one week earlier
The Possible household was bustling with activity. It was the weekend after Kim and Ron's high school graduation, and Mr. and Mrs. Dr. P. were busily finishing up the preparations for a celebratory barbecue. Mr. Dr. P. was outside grilling burgers and keeping the couple's twin boys far away from the lighter fluid while Mrs. Dr. P was sitting on a patio chair chatting with Ron Stoppable's parents. Ron and his perpetual naked mole rat companion Rufus were lounging close enough to Mr. Dr. P. to catch whiffs of the burgers as they cooked.
Just as Mr. Dr. P. was about to serve the burgers, the doorbell rang. Ron jumped up to answer it – it was Wade and his parents.
"Hey Wade, glad you could make it to Kim and Ron's graduation party," Mrs. Dr. P. said with a smile.
"Glad I could be here, Dr. Possible," Wade grinned. "Hey Ron, I got something for you!"
"Bon-diggety!" Ron opened the small box and found a wrist communicator nearly identical to the one Wade had given Kim during their senior year. "It's about time!" Ron complained.
"Hey, better late than never," Wade remarked, "And yours is equipped with tri-band technology, wireless internet, AND twelve kinds of tetris."
"Booyah!" Ron grinned.
As Ron was happily fiddling with his new Roncom, Mr. and Mrs. Dr. P exchanged semi-annoyed glances. "I thought Kim would be back by now," Mrs. Dr. P. said, glancing around the Possible backyard, offering apologetic looks to their guests.
"Seriously, how long does it take to drive to the grocery store and pick up a few bottles of ketchup?" Tim complained to everyone within earshot.
"Oh, no prob, I'll just call Kim on my new RonCom!" Ron happily started pressing buttons in no apparent order. "Hey, wait, no, I don't want to open a checking account today," Ron said impatiently into the RonCom.
Just then, a light from above blinded everyone momentarily.
Ron felt himself lose consciousness for what seemed to be a brief moment, but when he came to, he realized that he and everyone else at the barbecue had been bound with rope and immobilized on seats in a small aircraft. He glanced over and saw his parents and everyone else still unconscious.
A knot of fear twisted in his stomach when a slim woman about six feet tall wearing what looked to be an expensive parka and genuine leather pants approached him. Piloting the aircraft was a muscular middle-aged man wearing a gaudy but well-tailored business suite. Ron immediately recognized the duo as the latest supervillains that he and Kim had thwarted, not even a week ago.
"Ron Stoppable, so glad you've recovered," the woman spoke, leaning in his face. "Sally Gable," Ron sputtered, reeling in disgust, "Eww, get away from me. What do you want with us?"
"For starters," the woman replied, leaning back slightly, "where's your girlfriend?"
"Kim?" Ron caught himself almost saying "She's not my girlfriend!" but, his face breaking into a goofy grin, quickly remembered that he and Kim had been dating for over a year now. "Uh, I don't know. Why?" he replied.
"Oscar and I wanted a little, um, retribution, after what happened last week. Nobody foils us."
Ron nodded and babbled good-naturedly, "Yeah, understandable. But she can do anything, you know? And you guys busted out of high security prison and found where Kim's family lives in under a week? Wow, the villains really are getting more efficient…"
Sally cleared her throat loudly and turned her steely gaze back on Ron. "Where is she?" Suddenly, the tweebs, newly conscious and angry at being tied up, chimed in "We're not telling!"
"Oh, I think you'll have a change of heart," Sally grinned sadistically. With a grunt of effort, she threw open the plane's door, and strong currents whooshed into the cabin, stirring Wade and his parents into consciousness. Sally gazed between the tweebs and Ron and motioned to the door. "We'd like everyone to cooperate. We're currently at 13,000 feet, perfect for skydiving, if we had parachutes. But we don't, and we certainly wouldn't want anyone to fall out of the plane, would we?"
Ron gulped. The tweebs angrily struggled against their bonds. Wade, as he was recovering consciousness on the opposite side of the plane from Ron, tried to covertly motion to Ron to emergency contact button on the side of his new RonCom. Ron mouthed "What?" to Wade with little discretion, and Sally soon picked up on their attempted conversation and spotted the RonCom. She snapped it off Ron's wrist and flipped it open. Ron grinned nervously and lied "Hey, that's nothing but my new handheld console!" Sally frowned as she flipped the RonCom open and smartly pressed the button that would call Kim.
