Author's Notes: Sorry for taking so long for the second chapter. Tell me how you like it. Hopefully Chapter 3 will be out soon.

Open the Door Chapter 2: First Encounters

By

Darkcloud

The two friends should have made good time to the mansion where their "volunteer assignment was" but Ron had opted for a more leisurely route. This was for two very important reasons, first not thirty minutes ago he and his best friend since he could remember had both admitted that they may indeed have feelings for each other and second after having said realization Ron was rather enjoying having her arms wrapped around him. Kim didn't seem to object though she didn't really say much of anything since she was probably lost in the same kind of thoughts he was.

He took a road that seemed to leave Middleton proper and head toward a more woodsy rural area, after a few minutes of searching he found the drive that lead up to their final destination. Ron gasped when he saw the place, he had heard mansion but this building might better be described as a palace or a castle. Ron noticed that for the size and obvious wealth that went into the place it seemed rather run down, no he thought correcting himself it looked unkempt. Structurally it was fine but all the little details were left to time, windows were all in one piece but unclean, many covered in dirt, the walls didn't have noticeable damage buts vines and plants crawled unattended. The effect had spread to the surrounding grounds as well, everything that needed to be functional was, and anything else could rot. For Ron the overall effect was creepy and reminded him of several haunted houses he had been to.

Kim took it all in and then got off the moped and headed to a massive iron gate that blocked the way in.

Ron rolled his moped forward and stood beside Kim. He didn't see any intercom so he wondered jokingly if they were supposed to break in, they could but it seemed a little extreme. Ron put the moped on its stand and walked toward the gate looking to see if it would open. His hand was reaching forward as he heard a large creak and the gate opened seemingly of its own volition.

"I knew it! Haunted house!" Ron exclaimed turning to get on his moped and leave as fast as humanly possible...well as fast as his moped actually. Kim's hand stopped him from running, she had expected this. Ron had a bad haunted house issue once.

"Ron we can't leave. We're supposed to help whoever's in there, remember?"

"We were supposed to help someone living KP, whereas whoever has lived in this place has obviously passed away and joined the legions of the undead who roam the night looking for people to scare out of their minds, you can't help a ghost KP! "

Kim sighed and was going to respond when she felt a small tug on her pants leg. Glancing down she saw Rufus trying to get her attention the little guy wanted to show her something.

"Ron, just hold on a sec."

"No way KP! Hanging around a haunted house only invites trouble."

"So you're just going to leave me and Rufus here alone with the haunted house?" Kim said using one of her best puppy dog pouts and she was particularly proud of the slight quiver she put in her lip.

Ron looked down at the ground with a combination of guilt and annoyance. "I guess we could wait a few minutes." He whispered under his breath. "That is so unfair."

Kim turned away from her friend before a smile lit her face; she never really got tired of being able to do that. Well if they did end up together at least she would already know how to win a fight.

Rufus led the heroine to the gate and pulled at the bushes that covered the fence. Kim reached down to help him and after a moment found his discovery. There, hidden from sight was a small electric motor, it was obviously meant to be hidden from view and was well maintained to keep anyone from being able to hear it. So in Ron's defense someone did want to give this place a haunted vibe. Kim looked down at Rufus, "You have so earned yourself a naco later I would have never gotten him through the front gate!"

The mole rat nodded his head furiously in anticipation. "Naco!"

Kim turned toward Ron. "Ron, can you come here a sec?"

"Okay but I'm only coming under threat of the pout."

"Noted." The young sidekick walked slowly toward the gate as if he expected it to swing out towards him at any moment. In a moment he was able to see the machinery that let gate swing open.

"Well how was I supposed to know that?"

"Most people would assume that it was an electric gate."

"Like who?"

"Well me for one, oh and Rufus." The naked mole rat now perched on her shoulder nodded in agreement.

Kim backed off trying not to laugh; she turned and walked up the drive toward the main entrance. Ron ended up beside her as he walked his moped. She took his arm and leaned against him, Rufus took the opportunity to make his way from Kim's shoulder back to Ron's pocket.

