Sometimes, being the girl who could do anything was just asking for it.

And as the Avenger entered the airspace of what was once Belarus, Kim Possible sat in the briefing room with her lover, Ron Stoppable. Because of course, they were the ones that the Commander chose for the mission ahead.

"This is going to be a tough one," Bradford started as he clicked to the next display of the briefing, showing an ADVENT General's mugshot. "Betos has forwarded us the details. General Karten is going to be touring the old tunnels near his base to find a place to test the new hazard armor he's pushing, which means we have a short timetable to neutralize him while he's away from his oversized garrison."

Not the kind of mission Kim liked. Sure, she knew it was war, but outright assassination had always left a bitter taste in her mouth. But these were dark times, and in the past months she had come to accept the brutality of war - or would have, if previous experience hadn't. Not that the briefing stopped for her introspection.

"Thanks to the previous covert action, the Skirmishers have an opening for us, and your brothers," he nodded to Kim, "are making their way to the rendezvous, but they won't be able to help you on the op."

"Alright, why's that?" Ron asked as he folded his arms. "Having those two as backup would be great. Heck, why is it just us two for this one?"

Central sighed. "Because while the twins were able to help the Skirmishers get you an access point, you have to infiltrate and they're already compromised. No blasting your way through security, you have to drop into the tunnels undetected."

"So we take our time, we creep around with full squads often enough," Kim pointed out as she tilted her head.

"Normally, yes, but your access point is a secured tunnel entrance. Nothing else available, and if it stays open for too long it'll trigger an alert. We only have long enough to get a single fireteam inside."

"And getting out?" Kim asked as she tilted her head.

"The Skirmishers are preparing an attack since they'd like the hazard gear he's prepared. Neutralize the general and his bodyguards, and the area's heavy hitters will be gone. They'll have a clear path to sack the confused base before ADVENT sends in a battleship. You're welcome to assist with that, but the priority is completing the mission. They'll share some supplies with us later."

If we can pull this off, Kim thought. She and Ron were some of the best fighters with XCOM, but the two of them against a poor man's dozen high-end ADVENT and alien units? Highly maneuverable Archons, stupidly durable Andromedons, and a Sectopod?

She really hoped the new Storm Gun that Shen and Tygan put together was all that, because she was going to go through its ammo like she wasn't going to see tomorrow. And given the details of the sitch...

"Question," Ron raised a hand. "Will we have time to detour to blow up the local ADVENT Burger factory after the mission?"

Central grinned and Kim rolled her eyes as he answered. "Call it a bonus objective if you have munitions and time to spare."

"And we have to take out every ADVENT unit in the area?" Kim asked to get it back on track and away from their mutual hatred.

"Effectively, but given the general will have comms to his units, they'll be hunting you so you'll have to deal with them regardless."

"Just kill a mech that wiped out entire tank platoons," Kim shrugged. "So not the drama."

"Yeah, not a lot…"

Bradford just nodded. "Your kit is already prepared; Shen's adapted your Talon rounds to the Storm Gun, and Wade's put together some mimic variant - calls it a 'Holo-Kim'?"

She smirked. "Yeah, that'll work."

"And me?"

"You get the medikit, since you'll be using those powers of yours…"

And the Lotus Blade, Kim silently added as she glanced to him. "Anything else?"

"Nothing else. I'll be monitoring from the Avenger, but comms may break up down there. Good luck you two."

"Well, considering the bad luck we had to roll this mission…"

Kim wouldn't have voiced it, but she had to agree with the sentiment Ron shared. And going by Central's wince, he agreed. Then again, Bradford didn't have to make those hard decisions anymore. His almighty commander was around for that.

XXXXX

Firebrand's flying was smooth as always, leaving the two to contemplate the mission ahead. Or, true to form for XCOM, gossip to keep their nerves down.

"So I caught Outrider and Mox alone in the range…"

Kim sighed. "Ron, how many times do I have to tell you - they're friends, not dating."

The mystical monkey master turned Templar psionic shrugged. "Hey, I mean, we said the same thing for so long…"

"Give them twelve stinkin' years, then maybe there'll be a kiss…"

He shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a sucker for the classics." Then he paused, mouth tightening as he found himself considering. "Though uh, do hybrids even have…"

"Nope nope nope nope," Kim started, "Not having that discussion. And I doubt they'll like you asking either."