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Meanwhile, Kim was finally nearing the Possible house after being delayed at the grocery store when she had accidentally tripped into a would-be armed robber heading for the bank next door. Of course, being the cheerful, altruistic teen she was, she had had to stop the suspect with a few well-placed kicks and wait while the Middleton Police arrived and taken the suspect into custody. "No big," she thought to herself nonchalantly, "just another day in the life of Kim Possible. Sometimes I wish something interesting would happen to me once in a while."
Just then, her wrist Kimmunicator beeped. Wade had told her that he was going to surprise Ron with his very own wrist communicator that day, and Kim was expecting to hear from Ron right after he figured out how to use it (give or take a game of tetris). Kim paled slightly when she saw the face of the latest villain she put behind bars on the screen.
"Sally Gable," she said angrily, "Aren't you supposed to be in prison?"
"Well, the accommodations there left much to be desired, so Lutz decided to check out and go back to our place."
Kim reeled slightly. Wade hadn't told her about this. "What do you want? How did you get through to my Kimmunicator?'
"Oh Kim, I already have what I want, or rather, what you want," the villainess laughed, zooming the RonCom around the plane so that Kim could see that her family as well as Ron and Wade and their families had been captured.
Kim was normally calm under stress, but the control freak in her caused her cool to start unraveling at the sight of her loved ones in peril. She was about to threaten the villainess but realized the difficulties that would surely arise from planning and conducting a big rescue mission entirely on her own.
"Let me speak to Ron."
Ron's freckled face appeared on the screen. "Ron, how did you guys get captured? Is anyone hurt?"
Ron's usual goofy grin was nowhere to be seen. He looked scared. Well, that wasn't an unusual look for him, but given the situation, Kim's stomach twisted and a lump formed in her throat. By this time she had pulled her car over to the side of the road, her nerves too shot to drive as the situation unfolded.
"Um, well, there was this really bright light…we were all in your backyard. Then I woke up and I was on this plane…everyone else is slowly starting to come-to."
Sally, impatient at Ron's distracted banter, filled up the Kimmunicator's small screen once again. "They're all alright, at least for now. But if you don't cooperate," she said, panning the screen again to show all the captives, "they might find themselves having little accidents."
"What do you want, Sally?" Kim whispered, gritting her teeth.
"Oh, it's really quite simple. Just a few trifles. First, Lutz and I want amnesty in the United States. We don't want to be bothered by Global Justice or any other pesky 'law enforcement' agency as we go about our business."
Kim looked hesitant. "I can try asking them, but what if they refuse? It would be beyond my control."
"Well, I guess your friends and family will pay for their stubbornness," Sally replied nonchalantly, "Second, we want you to retire from your annoying crimefighting ways. And that also goes for your sidekick and your computer genius, as well as for other members of your family, if they get out of this alive. If I hear about you doing one more hero mission at any point in this process, it's all over for them," she said.
Kim shut her eyes, secretly vowing revenge on the villainess as soon as she got her loved ones out of this mess. "Alright, Sally, I accept your terms. I will contact Global Justice immediately and let you know what they decide. Please don't hurt anyone in the meantime."
As soon as Kim ended the conversation, she drove the remaining few blocks to the Possible house. She parked her car in front and cautiously entered her home. It was deserted. Kim hadn't felt this lonely or helpless in a long time. In the backyard lay the remnants of what had been a lively barbecue – the patio table was still set, the food was still lying out, and the grill's last coals were slowing burning out.
Kim ran up to her bedroom and collapsed on her bed. She permitted herself to release the lump in her throat. She couldn't remember the last time she had cried before this.
After a few minutes, Kim forced herself up and went to the bathroom to wash her face. When she returned to her room, she dug a small suitcase out of her closet and began packing. In went her battle suit, a mission suit, a few changes of clothes, and a few toiletries. Kim went to her desk and dug out her passport and her checking account documents. She made sure she had her wallet, cell phone, and keys in her purse. She abruptly left her room, lugging her suitcase in front of her, and walked out of the house, making sure to lock the door behind her. Leaving her suitcase in the trunk, she got into her car and sped away.
A/N – As always, reviews are welcome.
