This is my entry for Whitem's MMP challenge. I hope you enjoy.

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.

For Science

Chapter 1: The task

"I got here as fast as I could," Ron managed to say between breaths. "What's the issue? Did Monkey Fist turn back? Is another ancient threat trying to destroy Yamanouchi?"

Sensei nodded appreciatively. "You made excellent time getting up the mountain. I hope my call didn't impact on your vacation."

"That's okay, it's actually just an extended mission. KP might not even notice how long I've been away." Ron started looking around nervously again. "But what's the urgent issue."

"There is no urgent issue," the master of the Yamanouchi school said. "I merely wanted to use the opportunity to talk to you face to face while you were close by."

Ron looked devastated. "But I just ran up the entire mountain… Wait, is this some kind of test?"

"A test, this is not. However, you will soon have to face a test, and that is why I needed to talk to you." Sensei gestured Ron to follow. "Come, I have to explain your next step as the new monkey master."

"Ron?" Kim asked drowsily. "Where have you been the past…" she looked at the clock in their hotel room. "…Six hours?"

"I ehm… Sensei had an urgent errand," Ron explained.

"And here I thought I dreamed that conversation you had in the bathroom." The redhead sank her head back on the cushion. "Night." She was back asleep moments later.

Ron was glad that his girlfriend hadn't made a big deal out of it, but she probably would when she was more awake the next morning.

However, Ron couldn't catch his sleep so easy after he got into his own bed, slightly annoying Rufus, who had been pretty comfortable alone in the king-size bed. Sensei's words still rang soundly in his ears.

"You have to learn the loss of your power," Sensei said after he and Ron had gotten into a more private building.

Ron shrugged. "Except for my power burst during the Lowardian invasion I didn't have to use it that much. I think I can handle it."

"You have gotten more attuned to the monkey powers than you may think," Sensei remarked. "However, what is more important is that you will have to find a trustworthy carrier for the power for the time that you will not have it."

Ron smiled. "No problemo…"

"But it cannot be Possible-san, or someone else you have a close bond with," the Yamanouchi headmaster warned. "The power needs to be completely away from your reach, only to be given back after one month."

"Okay…" Ron frowned. "But what if whoever I give the power to decides they like it?"

"Then the power will be lost forever, and the one who will not return the power will follow Monkey Fist's path."

Ron gulped. "Okay, remind me to warn them about that."

"You cannot warn them," Sensei said sternly. "They must return the power on their own accord, without any force from you or anyone else. That is the reason you have to find someone who is trustworthy enough to carry and return the power."

"Okay… I'll see if I can find such a person," Ron responded meekly.

Sensei nodded. "You have three days."

"THREE DAYS?" Ron cried out. "How can I do something like this in three days?"

"You are the monkey master," Sensei merely responded. "All those before you managed this feat. I have faith in you, Stoppable-san. Now you better be on your way. And remember, you cannot tell anyone about this, not even Possible-san."

"You went away without telling me, got home more than six hours later, and you expect me not to ask questions?" Kim asked as she dove at Ron, her punch barely missing his head as he rolled away.

"You've got to understand," Ron tried to explain as he backpedaled away from his girlfriend while she turned around to strike at him again, "this is ninja stuff, and they're pretty secretive."

"Yeah right," Kim mocked as she tried to corner Ron against the wall. "I've been entrusted secrets that can topple several countries, but I'm not allowed to know what errand my boyfriend has to do?"

Ron, backed up against the wall, ducked to dodge another punch, but he wasn't prepared for the simultaneous kick at his leg. "GHAAH! Okay, you win this one."

They stood for a moment, both panting heavily. Then Kim helped Ron up. "You've really got to learn to deal with several hits at the same time."

"Yeah, I know." Ron dusted himself off. "Good sparring though, but I wouldn't have minded if we delayed our discussion until breakfast. People might think we were having a fight."

Kim shrugged. "Let them think. I know you're trying to divert my attention from last night," she added with a smirk, "and during a match you're least prepared to dodge my questions."

Ron huffed. "I was too busy dodging your other attacks. Anyway, fine… yes, Sensei sent me on an errand, and it has to do with the MMP, but I can't tell anyone about the errand, because that would ruin the task I've been put to do. I can only tell you that it will take about a month."

Kim frowned. "Okay, you're off the hook for now. But once your mission is over, I want the full story."

Ron sighed. "I just hope I get this mission done… at least Yori was more helpful than Sensei."

"Stoppable-san," Yori called out as Ron walked to the gate of the Yamanouchi school.

"Hey Yori," Ron responded with a slight smile. "Sorry I don't have time to catch up, but I have an urgent task to do."

"I know," Yori said, "and I think Master Sensei is being somewhat unfair to you by making this task extra difficult."