He shrugged. "Guy can wonder though. What do you think, Firebrand?"

"I think you'd better check yourself, monkey boy," she answered over the intercom. "And hang on, I need to lose some patrol scouts in the clouds - going to get choppy!"

"So're we…" Kim muttered as she glanced at the sword tied down next to her in an inactive state. So much had happened since contact with aliens, and as she rubbed the bracelet on her wrist she reflected on how much that had changed her too. She was no stranger to combat, but now she had grown accustomed to simply gunning her opponents down or hitting them with enough force to remove limbs.

That bracelet perhaps was the best analogy - when Wade had given it to her for their mission to stop Motor Ed's work for Gemini in Egypt during the mind washer incident, she had said she would never use it against living opponents. But the modified Centurion Bracelet was too useful against tough targets, deploying into a gauntlet that enhanced her strength tenfold while preventing Newton's Third Law from shattering every bone in her arm when the punch connected. When the time came to fight aliens, she was able to use it to allow her natural skill at hand-to-hand to excel.

Of course even then, she and Ron had been given las-carbines and frag grenades to round out their arsenal, though Ron quickly dropped it in favor of a pistol to give him room for his mystical powers. And they went into battle, leading Strike-One into the thickest fighting as other strike teams operated elsewhere, trying to keep panic contained even when the aliens went towards simply wiping cities from the face of the Earth.

The screams of men, women, and children alike being mercilessly slaughtered by Floaters and god knew what else flashed through her mind. Not that you would see Floaters anymore; no, those bio-mechanical horrors that were once Mutons had been encased in techno-angelic frames and became Archons.

She felt her hand gripping around the knee guard of her plated armor. So much had happened in twenty years, and she spent most of that in a villain's damn stasis tank…

"We're coming up on the drop point!" Firebrand called suddenly, shaking her from her introspection. "Check your gear and give 'em hell you two!"

"No big," Kim answered, trying to put on a smile, but couldn't keep it steady as she rose and loaded her weapons. Talon rounds; perfect for exploiting critical weaknesses if she could get a good angle on them… and she had far too much experience with that even before she started shotgunning for XCOM.

Ron however only carried one visible weapon, an alien pistol, one they had taken from the Hunter's corpse. She'd given it to Ron, since he had done really well against that Chosen. The Hunter was good at stealth, but not so good at dealing with an angry Templar whose mad running away skills were also mad charge your face skills. That, and the Hunter probably couldn't understand how Ron dodged his defensive shots.

But if there was one thing she had learned, no matter how advanced the tech got, no matter what crazy mind powers arose… there was still room for the basic average girl to make her mark. Jane Kelly was just the latest example that had made fame for herself.

Wish she was with us, Kim thought as she slid the fusion blade into the back mounted sheath, but it was a two man mission. No big, right?

XXXXX

Being the Mystical Monkey Master had a bunch of downsides, even with the awesome displays of power that had come with it.

For one, Ron had become far more exposed to the currents of the world's energy - ley lines of raw power that weaved throughout the world, taking numerous forms from psionics to mystical monkey power. But like many things, there was a degree of finiteness to it, and ancient lore had faded away into obscurity only to become powerful through the same.

Now that ADVENT had an entire network set up to draw upon the world's energies, that left far less for others, which had brought Ron's powers down dramatically. And there went Ron the Man. Again. At least this time it wasn't Kim who had to save him - nah, it was just Geist who pulled him into that strange cult. Then again, guy's gotta pay his tab someday, right? Plus, Geist helped him come to terms with the changes that had been done while he was out of it…

And it served as a reminder of Ron's origins - of what he was before his mystical powers had taken primacy. The skills he never realized he had. The mad running away skills that kept him from being turned into a stain on the ground by every supervillain's doomsday laser, and now from ADVENT mag rifles and plasma cannons.

That had also given him a handle on the whole horizontal sneaky aspect of stealth as he and Kim were crawling over a roof to their insertion point. It was the same basic configuration as most ADVENT buildings; black carbon over alien alloy superstructure. It kept a roof up, but unfortunately not against explosives. Particularly plasma grenades.

Kim put her hand behind to get him to stop and Ron ended his crawl as they heard it. An ADVENT IFV rumbling down the street. While it was relatively fragile, they didn't want to tangle with it yet.

