"Thanks for the lift, Aaron. You're a lifesaver."

"It's the least I could do, Kim. We would have had a real situation on our hands if you hadn't been there."

Kim Possible smiled wearily at the middle-aged gentleman who had so kindly ferried her across several blocks of Go City. The nearest operating hotel was a ten minute ride from the site of the collapsed apartment complex where she had spent the last eighteen hours. Although she would have been happy to walk, the firefighter could tell she was exhausted, and had all but strapped her to the back of his cruiser when she tried to politely decline.

"I can pick you back up in the morning, if you want?" Aaron offered as he took the spare helmet from her outstretched hand.

"Please and thank you." She smiled sweetly.

"Seven-thirty sound good?"

"I'll be ready."

"Get some sleep, kid. I'll see you in the morning."

Sleep. She missed sleep. She'd spent almost every day in a marathon of relief work since returning from her post-graduation beach trip, during which she managed to end up doing more volunteering than relaxing. Even though she was supposed to be on vacation, she just couldn't lie back and soak up the early summer sun while chunks of Lowardian battle drones were being pulled from the surf, especially when some of those doing the clean-up turned out to be supervillan goons. There was as little rest for the righteous as there was for the wicked, as it turned out. Always with the drama.

Kim wasn't sure why she had expected anything different, considering the heavy blows made to civilization by the Lowardians just ten days prior. The invasion, even though it hadn't lasted long, had done an astounding amount of damage to practically every inhabited region of the planet, and even a few uninhabited ones. Middleton had been hit particularly hard despite being a relatively small suburban area, and both her home and high school had been reduced to piles of rubble. Every available public space was now overflowing with families who had lost their homes to a parasitic swarm of Lowardian sentinels. Her own family had settled at a local community center a short distance from Middleton hospital, where her mother had been constantly on call.

It surprised Kim how quickly everything had happened. From the moment she had taken off her cap and gown, the Kimmunicator buzzed almost non-stop with requests for help with everything from rescue efforts to fund raisers. Even a few political candidates had the nerve to offer her starring roles in their publicity stunts, hoping to use the terrible situation and her latest surge in popularity to their advantage. She wasn't entirely certain how after little more than a week she had become the poster girl for planetary nationalism, but she hardly spent time thinking about it. Everything was on the Internet, after all.

Including Wade. Although all of Middleton had been suffering from intermittent blackouts and widespread Internet outages, her friend had managed to stay connected and in control without so much as a spike in latency. When Kim had asked, he had assured her that it was all perfectly legal and had nothing to do with patching into government satellites. She had dropped the conversation at that point, and all Wade had done was smile.

It was Wade who had lead her to Go City, after she had helped Middleton relief efforts restore enough communication and set up enough shelters to be able to handle things without her. The midtown area had been hit particularly hard, leaving many hotels past capacity and streets blocked by chunks of the surrounding destruction. In some places, the roads were in such a state of disarray that public service workers had to rely on mopeds and cruisers for transportation, much like the one she'd just watched pull away.

Now Kim stood in front of a modest-looking chain hotel, with her backpack weighing more heavily on her tired shoulders than she could ever remember. She wished she could go home and cuddle with Pandaroo after a long relaxing shower, but there was no home left to go back to, and most likely, no Pandaroo either. Her childhood friend was lost, somewhere in a pile of debris.

Passing through the revolving glass door, she felt a sudden pang of guilt for lamenting over her dearest cuddle buddy. The lobby was filled to capacity. Go City residents curled up in chairs, on sofas and on blankets cushioning the bright tile floor. Hotel employees refilled cups of complimentary coffee and several children were bickering over what channel should be on the television. A few refugees regarded her with tired, vacant eyes as she approached the counter, which was hosting a long line of prospective patrons. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as man in a blazer promptly broke off a conversation he was having in order to approach her.

"Excuse me," He began politely, "Are you Kim Possible?"

Kim nodded. "I am, though I think I might have the wrong address. A friend of mine told me there were rooms available here."

"No, no, we certainly have room for you. Please, follow me."

His words left her feeling uneasy, but she followed him anyway. He led her from the crowded lobby to the management office behind the main counter and shut the door.