"It's okay you know it got me for a moment too."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Ron parked his moped at the beginning of a small gravel path that led to the massive mahogany doors of the entrance.

In a repeat performance of the gates the doors opened on their own. This time something seemed more sinister to Kim, beyond the door was darkness, the difference in light was so bad that Kim felt like she was staring into a cave instead of a home.

Ron, however, due to his earlier experience of being fooled by the gate and since he wanted to prove to Kim that he was capable of being brave and taking the lead decided to walk right in. Later Ron would wonder why when you started to really like someone that you seem to lose all sense of reason and (well in this example) walk into a pitch black room.

But for now he just said, "Okay Ron Stoppable will not fall for the same trick twice!" He then proceeded to walk through the open doors.

Kim had been paying more attention to her surroundings than her friend and when he marched boldly in all her warning bells went off. Kim didn't want to wait for something to happen and hurried to her friend's side.

"Ron doesn't it seem odd that there's no light inside. There should at least be some just from the windows."

"Come on KP it's just whoever opened the gate trying to scare us again, we can take em!"

As if on cue from Ron's comment a slight noise drew Kim attention away from the conversation on the wisdom of walking into the beginning scene of a horror movie to the darkness above her. At first there was no movement in the shadows but without warning a small white object appeared descending rapidly toward them!

Kim reacted on instinct, not having any real time to judge what was happening. Ron had a look of surprise as Kim pushed her best friend as hard as possible away from danger. Kim used part of the momentum from the push to flip backwards in the opposite direction, Ron vanished in the shadows and Kim soon began to lose sight as the darkness swallowed her as well. A large sharp sound of wood hitting stone filled the room while Kim finished her flip and came up in a defensive stance.

An ancient staff had struck the ground where the two friends had just been. The wielder of the weapon was small, though from his build you could hardly call that a fault, and was garbed in a white variation of the classical ninja outfit. In fact considering he was now in the bright sunlight and Kim was the one in the shadows it was actually pretty hard to see him. But as far she could tell he had not moved from the position of the last blow, holding the staff firmly against the ground.

A moment passed and still he wasn't moving and even though Kim was worried that he was just waiting for her to drop her guard she risked looking for Ron, glancing past the ninja into the darkness beyond, Kim realized there was no way she could see if he was alright and no sounds reached her ear. Her heartbeat increased, she had no idea what she had pushed Ron into, he could be hurt, captured or need her help. Kim took a calming breath, she needed to focus, she couldn't help Ron until she dealt with her immediate problem and speaking of which...

The warrior shifted his body, moving from one position to another in a blink. He stood up straight to face her, his stance was more relaxed not to so much defensive as just waiting and he lightly held his bow with one hand under the crook of his arm. The ninja may have been shorter than Kim but the gaze he met her with was sure and confident. Kim didn't know what to think, he seemed to look at her with a mixture of surprise and curiosity but from his body language she had no way of knowing whether he actually wanted to fight or talk. He answered the debate with a clap of his hands.

Just in case you were wondering if it was in congratulations, it wasn't. Light flooded the room and momentarily blinded Kim; the teen hero relied on her instincts and brought up her arms in a block. Sadly, for Kim, she decided to block high but her opponent hit low and pain racked her stomach and lower ribs. She was surprised she was still standing but took advantage of the fact by rolling to the side away from her attacker trying to give herself some breathing room.