Ron sighed. "I know, but what can I do?"

"This will help… a bit." The female ninja handed Ron a small crystal. "It is attuned to your powers, the crystal will glow red when you find or consider a candidate who is not appropriate. It will also show you a vision of their abuse of the Mystical Monkey Power."

"Thanks. So, I guess you know about the task?" Ron asked as he accepted the crystal.

Yori nodded. "It is part of my graduation study. Be mindful, the crystal will only work for about five or six times, seven if you're lucky. After that, you cannot use it to distinguish between good and bad carriers of the power."

"Thank you so much," Ron said gratefully as he put the crystal in his pocket. "I've got to run now. Good luck with your graduation project."

Yori giggled slightly as she watched Ron run off. "It was my pleasure, Stoppable-san."

"Ron, whatever Sensei told you to do, it's eating away at you," Kim said as she and Ron waited for their airplane to arrive. Even though Wade hadn't been able to set them up with one of their rides, he had at least gotten them business class seats, which Kim really appreciated. "You only ate five or six snacks since we arrived at the airport."

Ron sighed. "I know, I know, and I really wish I could tell you."

"Okay, at least tell me this, does this pose any danger to you?" Kim then asked. "Because if it does, we're heading right back to Yamanouchi and calling that mission off."

"It doesn't," Ron quickly replied. "And that's why it is so difficult; it can very well endanger someone else."

While Kim was relieved that Ron was in no danger, she could understand his trepidation.

She gave him a gentle kiss on his cheek. "Hey, I know you will make the right decision. And you know I'll be there for you."

Ron smiled weakly at that. "It would be so easy to go back to Yamanouchi and… wait a minute, why didn't I ask Yori or one of the other ninjas to take the power?"

In a reflex, he grabbed the crystal from his pocket and activated it with a tiny burst of monkey power.

It glowed red immediately, and a vision began playing before Ron's eyes. "I am sorry, Stoppable-san. As Yamanouchi students we are not allowed to take the burden from the monkey master, we can only aid him in his quest."

"Ron?" Kim asked as her boyfriend seemed completely phased out. "You okay? Our flight is boarding."

"Aw man…" Ron thought as he followed Kim into the plane. "Oh well, it would have been too easy anyway. Too bad I lost a try on that one, only four or five to go."

"Aw man," Ron muttered to himself as he paced around in his room. "Only two days to go, and only five more tries with the crystal… if I'm lucky. Who would be acceptable for the monkey powers?"

Then his phone rang. "What's up KP?" he asked as he saw the caller ID.

"We have a mission," Kim said. "Some new villain wannabe is setting up a mobile lair in the Northwest Territories and demanding that Canada hands them over to him."

"Okay…" Ron wasn't sure what to think of that. "What does he want to do with them?"

He could practically see his girlfriend shrug. "No idea, but GJ asked us to stop them… if you're up for it, with your other mission and all. I think I can handle it myself though. GJ already offered to send some of their more military agents to help out… and I heard Team Go is taking a vacation in Canada, so they might be of help as well."

"Of course, Hego!" Ron exclaimed. "Great idea, thank you so much."

"Uh, okay…" there was an awkward silence on Kim's side of the line, but Ron was too busy searching for the crystal to notice. "I'll see you in a day then."

"Will Hego be the right candidate?" Ron asked after he finally found the crystal; it had been in his other pants and suffered a ride in the washing machine. Ron hoped it was still working.

It was, and it glowed red immediately.

"Aw, why not?" Ron muttered, and he was rewarded with a new vision.

"I'm sorry Ron," Hego said, glowing two shades of blue, "this power is clearly meant for a hero like me so I can fight evil even better. I'm sure you understand."

Ron sighed as he put the crystal away. Only then he remembered Kim and the way he had treated her. "Oh no…" he ran to the phone, but it was silent, the connection long gone. He tried calling again, but got no connection "KP will be on the way to Canada already… some boyfriend I am."

He slumped down on his bed. "And it didn't even get me a good carrier for the monkey power."

The only thing he could do now was assemble something that explained how sorry he was when Kim came back from her mission.

When Kim returned the next morning by a tilt-rotor aircraft, she looked like she had had a wrestling match with Gill; she was completely covered with semi-dried mud and some sort of greenish slime.

Ron could only gape at her as the box of chocolates he had bought her dropped to the ground. "What happened?"

Kim sighed; she had hoped to sneak to the back of the house and hose most of the grime off with the garden house before taking a very long shower. It was still very early in the morning and she hadn't expected anyone to wait for her to return. "Hey Ron."

"What happened?" Ron asked again. "Did you… win?"