"I'm Brian," He said with a brief shake of her hand before taking a seat at the computer at the center of the modest office arrangement. "I'm the manager on duty. Give me just a couple of minutes and I'll get you all set up. How long will you be staying?"

"Just overnight." She bit her lip. "I don't mean to be rude Brian, but I can't take a room away from all those other people." Kim gestured over her shoulder back to the lobby.

"Don't be silly, Ms. Possible," Brian insisted as he tapped quickly on the keyboard. "After everything you've done, not giving you somewhere to rest would be practically criminal."

"Oh, anyone could have survived alien abduction." She countered with a dismissive wave.

"I just..."

"I insist." Brian interrupted, plucking two plastic key cards from the printer and slipping them into logo-emblazoned sleeves. Kim accepted them with reluctance, turning the cards over in her hands.

"You'll be on the third floor, room 309. If there's absolutely anything me or my staff can do to make you more comfortable, Ms. Possible, don't hesitate to ask."

She nodded, her conscience still battling her desire to please as she turned back to the door.

"Oh, Ms. Possible?"

"Hm?"

Brian approached her slowly, producing a copy of NEWSTIME magazine and a permanent marker.

"Could I bother you to sign this for my daughter? She's such a fan. It would mean a lot."

Kim could feel the heat in her face quickly rising. "Oh, um...sure!" She removed the cap from the marker and propped the magazine against the door.

"What's her name?"

"Madeline."

A few quick scribbles, and she returned the book to him with a smile, still blushing.

"Thank you, you really are as amazing as everyone says you are."

Now Kim's ears were burning. "It's no big, really. Thanks for your help."

"It was my pleasure. Please, enjoy your stay!"

Closing the door, Kim sighed and puffed at the stray waves of red hanging over her cheek. She knew she wouldn't be able to sleep knowing so many would be spending the night curled up on the hard lobby floor. But if she didn't at least shower soon, she'd likely tear her skin off just to relieve the feeling of being soaked in dust and sweat. Luckily, a small voice from a few feet away made up her mind on the situation.

"Momma," The tiny girl pleaded, looking up at her young mother trying to balance a whimpering infant and a cellular phone.

"You've got to be kidding! You're the eighth place I've called, and you're full too?"

"Momma,"

"I know it's an emergency, but what am I supposed to do? Where are my children supposed to sleep?"

"Momma!"

The brunette pulled the phone away from her ear with irritation, snapping at her other child, who looked no more than two.

"What!"

The little girl pointed at Kim, who smiled her best as the mother of two met her eyes, and then flushed a deep crimson red as she approached.

"Sorry to intrude, but...here," Kim offered the second card key to the woman, who continued to stare at her as if she had two heads. "This is for room 309. If you can give me thirty minutes, it's all yours."

"Um," The woman stared at the card, then at Kim, and back again. "Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Oh...I...o-okay." She suddenly seemed to be choking on her own voice. "T-thank you."

"No big deal, really." Kim moved towards the elevator, but stumbled when the two-year-old latched onto her leg and squeezed.

"Trisha!" Her mother scolded, "I'm sorry..."

"It's okay!" Kim smiled and crouched to give the little girl a brief hug, patting her head before hustling off to the elevator.

Trisha waved goodbye, and then smiled up at her mother after Kim had left. "Momma?"

"What is it, sweetie?"

"I wanna be like Kim Possible!"


Almost exactly thirty minutes later, Kim stepped onto the roof of the hotel building, closing the access door behind her. A quick shower and a change of clothes was all she'd needed to rejuvenate herself from the day's effort. She made sure leave the room as if she'd never used it, dropping her used towels on a housekeeping cart and snatching up a few extra bottles of soap and shampoo to replace the used ones which were tucked into her backpack.

With a smile, Kim dropped the well-loved luggage on the concrete surface of the rooftop, and settled down in front of it, leaning back and stretching her legs out in front of her. The evening was temperate with a small, comfortable breeze, and a few stars twinkled through the interference of city lights. With the exception of the sounds of traffic in the distance, her rooftop spot was calm and peaceful.

She had almost begun to doze when the Kimmunicator came to life, chiming and blinking for her attention. "What's the sitch?" She answered out of habit, without looking at the screen.

