Vacation Hell

by weirdbard

Ron, Kim and Shego are invited to a all expense paid trip curtesy of Global Justice under the guise of 'special training' to a tropical island. An island chosen by Ash Williams. What could go wrong? Part of my Trio world series where Kim, Ron and Shego are teammates as well as lovers. If this bothers you please do not read.

3. Chapter 3

Vacation Hell

Chapter 3

by Weirdbard

Many hours later on the pathway between trees with Du and his group:

Du with his obsession of being the number one agent of Global Justice maintained a rigorous exercise routine during his off hours and had no problems with the forced march and kept the pace grueling. To his surprise, Gloria was right by his side, even with the sleeping bag filled with water bottles on her back. While Gloria didn't have an exercise program like Du, her family had always been an active one that enjoyed sports and out door activities so during her off hours from Global Justice she spent long hours bike riding or running. Pat however was fresh from college and was more of a reader than a fitness buff. Sure she had Global Justice training and had surpassed all the minimum fitness requirements but a rapid walk bordering on a all out run in the middle of the night through a creepy woods on an island seemingly haunted by monsters would be a strain for anyone.

Stumbling on the uneven path she tiredly bumped into Gloria.

"Du." Gloria called out. "We need to take a rest break."

Du pulled to a halt and looked angrily at Gloria. He suspected it was for her benefit but he couldn't help but notice that Gloria wasn't even breathing heavily and seemed to be fine. It was when he glanced in Pat's direction that he understood why Gloria wanted to take a break. Pat was breathing heavily and sweating in the cool night air. As they stopped, Pat put her hands on her knees and bent over as she tried to catch her breath.

"We don't have time." He reminded Gloria. "You yourself said that it was vital that we reach the Director as quickly as possible so she can be warned."

"I know that Du. But it will not help us if we push too hard and Pat collapses completely."

"I'm...fine..." Pat wheezed.

"No, you are not." Gloria told her. "What if we were to be jumped by one of these mystery creatures while you are gasping for air? You would be a sitting duck."

"You would save me, wouldn't you?" Pat asked managing a weak smile at Gloria.

Du figured she meant because she was a junior agent and Gloria was her superior and it would be expected of her.

Gloria gave a smile to Pat and replied. "Of course I would..."

"But she shouldn't have to. You are Global Justice. If you can't handle the strain you shouldn't be Global Justice." Du told her sternly. He knew that Rens was attracted to him and his words would cut her deeply but GJ was no place for amateurs.

Gloria shot an angry look at Du and unrolling the sleeping bag she pulled out the bottles of water and sat down at the edge of the pathway, her back against a tree trunk. "Come here Pat." She told the woman.

"I'm good now. I've caught my breath. We can go."

"Pat. Now!"

Pat walked over to where Gloria was and when the older woman patted the sleeping bag, Pat had to admit she was grateful as she sank to her knees. Gloria reaching out pulled Pat by the shoulders until the woman was resting on her back on the sleeping bag with her head in Gloria's lap.

"We don't..." Du began until Gloria shot him a look that shut him up.

"If you don't wish to rest Du, may I suggest you do a short recon farther up the path? See if you can spot the house. Just don't get far enough away that you can't hear us if we call for help." Gloria stated taking his eyes off of Du and stared down at Pat in her lap. Pat had her eyes closed as was breathing deeply.

Du paced back and forth angrily for a moment before giving Gloria a curt nod and took off down the path.

Gloria waited a moment to make sure he was gone before reaching out a hand and tenderly brushing Pat's bangs from her face. "Are you okay Patty?" She asked softly.

"That is the first time you have used a nickname for me." Pat whispered back.

Gloria smiled. "I had planned on using a lot of pet names while we were on the beach but events changed that."

Pat opened her eyes to stare up hopefully. "We will have chances later for... That? Right?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't we?" Gloria asked confused.

"I was afraid that you might have lost interest in me since I'm being such a burden on our mission to reach the Director."

"Don't be silly. I'm not so fickle as to lose interest in a woman just because she gets tired from vigorous physical activity."

Pat breathed out. "I'm glad. I still want you so badly I ache but I'm so afraid that you are going to talk yourself out of this because of my age or my inexperience."

Gloria sighed. "I will admit that I've been thinking of all the reasons this might be a bad idea..."

Pat looked fearful.

"But you are just so damned cute." Gloria added and then bent her head down to kiss Pat lightly on the lips. "I ache for you too."

"Maybe we could...?" Pat started to say as she rose up to kiss Gloria only to freeze as they both heard Du running back down the pathway towards them. They both turned to look at Du as he arrived.

"I saw the house. The pathway doesn't go directly towards the house but continues off in that direction." Du said pointing back the way he just came. "We can cut cross country and cut hours off our journey and since our destination is not the house itself but only using it as a guiding point, we need all the time we can get."

Gloria frowned. "Why if the path was made to supply the house from the docks does it not cut cross country itself."

"How should I know?" Du countered. "Maybe the owner wanted it to take the scenic route? Being rich he wasn't going to be bringing in his own supplies but hire someone to do it for him so what did he care how long it took?"

"Or it might be there is some obstacle in a direct line of sight that they know about but we don't. I'm not sure its a good idea for us to traipse cross country only to find an obstacle and have to backtrack..."

"This is not up for debate." Du replied folding his arms angrily across his chest. "I am senior agent here and as I've stated over and over again, time is of the essence. Dr. Director must be warned of the dangers of this island and I will be the one to do it. Now get up and let's get going."

Pat looked to Gloria but Gloria just shrugged. "Maybe this will turn out all right." Under her breath she added. "But I have a bad feeling about this." Louder she said. "Lead the way senior agent Du."

Late in the afternoon: Somewhere on the island.

Gloria glared at the back of Du's head and not for the first time imagined how satisfying it would be to bash his head in with a rock. He had led them along the pathway to a break in the trees and Gloria had to admit that in the dark of the early morning it did look like a clear shot to the large house on the hill but as soon as they left the ease of the paved path and started cross country they found nothing but rocky crevasses, broken uneven ground and at one point a brier patch of thick thorns. Gloria had tried to insist they go around the patch but Du stubbornly refused to listen and had plunged straight ahead into it. Gloria either had to follow the senior agent or be left behind with Patricia. Insisting that the still exhausted Pat climb on her back, Gloria had taken a deep breath and followed behind Du. At least she had the satisfaction of knowing that Du got the worse of it as he blazed the trail.

Finally they reached an open spot in a dry wash gully that had a few old growth trees in them to provide shade.

Du at his own limits looked back and grunted at Gloria. "You look like you need to rest. We'll stop here." He couldn't resist adding. "You should really make Rens do her own walking but I suppose being a member of a large family you are used to giving piggyback rides."

Gloria carefully lowered Pat to the ground and made sure she was comfortable nestled in among the roots of a large tree and then turned to glance back at Du. "You forget that I was the youngest of my family. I didn't give piggyback rides, I was the one to get them." She said with a bittersweet smile at the memories. Pat leaning against the tree was breathing deeply and appeared to already drifting off to sleep.

"The quality of the agents they are recruiting these days. I need to have a word with Dr. Director about having our recruiters increase their standards." Du stated.

Gloria once again had violent thoughts about Du and rocks. "Du you can hardly blame Pat she didn't get any sleep last night and we have been on the march for hours."

"You are not having any problems."

"Trust me, I'm close to collapsing myself but I'm used to pushing past my limits when it calls for it." Gloria assured him as she sat down next to Pat.

Du allowed himself to slide down a tree a few yards across from them and gave Gloria a respectful look. "You are a much better agent than I gave you credit for." He felt compelled to tell her.

"Thank you." Gloria said simply. Closing her eyes she tried to rest without being pulled into sleep. Hearing snoring she opened her eyes to see Du slumped over at the base of his tree sound asleep. Gloria sighed deeply. With Du and Pat asleep that meant Gloria couldn't relax her guard. She was the only one left to be vigilant to insure their protection. As quietly as she could she leveraged herself up from the ground and forced herself to stand. Sitting would only be more conductive to pulling her into slumber.

She thought to herself that it was lucky that the creatures only seemed to appear at night so she should have little to worry abo...

A loud zipping noise in the sky above her caused her to glance up. What appeared was just that, a giant zipper in the sky could be seen slowly pulling down to reveal an impossibly bright neon blue sky beyond. Flying out of this surreal sky was what looked like a mutant wasp from Hell. The flying creature appeared huge in size and as it reached the unzipped hole and flew through it, it could be tell that it was even larger than Gloria had first estimated! The creature was almost as long as Gloria was tall with an at least six feet wingspan. It really was hard for Gloria to tell, as the wings were moving so fast they were barely seen. Hovering in the normal sky for a moment as if the wasp was trying to get its bearings, the black soulless eyes zeroed in on… The slumbering Pat and with wings beating a rhythm so fast it sounded like a chainsaw it shot towards the unconscious woman with its stinger poised to impale her.

"PAT!" Gloria screamed as she threw herself across the distance to seize a hold of the stinger and try to keep it away from the slumbering woman.

Gloria's hands locked around the stinger near its midway point, just above deadly looking blades on the shaft and close the body of the wasp. The hairs of the main body scrapping against her arm like steel wool as the creature madly beat its wings trying to force its stinger into Pat's body. To Gloria it was like grabbing hold of the horns of a charging bull and trying to force it to its knees.

Her biceps bulged as she strained with all her might to keep the thing from Pat. "Patty! Wake up! Oh God please wake up!" Gloria screamed as the buzzing of the wasp thrummed in her ears. The exhausted woman driven past her endurance however continued to sleep on.

"Du wake up!" Gloria screamed as loudly as she could, not daring to take her eyes off the wasp in her grasp to look in his direction. The flying horror was nearly as large as Gloria was and the shaft of the stinger was like she was gripping a baseball bat in her hands. She could see a sickly yellow fluid gathering at the tip and she had no doubts in her mind that the venom of this thing would be instantly fatal to Pat if the stinger landed home.

Gloria wrestling with the thing was able to maneuver the stinger away from Pat's chest but now it was pointed directly between the young woman's closed eyes… And with tiny jerks and spurts it was inching ever close to penetrating. "Pat I will have sex with you right this instant if you'll only wake up!" Gloria screamed.

Pat blinking slowly opened her eyes. She had been having the most wonderful dream where Gloria was screaming her name in ecstasy. She opened her eyes to see a nightmare flying directly in her face with what looked like a spear tip inches away from impaling her skull. She instinctively tried to roll right to get out of the way but the roots of the tree she had been lying against prevented her movement in that direction. Trying to turn left had the same results; the tree behind and to her sides hemming her in. Flattening herself against the bark behind her she finally managed to take her eyes off the stinger and look beyond it to the horror that was attached to. It was like looking at a giant wasp through magnifying glass right next to your eye. So terrifying was the image she was only dimly aware that Gloria was standing to the side of her holding the stinger off by only the force of her strength.

Focusing on Gloria, Pat noticed the straining biceps and forearms as Gloria struggled and three things shot through Pat's mind. One: Gloria for all her sculpted soft feminine beauty was apparently also as strong as an ox. Two: The sweaty straining Norwegian woman looked unbelievably sexy in that pose. Like some fantasy Norse Goddess come to life and three, Gloria was slowly losing the battle to fight the thing off by herself as the stinger neared ever closer to Pat's forehead.

