Disclaimer: Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.
Special thanks to Slipgate for beta-reading this chapter and providing me with great suggestions.
Prologue: Bottlenecks in time
The Sloth soared through the sky on autopilot, its occupants too busy with sharing many kisses to pay attention to where they were going. It was a good thing that the sky was pretty much empty and the autopilot system well-equipped.
"Wow." It wasn't entirely clear if Ron meant the latest kiss or what had happened to them over the past 24 hours.
Kim smiled. "We did it. We graduated. We won against the Lowardians. We're going to get a future together."
"Yeah," Ron said with a dreamy grin; he still didn't understand how he felt so relaxed now while he was completely panicking about his future with Kim only a couple of hours earlier.
"You know, when I think back, this was one crazy time, don't you think?" Kim asked, as much in thought for herself as to get Ron's brain to reboot.
"Yeah," Ron agreed. "Aliens bound on revenge, supervillains helping on the good side…"
"That too, but I meant our whole life… I mean, to think this whole thing started with an accidental hit on my site," Kim said.
"Oh, yeah." Ron thought for a moment. "What do you think would have happened if we never got that first mission?"
History has many bottlenecks that we can only see in retrospect. Some are narrow enough to enable the wing flap of a butterfly to cause a storm when events are stacked like dominos.
One of these occurrences happened when the stroke of a key was all that was needed to change history.
Mr. McHenry did everything he could to prevent shivering, because doing so would spell disaster.
Mere moments ago he had typed a request for an immediate rescue by Team Impossible, and now all he could do was wait.
He had nearly typed the wrong address when he had accidentally hit the 'K' and the 'I' at the same time, but he had managed to correct that.
"Hurry up Team Impossible…"
Bonnie bit off her pencil in shock when 'Tin Teeth' flawlessly worked her way through the brunette's impossible routine. Heather and Tara, on the other hand, gave the – obvious – new member of the cheer squad a standing ovation.
"Fine," Bonnie growled, "You made the squad… barely."
"Yes!" Kim cried out happily, and at the same moment Ron burst into the gym.
"Kim, I'm sorry I'm late! Did I miss the routine?"
Kim smiled at her best friend. "It was no big; it went perfect, just like the practice round I showed you yesterday." Then she turned back to her new teammates. "So, we're ready for practice?"
Before Bonnie or either of the other girls could reply, the door to the gym opened again and Julie, one of the senior cheerleaders, walked in.
She smiled encouragingly at Kim. "Wow, you are really enthusiastic. You must be the new cheerleader applicant. Kim Possible, right? Well, we'll see how you perform during practice then, okay?"
Kim looked at the other girl in confusion. "But I just did the routine that Bonnie gave me to audition for the squad."
Julie glared at Bonnie, who suddenly seemed to be looking everywhere but at Kim or Julie.
"What routine?" Julie asked.
Kim handed her the sheet that Bonnie had given her two days ago. She had really worked hard to get it right in such a short time. And the face Julie made while reading it made her fear her new position in the squad. "If this wasn't good, I can do better. Just give me a little time to get familiarized with the new routine, or the choreography if it's a group routine."
This time Julie looked astonished. "You applied two days ago, and you got this down in such a short time?" She turned to Heather and Tara. "How did she do?"
"Perfect score," the girls exclaimed in unison.
"I see…" Julie turned to face both Kim and Bonnie. "Kim, I think you will make the squad. Bonnie, let's have a word in the locker room, okay?"
As Julie and Bonnie walked off, the latter looking really nervous, Kim looked questioningly at Tara and Heather. But they shrugged, equally confused.
Ron, on the other hand, had taken his place on a bench and was waving a little flag. "Go KP!"
"Bonnie, what were you thinking? That you were the cheerleader captain?"
Bonnie refused to look at Julie, who was the cheer squad captain.
Julie sighed. "Look, I know you are very competitive, especially when it comes to your sisters. And I know how they are, believe me, I share most of my classes with them. But you can't act like the captain after being on the squad for less than a month."
Bonnie muttered something under her breath that sounded to Julie like a very reluctant apology of sorts.
"I know that most of the new squad members are your old school friends, and they do see you as their leader. But I won't have you become a dictator in the team. If you want to become captain eventually, you better start behaving like one."
"Well, she thinks she can just get in anywhere because she's smart and athletic!" Bonnie snapped. "She's already on the swim team, and signing up for every committee there is. It's not fair."
Julie did remember hearing some rumors about Kim Possible trying to join pretty much everything she could, and apparently some bets were going on, speculating when the ambitious freshman would crack.
"Look, I know it can seem unfair when someone seems to breeze through life, but do you really think Kim gets by effortlessly? Because from what I heard, she really pushes herself to the limit."
Bonnie merely muttered something again.
"Okay, look." Julie was getting a bit annoyed with the brunette. "Do you think you are a better cheerleader than Kim? Then prove it! Show your every effort in practice and in performance to succeed instead of trying to knock out the competition. If you really want to become better than your sisters, show them that you can be the best cheerleader in the freshman squad."
Julie suppressed a smile when she finally got through to Bonnie; this might not have been the best way to coach a freshman, but it was certain to generate some healthy competition that would give a much-needed boost to the Middleton cheer squad.
"Just as long as it stays healthy," the senior cheerleader mused as she and Bonnie walked back into the gym to start practice.
"In other news: Team Impossible, great heroes or common thieves?"
Kim sat on the couch, watching the evening news with her parents. Apparently Mr. Paisley, a millionaire from Upperton and an enthusiastic Cuddle Buddy collector, had been trapped in his own recently installed and absurdly dangerous security system. Team Impossible had come to the rescue, but during their effort they had destroyed a huge part of Mr. Paisley's mansion and some of his Cuddle Buddies. Despite that they still demanded an extravagant payment.