"KP!"

"Hi Ron," She replied as she lifted the screen to eye level, smiling at the pale blond boy on the other end. "Whats up?"

"Oh, nothin..." He rubbed the back of his head, giving his best nonchalant shrug. "Just wanted to say hi. Boyfriends still do that, don't they?"

"I think so." She propped her head in her unoccupied hand. "How are things in Middleton?"

"Eh, okay. There's a serious lack of Kim, though."

The redhead sighed, running fingers through her half-dried locks. "I know..."

"I've put up signs and stuff but, no one seems to know where I can find one."

Kim chewed her lip, silently hoping he wasn't going to push the subject of her complicated schedule. The last thing she felt like doing right now was to pretend not to argue. It was true, she'd been occupied almost constantly since their graduation ceremony, save for a couple of evenings spent with friends celebrating on the beach. The situation was far from ideal, especially since she'd spent nearly a week reassuring him that graduation wasn't going to spell the end of their relationship. Alien invasion and global catastrophe, though, hadn't helped their cause.

Ron hadn't been happy when she told him she'd volunteered to help Go City relief, mostly because he was tied into his family's efforts in Middleton. The Stoppables had truly risen to the needs of their neighbors, bringing together members of the Jewish community to gather needed supplies, provide shelter and offer a sense of security for those displaced by the invasion. When Kim had left, Mr. Stoppable had already organized a group of volunteers to begin repairing damaged homes and raise funds to help those who would have to relocate entirely. Middleton was in good hands, though that did very little to ease the already uneasy situation between Kim and her boyfriend.

"I'm sorry," She continued, "I'll be home as soon as I can."

"KP?"

"Yeah?"

"I miss you."

She smiled at that, albeit a little sadly, and wished he were there in person so she could hug him tight.

"I miss you too."

"Maybe I could come up there, you know?" He began uneasily, "Just for a day or two, I dunno, maybe we could ta-"

KABOOM.

Kim jumped to her feet and whipped around quickly, looking for the source of the disastrous sound. She watched in astonishment as, several blocks away, a ball of fire shattered outwards from a high-story building, sending burning trails of hot debris flying in every direction. The surrounding structures were suddenly bathed in enraged shades of orange and green.

Green? A chemical fire...? She wondered, Or...

"KIM!" Ron's voice echoed from the device in her hand. "What the hell was that? Are you okay?"

"Ron, there's been some kind of explosion downtown," She held out the Kimmunicator briefly for him to see. The building belched out another wave of fire and smoke.

"Holy shit!"

"Yeah," Her expression grew hard as she simultaneously wondered who could be heartless enough to attack a city already in pieces, and hoped she didn't already know the answer.

"I gotta go, I'll call you back later."

"KP, please ...be careful!"

"Always am," She ended the call abruptly, shoving the device into her pocket as she grabbed her backpack and ran to the edge of the hotel roof. Sirens of different octaves had already begun to howl in the distance as she jumped into the dark, fired her grappling hook onto the adjacent building's fire escape and swung gracefully down to the alley below.


Tossing thanks over her shoulder, Kim jumped from the side of the fire engine she'd intercepted and stared upwards at the still churning structure fire. Go City emergency services were already at the scene, pumping long streams of water into the blaze while the frantic residents spilled into the street from every door. The flames reaching upward from the broken windows had mostly lost their greenish hue, returning instead to their typical hot autumn palette.

Kim's eyes roamed the rooftops, the columns of smoke and the skirts of the crowd for any signs of what, or who, may have been responsible for the blast. When nothing unusual seemed evident, she turned away, ran towards the edge of the building and ducked into the shadowed alley between it and its neighbor.

If it was you, Kim thought, You'd know better than to use the front entrance.

Agile limbs scaled a nearby dumpster and used the boost to clear a chain-link fence separating her from the rest of the alley and rear of the building. Momentum pushed her away from the ground and down the concrete tunnel in a seamless series of muscle movements, leaving her mind free to take in the maximum amount of data. She slid to a brief stop at the junction of the two paths and, seeing nothing immediately alarming to her left, continued ahead to the visible end of the alley.

