This was, um, a dream I had the other night. It was going to be bad for me if I didn't write it. Special thanks to my beta, who shall remain nameless upon request. Hope you enjoy.
EDIT 3-29-10: Forgot to mention that having seen the episode Bad Boy is a must. ;) Gracias!
Ron's dreams were never very vivid.
Sure, he could always remember them in the morning. Well, most of the time. At least, he had a pretty good sense of what had happened in his mind while he was asleep. The odd thing was that he always seemed to remember the bad dreams, not the good ones. The bad ones were the most vivid during sleep and the most remembered during his time awake.
That being said, he was usually able to tell whether he would be having a good dream or a bad dream within the first few minutes. If the quality was good, it was bad. If it was bad, it was good.
He figured that it had something to do with too much cheese before bed.
Ron had had a long day before collapsing onto his bed and falling right asleep. It was a very long, very odd day. His best friend, Kim Possible, had saved a rich guy who collected Cuddle Buddies by using her awesome cheerleader moves to dodge fatal lasers and retrieve the remote which held the off-switch.
Very odd indeed.
In his world, odd days needed lots of sleep, so he was out like a light before the clock even hit ten. And that was when the dream began.
He wasn't sure where he was, exactly. Was he anywhere? Was he nowhere? There was nothing but white. All around him. White, white, white. If it had been any whiter, he would've believed he'd somehow hit Heaven.
"Hello?" He called out, his voice echoing among the pure whiteness. Hello, hello, hello, hello... his voice faded out into the nothingness, both there and not, just another sound among the sound of nothing.
This is getting creepy... He thought. I could go for some nachos right now. Or a taco. How about both? I could mix 'em together and-
"Hello, hello, hello, hello..."
His thoughts of food were cut off by another voice. A voice similar to his own, maybe? With a bit of a different flair to it. It was the kind of voice he would expect a super villain on a Saturday morning cartoon to have. What was a Saturday morning cartoon super villain doing in his dreams?
"Who are you?" He hollered, cupping his hands around his mouth. Not that he needed to, though. Whoever was there could hear him perfectly, probably. Nothing but silence... cold, silent silence.
The source of the villainous voice didn't reply; the room simply stayed silent. Coldly, silently silent. Nothing and no one moved. The white of the background never once flickered. The silence was unbroken.
Ron yelled again. "Who are you?" He asked it this time with more panic. "If you're that freaky monkey from the dream I had last night, I swear, I didn't mean to insult you with the whole-"
"Shut up already, already, already, already..."
"Hey, Mister Monkey, you can't tell me to shut up! I've got a best friend who-"
"I know all about your best friend, friend, friend. She's not just your best friend, friend, friend. She's mine, mine mine..."
Ron breathed in slowly and quietly, listening to words of the invisible source bounce from white wall to white wall, reverberating around the colorless depth. "Who are you?" He whispered.
Suddenly, a boy. A strange boy. The boy appeared out of nowhere, a blast of color to stand out against the chalkiness. His hair was blonde and his eyes were hidden behind red goggles. A cape, a costume, and skin the color of that old, blue blanket Ron's grandma had given him for his birthday so many years ago, hidden beneath piles of forgotten junk in a closet.
"I'm you."
"No you're not!" Ron defended, staring the blue teen down. "You're a lot older than me. Like, sixteen! I'm twelve, duh! And by the way, you're blue! What's up with that? I mean, you can't be serious!"
The mysterious person pointed to himself. "Note serious face, Ronald Stoppable."
Ron crossed his arms, annoyed. First this strange kid showed up claiming to be him, then he tried to steal one of his own sayings? That was pushing things too far. "Knock it off, little boy blue."
The teenager growled and tore at his hair, obviously frustrated. Ron grinned smugly and raised his eyebrows; he was successful at annoying an annoying person once again.
"You little... urgh... you're... I'm... ugh! I'm you! I'm Zorpox the Conquerer!"
"Doesn't ring a bell."
"Y'know, Zorpox. The Conquerer. I'm you. You're me."
"As stated before, Zorpox: Me, twelve. You, sixteen. See the diff?"
Zorpox screamed irritatedly and smacked his face into his hands. He breathed deeply. He lifted his face. "Listen, you little... ugh! I can do things! I have weapons!"
Before Ron could reply to the threat, he pulled out a gun-like contraption and pointed it at him. He pushed the trigger and the steady whine of an engine firing up rang through the milky place. Ron gulped and jumped out of the way just as Zorpox fired straight at the spot where he had just stood.
As he dodged shots and ran among the white, Ron had the courage to yell, "If I'm you, then why're you trying to kill me?"
The gun powered down and the shots finally stopped echoing. When it was completely silent again, Zorpox replied with an annoyed tone, "Because. One, this is a dream - it wouldn't matter died or not, you'll just wake up. Standard nighttime logic. And two, I am not going to kill you. I am merely setting an example of the things I am capable of."
Ron ran a hand through his hair. "Look, this is really, really weird. Can I please wake up now?"
"No!" The shout sent shivers down Ron's spine. He cowered as Zorpox stared him down, a wild glare in his eyes. He ran backwards as the teenage villain approached him with thundering steps, his shoes hitting the ground with a thud each time.
"Listen to me! I am you! Maybe not now, maybe not in the next year, but soon. There is no denying that! No matter what you do, there will always be an evil side to you, Ronald Stoppable! And that evil side is me!"
Zorpox seemed to grow taller with every inch Ron shrunk down. It didn't help the fact that he had at least a whole extra foot of height in his favor. He continued, "You saw your little friend Kimberly take down those lasers! She's going to be a hero, Ron, and there's nothing you can do about that, either. You're just the sidekick, the hired help!"
Ron was confused and freaked out beyond belief. Nothing could top this nightmare. Not the nacho stealing monkey dream, not the grocery store with no pants dream. No, this was different... this was personal.
And it's always hardest to fight yourself.
"Hold on a minute!" Ron yelled, mustering as much confidence into his voice as possible. "Hold on! As far as I'm concerned, none of this will happen as long as I don't want it to! You're just a nightmare!"
"I'll find a way. I'll get out whether you like it or not. There's no stopping the inevitable, Ron!"
Zorpox laughed evilly, a chilling, spine-shivering laugh. Ron was finally able to open his eyes as the image faded away... just faded into the white...
Gasping for breath, Ron sat up in bed, feeling his new pet naked mole rat Rufus climb up onto his shoulder. Rufus squeaked a couple inaudible musings that, while untranslatable, were very helpful to Ron.
Without even thinking through his actions, Ron reached to the side and grabbed the phone, dialing Kim's number out of habit. It was only when he heard her answer the phone with a groggy voice that he realized what he was doing.
"Huh... hello?"
"Oh, uh, hi KP." Ron stuttered.
"Ron...? It's, like, two in the morning..."
"Yeah, I, I know. I just, uh, wanted to hear your voice."
A pause. "...You're really weird, y'know that, Ron?" He could almost hear her smiling on the other line.
He laughed quietly so he wouldn't disturb his parents. "Yeah, I guess I am. Uh, well, 'night KP."
He heard Kim yawn on the other line. "'Night, Ron. Sweet dreams."
Sweet dreams...