"Patty! DUCK!" Gloria screamed as the wasp's wings suddenly went into hyperdrive. Trying to pull her head into her body at the same time as she scooted her butt down, Pat slide down the tree's base about a foot. Just enough that as the wasp shot forward, its stinger missed the top of her head by inches as the stinger plunged into the hard wood of the tree behind her. Almost instantly the tree behind Pat gave out a resounding groan, almost as if it was in pain as the wood turned black and the wasp's venom bubbled out from the impact point.

The wasp's wings moving so fast they were a blur stopped and reversed direction so quickly it was almost invisible to the human eye and Gloria found herself now fighting to keep the wasp from pulling free.

Gloria had no doubt that if the wasp managed to get out of her grasp, at the rate it was moving, it would be all over for all of them. It would simply be too fast for her to pull off another miracle grab like she had done at the start and get ahold of the stinger again before one, if not all of them were stung and killed by this nightmare.

The pushing of the stinger had been bad enough but now with the wasp pulling back against her, Gloria could feel the hard shaft of the stinger starting to slide in her hands and the razors on the end coming ever closer to her flesh. Even if the venom of the thing hadn't gotten on the blades, Gloria was positive they would still slice her flesh to shreds when they reached her hand.

"Du! Dr. Director demands to see you. Something about your dereliction of duty!" Gloria suddenly screamed as loud as she could.

Du, his eyes shooting open instantly at hearing his greatest nightmare come true, blinked and then rubbed his eyes at what he saw. Agent Passion was wrestling with a giant flying wasp thing while Rens crouched down and cowered against the tree she had been resting against. The image looked like the cover art on a heavy metal cd case.

With a mighty warrior yell, Du threw himself at the wasp to help Agent Passion in her struggle. Unfortunately, the antenna on the wasp flicked in his direction and as Du neared the wasp it altered the rhythm of its wings to lash out the nearest wing to Du, sending him flying back into the tree he had been lying against knocking him out cold.

"Arggggh!" Gloria roared in frustration at Du. However Du's attempt hadn't been totally useless. The distraction and change in the wasp's wings were enough of a break for Gloria to risk taking one of her hands off the shaft of the stinger. Raising her hand into the air she formed a fist and slammed it back down on the wasp's stinger near the base of its butt. The stinger gave a loud crack and the shaft broke off, leaving the stinger embedded in the tree's trunk.

The wasp no longer held back by its stinger flew backwards several feet until the wasp could regain control. With an angry buzzing the wasp flew at the two women again, its butt thrusting forward harmlessly as the wasp tried to sting with a stinger it no longer had.

As if realizing it had been neutered, in a manner of speaking, it began slashing at Gloria with its legs, three on each side of its body, the hairs on its legs slashed at Gloria shredding her clothing but miraculously missing scoring her flesh.

Gloria shielding Pat from the worse of the attack grabbed on to the stinger still embedded in the bark of the tree and with a mighty pull wrenched it from the wood and turning plunged the makeshift dagger into the wasp's torso.

With a screech so loud it caused both women to grab their ears in pain, the wasp flew backwards furiously as its legs tried in vain to grasp its own stinger and pull it out.

Again a loud zip noise was heard and Gloria wasn't surprised when she looked up to see the zipper in the air had reappeared and was open again. The wasp without hesitation flew into the opening. With another zip the zipper slid shut and faded away and was gone.

Gloria turning to check on Pat stumbled in pure exhaustion and slumped down until her forehead was resting against Pat's. "Next time we go camping, remind me to bring some bug spray." She muttered to her.

Pat opened her mouth to reply when both women heard a loud cracking groaning noise. They both craned their necks to look up at the tree behind Pat. They could see the bark was black and rotting where the wasp's stinger had hit and as they watched more of the wood seemed to melt away from the impact point and with loud and long cracking noise the tree began to lean in their direction.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me." Gloria growled in frustration as she reached down and wrapping an arm around Pat's waist she threw both of them to the side as the tree crashed down into the space they both had occupied mere seconds ago.

When Gloria had thrown herself sideways she had pulled Pat along and as she rolled to a rest, she was lying on her back on the rocky ground with Pat once again straddling her.

Pat stared at her in shock for but a moment before frantically moving her hands touching Gloria seemingly everywhere. "Did it sting you?!" Pat nearly cried. "Are you okay? Did it manage to cut you?"

"I'm fine! I'm fine." Gloria reassured her. "I just can't move."

"What?! Are you paralyzed?" Pat screamed nearly hysterical.

"Pat calm down! I told you I'm fine. I can't move because I'm exhausted and it helps that you are sitting on my stomach and have my arms pinned."

Pat stopped her frantic searching of Gloria's body and stared at her for a moment. And then with tears in her eyes she glomped onto Gloria with a deathgrip. "You saved my life!" She sobbed.

Gloria weakly freed her arm and began rubbing Pat's back. "Its okay. Its okay baby, we're fine." Gloria repeated over and over.

"You almost died saving me." Pat continued to sob.

"But I didn't. I'm fine. Tired beyond belief but fine and so are you. That's all that matters." Gloria told her.

With a groan, Du roused himself yet again and struggled to stand up. A bruise across his face showed where the wasp's wing had slammed into him and his whole face ached. Looking around Du tried to spot the wasp but there was no sign of it any more. Spying Agent Rens sitting on top of a downed Gloria he staggered his way over. "What happened? Where is that thing?"

"It's gone." Gloria told him.

"Ah, I managed to scare it off." Du mused out loud to himself.

Pat's eyes growing wide in disbelief as well as near rage managed to squeak out. "You..."

"Were very brave Agent Du. Thank you for your help." Gloria quickly rushed to fill in Pat's pause.

"It is why I'm the number one agent of Global Justice." Du replied modestly.

"You...You..." Pat stuttered in her anger as she rose off of Gloria so she could stand almost nose-to-nose with Du.

"You do not need to thank me as well. It is my job and pleasure to have rescued you." Du told her enjoying the fire in her eyes, which he interpreted as being hero worship on her part.

"Paaat." Gloria slurred as she tried to rise to keep the young woman from endangering her career by attacking the senior agent Du before falling back to the earth.

"No Gloria. This needs to be said!" Pat growled and then did a double take as she glanced at Gloria to see her lying flat on the sandy soil with her eyes closed. "Gloria? Gloria!" Pat screamed and rushed to her side and pressed her head between Gloria's breasts.

"What are you doing?" Du asked confused.

"I'm trying to see if she has a heartbeat!"

Du walked over and picked up Gloria's right wrist and held it with a two fingers over a pulse point. "She's fine. She must have passed out from the stress and exhaustion. You really can't expect anything else from a non-field agent. Just take a bottle of water and splash it on her face so we can be on our way. Our mission is still to alert Dr. Director of the danger of this island or to come to her rescue if these things have attacked her already."

Pat her voice barely in control hissed at Du. "You drank the last bottle of water before the briar patch earlier, if you remember."

Du blinked. "Oh that's right. Well I'll just have to lightly slap her to get her to come to her senses." He said moving his hand from her wrist and pulling back to slap her.

"Don't...You...Dare...Touch...Her." Pat told him in a no nonsense voice.

Du found himself quickly standing back up and backing a few feet away from Passion and Rens. "Well what are you going to do? Just leave her lying out her in the sun till she wakes up?"

Pat blinked. Du did have a point, at least on that issue. "No, we're going to pick up Gloria and drag her somewhere there is a shade and let the poor woman rest for a while. There is no way she can go on till she has had some rest. And I don't know about you but I could use some more rest as well."

"We don't have time..." Du started again.

"We don't have a choice!" Pat yelled at him.

Without a word Du walked over to Gloria's side, all the while under Pat's scrutiny. If he even gave the slightest indication he planned on slapping Gloria, Pat planned to do everything in her power to beat him to a pulp. Du being a highly trained senior agent, Pat doubted she would win the fight but she would try her best.

Du however only took Gloria's arm and pulled her up into a sitting position and wrapped her arm around his shoulders so he could stand up and lift Gloria with him. Pat quickly rushed to Gloria's other side and mirrored his actions. Even though it was neither the time nor the pace for such things, Du couldn't help but notice Passion's breasts as his face was within scant inches of them. Her blouse had been shredded with her fight with the wasp and a side view of her right breast was almost at eye level with the man. Even Du with his control might have taken a moment to enjoy the view if it were not for the eagle eye watching of agent Rens. Between the two of them they managed to get the unconscious woman to her feet and began dragging her towards the rocky hills looking for a shade.

Pat on the other side of Gloria was having her own hard time ignoring the closeness of Gloria's body as she helped Du to drag/carry the taller woman. Every once in while she would take her eyes off the path they had chosen to glare at Du as if daring him to try and take advantage of Gloria's state while she was there to protect her.

Finally they both spied a small cave set into the rocky wall of the hill and while Pat balanced Gloria by herself, Du went over to make sure the cave was empty of any inhabitants. He eventually returned to Pat and told her that the cave was empty and large enough they all could get in out of the sun and rest.

Dragging Gloria inside, Pat found that the cave was surprisingly large and extended quite a bit into the hillside. There was water dripping from the ceiling making the cave cool as well as supplying water in a small pool. Du helped her to lower Gloria next to the pool of water. "Do you think the water is safe to drink?" Pat asked Du.

Du studied the ceiling for a moment. "We're far enough from the ocean for this water to only be rainwater that must collect above us somewhere and then filter down to this cave." He reached out a hand to the precious fluid and scooping most of up out of the pool he slurped it. Pat was about to chew him out for drinking before they could give Gloria any of the water but was stopped as Du said. "Wait five minutes and if I show no sign of getting ill, then the water is probably safe to give Agent Passion."

"But what if the water is poisonous?" Pat asked actually concerned for Du for a moment.

"I drank so little even if it is, it shouldn't do more than make me slightly ill." Du assured her.

Du walked the several yards back to the cave entrance and peered out.

Pat taking a piece of Gloria's ripped up clothing carefully soaked the material in the water from the pool and washed Gloria's face and arms where they were dirtied from her fight with the wasp. Making sure that Du wasn't looking, Pat then raised the torn material away from Gloria's chest so she could wash there as well.

"Why am I always waking up to you trying to feel me up?" Gloria suddenly said startling Pat.

"I'm not feeling you up." Pat replied in a whisper to Gloria, whom still had her eyes closed. "I'm just trying to clean you up a bit."

"If you are preparing me for burial... I'm not dead yet." Gloria said with a smile to show she was joking as she opened her eyes to look at Pat.

"Please don't joke about that." Pat said with tears once again threatening to appear in her eyes.

"Shhh. Shhh." Gloria said as she struggled to sit up and take the younger woman in her arms. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"You almost died." Pat choked out. "I was right there and unable to help you. You could have died right there in front of me while I was... Useless."

"We were caught off guard. There was nothing you could do. You are not useless." Gloria assured her vehemently. "Although speaking of useless... Where is Du?"

"He's over..." Pat stopped as she saw Du slumped against the wall of the cave near the entrance. "Oh god. The water must have been poisonous." She said frantically and leaving Gloria weakly lying on the ground she raced over to check Du. As she reached out a hand to check to see if the man still had a pulse he suddenly... Snored.

"Sound asleep? Again?!" Pat nearly screamed in annoyance at Du. She hauled back her foot to give him a swift kick.

