Chapter 1

June 14th

California State College, just north of Los Angeles

"Don't worry Rufus, she's going to show up any minute now," Ron said to the naked mole rat that had nestled itself comfortably on his blond head as the boy twiddled his thumbs and whistled softly to himself, "Yup, I'm telling you. She'll show up soon." He leaned against the exterior of his dorm and crossed his arms as Rufus scurried down to his wrist and pointed at the plastic watch, speaking in a voice that only Ron could possibly understand, "Yeah, I know she's half an hour late, but she'll be here."

The naked mole rat let out a sigh as he crawled down Ron's leg and into the side pocket on his pants. Growing worried, Ron pulled out his phone, "No voicemails," the stubborn tone had left his voice, "where is she?"

Somewhere Beneath Los Angeles

"Where am I?" Kim couldn't see, and a constant sharp pain shot from the back of her head whenever she shifted her head, "What happened?" she tried to reach a hand up to her head to rub the pain away, but her arms and legs were bound by leather straps to the table she was lying on.

"She's awake, Doctor," Kim heard the feminine voice from just behind her head.

"Drakken?" she gritted her teeth to act tough, though she knew that if he was behind this most recent kidnapping she wasn't in any real danger.

"Not quite," a fleeting moment of panic passed through the redhead as the deep, unfamiliar voice rang in her ears, but as with most situations like this she merely smirked at the danger, "I'm afraid your old nemesis isn't the one you'll have to worry about tonight."

That did explain why the female voice didn't belong to Shego. "Oh?" Kim said as she fought against the leather straps, "then just who do I have the pleasure of meeting this evening?" she couldn't think of a villain, super or otherwise, who possessed that voice, but she always welcomed a new challenge. Things had been rather slow since Drakken and Shego helped save the day during her high school graduation almost a year back, "And do you think we can hurry it up? I kinda have something important to get to," her dates with Ron had a habit of getting crashed like this, and just once she would like to be able to go and enjoy some of their time off without having to escape danger.

"Oh I'm sorry, where are my manners," Kim kept track of the sound heavy boots crossing only a few yards behind her, "Emma, would you be so kind as to remove the blindfold for our guest?"

"Of course, Doctor," the woman reached behind Kim's head, being surprisingly careful about not being too rough on the area that was causing the girl quite a bit of pain, and undid the blindfold before taking a few steps back.

"There," the doctor said as the piece of black fabric fell to the floor, "Is that better?"

It took a moment for Kim's eyes to adjust to the light, but once her vision was restored her mind quickly went to work as she scanned the room for any clue that could give away her location, "Well this is new," she uttered, shocked at what she found: a rather plain room, concrete walls, lit only by two surprisingly bright lightbulbs. She had expected a lair, a couple of minions, maybe even a death ray or two. Almost every villain she faced was a fan of eccentric, over the top displays, so the rather mundane revelation really threw her off.

"Well what were you expecting?" Kim tried to crane her neck to see who the voice belonged to, but he was too far off and the light directly above her head was making it difficult to see, "Evil lairs and convoluted schemes have never worked with you in the past. Besides, I prefer a much more practical approach."

"Approach to what?" Kim asked, hoping to draw out time until she could loosen her restraints and break free, "What do you plan to do? And how did you manage to kidnap me in the first place?" she was almost there. With just a little more force she could get her first hand free.

"Emma," the mysterious Doctor, ignoring Kim's questions, said to his assistant, "I think we're done here."

Kim heard the man's footsteps and tried to follow them around the room, but he clung to the shadows, rendering it impossible to make out any distinguishing features, "Well let me guess, you plan on leaving me in this room so that some terrible death trap will kill my while you get to watch me from some video room?" While that would make it even easier to escape, she would much prefer to stop the man who kidnapped her right then and there. She just needed a little more time.

"Not quite," the doctor said as he opened the door, revealing a head of short-cut blond hair, "I only figured it wouldn't be proper to kill you while you were unconscious. Emma, it's time we left."

"What?" This was so unlike what Kim was used to. No long drawn out speech about his motives? No excited declaration of having defeated The Kim Possible? Not even a single name drop?

"Yes Doctor," Kim looked at Emma who once again stood over her. Tall, skinny, with red hair and gray eyes, the assistant gently caressed Kim's cheek in her left hand, "I'm sorry about this," the woman's hand moved to her hip and she flicked out a switchblade, "It's nothing personal." The woman reared back her arm and drove the knife toward Kim's chest.

"I don't think so," Kim shouted as she finally freed her right hand from the straps, but it was too late. She barely managed to touch her attacker when the blade came down on her chest, cutting the thin golden chain of her locket in the process. It hadn't hurt as much as Kim would have expected, but she let out a scream of pain as she fought to prevent Emma from removing the blade, knowing that having it pulled out spelled certain death.

But just as she was beginning to lose her grip, the most welcome of voices echoed through the halls outside the door, "KIIIIIMMMMM!"

"Ron," the heroine barely had enough strength left to say the words, but the arrival of Ron Stoppable put a sense of haste into the mysterious Doctor.