Kim grimaced. "Halfway there, we received word that Lieutenant Malevolent, as he called himself, had parked his mobile lair in a swamp. After that it was no longer an issue of stopping the bad guy, but rescuing him. The lair was already halfway down into the swamp by the time we got there."

"So you had to save the villain from drowning before he even did something to deserve the title," Ron concluded.

"I think the villain standards are getting lower," Kim commented wryly.

"But did you have to get down in the swap to rescue him?" Ron asked, gesturing at the mud that covered the redhead.

"Not only that," Kim said with a shudder, "he was very grateful we rescued him. Turns out he's a hugger… and he had been much deeper into the mud than we ever got."

"Ew," Ron couldn't suppress a shudder as well. "But they have showers in Canada, right?"

"Not at midnight, not near the swamp," Kim replied. "It was getting back like this or walking half a day to civilization. I was the first to get off the plane, the soldiers who helped were already arguing whether to commandeer the plane and fly it into a waterfall… the co-pilot was on their side."

Only then she noticed the chocolates. "Aw, that's so sweet… wait, you didn't even know what had happened."

"It's because I stood you up yesterday," Ron explained apologetically. "I was a bit too preoccupied with Sensei's task."

Kim smiled. "That's okay Ron, the mission was no big… except for the smelly part." She moved past her boyfriend. "Now if you excuse me, I want to see if dad still kept Jim and Tim's experiment that turned the garden hose into a water jet."

"Still no luck with your mission?" Kim asked later that day; she had finally managed to clean off and she and Ron were sitting in the living room, enjoying Ron's apology chocolates.

Ron sighed. "No… say, do you know some trustworthy people besides our direct family and friends?"

Kim frowned. "Okay… uhm, what about Dr. Freeman or Vivian Porter? They handled secret equipment pretty well… well, Vivian did, Dr. Freeman is a bit easily sidetracked."

"Maybe," Ron pondered.

"Does it have to be close by here?" Kim asked.

"No, but it would be preferable," Ron replied.

Kim tried to think of more people, but most of the trustworthy ones were already at least relatively close friends, so when Ron walked home he only had Dr. Porter to try on the crystal.

But it glowed red again, this time showing Ron a vision of him calling Vivian's house and getting the voicemail.

"This is Vivian Porter. I'm on an expedition to the North Pole to study the northern lights. I will not be at home for the next three months. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you when I get home."

"I wasted a charge on that?" Ron cried at the crystal. "I could have found out that myself by calling her. I've only got two or three charges left, I can't afford these jokes."

"Stoppable-san," A voice next to Ron suddenly called.

With a scream, Ron dove to the side, only to see an image of Sensei hovering over the sidewalk. "Don't ever do that again!"

"I am sorry, Stoppable-san," Sensei said. "However, I felt that you should know that due to the time difference between Yamanouchi and Middleton you only have until sunrise of the day after tomorrow."

"And then what happens?" Ron asked apprehensively.

"I do not know," Sensei admitted. "That never happened before. Although I have the feeling the consequences will be dire."

"Great." Ron slumped down on the sidewalk. "So I only have a day and a half left… wait, it already has been two days since you told me this. That doesn't add up."

Sensei's image shrugged. "You crossed the International Date Line, that earned you some time, use it wisely." And then he disappeared again.

Ron sighed again as he got up. "I'm not sure if having these monkey powers is really worth all this trouble."

"Think Ron, think," Ron muttered to himself as he paced through his room once again. "Who is trustworthy, not too careless and generally acceptable for the Monkey Powers?"

He glared at the crystal. "Why can't you just give me a vision of who I should pick?"

He sighed, as he knew the answer very well. "Because that would render this task obsolete."

"Ron," his mother called from downstairs. "Shouldn't you get some sleep, you have an early shift at Smarty Mart, right?"

"I'll go to bed in a minute," Ron called back, but suddenly an idea formed in his mind.

He looked at the crystal again. "Should I ask the crystal… maybe first try to figure it out myself, I can always ask to confirm later."

Slightly more confident, Ron went to sleep, hoping his new choice would work out.

"Stoppable, you're early," Mr. Barkin commented with a suspicious glare.

Ron shrugged. "You know me, the early bird gets the worm and all that…"

"That's not like you at all," Middleton's vice principal and Smarty Mart's trusted employee raised his eyebrow. "What are you up to Stoppable?"

"Nothing," Ron quickly replied. "I would just like to catch up before we get to work."

Mr. Barkin frowned one more time, but then shrugged and looked at the clock again; his shift started at 6:30 sharp and he didn't want to start a second later. He would have started sooner, but new job regulations prohibited that, much to his annoyance.

"So…" Ron began as he sat down next to the large man. "What would you do if you got some great superpower?"