"Pat! Don't!" Gloria called out drawing her attention to her as Gloria struggled to rise to stop her.

Forgetting instantly the slumbering Du, Pat raced back to her side.

"Du is as exhausted as we are and we're probably safe in this cave. Let him sleep."

Pat nodded her head. "And as long as he is asleep we don't have to listen to him."

Gloria laughed and it was music to Pat's ears.

Cupping her hands Pat got a handful of water and brought it to Gloria's lips. As Gloria finished drinking, Pat made to stand up but was halted as Gloria caught her hand. "I need to keep watch." Pat tried to say as Gloria started to pull her down next to her.

"Anything coming into the cave will stumble over Du first. Lie down here beside me and rest." Gloria ordered her.

"I should..."

"Please?" Gloria interrupted her. "I would rest easier knowing you were by my side safe."

Pat sighed and easing herself next to Gloria she rested her head on Gloria's shoulder and was out almost instantly as Gloria gently stroked her hair. Gloria nuzzled the top of Pat's head. "Been one hell of a vacation so far hasn't it Patty?" She asked softly, careful not to wake the exhausted woman before closing her own eyes and slipping into slumber as well. She knew the island had no reported snakes or spiders so she was reasonably confident that the cave was safe.

Mid-morning, the same day at the campsite of Ron, Shego and Kim.

Kim crawled out of the tent and winced. She was sore but also very happy and content. Shego's love making had been rather frantic as she worked out her fear of almost losing Ron but eventually it burned out to cozy snuggling and then a very pleasant sleep. Kim woke herself before her companions because she wanted to do something about the shark on the beach. By herself she might have a hard time moving it but she wanted the reminder of yesterday's incident to be gone before Shego got up. Kim blinked as she looked to where the shark... Had been. There was now empty beach. Surely the shark was far enough up on the beach that the tide hadn't come in and reclaimed the monster so where was the body? Kim was positive that she was the first to get up so Shego or Ron didn't move it.

Kim looked to Rufus's tiny beach house but then mentally shook her head at herself. There was no way, even with Mystical Monkey Power that Rufus could have moved the body by himself. Still... Maybe he knew what had happened to it?

Taking a fingertip Kim knocked on the tiny door of the house. After a moment the door opened to reveal a blinking sleepy looking mole rat. While Rufus was energetic enough on missions with Ron, Shego and her, when there was down time the mole rat acted more like his species and spent great amount of time asleep. And this was obviously one of those times. Kim must have woken him up. Kim tried anyway. "Rufus? Do you know what happened to the shark's body?"

Rufus blinked at her a few times and then looked to the beach area where the shark had been. Rubbing his tiny eyes he looked again. Now wide-awake, he scampered down the pole his house was on and across the sand with Kim at his heels. Looking at the empty sand he looked up at her. "Gone?" He asked.

Kim nodded. "But how? I know Ron or Shego didn't move it and I didn't and if you didn't..."

Rufus examined the sand. There were the drag marks where Ron had dragged the shark down the beach and a depression in the sand where the shark had lain and towards the ocean there were several deep marks in the sand as if there had been hoses or maybe cables leading into the surf but they ended a few feet from where the shark had been. Rufus called Kim's attention to the marks anyway.

"Rope or cables?" Kim asked after seeing the marks. "But if they are, who tied them to the shark and why isn't there drag marks in the sand where the shark was pulled into the ocean and why do the cable marks end before the depression where the shark had been?"

Rufus scratched his head. "Tentacles?" He asked.

Kim blinked and her eyes grew wide as she considered the suggestion. "Tentacles from what? And if some giant sea creature decided to take the shark's body to snack on... The thing would have to be hideously strong to deadlift the shark up off the sand and carry it into the surf without leaving any other marks than these two lines in the sand."

Deciding this was important enough to wake her two lovers, Kim raced back to the tent and woke them.

"This better be good Princess. I was having the best sleep of my life." Shego's frown turned into a smirk. "Unless of course the reason you woke us is because you are ready for another round?" She asked waggling her eyebrows at Kim.

Ron groaned at Shego's seemingly never ending lust but then frowned when he noticed the serious expression on Kim's face. She looked worried and kept glancing back at the beach where they had left the shark. Ron hoped the body hadn't attracted crabs and other scavengers. He cocked his head when he failed to notice any seagulls in the skies above that area of the beach. Surely a dead shark would have attracted them?

Like most all islands and coastal regions there were seagulls around. Ron had spotted them when they had landed on the beach on the first day but now everything seemed deathly silent.

"Kim what is it?" He asked. Shego noticing his serious face and Kim's worried one dropped her flirting and looked around. Finally noticing where Kim seemed to be concentrated on, she headed over the slight rise in the sand near the campsite that partially hid that region and blinked when she noticed the shark was gone. She then looked in amazement to Kim Possible. "You moved that body all by yourself Princess? I'm surprised that sucker must have weighed a ton."

"No, I didn't move the body. That is what has me concerned."

Shego frowned and then glanced at Rufus who was on the sand next to Kim's foot. She too mentally shook her head at the idea that Rufus could move the shark… Unless Rufus had learned a Yoda trick and moved it with the power of his mind but she had not seen Ron or Rufus do that stunt yet and her own mystic monkey guide she inherited when she gained a piece of Ron's power hadn't mentioned that was possible. Course her guide usually only wanted to talk about Shego conquering her fear and anger problems most of the time.

"Rufus found two long drag marks that lead into the surf but they stop a few feet shy of where the shark was lying."

"Giant squid swimming by decided to grab a snack?" Shego asked, surprising Kim by the fact her mind went first to the same place as Rufus had. Was giant squids stealing things off a beach a thing and she just didn't know it?

Ron was already shaking his head. "Anything large enough to manage that feat wouldn't come in this close to the beach. Giant squids do exist but they stay in the deepest parts of the ocean and almost never venture to the surface. And squids don't have bones in their tentacles. They are all air sacks and mostly jellyfish like stuff."

Shego looked at him in wonder. "About sharks he knows nothing but squids he's an encyclopedia?"

Ron looked at her ruefully. "I stayed for a short time in Japan, remember? I was fed fried squid, boiled squid, diced squid. Course they were all the smaller cousins of the giants but pretty sure they have the same internal makeup."

"Octopus then?"

"Pretty sure they are very similar to squids. I mean if you get into their tentacles you are in big trouble cause even without bones they can crush you like a snake can but weight lifting on that scale? I really doubt they could pull that off."

While they were talking, Rufus ventured near the surf. Shego seeing this freaked out and ran down and grabbed the little guy up. "Rufus please! Not when there is a chance of something out there. It might decide it want's a naked mole rat dessert to go with its shark steaks." She turned to walk back to the others when she spotted Ron with his eyes glowing blue scanning the beach, surf and even inland to the island.

"Sense anything?" She asked feeling a moment of déjà vu remembering asking Rufus the same question a couple of nights ago.

Ron slowly shook his head. "No…But then also yes?" He asked uncertainly.

"Well thanks for clearing that up. What do you mean yes and no?"

"There is definitely nothing odd out there right now but it's almost like…" Ron trailed off as he tried to explain the sensation he was getting. "Like you are walking near a Bueno Nacho after someone has briefly opened the door inside. You can smell the faint traces of Mexican food lingering in the air but so faint that if you didn't know where it came from it might confuse you?"

"Trust Ron to compare a unexplained incident using food." Kim said but with a smile.

"Hey I use what I know." Ron replied with also a smile before going serious again. "What I'm saying is there is nothing on the island right at his moment but there is still a sense of something off." Ron frowned as he strained his powers to the limit. "My mystical monkey power doesn't know what to make of it. There is something strange going on but so outside of anything the power has come across, the best it can do is say that something is not quite right."

"Should we call Dr. Director and tell her?" Kim asked.

"And say what? That something stole a dead shark that we didn't want in the first place?" Shego asked.

"I'm more concerned with the fact that it was something large and powerful enough to do that and the four of us sleeping nearby didn't hear or notice a thing." Kim replied.

Shego nodded. "Yeah that is troubling." She agreed. "And I want to move the tent a little farther inland away from the water just in case but still we have nothing hard fact based. Just a missing Jaws."

"We could call Du and Gloria and check on them?" Ron asked.

"Dr. Director would detect the radio message and wonder what's going on and think it might be something we can't handle on our own." Kim sated folding her arms across her chest. She hated anyone thinking she couldn't handle something. Her competitive streak was something her mystic guide was trying to help her overcome.

Shego didn't care about that but she said anyway. "And I personally would hate to ruin whatever headway Gloria has made on teaching Du to be more human. If he even thinks there is a mystery or mission here, he would be ordering her and that Rens girl all over the place like a commando once again."

Ron frowned but then nodded his head. "Okay. We all just stay away from the water for a while and keep our eyes and ears open for anything odd going on and try to enjoy the rest of our stay. Anything else weird happens we'll contact the Director or at least Gloria."

Shego, Kim and Rufus nodded their heads.

"So what we do today?" Kim asked as they headed back to the campsite area.

Shego smirked.

"Oh come on Shego. Don't you ever get tired?"

"Of you two?" She cooed. "I'll never have my fill of you two."

"But…But… Breakfast?" Ron said.

Shego paused. "Breakfast would be good. Breakfast is useful. It gives you energy."

"And I was thinking afterwards we could…" Ron continued.

Shego smirking got larger. "Yes?"

"Practice meditating and getting in touch with our mystical monkey guides." Ron finished.

Shego grin turned sour. The last thing she wanted to do was mediate and get in touch with her monkey teacher. It would probably grouch at her for being a nymphomaniac on this trip and tell her she needs to control her body urges in favor or her mind or some such high sounding mystic garbage which basically just meant being a killjoy cause the monkey in her mind was a stick in the mud.

But… Maybe a break was in order and she really should learn to master her own mystic monkey powers a little more. It was something she shared with Ron and Kim and Shego really didn't want to be the weak link on that account. "Okay Ron, we'll do the meditation thing…"

Ron grinned in victory. "But only if afterwards you and Kimmie show me how well you have progressed in mastering my meteor powers. I expect to see big hot balls and high accuracy later." Shego added.

"Isn't that exactly what you told Ron last night in the tent?" Kim asked much too innocently.

Shego stared at her in shock for a second. "Funny Princess funny." Shego then took several quick steps to bring her up behind Kim and goosed her on the butt to watch her jump. The two women ran back to the tent giggling while Ron brought up the rear. He turned on top of the sand dune rise and looked back at the beach in concern but eventually shrugged and continued on.

In the cave with Gloria, Pat and Du. Near nightfall.

Du woke with a snort and looked around to see if the others had spotted him napping. Fortunately agent Rens and agent Passion were farther back in the cave and probably could not see his carefully picked strategic location near the cave's entrance.

Du frowned as he looked out the cave and saw that it was starting to get dark. The Director's life could be in danger and Du had, out of the goodness of his heart, allowed a junior agent to talk him into taking an extended break so they could rest. He was allowing himself to get too soft on the female members of his team. Sure he could be forgiven for being so lenient with them. They were after all only females and certainly not up to his standards when it came to dedication to duty. Although… Du had to mentally admit that Passion was proving to be quite a dependable agent. After all she did protect Rens from that wasp thing until Du was able to spring into action and scare it off.

