom. And then… ugh, Mr. 'I-Am-The-Final-Judge-On-Everything' Barkin.

Ron expression curled into a distasteful grimace, one that his reflection mirrored, no pun intended. Now he looked like he was disgusted with himself… and in a way, he was. The vice-principle, like everyone else in this school, lifted his spirits just so he could crush them down harder. And it continued onto the next school day.

The boy now felt a sudden urge to take off his shirt and when he did, his frown deepened all the more as Mr. Barkin's cutting words reverberated around his skull. God, why did he not simply walk on by that day after bumping into him? Why did he even bother asking for help with his internal doubts?

"My dad said that the question isn't: am I a man? It's what kind of man? And I gotta tell ya, I'm not sure."

"Well that's easy… You're small and weak…"

The memory of the smug, highhanded explanation made Ron look down at himself, just like it did later on that day when he had the molecular muscle ring. His body was pathetic, damn near a kid's physique-

"Stoppable, the ideal man is big and/or strong. You are neither."

-almost useless for the stuff he and KP do daily, if not weekly.

It was astounding how Kim actually wanted him to go on these missions considering how much he felt like he was holding her back. Again, Mr. Barkin had words about that as well, of which Ron should not have been surprised in the slightest.

Stupid jerk.

"You get rescued by a girl, Stoppable."

"Hey! Sometimes…"

"Frequently…

Ron shook his head and stared at himself again, this time flexing his biceps, abdominals, and pectorals – he was trying to get a feel for the power he had when he wore that ring, how strong and confident he was simply by having all that strength. He shuddered with longing – was that the right word? – for how awesome and badical he had felt.

For a little under a day, Ron was unstoppable. Except where vents were concerned, apparently…

Stupid vents.

The towheaded teenager relaxed his body and sighed; his attempts at showing off were feeble at best. And that worse thing was that he knew it. His best friend's placations, while well-intended, didn't help matters either. In fact, they served only to highlight some of the more recriminating aspects of his abilities.

"Kim, how often would you say that you recue me?"

"Uh, I don't know… sometimes."

"…"

"Err… frequently?"

He wanted to be angry with her, or at least annoyed. But he couldn't do that; not to his best friend since Pre-K. She didn't seem impressed when she showed up to find his sudden boost in physicality – hell, she took on big, swarthy henchmen in almost every mission since she started. And she could destroy them soundly, easily, even when they came in groups.

"Muscles do not make a man!" she had said earlier today and Monique had backed her up, "Nope. You gotta dig deeper than that."

And just then, something clicked within Ron. He looked back at himself, staring slack-jawed in sudden understanding. Kim Possible, he friend since as far back as he could remember, was a girl.

No seriously, not just a girl but rather a girl.

Kim was a girl, a member of the female gender. For all her tomboyish behavior, she walked like a girl, talked like a girl, and most importantly thought like a girl. All her advice from the past couple days, all her comments and insights began to make a bit of sense... if coming from a female's perspective. Not that there was anything wrong with that to begin with, but still.

"KP's a girl with a girl's thoughts on what a man should be," he whispered aloud. "She has no clue on how what a man thinks a man should be…"

How did he never see this before, he wondered, feeling very stupid with himself. Again, he shook himself of the self-recriminating thoughts and focused himself back on topic. He was now a man but was unsure of what that meant. Oh sure, his dad and rabbi mentioned that it 'comes from within,' but what did that mean? Where does that process start? And how, upon realizing it, does one become what he wants to be so very badly?

Ron, feeling a little less confused now, went to pick up his shirt and stopped, his hands still on the material. An idea had suddenly come to him right then.

If I don't know something, ask or look it up.

Don't be an idiot and whine when I'm confused.

Figure it out without being told to do so.

The towheaded teenager slowly stood up and glanced at his alarm clock. It was seven minutes past eleven pm. His parent's were asleep so he couldn't ask them right now. Curiosity into his latest insight burned within his thoughts as he puzzled out his next move.

If I don't know something, ask or look it up.

Figure it out without being told to do so.

Oh right, he had internet. A severely restricted – and why was that just now bothering him? – internet but access to the web nonetheless. Quickly, Ron stepped over to his console and sat down, opening up a search engine and typing in several keywords related to his questions. And as Ron began to read, his father's voice came to him unbidden with words of wisdom he so often overlooked in the past.

"What's important now is what kind of man are you?"

"What kind of man, am I?" asked Ron of himself as he continued to read. "I guess... now at least, I'm a self-starting man."

Ron would not get any sleep that night. There was too much he didn't know about himself.

But he was determined to figure it out.

To Be Continued…

A/N. Hey everybody, this is my first Kim Possible fanfic so by all means please review! Don't be gentle or dishonest, I don't care if I get flamed. Just please comment for my ego's sake, *laughs*.

Anyway, I got this idea after the "Ron the Man" episode in Season 1. Let's be honest, did the ending sit right with any of you? It didn't with me, which is why I decided to type this out. Ron seemed to get the shaft from everybody up until this point. The guy has no male role model. Period. His parents are shown as too busy for their kid, constantly off doing something, or simply apathetic with the mindset that "negligence equals independence."

And that's utter bullshit. Ron has so much growing to do that it's not even funny… at least if you look at the show objectively. He's stunted so much confidence-wise that I can't understand how he's able to function on missions, much less contribute if only as a distraction. Look, I'll be the first to admit that he's got a good heart but naiveté and dumb luck can only carry one so far.

So here's my interpretation on what Ron might become if he was something of a self-starter early on in the series.