"You mean, what did I do," Mr. Barkin corrected his former student.

He grinned proudly at the blonde's surprised expression. "Yes, back in the day, when I was still in the military, we had some 'accidents.' Can't talk too much about it, classified, but I got my taste of superpowers."

He sighed as he thought back. "Glad I'm rid of them though. They're fun for a while, but it's going to get you in the end."

Before Ron could reply, the clock shifted to 6:30 and Mr. Barkin stood up to face the working day. "Come on Stoppable, don't be lazy. You got here early, make something of the day."

Ron was about to comment that he was also already getting up to get to work, and that it wasn't even 15 seconds into their shift, but Mr. Barkin had already entered the building.

"It must be Mr. Barkin," Ron pondered as he turned the crystal in his hands during a break. "I may not like it, but he does things by the book, keeps his promises… if they are correctly formulated. And, most important, he isn't inclined to keep the powers."

But it was always safe to check. So Ron posed the question to the crystal.

As per usual, it turned red.

"Oh, no!" Mr. Barkin cried out. "You will not get me again with those powers. I will not go back to that place…" And then he jumped out the window and ran off.

Ron was so annoyed at that moment that he was temped to blow off steam by still posing the question to his former teacher.

After his Smarty Mart shift, Ron still had some time on his hands before Kim would be done with her shift at Club Banana. So he decided to take a light snack at Bueno Nacho.

"Problems?" Ned asked as he noticed Ron's smaller than usual order.

Ron nodded, but didn't go into it much further. "I just need to think for a bit, and I do that best with some proper food."

Ned shrugged and prepared Ron's order, after which the blonde sought out his and Kim's usual booth, even though it felt a bit empty without his girlfriend there as well.

As he toyed with his food, Ron watched as Ned helped some other costumers. Seemingly unfazed by their rude attitudes, he prepared their orders neatly and without nasty 'surprises.'

"Maybe Ned would be a good choice," Ron thought; Ned had managed Bueno Nacho extremely well for several years and had been a very faithful employee, not to mention that he had held on to Ron's multimillion-dollar check without taking anything from it – something no-one would have noticed given Ron's rate of spending the money.

"It's worth a shot." Ron picked up the crystal and asked it whether Ned would be appropriate.

For the first time since Ron had obtained the crystal, it behaved differently. It still glowed red, but the light was a lot less bright and it occasionally sputtered out.

It also took the vision a lot longer to appear; as if it were an old television that needed to warm up before it worked properly.

"MWAHAHAHAHA! You all thought I was just a low ranking fast food employee you could step on, didn't you?" Ned gloated as he shot one blue ray after another into a panicking crowd. "Well, no more. Now I have the power, and you will do as I say. HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Ron stared in shock at the crystal, and then at Ned, who looked back at him in confusion.

Ron moved slowly out of his booth and then very quickly made a beeline for the exit.

"Hey Ron," Kim said as she met up with her boyfriend outside the Middleton Mall and gave him a quick kiss. "Had a good shift?"

Ron shrugged after returning the gesture. "The usual."

Kim chuckled. "Ready for some Bueno Nacho?"

"Uhm…" to Kim's surprise, Ron suddenly got very nervous. "How about we try Cow an' Chow for a change? Or ride to Upperton to the Bueno Nacho?"

"Weirder than usual," Kim remarked, but then she shrugged. "We could also get an ice cream at the stand in the mall, since you already got your fill of Bueno Nacho. You thought I wouldn't notice, didn't you?" She added with a smirk.

Relieved that Kim's wrong guess gave him an out, Ron quickly admitted, "Yeah, I was hungry. Ice cream sounds good though."

Kim shook her head as they walked to the ice cream stand. "Sometimes I wonder where you stash it all away."

Ron tossed and turned in his bed; he only had hours to spare and he couldn't for the life of him think of anyone who would fill the criteria. And the fact that the crystal was practically out of charge wasn't helping either.

Finally, unable to sleep anyway, Ron decided to use the last few hours until the deadline to walk around town in hope that his luck would flare up and he would find someone suitable.

But for the rest of the night he had no such luck. The sun was almost up and Ron knew he was down to only minutes.

But then, silhouetted against the rising sun, he saw a lone figure; a thin, feminine form with relatively short, light colored hair.

"Is this the one?" Ron asked the crystal as he recognized the figure. Even though he knew the crystal was already tested beyond its capacity, he hoped it would give him at least some insight.

No red glow flared up, but it didn't matter anyway; Ron had to go with the person in front of him or face whatever consequence was in stock for him for failing the task.

He waved as he ran toward her. "Hey…"

A/N: Ok, this looks like a nice spot to cut the chapter off. More should be up soon. Don't forget to read the other contest entries as well.