Du frowned as he rubbed his still sore jaw. He just wished he could remember how he scared it off and where it went? Things were still a bit blurry on that part. He remembered leaping at the creature to save Passion and Rens from it and one of its wings twitching but that was all. Oh well, he could always sneak a peek at the reports filed by Rens and Passion when they got back to Global Justice to read how magnificent he had been.

Crossing to the back of the cave Du had to strain his eyes in the deepening gloom to make out the two bodies of Rens and Passion. Rens appeared to have her head resting on Passion's shoulder sleeping while Passion had her arm under Ren's back with her hand resting on her hip.

Du frowned as he tried to make sense of the image.

"Ah. I get it." He thought to himself. "Strange I didn't see it before. Rens must have been checking on Passion when her exhaustion caught up to her and she just passed out and landed on her shoulder. Passion always being a hugger and probably asleep herself must have just pulled her into a hug unconsciously." Du decided. Taking his shoe he lightly prodded Passion.

Gloria woke instantly and blinking in the gloom looked up and recognized Du. "How long have we slept?" She asked.

"Six, maybe seven hours. Entirely too long." Du stated as if it was all her fault. "The day is almost over with and we'll have to risk traveling by night now to reach Dr. Director in time to warn her."

Gloria frowned. Traveling by night on an island they didn't know the geography of, while trying to keep an eye on a house on a hill as a landmark had already proven to be a recipe for disaster but she couldn't argue either. Time was of the essence and at least they all had a decent amount of sleep this time and would be fresh.

"Okay Du. Let me wake Pat up and we'll be on our way."

Du frowned in the darkness. "I wish you would call her agent Rens. The nature of our mission has changed and it would only be proper to use correct procedures."

Gloria gave a shrug that was missed by Du in the gloom. "Agent Rens doesn't mind me using her first name. She likes it as a matter of fact and I fail to see why using her last name is such an issue."

Du frowned sourly. "I will go outside the cave and determine our next course while you wake junior agent Rens."

As Du stomped away Gloria rolled her eyes. Turning her attention to Pat she nudged her with her free hand gently. "Come on Patty, its time to wake up…" Gloria's eyes widen as she realized something. "And take your hand off my breast."

Pat woke with a start and instinctively pulled her left hand that had somehow found its way through the ripped material of Gloria's blouse to rest on Gloria's right breast. Blinking in the darkness she could just see Gloria's face. Pat frowned and looked like she was about to cry. "Damn it. I got a chance to cop a feel and I did it while I was asleep and couldn't enjoy it? That's not fair!"

Gloria laughed at the pouting Pat and getting up she helped the younger woman to her feet. "I promise once we get out of this predicament there will be other chances for you to feel me up."

Pat almost skipped along behind her as Gloria made her way to the cave entrance. "That was a promise! You promised me!"

Gloria laughed again. "Yes I did."

"Promise her what?" Du asked stepping into the cave entrance.

"That I would get to feel…" Pat slapped a hand over her mouth.

"I promised her that when we get back home I would buy her a large ice cream sundae. She woke up dreaming about them." Gloria covered.

Du frowned. "But she said feel? How does one feel a sundae?"

"Oh that?" Gloria said without any hesitation. "She was also complaining about the hard rocky surface we had to sleep on, so I promised her that soon she would be back to feeling a soft down mattress."

Du rolled his eyes. "Far too weak agents these days." In a huff he started scrambling up the slope of the hill.

Pat waited till he was far enough away that he wouldn't hear them. "Gloria? I don't own a down mattress."

Gloria smiled at her. "No… But I do." She said with a wink and started climbing up after Du.

Pat stood their blankly for a moment before she got the message and a smile brighter than the moon above them shone on her face as she turned and began scrambling up the slope after Gloria. She was going to reach her side and go up with her but staring upwards at Gloria's butt as it swayed gently as she climbed, she decided she liked where she was perfectly fine.

Many hours later:

"So much for being well rested." Gloria thought to herself as she panted as Du paused to get a final visual on the house on the hill in the dark. As soon as they had crested the hill/mountain that their cave had been in and Du caught sight of the large house he set a straight as an arrow course towards it. Which meant more hidden drop-offs in the dark and one more briar patch that he insisted in bulling straight through again. Gloria had several scratches on her legs and if they got infected she was going to beat the daylights out of the obstinate agent Du. Sure it was fine for him as he had on long durable pants but Gloria and Pat were wearing what they had been when they tried to sneak out to the beach the night before. Sweat pants and sweat shirt for Pat and sweat pants and a blouse for Gloria. Well now Gloria blouse was nearly shredded off her body and her sweats had long tears from the briars. Pat was fairing a bit better since Gloria insisted on carrying her on her back through the obstacle course Du seemed content to force them into.

A breeze blew through the tears in her blouse and Gloria was glad that it was warmer inland once they got away from the coast but it was still a bit chilly. Fortunately Gloria hadn't lied to Pat on the first night on the island when she told her that the cold didn't bother her much.

"We are almost there." Du called out. "Just over the next rise we should see the house proper."

Gloria resisted the urge to roll her eyes. He had been saying that for the last five hours and three drop-offs and the before mentioned briar patch. Reaching his side Gloria could see a stand of trees in front of them and could hear Du's own defeated sigh.

Looking around though, Gloria decided there was something different about these trees than some of the other ones they had wandered through earlier in the day. These trees had no undergrowth and seemed to be trimmed and cared for. Indeed the place had an almost park like feeling to it. Peering through the moonlit trees Gloria spotted an old friend she thought she would never see again, the paved path from the beach. Not more than a dozen yards from them the path emerged and weaved around some trees before making a curve around a closely grouped set of trees.

"Come on Du. I think we are closer to the house than we think we are." She pointed at the pathway Du had missed. Letting Pat down from her back Gloria led the way for a change to the path. All three were glad to once again have the comforting solid and mercifully flat and even path under their feet. Getting around the stand of trees they saw the forest end to a manicured lawn leading up to a large imposing manor house looking like a cross between a castle and country estate.

"Do you think the house might have a radio in it where we can contact Dr. Director?" Pat asked as Du started to lead them past the building. Du pulled to a stop and turning he stared at Rens for a moment. "That… Is not a bad idea. Technically Global Justice leased the entire island and that includes the house, we were just not going to use it because Dr. Director thought a camping trip would be more useful for mission operations. It wouldn't hurt to examine the house in any case."

As Du reached for the front door Gloria shook her head. "Door is bound to be locked, Dr. Director didn't bother to get the keys cause she wanted us to 'rough' it this trip."

Du's hand closed on the door and sure enough it was locked tight.

"We could break a window and get in." Pat tried. "I mean this is an emergency and Global Justice could pay the damages after we get off this island, right?"

Du nodded his head but once again Gloria was shaking hers. "Have you really looked at this building yet? There are windows at ground level but they are tiny and designed to look like arrow slits in a castle. Even if we could break the glass, there is no way any of us could skinny through the openings." Gloria examined the building by the moonlight. As she said all the windows on the ground floor were tiny thin slits with glass. Break the glass and you would still only have about enough room to get an arm through and that would be all. "Pity Ronnie and his group aren't here with us."

"Why?" Du demanded. "Does agent Stoppable have some way to stretch himself so he could make it through those tiny slits?"

"No, but he does have Rufus with him and Rufus could easily slip through the openings and probably be able to unlock the door from the inside."

Du gave a sour frown. "He had forgotten for a moment that the rat was with Stoppable's group."

"We could pick the lock on the door?" Pat asked.

Unconsciously both glanced at Gloria to gauge her reaction. Gloria again shook her head. "I don't know about Du but I don't even have a pocket knife on me or a wire. What would we use to pick the lock?" Gloria suddenly looked hopeful. "What about the plastic on the water bottles? It will be tough to break a piece off by bending the plastic back and forth until it breaks but still that is better than passing the house by without even trying. With a good piece of plastic I might be able to pick the lock."

It was now Du's turn to shake his head. "I threw the bottles away after we were done using them. I even took the ones out of your sleeping bag that you were carrying when we dragged you to the cave. I have no idea why you were saving them."

Gloria shot him a disgusted look. "For one thing it's not nice to litter an island that doesn't belong to us and secondly if we found a stream of water how would we carry the water away without bottles?" Gloria felt like banging her head against the solid rock walls of the house. How in the world did Du keep his number one status as an agent when he couldn't even think long term enough to realize that bottles could be useful even when they are empty of their original contents? In a long-term survival situation you throw nothing away cause you don't know when it might be useful. Even a foil candy bar wrapper could be used to signal with reflected sunlight if you had to. And the very fact he was so casual about littering someone else land made her angry as well.

Gloria with her fingers examined the rough stonewalls that she had been considering hitting her head against in irritation. "I might be able to climb the walls and reach the second story." She said thoughtfully. "The second floor looks like it has large bay windows. No doubt to catch the distant view of the ocean from that height."

Pat looked horrified. "Climb a totally vertical stone wall in the middle of the night? You'll fall and break your neck!"

"Oh come on." Du said. "If agent Passion thinks she can do it, we should allow her the attempt. Anything that can save us time in alerting the Director to danger is to be considered."

"I didn't know you had such confidence in my abilities Du." Gloria said slightly irritated. To a worried Pat she said. "Don't worry Pat, I'm into rock climbing and its not even snowing here. It'll be a piece of cake."

As Gloria started to get a good finger hold on the walls of the house there was a loud zip noise near them. All three looked wildly around trying to spot the source of the noise. It was Pat that happened to glance up and spot the zipper in the sky above the house. Grabbing Gloria's arm she pointed it out as it continued to slowly unzip to reveal the bright neon blue sky of the other world. The fact the hole was as brightly lit as the one from around noon made Gloria wonder if the other world had no night or if time moved at a different pace than this world's time did.

Gloria didn't have much time for speculating however as a giant gargoyle like creature carrying what looked like a stone sword flew out on leather like wings and began to dive towards Du.

This being Du's first time seeing the zipper hole in the sky stared in wonder at it and didn't even try to avoid the creature as it dived at him.

With a yell to try and break Du free from his shocked paralysis Gloria leaped the distance between them and boldly shoved Du out of the way of the mighty creature. As Gloria prepared herself for having her head chopped off by the gargoyle's sword she saw the creature with a quick motion sheathe the sword on its back before slamming into her with the force of a small rhino. The force of the collision knocked out all the breath in Gloria's body and before she knew it, the creature had its rock like arms locked around her waist as it wings beat frantically and they began to rise into the air.

With a scream of Gloria, Pat raced to try and reach her legs before they were too high in the sky but she was too late. With mighty flapping of its wings the gargoyle thing turned in the air and flew back through the still opened zippered hole. The zipper reversed course closing the hole and in a matter of moments the hole, gargoyle and Gloria were gone as if they had never been.

Pat continued to stare at the now unblemished night sky before finally looking brokenly at Du who was still lying on his butt staring upwards. Finally Du quietly rose to his feet and bowed his head.

"I will make sure Agent Passion's name is inscribed on the wall of those agents that have fallen in the course of their duties at Global Justice."

"She's not dead!" Pat hissed at him venomously.

"Perhaps." Du said. "But I somehow doubt that thing took her back to its home world to meet its parents. He is probably devouring her as we speak. In any case we cannot linger here any longer. These attacks are increasing in number and frequency and we must warn Dr. Director. As we no longer have a member capable of climbing the wall to try and break into the house, we better start moving again to locate Dr. Director's campsite ourselves."