"Even though Mr. Paisley has agreed to pay the hefty sum that Team Impossible demanded, Mr. McHenry, who installed the system, has taken steps to expose Team Impossible's business."
"This will just be two huge corporations fighting it out against each other," Mr. Dr. Possible, Kim's father, said.
Kim shook her head. "I can't believe they demanded money before they rescued Mr. Paisley! It's just wrong."
Mr. Dr. Possible smiled. "That's my girl."
"Kimmie, you haven't actually told us how your cheerleading audition went," Kim's mother said. "You told us you probably got the spot, but you never told us whether your practice worked out."
Kim had pulled out all the stops in practice for the daunting routine that Bonnie had given her, making her parents fear for their daughter's health some times.
Fortunately, Ron had been devotedly attending all of Kim's practicing runs and had never failed to stand by with a towel or water bottle and had, on Mrs. Dr. Possible's insistence, made sure that Kim took enough breaks in between runs.
"The routine went perfect," Kim said proudly, "but apparently Bonnie was not entitled to do the audition… I don't really get her. I mean, we didn't share classes in middle school but I don't remember her being like that."
"Sometimes people change when they get older," Kim's mother said, "You will have to deal with it."
"Well, I don't want to change into that," Kim stated. And looking at the news feed again, she added, "And I don't want to change into them either."
Her parents just chuckled at the comment, but for a moment they got a strange feeling of déjà vu, as if what had happened to Mr. Paisley could have gone very different.
Amy Hall, also called DNAmy by her colleagues because of her bizarre interest in joining species of animals in accordance to her Cuddle Buddy collection, sat anxiously waiting for the auction to start.
Because of the huge payment to Team Impossible and the devastating damage the team of heroes had done to his home, Mr. Paisley had been forced to sell some of his more rare Cuddle Buddies, including a flamingoat, one of the two he owned out of ten existing in the entire world.
Amy wanted to have that Cuddle Buddy.
Most of the other possible buyers were not real collectors, at least in Amy's eyes, but merely people who wanted to have a valuable item either to show off or to sell for an even higher price.
DNAmy had always respected Mr. Paisley. Like her, the ex-millionaire really loved his Cuddle Buddies and wasn't shy of hugging them, even if that could mean lowering their value.
However, when it was finally the flamingoat's turn in the auction, Amy quickly found out that she was horribly outmatched.
But she still wanted that Cuddle Buddy. The heavyset woman thought frantically of what to do, and then she remembered some guy named Hench who had tried to buy her equipment, most of which she had concocted herself. He had been willing to pay immediately, and that was something Amy really needed right now.
And so it came to be that two calls, one to Jack Hench and one to Amy's somewhat shady bank to get a second mortgage ended what could have possibly led to the joining of a whole range of different animals.
When Amy walked out of the auction hall she was a happy woman; she may have been broke and in debt for the rest of her life, but she had the one thing she wanted most. Nothing could change that.
"Gone for a few days. Out buying a flamingoat," Montgomery Fiske, English lord and world-famous archaeologist, read. Accompanying the note was a crude drawing of said Cuddle Buddy.
Fiske knew about Amy Hall's obsession with Cuddle Buddies; she talked enough about them during their phone conversations. But the fact that she canceled their first real appointment without notifying him was highly annoying.
"I do hope you find your stuffed plush more interesting than my money then," Fiske growled as he turned around and walked away from the almost childish looking house.
Being still quite upset when he arrived at his hotel room, Monty decided to use one of the many meditation techniques that he had obtained during his training in Tai Ching Pek Kwar, or monkey kung fu.
One of the more successful meditation techniques was expressing your goals and problems out loud. Hearing your own words often helped to make sense of them.
Monty sat down with his legs crossed and took a deep breath. "My goal to become the ultimate monkey master is slightly delayed because the woman who was supposed to change my hands and feet to those of a monkey felt that an addition to her Cuddle Buddy collection was more important than money in amounts equaling my entire family fortune."
Fiske frowned. That didn't make sense at all. The technique had only revealed the nonsense of it. He clearly needed another person's viewpoint, and there was only one person he trusted enough to discuss his problem.
Amy would have to wait… if she actually showed up, that was.
"You are back early milord," Bates, Monty Fiske's butler, said. "Did something go wrong?"
Fiske seemed much more pulled together than Bates had seen him in a long time. "You could say that… Bates, tell me honestly, do you think I'm crazy?"
"Milord… I…" To say Bates was taken aback was an understatement.
"Don't worry, I promise I will not hold against you whatever you say to me in the next few minutes," Monty said, "do you think I'm crazy for following the path to become the ultimate monkey master, and for trying spend my entire family fortune to change my hands and feet into monkey hands and feet?"
Despite the permission to speak freely, Bates could not help maintaining polite wording. "Milord, I have served you for a long time, and your father before you. And while I admire your drive to examine the somewhat strange cult around Tai Ching Pek Kwar, I do think your behavior is bordering on obsession, if you don't mind me saying so. Also, I doubt this will do much good to your status in the world of archeology."
Fiske simply nodded. "Thank you… I will need to contemplate on this. I'll be in the hidden chamber adjoining to the main living room. You are free for the rest of the day. Don't trouble yourself over making dinner for tonight."
As Fiske walked away, Bates couldn't help but notice that some of the strain that had been building for over a year seemed to have dissipated from his master.
And so ends our introduction to a different universe; Some things changed only slightly, while others changed in a more profound way. But all changes contribute to the further drifting apart of two possibilities.
Although some things tend not to change.
A/N: How did you like this intro? I've got more on the way, but reviews and suggestions are always welcome.