The screeching of tires and blaring of horns in front of her pushed her pace into a hard sprint, and she quickly scaled a second fence separating her from the street beyond. The distressed automobile quickly righted itself as it continued on its way, opening the otherwise empty block to Kim's view.

There.

The street was lined with parked vehicles lit dimly by streetlights, and beyond the curb a row of stout concrete dividers and the expanse of an empty public parking area. It would be a normal landscape for a city at night, if it were not for the brilliant green fireball casting supernatural lime-colored shadows across the far end of the lot.

What the hell?

"Shego...?"

The name fell out of her mouth heavily as she attempted to process the scene at hand. It was most definitely her archenemy, but hardly the cackling battle-ready valkyrie she thought she might find. Shego's entire body seemed to be engulfed in green plasma, brighter than Kim had ever seen. As she jogged closer, she could feel the intense heat of the churning alien light. Sweat had already begun to bead on her forehead by the time she was close enough to notice that, judging by her posture, Shego was weakened and struggling to hold herself upright.

The green woman was barley standing, her right arm leaning heavily on one of the lot dividers while the other seemed to be attempting to hold closed what remained of a heavily burnt bathrobe. It wasn't until a piece of the garment fell to the ground and smoldered that Kim realized that her rival was almost entirely naked, save for a few conveniently placed chunks of what used to be fabric that were quickly shrivelling into ashen sheets.

"Shego!" Kim raised her voice as she repeated the name and began to move closer, waiting for the villaness to respond. The burning woman groaned, lifting her head just enough to look at Kim through lengths of raven hair. Her eyes, usually a brilliant shade of emerald, were now almost completely red, as if every blood vessel had burst simultaneously. Kim's emotions twisted in her gut, unsure whether to be ready for a trap or genuinely worried about her rival's condition. She'd never seen Shego in such a state, nor had she ever known the woman to do anything so public without an escape plan. Or clothes. If Kim knew anything about Shego, it was that she held herself to ridiculously high standards of performance.

But Kim had landed enough blows against the woman to know she wasn't flawless, either. So what had happened? Foul play? Had Shego crossed the wrong person, or had the wrong person crossed Shego? Was someone watching from the dark, waiting for Kim to take the bait? Or was Shego just trying out some new, twisted mind game so she could finally kill the teen hero and leave the villain business on a high note?

There were too many questions, Kim decided. So she chose the best option for her own survival. She pushed down her more charitable urges until she knew more about the situation and kept her distance, although concern continued to gnaw at her insides.

"Figures this would...be the f-first time..you see me naked..." The exhausted but ever-cynical green woman managed.

"Shego!" Kim insisted. "What's going on?"

"No idea," Shego managed, and then slipped to the ground entirely. Her shoulders heaved as if she were going to vomit, and apparently she had, but the end product immediately burned in the heat of her firey shield, causing her cough out clouds of thick white vapor.

"Ugh..."

"Shego..." Kim repeated, taking a few more steps forward and reaching out with extreme hesitation, only to be shoved backwards by an invisible pressure from Shego's flames.

"Doy," Shego remarked, and then heaved again.

"Didn't mommy teach you...not to play with fire..?"

The redhead sprung back to her feet as quickly as she had been knocked off of them, reflexively assuming a defensive stance.

"I'm not here to play," She shot back, beginning to slowly circle her adversary.

"Where's Drakken? Or is this some kind of new solo thing you're trying?"

Shego shook her head, doubling over onto herself, with her forehead on her knees.

"No...Doctor D...oh, god..."

"So you are working alone?"

She shook her head again, "No, I...Doctor D...I c-couldn't stop..."

"Stop what? Being evil? There's a big surprise."

"NO..." Shego yowled. "God, if you would just...AGH!"

Before she could finish, Shego tucked her forehead even more tightly to the ground and surged with heat, forcing Kim to cover her face. The heat wave stung the redhead's eyes, sending saline trickling down her reddened cheeks. When she looked back, the plasma had ebbed, yet still churned around its mistress as if it were feeding on her remains.


Dun dun dun!

So what'd you think? This is going to be my first attempt at KP fic, so any comments are welcome!

Thanks Fevervingettes and Arguingvitality for beta reading!