Pat could only stare in loathing and hatred at Du. Shego had been right that day in the Director's office. The man was not human and at the moment Pat doubted anyone could ever teach him to be one. "Gloria was taken because she threw herself into that thing's path to save your life! And you just casually throw her sacrifice away?!"

Du looked at her as he adjusted and brushed off his clothing. "I said I would see to it that she is memorialized when we get back to Global Justice. What more do you expect me to do? As for sacrificing herself for me, it is expected that junior agents will sacrifice themselves to protect a senior agent. It is a lesson you should learn now." So saying Du turned and started to walk in a western direction to where Dr. Director's campsite should be on the other side of the island.

Pat continued to stare at his back while her hands balled up into fists. She was seriously considering killing him. He didn't deserve to walk the earth while her precious Gloria was taken from her. The only thing stopping her was the imagined voice of Gloria pleading in her head for her not to do it. A memory of Gloria during the sandcastle building a day ago came to Pat. Where Gloria while building her castle explained the way to overcome a enemy was to make them think you were going to do what they wanted you to do but then turn it to your advantage.

"Agent Du." Pat called out forcing a note of respect into her voice that she sure was not feeling towards the hated man. "I think for the good of the mission you should go ahead of me. I will only slow you down."

Du turned to look back at her. "So you can stay here and waste time trying to find a way to get Passion back I suppose?"

Pat could feel her rambling threatening to confirm exactly that to Du but with every ounce of will power she suppressed the nervous reaction and said instead. "No. I realize now that you are quite correct and it is most likely that agent Passion is gone. I will follow your path as best as I can. I just feel you should not slow your pace for my inexperience and weaker physical abilities."

Du nodded his head pleased. "Someday you will make a fine agent. Just as good as agent Passion turned out to be. Follow along as best as you can and I will put forth my best effort to reach Dr. Director as quickly as I can." So saying Du jogged off at a fast pace leaving Pat alone in the dark next to the house.

Pat watched till he was out of sight and then she spat at the ground in the direction he left in. "Just leave what you think of as a weak inexperienced woman alone in the night with monsters about." She quietly cursed Du. "You would be worse than useless in getting Gloria back anyway."

Pat felt an overwhelming urge to sink next to the wall of the building and cry. What use would she be in getting Gloria back either though. She didn't know how the zipper things worked or what triggered them and she was unarmed and not that skillful when it came to fighting even if she could get the zippers to work. But then again, who was used to fighting such unearthly terrors as those monsters that came out of those zipper portals?

Pat in the stirrings of depression remembered her first days at Global Justice. Being the new person at the headquarters some of the people she met tried to be friendly by sharing the local gossip. It was where she first heard of Gloria Passion before she met her. The gossipers telling how Gloria would randomly hug people to her breasts and how they suspected she had dozens of lovers both male and female in the past. The rumors didn't prepare Pat for just how breathtaking Gloria was in person when Pat had been introduced to her when the blond bombshell had been sent to retrieve her for that faithful meeting in Dr. Director's office.

Pat's head suddenly jerked up when she remembered other gossip she had heard at Global Justice, about Ron Stoppable and his unique group and some of the missions that were whispered about by the gossipmongers. They said he and his group faced something called Deadites and a walking hulk of a corpse named Jason. There were rumors he fought some kind of monster that could invade people's dreams to kill them. There were even rumors he fought some kind pale demon things that wanted to torture and kill everyone in this world and won against them and sent them packing back to their own Hell dimension.

If anyone knew about portals or could help her get to that other world and rescue Gloria, it was Stoppable and his group. Pat didn't spare a second glance in the direction that Du had run off to but turned her eyes to the path that continued past the front of the house and continued to the north, towards Stoppable's campsite.

"Stay alive Gloria. I will find you." She whispered to the night and pumping her arms she began running down the pathway as fast as she could

Du cursed as his course lead him directly into a kind of swampy area of the island. As he carefully tried to place his feet to keep from sinking he wondered if agent Rens thought she had fooled him? He knew good and well that she wasn't going to leave Passion. He didn't guess how deeply she felt about Passion but even he could see there was a friendship between the two women and he suspected that Rens was not the type to leave a friend if there was even the faintest hope they could be rescued. Du also suspected that she would quickly realize her best bet to rescue Passion would be to go get Stoppable and his group's help. Even though Du was somewhat hostile towards Stoppable, Possible and Shego he had to admit they had phenomenal luck when it came to dealing with the weird.

And for what it was worth… Du hoped they would find a way to reach Passion and that she was still alive to be rescued. Passion had turned out to be a good agent and Du would hate to see such an asset be lost to Global Justice but Du's duty was clear. First make sure the head of Global Justice is safe before any other agents.

Earlier that day, near Stoppable's campsite:

Kim peeked open an eye and examined her companions. They were all sitting in a semi-circle on the grassy plains, a short distance from the beach. Kim shifted her bikini-clad bottom and briefly worried about ants or other creepy crawlers in the grass but remembered that their briefing on the island stated that there were very few resident insects. The island was remote enough that things like snakes, spiders or ants hadn't made it that far yet, one less worry to keep her from meditating. Closing her eyes Kim tried to force her breathing to even out but once again opened an eye to try and gauge Shego's progress in reaching her guide. Shego had a peaceful serene look on her face and Kim frowned when she realized that once again Shego had beaten her in reaching a nirvana state before she could. With a huff of annoyance Kim shut her eyes and by sheer determination forced herself through the layers of conscious thought into the realm of her own mind.

As Kim opened her mental eyes she saw her guide leaning against a tree in the schoolyard where she had first met Ron. This schoolyard of that distant morning was one of Kim's favorite memories so it was only natural that it became her 'safe' place where her guide would always meet her when she meditated.

The mystical monkey guide, looking like a cross between a spider monkey and her stuffed pandaroo looked at a wrist that contained no watch and tapped its foot as if commenting on the time. "Once again, it took you long enough."

"Good to see you again too." Kim replied crossly and walking over she slumped against the seemingly real tree in her mind and folded her hands behind her head and looked up the perpetually blue skies.

"You know if you would only just relax and let the meditation techniques work rather than worry about beating Shego you would easily access this state." Her guide continued to berate her.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm too competitive. Its who I am." Kim replied. "So Ron wanted us to practice this but he didn't say what he expected us to get out of it. You have any idea what he has on his mind?" Kim asked changing the subject.

Her guide wasn't fooled in the least but with one last frown at her charge she decided to let it go for the time being. "My guess is the missing shark mystery and what is going on with this island."

Kim turned her attention to her guide and asked eagerly. "Yeah, he said his guide had no ideas. Do you?"

The guide sighed. "You even hope to show up Ron and his guide by reaching an answer before he does?"

Kim frowned. "You make me sound horrible just because I like to be useful to my team."

"You mean you wish to show up the others." The guide argued back.

Kim gritted her mental teeth. "Do you have any ideas or not?"

The guide shook her head. "I sense the same thing Ron says he and his guide does. There is something not quite right about this place but I have no reference to make sense of what that wrongness is. I do not believe that there is anything wrong with the island itself though."

"What does that mean? You sense something wrong but not with the island? That makes no sense." Kim frustrated stated.

"It makes perfect sense. It means that there is nothing wrong with nature here but whatever is leaving impressions of wrongness are outside of nature."

Kim opened her mouth to reiterate that made no sense but paused. "You mean like a portal opening to somewhere else? Kind of like the Transdimensional Vortex Inducer would make?"

Even though incidents with the portal generator took place before Kim had gotten her mystical monkey guide, her guide knew what Kim knew and Kim's memories were the guide's memories as well. "That... could explain why there are traces but nothing solid..." The guide confessed.

Kim pumped her fist in the air. "I solved it before Ron did!" She shouted in triumphant but then had the decency to look sheepish. "I mean at least we now have a theory on what it could be."

Her guide sent her a stern look. "Someday your internal Kimminess as Ron likes to call it will isolate you from your mates. And in any case you have not 'solved' anything. I said the traces I detect might be liken to the effects the generator might have done but we know the Transdimensional Vortex Inducer was lost during the fight with the deadites so it is most likely not being caused by it."

"Some one else might have created another generator." Kim pointed out. "This island is rented regularly by corporations and as isolated as it is, one of them might have decided it made the perfect place to try an experiment or two."

Once again her guide looked thoughtful. "That does make sense." She finally admitted.

With Shego and her guide:

Shego opening her eyes spotted her guide swinging on the swings in Go City Park, her safe and secure place inside her mind where she always met her guide. Indeed every time she had visited her mental guide it was always swinging in the swings. "Don't you ever get tired of swinging?" Shego asked.

The guide fixed her with a look. "I could ask you the same thing. Its nice to see after your gluttony of physical pleasures to see you remembered you have a mind to use."

"Oh please." Shego snorted. "You claim you and I are one. What I think or feel is the same is what you experience. So first, you have been enjoying my activities as much as I have been and two; you know why I've been acting a bit... Needy lately."

The guide sighed. "You believe that Kim will back out of her promise to talk to her father and things will return to a state of, you can see but not touch again."

Shego nodded her head. "Its not that I think Kim deliberately lied to me..."

"Just that when it comes down to it she cannot face her father with something she feels he will be ashamed of her about." Her guide finished for her.

Shego gave a sharp nod. "So do you really blame me for grabbing every chance I can get on this trip to be physical with Ron and Kimmie while I can? We both know that sooner or later this is going to end..."

"You are not cursed." Her guide said sharply.

"But I am..." Shego said softly. In the real world she would never let anyone see this side of her but there is no hiding from yourself no matter how hard you try so Shego didn't even try.

"You parents death was not caused by you! It was a random meteor that fell from the skies and killed them and gave you your powers. No one is punishing you for that, except you."

"Then why do I lose everything?!" Shego cried. "My parents, my happy home life, even my brothers! We were so close when we were children. Then the meteor, mom and dad's death and the powers and now I can't even talk to the idiots except for the youngest dweebs." Shego began to pace back and forth in front of her guide on the swings.

"I even thought I had a kind of friendship with Drakken and the fool turned on me."

"You managed to gain the love and acceptance of Ron Stoppable and Kim Possible or do you claim that is being cursed too?"

Shego turned to glare at her guide. "That is just so it can be taken away from me. You have to be given something to have it taken away from you to hurt you."

"So that is all you think Ron and Kim are? Offerings to make you hope only so they can be pulled from you as a punishment?"

Shego's hands lit with her green plasma fire in anger. Even though this was all just taking place inside her mind it felt real and a part of Shego's mind idly wondered if she threw a fireball at her guide if it would harm her. "Don't denigrate what I feel for those two! I love them more than I have ever loved anyone in my life. I would die for them!"

The guide met her gaze with a steely gaze of her own as if sensing her thoughts about harming her. "It sounds more like you are the one that is denigrating them, not me. You spend all the time you are not being physical with them trying to come up with reasons why they will leave you or what might happen to take them from you. Do you have no confidence that they can protect themselves?"

"Against anything normal? Maybe. But you have to admit since I've been with them; we have faced a lot of weird shit. Things beyond anything they have ever faced before." Sure they faced DN Amy's genetic freaks and maybe with Drakken they faced robots but since I've been with them they have faced walking corpses and living nightmares!"

"And survived."