As she became aware of surroundings in the light the young woman was temporarily amazed at the sheer clutter that was around her, with the lights on she could tell she was in a huge entrance room but wall to wall and floor to ceiling was loaded with, well stuff, chairs, dressers, couches, and you get the idea. Kim didn't want to call it junk since most of what she could see wouldn't look out of place in an antique store. She ducked another blow and continued to flip and dodge while she tried to get a gauge on her opponent. He was quick, the way he liked to pause between movements made it difficult to judge his body language, the bow gave him a distinct advantage in reach and he had time to take swings at her at his leisure without having to worry about an immediate counter attack. Also to add a little insult to her mounting injuries Kim was pretty sure that the little guy was totally holding back. He countered her moves way too easily and when he landed a blow he could have hurt her but aside from a few bruises she was probably fine. This made Kim realize two things, one if he wanted to the ninja could end this fight at any time and second if she didn't find a way to stop this soon he probably would.

Kim went on the offensive with a series of kicks meant to do nothing more than keep her opponent interested, if she couldn't beat the little midget in a straight fight maybe she could stall him until she think of something clever. Kim ducked a blow to her head. Something clever. Right.

Kim found a temporary avenue of escape by leaping on pieces of stacked furniture onto the top of an old massive dresser cabinet. A swift kick toppled the path behind leaving her opponent without an immediate way to reach her. Kim looked around the room and finally saw Ron in near the opposite wall. He had fallen and was partially trapped under a pile of furniture and assorted odds and ends but appeared fine and was trying to escape his make shift prison. Kim worded a silent thank you and was able to finally focus entirely on her own fight.

Ron hadn't know what was going on, one moment him and KP had been doing the standard banter thing then she had pushed him as hard she could and she was a lot stronger than the average teenage girl. He had lost her in the darkness, tripping over something he couldn't see and he lost his balance and fell into a pile of something heavy. Some of it had must have fallen on him because he was pinned down and some sort of cord was tangled in his legs. After he had been trapped his first thoughts were of Kim he heard sounds that he was pretty sure was a fight but since he really couldn't see anything there was nothing he could do for her right now not until he was able to free himself. Ron's second thoughts were of Rufus.

"Hey Rufus you okay buddy?" Ron felt the naked mole rat climb out his pocket and made his way to Ron's face.

"I'm okay." The rodent said easing his friend's worries.

"Cool can you try and see what has my legs wrapped. We need to go help Kim; I think she's in trouble." Rufus nodded in agreement and scurried away.

It was only after making sure his friends were okay that he took the time to check on himself. He had experience and training for personal injuries and he didn't think he had any serious injury but he couldn't be sure until he was free and had some light. He struggled but without light he couldn't find a good position to get leverage.

A single booming clap echoed through the room and light flooded his surroundings allowing him to see. Ron wasn't happy with what he saw; first he was stuck under a pile of furniture though after seeing how he was pinned he was pretty sure he could get out once Rufus freed his legs. It was Kim who was worrying him. She was fighting with a shrunken ninja who was wielding a long bow almost twice as tall as he was and he was holding his own against her. Ron winced as the warrior landed another blow on his friend, scratch the last part, this guy was winning against Kim. That didn't happen often and especially with such seeming ease. He said a silent prayer under his breath for her to win and added in a wish for Rufus to hurry.

It hadn't taken long for the ninja too topple the cabinet but Kim was ready this time, she had been holding back worried about Ron, he was okay and she was pissed. Kim leapt from her high ground aiming a kick right at the little ninja. He blocked the attack with his bow; Kim bounced off the weapon and landed behind the ninja continuing her assault with a sweep kick. The ninja dodged the blow easily and came back with a series of strikes with his bow that forced Kim to move back.

A little luck struck her when she backed into a coat rack. It was old but like many of the items that surrounded her it was of high quality, plus the red wood was light and strong and could probably take a few hits. Finally armed with a suitable weapon Kim went back on the offensive, she launched an attack of her own. She swung the weapon from the right favoring a horizontal strike because of the makeshift weapon's imbalance. The ninja parried the blow and countered with a forward blow with the end of the Bo, he knew Kim would have a hard time pulling her weapon back for her own parry but was surprised when she did just that as she yanked the weapon back in an awkward but effective block. Each move and counter move started to become a kind of awkward dance as Kim began to get the feel of the pseudo weapon. In response her opponent increased his own attack and both opponents became lost in their attacks.