"Emma, now," he commanded, without even a hint of anger or frustration in his voice, and he and his assistant ran through the doorway and out of sight mere seconds before Ron arrived.

"Oh my god," Ron pulled out his phone and dialed the first number he could think of.

"Ron?" Wade's tired voice rang over speakerphone as Ron worked to undo the straps securing Kim to the table, "I've been up for nearly three days. Can't your homework questions wait until the morning?"

"Not now, Wade. Emergency. Kim needs help," he cried, his hands shaking so much that he was completely unable to work the strap around his girlfriend's ankle, doing his best to look away from the blood that was dripping to the floor.

"What kind of help?" Wade responded with a sense of urgency in his voice that seemed to have snapped him awake.

"Stabbed...Hospital...NOW!" tears rolled down his face as he finally managed to undo the first strap before moving onto the next.

"I've got a lock on your position," Wade said as the sound of frantic typing on keys came through the phone, "Hold tight, and whatever you do, don't move her."

"It's going to be okay, Kim," Ron cried as he knelt by the table and held her hand tightly in his own, afraid that at any moment she might slip away, "It's going to be okay." Kim tried to reach up and touch the boy, but her strength quickly left her as she fell into unconsciousness.

It didn't take long for the ambulance and the police to arrive. The medics carefully lifted Kim onto a stretcher and rushed her to the hospital, leaving Ron behind with the police.

"Excuse me," a middle aged cop with dark gray hair tapped Ron on the shoulder, "I need to ask you to come with me."

Los Angeles Police Department

The police interrogator, a young burly man with slick black hair combed to the back and a hardened face that screamed "no nonsense," sat at the table in a chair across from Ron. He organized the folders and evidence bags on the table before he pressed record on the tape recorder, "Please state your name."

"Ron Stoppable." Ron answered, barely able to keep focus after several hours of having to explain the scene.

The officer looked at Ron for a moment as if he still couldn't believe that was really the boy's name, but the drivers license they found in his wallet said otherwise, "What are you doing in Los Angeles, Mr. Stoppable? Your license says you live in Middleton…." He squinted at the tiny print, trying to make out the state the boy resided in, but couldn't thanks to a black smudge over the abbreviation.

"I go to school at California State."

"Which campus?" the officer dropped the license on the table.

"No, not California State University. California State College." While Kim had gotten accepted to every college she applied to, and had even been asked to attend a few that she hadn't, CSC was about the only school that Ron could get into. Kim had ended up choosing UCLA, claiming that it was her top choice, but he always had a guilty feeling that she had made that decision for his sake.

Moving on with the interrogation, the officer asked the next question, "What is your relationship to Miss Possible?"

"She's my girlfriend," Ron answered.

"Okay," the officer responded, a flicker of a smile appearing on his face in obvious disbelief over the boy's statement, "And why were you found in the basement of a vacant building with a knife in your….girlfriend's chest?"

"I already told you," Ron said, his voice growing louder as he grew angrier and more impatient, "She was late for our date and I was getting worried."

"And just how did you know where to find her?"

"Her necklace," Ron quickly answered, "she has a tracking device in it."

"So this is hers?" the officer slid a small, clear evidence bag with the bloody locket and a broken chain across the table.

"Yes, if you open it up you'll see." Wade had built devices for the two of them in case of an emergency. Kim had it installed in the locket that Ron gave her at the start of the school year, and Ron had his installed in a ring she let him keep after their first mission as college students.

"So let me get this straight. You were waiting for Miss Possible to pick you up for a date. She got kidnapped, and you got worried when she was late so you tracked her to what you described as," he picked up his clipboard and read Ron's words back to him, "a creepy, dark, basement thing," he put it down, "where you managed to save her at the last minute?"

"Yes…I mean no….look, I tracked her there and heard her screaming so I ran. I—" he cut himself off, "Wait a minute," he narrowed his eyes at the officer and pushed himself up from the chair, "You think I did this to her," he screamed.

"Sit down, Mr. Stoppable." The officer calmly ordered from his seat.

"No," Ron moved away from the table and pointed at the man, "You think I did it," he looked at the mirror that, if every police drama he'd ever seen had been telling the truth, was really a one-way mirror, "I didn't do it," he screamed, tears starting to flow down his face, "I found her almost dead and you're wasting time interrogating me," he put his hand over his chest and clenched the cloth of his shirt, "You have to let me go. We have to find who did this."

"I said, sit down, Mr. Stoppable," the officer stood up and reached for his taser.

Not paying attention to the man, Ron put his hands against the glass, "Please," he pleaded, his throat too sore to yell anymore, "you have to find him…you have to find him."

"Mr. Possible," the officer shouted as he drew and aimed the taser at the boy, "I need you to calm down." Rational thought kicked to the curb, Ron knelt into a fighting stance, ready to defend himself if need be.

"Officer Carmichael," a voice came in over the intercom at cut through the tension that had built between the boy and the interrogator, "Miss Possible is awake. She is asking to see Mr. Stoppable."