Shego glared at her guide. "And for how much longer? Sooner or later the law of averages is going to come down against us and..."

"And if it does, it will be the law of averages. Not because you are cursed!" The guide stop swinging and jumping off the swing started stomping around waving her arms in the manner of agitated monkeys everywhere. "Everyday cars crash. Planes fall, illnesses break out! Its not your fault or your responsibility!" The guide came to a stop near where Shego was watching it in shock. Pulling close enough to stare directly into her eyes the monkey guide said slowly. "You are in danger of losing what time you may have with those two by wasting it with fear."

Shego was the first to break the stare off. "I'm being as physical with them as I can."

"Sex, especially when it is driven by fear is not spending quality time with them."

Shego with a hint of worry in her voice asked. "You aren't saying I'm driving them away with my, shall we say demands for physical contact?"

Her guide tried to look stern but broke out in a very non normal monkey smile. "Ron is a red blooded male and I don't know of any male that finds a woman hot and ready for sex at all times to be a turn off. And the only complaints I heard from Kim was that Ron thinks your are insatiable and that she isn't."

Shego however didn't smile back.

Her guide sighed. "And now you are already wondering if every time you have sex with those two later if they are doing it cause they want to or just humoring you." The monkey guide hauled off and slapped Shego upside the head.

Two things went through Shego's mind. One: That even if this was all just going on inside her own head.. That hurt! And the second thing was... "You just hit me!" Shego growled at her guide and flared her hands into green fire.

The guide looked at her for a moment and then lashing out hit four points on Shego's body, on each of her shoulders, one in the center of her chest and then with a flip of the guide's hand in the center of her forehead. Instantly the plasma fire around her hands went out.

Shego blinked and stared at her hands. "You turned off my powers? How can you turn off my powers?"

The guide rolled her eyes and taking a monkey paw she placed a single finger to the center of Shego's forehead. "First off. None of this is real remember? This is all going on inside of here." Stab of the finger to her forehead. "So there are no fireballs and no targets to throw them at. Also your plasma powers are still controlled by your nerves so even if we were in the real world I would be able to hit the necessary pressure points and shut them down."

Ron and Rufus with Ron's guide.

As Ron opened his mental eyes he spotted his guide sitting at an incongruous patio table in an open area outside of the Yamanouchi School. This was Ron's safe place. The place he most associated with Mystical Monkey Power and safety. His guide, looking like a very ancient but at same time youthful monkey with a gray beard was sitting and calmly sipping tea from a china cup. The guide didn't greet Ron with words but merely nodded his head and continued to sip his tea.

"Got to love how calm he always is." Ron said turning his head to address Rufus sitting on his shoulder.

Ron blinked and did a double take. "Hey buddy! How are you here with me?"

Rufus thought for a moment and then shrugged.

"Can Shego and Kim join us here as well?" Ron asked his guide.

The guide blinked and then looked surprised and put down his cup and stroked his chin. "I... Do not know." He finally admitted. No one has ever shared the Monkey power like you managed to do with your mates. I am not even sure what you managed to accomplish is really possible or not. When you and Rufus received the power it was from the ancient mystical statues. The face that you somehow copied your power and passed it on to your mates is unheard of. As for them journeying here to talk with you? This is not a simple conversation in the astral realms as you do with the Sensei. This would be literally inviting your mates into your mind and soul."

"No Monkey Master ever tried to share the power this way before?" Ron asked surprised.

The monkey guide stroked his beard again. "Not a simple sharing of power." He reminded Ron again. "More like no one has ever divided their soul three ways as you have with your mates."

Ron blushed. "I hate to tell you this MM but threesomes are not new."

The guide waved away Ron's statement with ease. "Nor are orgies of more than three chosen one. But we are not just talking of sex for enjoyment. We are talking about the sharing of souls. You, Kim and Shego are not just..." The guide seemed to puzzle for a term. "Sex buddies." He finally settled for saying. "You are true soul mates. And that is what allowed you to share your power with them and for Shego to share her meteor powers with you two. It is actually quite amazing."

Ron uncomfortable talking about his sex life with his guide, even though the guide was the one to teach Ron how to build endurance up so he could keep up with Shego and Kim's nearly insatiable desires, tried to change the subject. "So can we bring them here so we can share ideas while meditating?"

The guide shrugged. "That is for you to decide. You are no longer just the 'chosen one' Ron. You have become a Monkey Master in your own right. You are now writing the book of how to do things all on your own. I am just to advise you."

Ron and Rufus shared a look ending with Rufus just shrugging as well.

"Okay... Then lets see if we can make this thing work." Ron muttered as he sat down cross-legged on the ground next to the table that the Guide was sitting at.

Emptying his mind even further, Ron concentrated on nothing more than the sight, smell and feel of Kim and Shego.

Rufus watching his owner for a moment but finally shrugged yet again and hopped over to the table where MM was sitting.

"Tea?" The guide asked as a second cup magically appeared on the table near Rufus.

"Cheese?" Rufus countered.

The guide gave a careless shrug and the cup transformed into a large wedge of cheddar cheese.

Rufus with a large grin began to munch on the cheese. In his mind Rufus knew that the cheese didn't really exist. It was all just mental thoughts but it still tasted real to him.

Both the Mystical Monkey and Rufus looked up as a section a short distance away began to blur and the mountain top of Yamanouchi was replaced by a school grounds with a tree and Kim leaning against it with a odd looking monkey. A short distance away another blurring took place and when it cleared, Shego sat growling at a monkey in red and black appeared. Just behind them could be seen a swing set of a park.

The monkeys with Kim and Shego looked up in surprise.

"How is this possible?" Kim's guide asked in shock.

While Shego's one, eyed Ron. "He is impressive looking. You did good catching this one."

Shego frowned at her guide. "Don't get any ideas. He is mine and Kim's."

Ron opened his eyes and looked to Kim and Shego. "Well I guess that answers that. It is possible for us all to join me in my own mind for a conference call."

Kim's guide continues to look shocked. "It shouldn't be possible!"

Kim smiled wide. "Anything is possible for a Possible. And for a Stoppable." She added with a touch of pride at Ron.

Shego walking past her guide to stand in front of Ron and eyeing him she said. "Does this mean we can have sex here as well?"

Kim's guide rolled her eyes and looked to Shego's guide. "Are you not trying to help her through this sex obsession of her's?"

Shego's guide grunted and then said. "As if you are not dying to know the answer to her question as well?"

Ron's guide merely shook his head at his fellow guides and gestured for Kim and Shego to join him at the table where two more chairs magically appeared.

"Notice the old fart didn't make chairs for us?" Shego's guide asked Kim's guide as they strolled over as well.

"Old fart?" Ron's guide frowned. "You know technically since you Shego and Kim were gifted with part of Ron's Mystical Monkey power you two are essentially a piece of me."

"Bullshit." Shego's guide stated clearly. "It doesn't work that way and you know it. We were created by the power using aspects of our hosts to make our personalities and looks. We..." Shego's guide pointed at Kim's guide. "Are no more a part of you than you are a part of Ron's finger or toe or…" Shego guide smiled. "Or other parts of his extremities."

Everyone stopped and stared at the guide and then at Shego.

"What?" Shego asked a bit tweaked.

"Was that a come-on to Ron's guide?" Kim asked her. "Is your guide as horny as you are?"

Shego frowned. "Is your guide as competitive as you are?"

Kim's monkey/pandroo guide folded her arms. "I am not." She then looked around the mental landscape of Ron's and turned back to Shego's guide. "You know though… If Ron, Kim and Shego were able to have sex in the meditative realm… This could be a solution to Kim's, 'no touching where others can see' back at home. They could have their sex but still be apart."

Shego frowned. "I prefer my sex to remain physical thank you. Beside how would Kim explain meditating and suddenly screaming, oh god yes. Right there Ronnie?"

Kim blushed bright red. "I don't scream." She finally said.

Now everyone was staring at her with a raised eyebrow of disbelief.

With Gloria Passion, Place: ? Time: ?

Gloria lying limply in the creature's embrace did her best to catch her breath. First the impact when the creature slammed into her knocked all the breath from her and then the creature's rock like arms were so tight around her she couldn't draw in another breath and was starting to see blackness around the edges of her vision.

Gloria with a ringing in her ears from the lack of oxygen thought she could hear faintly the sound of the zipper in the sky zipping close. So even if she didn't die from lack of air or being crushed by the thing holding her, she was far from home with no way back.

Landing in a clearing in the middle of an odd vivid forest the creature dropped Gloria and then roared at her fallen body.

Gloria lay perfectly still as she tried to breathe in air slowly and regain her bearings. She almost jerked when the creature bent over and with its mouth close to her head bellowed an obvious challenge. Still too winded to move Gloria did nothing. The creature cocked its head and examined her closer but Gloria refrained from moving. She didn't even turn her head or move her eyes as the creature leaned in close and once again roared a challenge.

Getting no response the gargoyle like thing reached out a toe and pushed Gloria over on to her back. Sniffing the thing gave one louder bellow and then in disgust it wandered off. No doubt thinking it had accidentally killed Gloria and now had no one to fight with.

Gloria remained still until she was positive that the thing was really gone and then breathed out a sigh. "Reminds me of that wrestler I dated that one time. He too had some violent mood swings as well as the same bad breath." She finally said to the empty glade as she got up and brushed herself off. Why the creature brought her 'home' just to try and pick a fight with her confused Gloria. If it wanted nothing more than a fight why didn't it just attack all of them back in in her world?

"All my limbs are here? Good." Gloria continued to talk to herself as she walked around and examined her surroundings. Gloria was a sensible woman, a good Global Justice agent and a first class strategist. But she was also obviously in another dimension with no idea how to get back to her own world and in a very hostile environment with no weapons and/or armor. In other words, she was terrified.

Taking several deep breaths, Gloria regained controlled of her emotions.

"Okay. First thing is to make sure I'm safe for the moment."

Gloria examined the glade she was in. The grass in the glade was too bright and too green. Looking up at the sky Gloria noted that the sky was the same way. Too blue and too bright, even the distant trees seemed to be way too... Tree like. It was like a video that someone had boosted the contrast and sharpness too high on

With a shrug Gloria filed the information away and randomly choosing a direction she started walking.

With no immediate danger nearby and no obvious way home her next goal was to find water and food.

The food wasn't an immediate concern, although she was hungry but water was vital. Her throat was parched and she was sweating slightly in the tropical heat of the odd forest she found herself in and risking dehydration.

Reaching a stand of trees Gloria ducked around a trunk and peered around it. There was some kind of creature among the trees, it was vaguely man sized but had a hard armor back looking a bit like an armadillo crossed with an insect and as Gloria watched it reached up and snagged a fruit off a branch and with obvious great pleasure slammed it into its mouth and ate it. The spray of juice went in a wide arc and even from where Gloria was she could smell a sweet mouth watering scent.

After scarfing down another two fruits, the creature gave a deep roar and waited a moment until it heard a distant answer and then rushed off in that direction.

"The things in this forest live just to eat and fight?" Gloria asked herself. Giving a little shrug Gloria decided it was their business and started to head over to some of the low hanging branches containing fruit to get herself one. She wasn't sure if her human stomach could handle the odd looking fruit but not finding a source of water she was going to risk a few bites of fruit for the moisture content if not for the food value.