Keep it cool, once we're inside we can go loud when the time's right...

Once the rumble ended, they moved forward slightly further to the edge of the roof and saw it. The access point to the tunnels beneath the city, whose history ADVENT would prefer people to forget.

Kim met his gaze and he nodded. Kim jumped down silently as Ron drew his pistol and kept overwatch, Kim using the Skirmisher-supplied access codes to open the hatch and once that was done, Ron jumped down himself through the open hole as Kim kept watch. A bluish purple aura surrounded him as he embraced his powers to slow the fall, and Kim followed as the hatch closed behind them.

"Athena 1-5 to Avenger," Kim said as she keyed her earpiece. "We're in position."

"Affirmative," Bradford's voice echoed into their ears. "The ADVENT general should be somewhere in the area. Scout the area and take him out."

"Here we go…" Ron inhaled as he looked around.

Most sewer systems weren't this large, but the need for shelters from supervillain - and later alien - attacks had encouraged the development of tunnels from the initial use as subways. Now some cities had whole tunnel systems that had been communities unto themselves - particularly when the Ethereals first attacked. Safe harbor became only more precious as battleships rained down death from low orbit.

Too low orbit, Ron smirked as a fond memory over China came back only to be interrupted as they heard a familiar and loud clanking.

"Down, down!" Kim ordered with a harsh whisper and the two lowered themselves. Across a chasm of old sewage, a hulking frame walked into view from a tunnel to their right, oversized glass canopy obscuring an alien rarely seen within.

The Andromedon - because Berserkers were caused too much friendly punching, but ADVENT needed a heavy unit. Where they had been in the original invasion was anyone's guess, and only raised a worrying implication of other alien fleets. Not that Ron liked those kind of thoughts, but still…

And then it was backed by two Archons, floating on their waists of hoverjets that could fart out missile storms like they had eaten too much Cow and Chow. The only good thing ADVENT had done was burning that place to the ground… then they went for Bueno Nacho, he felt his hands gripping into fists.

"Too early," Kim muttered, cutting him off as he started to rise. "We go loud, they'll be on alert. We need to check for others."

Ron let her gently push him down. She was right - this wasn't the usual mission where they had a full squad and could just blast their way through with time to spare. Discretion had to be valor's watchword.

Glancing around, he noticed a section of tunnel to their left. What looked like it had once been a warehouse, maybe. "In there?" he pointed.

"Yeah," Kim nodded and gestured for him to move towards it.

They moved along, steadily and trying to avoid moving too fast lest they walk into another patrol of aliens. Across, the Andromedon and its two friends kept the patrol forward until, as the two prepared to investigate the warehouse, they began to move the other way. They were in the clear.

Unfortunately it quickly became clear that ADVENT had long since swept this part of the tunnels. There were remains of old ration bar wrappers, cans of soda and other goods, old crates, what was probably a leftover black market stall, and old forklifts. But nothing useful, or helpful to the mission.

"Great," Ron muttered. "That was a waste of time."

"We're not on the timer until we've gone loud," Kim pointed out as she held her Storm Gun over her shoulder. "Better to be careful since we can."

He tilted his head as he turned towards her. "Where was this decades ago when you leapt into a laser net?"

Kim had good self control, but this time she failed - narrowly - to stop it. And since she managed to get her hand over her mouth, it was a sort of half snort half scoff as she was grinning. Ron allowed himself to smile. Just another part of his essential Ron-ness.

Which made him look over his shoulder, knowing his luck the Sectopod would walk in and open fire. But there was nothing in sight and what marching steps they heard were too far away. They were safe in concealment for a moment.

"So," Ron continued as he glanced back as Kim had recovered. "Got an answer?"

"You're not going to take 'that's different', are you?"

He shrugged. "Can't throw stones… though I've got the proper protection now."

"Uh huh. C'mon, we need to keep moving."

They continued their sweep, but it was quickly clear that the section near their entrypoint was clear. They did find a number of cannisters, though, all with hazard labels.

"Looks like Karten's ready for his tests," Kim remarked as she knelt next to a gas canister to get a better look. "All empty, though."

"And we're not choking in poison gas," Ron added as he took a sniff, "so it wasn't used. Placing it early, but nothing usable where the Resistance can grab it?"