Hospital

Escorted by Officer Carmichael, Ron burst into the emergency room and nearly fell to his knees when he saw Kim weakly waving at him, "Kim," a sad smile grew on his face as he slowly approached his girlfriend. Afraid that he was going to hurt Kim he knelt by her side and gently held her hand, "You're all right." His tears fell to the bed and Kim patted his head with her free hand before pulling his hand to her lips and kissing it.

"Miss Possible," Officer Carmichael interjected himself into the scene, "I'm afraid I need to ask you a few questions."

Kim let out a sigh. Seeing this, the doctor on call, a tall, 40-something year old woman with graying brown hair turned to him, "Officer, I'm sorry, but my patient needs her rest. I'm afraid your questions will have to wait until tomorrow." The woman looked at Kim's chart and shot the girl a wink, which was met with a thankful smile on behalf of the redhead.

"Very well," the officer said, obviously more than displeased by the delay in his investigation, "Mr. Stoppable, I may be calling you for further questioning."

Before Kim or Ron could protest, the officer turned and left the room, leaving the two young adults and the doctor on their own, "Ron, it's okay," she put a finger under his chin and lifted his head so that their eyes met, "I'm more worried about you."

"How can you say that?" Ron pulled away and stood up. He buried his head in his hands and started pacing the room, "You…you were kidnapped, and nearly killed. And they think I did it."

"What—" Kim tried to get him to clarify, but he kept going.

"They questioned me for hours, and the entire time I didn't know if you were alive or dead."

"Ron."

"And now you're here and alive, but I don't know what to do and—"

"Ron!" Kim and Ron turned to the doctor, dumbstruck at her outburst, but a soft smile appeared on her face and she continued in a calm voice, "why don't I give you some time alone." She left the chart in the slot at the foot of Kim's bed and left the room.

A moment of silence followed as both of the young adults tried to find a way to voice their thoughts. Afraid of another one of Ron's freakouts, Kim was the first to speak up, "Ron, what do you mean they think you did it?"

Ron sat down in a chair by the door and rubbed his tired eyes, "I mean, they never said it. But why else would they be questioning me like that?"

"Maybe they were just looking for clues," Kim said, though she knew that was doubtful. Ron was, after all, the only other person on the scene, and though she knew about the tracking device in her locket, Wade's inventions were more often than not too farfetched for anyone outside of their circle to accept as real. And given Ron's inability to look her in the eye, Kim had a feeling he had already experienced this firsthand, "Come here, Ron," she shifted over as best she could, doing her best to ignore the pain that it caused, and patted a spot on the bed.

Ron slowly rose to his feet and took a seat on the bed, though he refused to look at her, "Do you know who it was?"

"No clue," Kim said, "But let's not talk about that right now," Ron looked over to her and saw her smile, her pale face, the exhaustion in her eyes, but despite everything he felt a warm wave of relief flow through him. For all the bad that happened, she was okay.

"Well," he forced a smile on his face and did his best to adopt his usual upbeat tone, "at least I didn't have to be the one to break your heart."

It was a little darker than Kim was used to hearing from Ron, but it was a step in the right direction, "For your information," she said in as snarky a tone as she could muster in her groggy, post-surgery state, "She missed my heart." She closed her eyes and yawned, "Bitch wasn't going to take me out that—" she trailed off and quickly fell asleep. Ron was surprised it had taken that long. Getting stabbed, surgery, an IV drip of what he could only assume was some form of painkiller cocktail.

Seeing her asleep, her chest slowly rising and falling with each breath, gave him assurance that everything was going to be all right. He stood up from the bed and moved to the chair so that he could pull it to her bedside. He wasn't going to leave her side any time soon.

Area Unknown

Somewhere deep underground, the Doctor sat calmly at his desk, "Doctor," his assistant's voice came in over the intercom.

"Yes, Emma?" he responded, eagerly awaiting the news she had to give.

"The girl lives. I am sorry."

The Doctor clenched his fist tight enough to crack his knuckles, but quickly relaxed his grip and assumed his normal calm demeanor, "I see," he reached into the drawer on his right-hand side and pulled out a small black book, "No need to apologize. I had failed to account for the sidekick," punishing subordinates for their leader's mistakes was hardly the way to run a business, "Was the boy found at the scene?" the Doctor opened the book and wrote a quick note to himself.

"Yes. Our mole within the LAPD has ensured that Ron Stoppable will be a prime suspect for quite some time."

"I can't imagine our target will be so warm to the idea," The Doctor liked having his fingers in as many places as he could, but there was only so much he could do while his victim was still alive, "She will no doubt officially clear his name soon enough." He stood up and paced his office as he tried to think up a plan.

"Doctor, what if we placed a hit on the girl?" the Doctor started shaking his head in disapproval at his assistant's suggestion, "With her bedridden it wouldn't be too hard to take her out."

"No. We must not underestimate the Stoppable boy again. Trying to have the girl killed so soon might draw attention to our plan," he stopped pacing the room, "hmm," he uttered, "but perhaps you are on to something." He went back to the book that was still open on his desk and flipped back to the first page, "Emma, do me a favor. Would you please call the good officer for me?"

The Doctor walked over to the one large window in his office and drew the curtain, letting the first rays of sunshine of the morning seep into the room, "Let them have their peace for now. An attack at this time would not be wise."