Half way to the tree Gloria tripped over something lying on the ground that she missed seeing. For a brief moment the mental image of a snake or giant spider had her almost freaking out but reaching down her hand she touched something metallic. Pulling it up from the grass, Gloria examined her find. The object was obviously man-made and not natural as it was rectangular shaped, made of metal and on the front of it had a painted pattern that reminded Gloria of Cherry Blossoms or some other highly stylized flower.

Turning the thing over and over, Gloria tired to puzzle out it's meaning. It kind of looked like an over-sized belt buckle. There was a depression in the center of it and to the upper left top of the buckle was a odd knife on a pivot point.

Gloria would have almost dismissed the object as some kind of child's toy if not the fact that it was heavy and metal and obviously built to last.

Gloria idly held the object in front of her waist, just to see how it would look as a buckle.

Suddenly a belt sprang into being and circling Gloria's waist drew the device out of her hands and tight up against her waist. Fearing that the thing was some kind of booby trap device Gloria in panic snatched at the buckle and pulled on it. Instantly the belt was gone from her middle and she was once again holding the empty buckle.

Turning it over and over Gloria examined it again. Of the belt there was no sign and Gloria couldn't figure out how it appeared or where it went to when she pulled it off. Deciding that the thing, whatever it was, was safe for the moment Gloria pressed the buckle to her front again and felt as the belt reappeared and connected the buckle.

"Okay, weird fashion statement, but..." Gloria gave a shrug and since it was way too large for her sweat pants pockets decided to leave the belt around her middle and continued to the fruit she could see. Reaching out a hand she pulled an odd, if ripe looking fruit from the tree only to have the object transform in her hand! Once, what was a juicy looking fruit was now a metal lock like thing. Gloria turned it over and over in her hands in disbelief. "Fruit does not change into a padlock." She said out loud. Even though that was what she was now holding in her hand. A metal padlock shaped vaguely like some kind of fruit Gloria couldn't at the moment identify, with a metal hasp and tiny printed numbers on the front of it.

Turning it over once again Gloria examined the back of it. There was no printing and the back looked fairly plain. Shape wise the back almost looked like...

"The depression on the buckle!" Gloria exclaimed and turning the lock she placed it to the belt buckle and found it was a perfect fit. There was even a bracket on the buckle where the clasp of the lock could be closed over it.

Idly Gloria did just that and pushed the clasp closed over the hasp.

"LOCK ON!" A loud voice from nowhere called out startling Gloria.

"What the...?" Gloria exclaimed and spun around trying to see where the voice came from. Thinking for a moment Gloria bent over trying to look past her own well endowed breasts to see the buckle around her waist. Fumbling with her hand she hit the knife on the buckle and felt it move. Pushing down firmly on the knife she could feel as it moved until it touched the front of the lock in the buckle.

Even though Gloria couldn't see it from her position of wearing the belt, the front of the lock flipped open to reveal what looked like a painted surface representing the insides of a fruit.

"PASSION FRUIT! COME ON!" The deep mystery voice loudly proclaimed.

Gloria hearing a zipping noise looked up and spotted a zipper hole above her head and something that looked like a large purple fruit floating down out of the hole above her. Stepping to the side Gloria was shocked as the giant fruit moved with her.

Her hand still on the knife Gloria accidentally pushed down on it and the blade hit the lock again. A metal slashing sound was heard, even though the blade cut nothing.

Flute music reached Gloria's ears. The music while being that of a flute still sounded somewhat military like to Gloria.

The fruit above her head suddenly responded and slammed down over her head while the voice now proclaimed. "PASSION FLOWER TAKES THE FIELD!"

Inside the 'fruit' Gloria could see LED readouts showing her surroundings even though her head was covered. There were metal sounds all around her and a sensation of a helmet being put together around her face.

Anyone watching would have then seen the 'fruit' unfold around Gloria forming armor as it reached her body. Purple colored armor formed over her arms and legs. Shoulder pads that looked a bit like stylized flower petals formed protecting her shoulders. Round armored pieces formed and molded around her breasts. And as the 'fruit' finished its unfolding and transformation, it left Gloria's head covered in a cream colored helmet with purple accents. The eyes of the helmet were purple and also looked like stylized flower petals at an angle.

"This is just too freakin weird." Gloria said as she held up her arms to examine the armor she was now covered in. Even though the helmet she was wearing covered her eyes, her vision was not impeded at all. Indeed Gloria thought to herself that things were even clearer and sharper than they had been with her own bare eyes.

Cocking her head slightly to the side Gloria listened and could hear the distant sounds of the creatures of the forest fighting somewhere. The helmet covering her head was somehow augmenting even her hearing.

Gloria felt no sense of being closed in or being claustrophobic even though she was now contained in an armor shell that somewhat resembled ancient samurai armor.

As Gloria ran her armored gauntlet hands down across her body she was stunned to still be able to feel the smooth surface of the armor as if her hands weren't covered at all.

Raising her hands she stared at them for a moment before punching at the nearby tree. The tree's bark instantly had a fist-sized hole in its trunk and while Gloria felt the impact with her hand it was no way as hard or traumatic as it should have been. The armor of her hand protected her hands from the impact but still allowed her a sense of touch as well.

"This just gets weirder and weirder." Gloria muttered to herself.

As she continued to examine the armor her hands snagged on something on her right hip. Taking a hold of the object, she pulled it free and brought it up to examine it closer. Gloria found herself holding a very unusual looking gun. The stock of the gun looked like stylized flowers and the barrel of the gun had leaves molded along its length. It was oddly beautiful and totally impractical looking weapon. Along the top of the barrel of the gun was a sharp looking fin that made no sense to Gloria at all. If it was meant to be a sight, it was oddly large and bulky looking and not in style with the rest of the gun.

Taking a practice stance, Gloria pointed the gun at the trunk of the tree she had just hit a moment ago with her fist.

She jerked in surprise when targeting cross hairs appeared on the visor of her helmet. Altering the angle on the gun Gloria could see the cross hairs moved showing where the gun would hit if she were to fire.

"Auto targeting for a hand held weapon? This is some pretty impressive tech here." Gloria muttered to herself but heard her voice amplified by the helmet and her words said out loud. "Augmentation of vision, hearing, strength and assisted aiming for weapons. This suit may look like it was designed by a fruit vendor but this tech is miles ahead of anything Global Justice or any other lab I know of."

"But what is with the weird fin on the back of the gun? It makes no sense." Gloria said out loud.

Suddenly a tiny image just below her normal line of vision began flashing inside the helmet she was wearing. Gloria tilted her head to look down but this only changed her view of the outside. The icon flashing inside the visor simply shifted down to stay out of view. Raising her head, Gloria then looked down with just her eyes and was pleased to see the icon didn't move but she now could see it clearly.

It was an image of her belt buckle with the knife blade on it and the knife blade went down once and then paused for a moment and repeated. The image continued to do this in a continuous loop

Holding the gun out in front of her with her right hand, Gloria reached down with her left hand and pressed on the knife blade once again. She noticed as soon as she did this the icon flashing in her visor disappeared.

"PASSION SLASH." The strange voice announced almost startling Gloria.

Instantly the 'fin' on the back of the gun unfolded and twisted almost origami style to form a large blade projecting from the gun barrel.

"Not only a ranged weapon but a close quarters weapon as well? Impressive!" Gloria nearly cooed in appreciation as she admired the weapon in her hand.

"Any other tricks?" Gloria asked out loud not really expecting an answer.

The flashing icon however did reappear drawing her attention. Gloria made the mistake of trying to move her whole head to view the icon and resisted sighing when the icon floated out of her sight once again. Bringing her head up, she once again forced herself to only move her eyes to look and the icon remained in her field of vision. Once again the icon showed her belt with its knife blade coming down but this time twice in quick succession.

"Okay." Gloria said and reaching down she hit the knife on her buckle twice.

There was that weird metal slashing sound effect and...

"PARALLEL PASSION PUMMEL." The voice that Gloria now realized was coming from her belt buckle declared loudly.

The gun/blade in Gloria's right hand began to vibrate strongly and Gloria in reaction reached up with her left hand to brace the weapon. As soon as her left hand touched the stock of the gun/blade there was a 'shilick' noise and the gun divided into two identical weapons, one in her right hand and the duplicate one in her left.

"Dual fire power?" Gloria nearly squealed in glee. "But how do I retract the blades to use them as guns?"

One again the flashing icon drew her attention. This time it showed a hand moving to grip the handle of a glowing gun, squeezing twice and then pulling away to repeat the action in a loop.

Gloria looked at the gun in her right hand and consciously squeezed the handle firmly twice.

The blade projecting from the gun barrel gave a metallic sounding schnip noise and folded back into the weird fin like projection on the back of the gun. So now Gloria was holding in her right hand a gun and in her left a sword.

"AWESOME." Gloria said in glee.

Hearing a roar close by, at the same time a flashing rectangle appeared at the corner of her vision inside the visor, Gloria turned her head in that direction to see several of the armored armadillo creatures rushing at her from that direction. No doubt drawn by the sound of the buckle announcing the weapon changes.

Gloria slashed at one of the creatures when it launched itself at her to attack. There were several bright sparks as her sword weapon made contact but no signs of blood or injuries on the creature.

"Tough little son of a guns aren't you?" Gloria asked.

The creature gave a roar as if answering her and charged again.

Gloria slashed once again with the sword she was holding and noticing the flashing rectangle inside her visor she quickly looked in that direction to see the second creature trying to circle her to attack her from behind. While meeting an attack by the first creature with her sword, Gloria pointed her gun at the other one and pulled the trigger. Bullets looking not unlike black seeds of a passion fruit shot out of the gun and hit the second monster dead on. Sparks flew from the impact but just like the sword slashing on the first one, no real damage appeared to be done. However, the creature did fly a short distance from the bullets impact.

Squeezing the handle of the sword twice quickly, Gloria transformed that weapon into a gun as well and fired a quick burst at the attacking first creature sending it also flying away from her from the impact of the bullets. Moving quickly Gloria put both creatures in front of her and pointed her dual guns in their direction. "Walk away boys. Don't make me have to kill you." She told the things.

Both monsters glanced at each other but then got up off the ground and took an obvious stance as if to jump her.

"Don't do it!" Gloria warned again as she turned the guns sideways and nervously griped both of her guns twice.

With the schtick sound effect the guns blades sprang back out. "Oops. Crap. I didn't mean to do that!" Gloria shouted in worry as the creatures leap at her before she could transform the swords back into guns.

In a slight panic move, Gloria brought the pummel of both gun/swords into contact with each other as she tried to meet the attacks of the two monsters.

The hilts of the swords when they contacted each other melded together and the blades grew in length to form a bladed staff in Gloria's hands.

"There is no limit to your bag of tricks is there?" Gloria asked in amazement of her armor as she spun on one heel to hit the nearest creature attempting to tackle her. The top blade hit the creature across its chest and Gloria spun around and brought the lower blade across the thing's back as it flew past her when it missed its tackle. Smoothly in an almost ballerina move Gloria fluidly spun in the opposite direction and met the second tackling creature in a mirror image of the first one. The second creature was also slashed across its chest and back and landed near its comrade creature.

This time both creatures showed signs of injuries as the slashes slowly leaked a greenish blood.

"Just stay down!" Gloria ordered the things. She really didn't want to kill them. Even though she had been brought to this strange forest against her will, she was still the intruder here and didn't want to harm the creatures that lived here unless she was forced to do so.