"You'd think he'd just leave some Troopers to keep an eye on it…" Kim rose and shook her head. "Sector's clear, let's move on to the other side of that chasm, see if we can't lay an ambush for that Andromedon."

Ron shrugged. "Works for me."

They made their way back towards the chasm, and as they stayed silent and alert Ron just kept feeling a sense of dread. Sectopod, Archons, Andromedons… all beefy alien units that took far too much firepower to put down. Both of them were great at chaining together knockouts and kills in melee, but that assumed the targets could be quickly brought down. Or the rest of the squad softened them up, like Abort with her grenade launcher.

Well, Kim can always double tap with the shotgun, he considered and suddenly he was a teenager again. The sidekick brought along for reasons even Kim sometimes had a hard time coming up with… other than the only one that mattered: their friendship.

Then again, we chose those missions, he decided as the odds weighed on him again. Sure she pulled me sometimes, but I needed that. And we chose to get involved, this…

"Hey KP," Ron started as they approached a rectangular block of stone that marked the end of the chasm. Their crossing point, an old floodgate control system. "You remember when we picked our stupidly dangerous missions?"

"All too well," she answered as he saw her grimace, tightening her grip on her weapon. "But apparently Bradford's great commandy one ordained us to kill all the ayys alone…" her face twisted in disgust. "Ugh, next time I want to try Jane's moonshine, punch me. Pretty sure she put some mind control stuff in there."

Ron paused as they were at the archway before the floodgate… block. "How does it compare to Outrider's Chryssaweiser?"

Kim paused, tilting her head side to side. "On a scale of piss to Valhallan mead, I'll put it in 'I need morning after pills'."

Ron felt his nose twitch. Why Kim liked that disgusting Norwegian brew was beyond him, honeyed or not… okay, happy thoughts! "So, go get shot up?"

"Yeah, may as well…"

The two climbed up the ladder, trading overwatch as they moved up, but they didn't hear anything save for some distant rumbling as the Sectopod or the Andromedon in the distance walked through some wall.

"So," Ron started again, keeping his voice down as they checked their drop down, all clear. "Assuming we get out of this, maybe get a few days away from the insanity? Just come up with something to tell Bradford."

His lover smirked, casually holding the storm gun to the side so she could wrap her free hand around the back of his neck. "Oh, that's easy. We tell him we're doing some… bond training. Seriously high level stuff. The kind Outrider and Mox aren't doing."

Ron felt himself grinning. "Booyah."

Kim let go and they slid down the ladder. The other side was more of the same, but they were at a bend. Ahead was a passage to the right, what was probably maintenance for the specific pipelines to different districts. And to their direct height past an archway was the track of tunnel that they had spotted the first Andromedon-led pod, but they didn't appear to be present, likely at the far side of the tunnels on their patrol.

So far so good, Ron thought when suddenly they heard stomping, and around the second corner a familiar - maybe the same? - hulking frame containing an oversized glass canopy of acid and its two rocket-torso backup dancers with boom sticks that would make any old school henchman feel inadequate.

They stood looking at each other for a moment to comprehend what had happened, then violence ensued.

"Me and my big head," Ron groaned as he charged his Tempest Gauntlets to attack the Archon moving right past him.

XXXX

[End Chapter]

This is a novelization, with liberties for the sake of narrative flow, of a mission I ran in XCOM 2: War of the Chosen that had the SITREP 'Fireteam', which meant only two soldiers for the mission. With the above opposition. Probably some of the best fun in XCOM I had in a long time, all from a mission I was utterly dreading due to the SITREP. Since I've been working on a Kim Possible character pack for a while, and in this playthrough Kim and Ron were my (Level 3 bonded) Colonels… they got the job.

So for this, I'm working on a sort of loose mix of the two series history as I did not want to sit down and do a full definitive history. Still, I hope there's at least enough for it to make sense and hints of greater things.

I also took liberties; my first efforts to try to be closer to the XCOM combat was rather stilted, plus I didn't remember every action well enough to do it well. So I pretty much tossed out the game mechanics as far as the fight was concerned even if I tried to keep some elements of it.

Also before starting the mission's action I'd like to thank Neo the Saiyan angel and Snow Drifter for helping with this – I really appreciated the second set of eyes on it.