Ron was going insane he saw how well Kim was faring and couldn't do anything to help her. So much for being the professional distraction.

He felt the cords that bound his feet loosen before Rufus had a chance to say anything and he took a moment to stretch the cramps out of his legs before trying to push himself up. Rufus ran back into sight and gave him thumbs up.

"Thanks little buddy now we gotta go help Kim!" Rufus nodded in agreement and scampered back as Ron positioned himself to push. Pinned down with his legs wrapped Ron had not had the strength in order to get up now however with the cords broken he was able to lift himself up and push the furniture off.

Ron took an additional moment to stretch and make sure he didn't have any real injuries. He looked over and saw the ninja relentlessly attacking his friend.

"Come on Rufus," said Ron as he looked down at his little naked mole rat buddy, "It's time to introduce this guy to the Ron Factor of Team Possible!"

Rufus chirped with a hint of annoyance.

"Okay! And the Rufus Factor! Happy?" Rufus nodded and climbed up on Ron's shoulder making a menacing pose.

The sidekick rushed toward the battle noticing that Kim had armed herself and was managing much better but the ninja was still winning. Well with a timely distraction KP should be able to take him out.

Ron was almost there, running at full speed he leapt from a small stool into the air intent on tackling the ninja. He never turned or reacted to Ron's presence as came in for a landing that would make Steel Toe proud.

"Boo-Yah!" was his battle cry.

It was then that the ninja planted his Bo firmly into the ground and almost pole vaulted at Kim aiming a vicious kick, naturally Kim brought up the rack in a block, the ninja landed against the makeshift weapon and bounced away from Kim this time headed straight for Ron. He was still in the air and had no way to dodge as the small warrior landed a straight kick to his chest sending him flying away from the fight. Ron hurtled into a close armchair in a almost perfect sitting position, of course the force of the attack caused the chair to fall backwards leaving Ron staring at stars and ceiling. Had he been able to continue the fight Ron would have seen the ninja finish his blow in a landing that let him easily block Kim's "distraction" shot.

Poor Ron Kim thought as he landed, she could have told him the normal distraction bit wouldn't have worked; this guy was too good for something like that. At least she could tell he was okay he was already starting to get up. The distraction had unfortunately helped more than it had hurt, that kick she had blocked left her weapon with a long crack in the center and every blow and block was just a countdown until it shattered. The distraction had proven one thing to Kim, that whoever this guy was he had no intention of actually hurting them he was just good enough that it looked like he was, the warrior could have really hurt Ron but the kick had intentionally been aimed to take Ron out of the fight.

So what was this about? Kim was tired of fighting and was finished with games. Time for something clever. A plan formed in her mind and soon an opportunity arose to try it.

The ninja attacked with another forward thrust and Kim was ready, she blocked the attack but this time made sure his attack landed right on the crack in the wood. As the young hero had known it would the rack shattered into two pieces. With the top piece she used the hook on the rack to grab the Bo and with a twist of her wrist stripped the weapon from the ninja and sent it high into the air and with the bottom half aimed a strike at the now unguarded warrior. He had been taken completely by surprise and on a lesser opponent this would have been a victorious blow. But he wasn't and this was not her moment. At the last moment the ninja crouched and the rack passed harmlessly over him. He performed a sudden sweep kick that left Kim on her back, leaping into the air he grabbed the top part of the rack, Kim closed her eyes as the makeshift weapon came toward her face and...opened them when the blow never came. The broken coat rack was just an inch from her face but the ninja was just standing there calmly, he did hold his other hand out as the Bo fell neatly back in his grasp.

The warrior stood back and allowed the girl to stand up. After she was settled he calmly removed his mask and revealed a small, old, really old oriental face. He looked her over once or twice and then glanced at Ron now getting up and heading toward the now seemingly peaceful pair.

"Humph." he said with an old cracking voice dripping with sarcasm. I suppose you two are good enough to clean this place up."