Unfortunately the creatures once again shared a look and getting up they moved to the left and right of Gloria and obviously planned to rush her from both directions at the same time.

As the creatures rushed her, Gloria bent over backwards at the waist and spun the blades in front of her chest. Like a helicopter's blades the twirling swords contacted both monsters heads at the same time and cleanly sliced them off.

As Gloria raised from her bent over backwards position both monsters fell and lay on the ground twitching as their heads flew off in different directions.

"Well... Damn. I told you to just stay down and leave me be." Gloria said sadly to the two dead bodies. Pulling on the staff Gloria separated them back into two individual swords. Then squeezing the handles she formed them back into two guns. Without having to be 'told' by her visor, Gloria them brought the two guns together and they obligingly merged back into the one gun. Gloria then lowered the gun to her right hip and wasn't too terribly surprised when the gun seemed to be drawn to her hip as if magnetic and clicked on.

Suddenly getting an idea, Gloria said out loud. "Can you show me how to open that zipper thing and get back home?" She eagerly moved her eyes to where the other icons had appeared in her visor but that area remained empty.

"Well... Damn. I suppose I knew that it wouldn't be quite that easy."

Gloria worried about the armor running out of 'power' and ran her hands over it looking for catches or ties to remove the armor until she needed it again but found nothing.

"How do I get out of this thing?" Gloria asked out loud not expecting an answer but this time the icon area flashed into life. Moving her eyes Gloria looked to it and saw that it was showing an image of the fruit lock in her belt buckle and the clasp popping up.

"Okay..." Gloria muttered and reaching down she grasped the sides of the lock and felt a tiny catch. Pushing on the catch she distinctly heard a click noise.

"LOCK OFF!" The announcer voice declared and instantly Gloria's armor turned into what looked like flower petals and floated off her body, fading into nothingness as they went leaving Gloria standing there in her torn sweats and slashed blouse clutching a odd looking fruit lock in one hand and a bulky belt buckle around her waist.

"All this place is lacking is a Cheshire cat and a Mad Hatter." Gloria muttered to herself. While she was appreciative of armor and weapons to protect herself with while stuck here, she was still desperately thirsty and hungry. She glanced once again at the fruit on the trees but somehow knew that they would only change into more locks if she were to grasp them. Deciding to follow the lay of the land Gloria followed the slopes downward in hopes of finding open water.

Ron's campsite, very late at night:

After spending a good deal of time meditating with Rufus, Kim and Shego and their guides, Ron finally called a halt and they returned to the 'real' world to eat dinner and get some sleep. While they didn't test out the idea whether they could have sex in the meditation realm, they did learn several new non-sexual techniques from their guides, the ability to draw energy from the earth while in motion to help with muscle tiredness for instance. Shego and Kim were taught how to focus their mystical sight better and how to become more attuned with their instincts. Something Kim had strenuously argued that she didn't help with, until her own guide asked her if her instincts were so perfect how did she miss a shark being stolen from the beach mere yards away from them in the dead of night.

"I was asleep!" Kim had nearly screamed at her own guide.

"Mystical awareness is not restricted to just when you are awake." Ron's guide had said to her.

"Um, MM? I didn't notice anything either." Ron reminded his guide.

The ancient/youthful monkey had only stroked his chin and then said with a smile. "Well…. To be fair you were all extremely worn out from someone that night." He and all the others looked to Shego.

"What? You expect me to be embarrassed by that or something. As a matter of fact I'm rather proud of it." Shego said with a smirk, a smirk that was shared by her own guide.

After their lessons, Ron fixed a quick dinner and they decided to call it a night. For once Shego didn't drag them to their tent with demands for sex but seemed content to just snuggle with them as they went to sleep.

Sometime in the early morning Ron's eyes flew open and he sat upright. On either side of him slept Shego or Kim and Ron's first instinct was to check to make sure they were all right. He looked down at Kim to see her eyes were open and glowing blue. A quick glance at Shego proved that she also was awake and using her mystical powers as well. Both Kim and Shego looked to Ron. "What was that about?" Shego was the first to ask. "I was sleeping peacefully and suddenly there were monkeys screeching at me about danger?"

Kim nodded her head as well. "The voices didn't sound anything like my guide either. What is up with that?"

Ron gave a shrug. "You know, I never did ask my guide about that. Who or what are those voices that yell at me when there is danger around?"

Shego nudged him. "More important right now Ronnie is where is this danger they are going on about? I don't sense anything nearby do you?"

Ron frowned and closing his eyes he concentrated.

"The danger is not to us but someone we know and care about…"

Kim, her eyes growing wide in worry said what they were all thinking at that point. "There are only nine of us on this island. If it is not we who are in danger then it has to be either Dr. Director, Ash, Gloria, Rens or Du."

Shego frowned sourly. "Well Gloria, Dr. Director or Rens is in trouble."

Kim leaned forward to look past Ron to Shego. "Oh come on Shego. You wouldn't want Ash to be in trouble really would you? I mean I know you two trade insults but deep down you like him a little don't you?"

Shego rose and started to get dressed. "Okay, if it is Ash then I agree we have to help him."

"What about Du?" Ron asked.

Shego raising an eyebrow at Ron said. "What about him?

"If he were in danger wouldn't you…" Ron faded off as Shego gave him a look and with a shrug he started to get dressed as well.

Kim pulling on her clothes continued to look worried. "I can't sense anything. Where is this danger?"

Ron with a sigh closed his eyes and ceased moving. "I can sense Dr. Director and Ash on the Western shore of the island but their auras are peaceful and calm so I think they are just asleep."

Shego looked at Ron with awe. "You can sense as far as the edge of the island?"

"Barely." Ron muttered as his forehead began to sweat from the effort of his concentration. "I can sense Du. He is…" Ron frowned. "He is heading towards Dr. Director and is by himself as far as I can tell. What is he doing alone and moving at night towards Dr. Director?"

"Maybe that Rens person and Gloria kicked him out of their campsite." Shego said with a slight smile.

"Not funny Shego."Kim admonished her. "If Du is by himself where are Gloria and Rens?"

Ron was already slowly turning as he strained his senses even more. "I can sense someone heading towards us… Its not Gloria." Ron's eyes shot open as he made a realization. "I can't sense Gloria anywhere on the island!"

Kim, her face turning white asked. "Does that mean she's…"

"Dead?" Shego finished for her.

"I don't know but if Gloria is not on the path towards us that must mean its Agent Rens."

"Maybe Du killed Gloria and is trying to get to Dr. Director and Ash and Rens is coming to us for help?" Shego asked.

"Or maybe Rens killed Gloria and Du is seeking Dr. Director for help?" Kim asked.

"I don't know." Ron said. "But I do know who might have the answers."

"Right. Let's go." Shego said unzipping their tent and exiting.

As the group passed by Rufus's beach house they could see he was on the porch looking to the South with his eyes glowing blue as well. As Ron neared the house, Rufus leapt off the platform onto his shoulder with Ron not missing a single stride.

"We need to get to Rens as quickly as possible." Ron said to Shego and Kim over his shoulder. "There is a technique using Mystical Monkey power but we haven't discussed it before. You have to tap into the energy while moving and direct it to your leg muscles. Its similar to the earth energy to replace your own thing we learned today but you have to reach a meditation state while moving so it can be tricky which is why I haven't brought it up before now. Heck I haven't even tried it yet even though MM told me about it several weeks ago."

"Do what you have to Ron." Shego told him while Kim nodded.

Instantly Ron was in motion. First running as fast as a football player making for the end zone but then quickly speeding up to a sprinter level before reaching and surpassing the speed of an Olympic runner. Kim and Shego could only look on in amazement as Ron started to leave them behind.

Shego running as fast as she could couldn't even hope to match his speed and she didn't like that at all. The mystical monkey powers inside her mind were still yelling danger and Ron was leaving her and Kim behind to face it alone. This simply wouldn't do.

Closing her eyes while running Shego sought to deepen her breathing and relied on the feel of the pathway under her feet to keep her steady. Slowly Shego began to speed up. Finally opening her eyes she managed to keep the peaceful detached meditation feeling with her and her speed began to increase even more.

Kim watching first Ron and now Shego leaving her behind was nearly screaming in frustration. Screwing her eyes up tight she tried to force herself into a waking meditation state but nothing was happening.

"Let go of your competitiveness." Her inner guide seemed to whisper in her ear.

"Now is not the time for that." Kim growled.

"It is what is holding you back!" her guide growled back as well. "Your mates are entering danger of some kind while you bemoan the fact to yourself that you can't beat them."

"I don't give a shit about beating them! I just don't want to be left alone while they face the danger themselves!" Kim continued to argue within herself distracted. She didn't even realize as her running became more fluid and graceful and she increased her speed smoothly till she was running side by side with Shego. Together they started to gain on Ron.

Along the paved path with Patricia early morning

Pat could feel a stitch in her side develop as she ran but she ignored it as best as she could. She was on a mission and she was not going to fail! She would find Stoppable and his group and if necessary she would fight them all to get them to agree to help her recover Gloria. She really didn't think it would come to that. Ron struck her as an honorable man who would not let his friends down. He was about as opposite to Du as one person could be to another but she would not take a chance. He would help her or Pat would go down fighting to get that help.

She would allow nothing to stop her…

At least that was what she was thinking as the ankle on her right foot twisted when while running she misjudged the pathway she was on and didn't notice it suddenly dipped. Instantly she was flying through the air about to slam face down on the unforgiving pathway. She would be lucky if she didn't smash her skull open on the cement path and as the ground rushed up to meet her all she could think of was, "I'm so sorry Gloria. I failed you."

Just as her face was about to meet the surface of the path, Patricia noticed something coming at her so fast it was but a blur in the early morning light. "Great! If I don't crack my head open, one of those monsters is going to eat me."

Suddenly Patricia found her face pressed into something soft, warm and smelling of a heady musk.

"What happened?" She mumbled.

"You crashed into Ron's groin as you fell and he rushed to catch you." The voice of Shego answered her.

Pat pulled her head out of Ron's lap to look up at him and then down at his crotch again. Ron was wincing in pain from the unexpected contact.

Pat her face flushing bright red scrambled to get up. "I'm sorry!" She told Ron before frowning. "What are you guys doing here?" She asked.

"We sensed someone coming towards us and felt there was something wrong." Ron wheezed. The run hadn't winded him as he was using the mystical monkey powers but the contact with Ren's head and his lap had knocked the breath out of him.

Pat being reminded of her mission leapt up and grabbing Ron by the arm started to drag him back the way she came before her ankle gave out on her almost dumping her back to the ground again. "That's right! You got to help me!"

Shego and Kim caught her by her arms stopping her from falling again and from dragging Ron off. "Whoa! Why don't you tell us what is going on first?"

"There is no time!" Pat screamed at them. "Gloria is in danger! She might be already dead. Damn Du."

"Don't make me have to slap the shit out of you." Shego told the nearly hysterical woman. "Now calm down and tell us what is going on. We'll help you. First did Du do something to hurt Gloria?"

Pat almost laughed hysterically at the 'doo doo' sound Shego had unintentionally made. Getting control of herself she said. "No, Du didn't hurt Gloria but he wouldn't help me rescue her. He said he had to get to his precious Dr. Director and he would make sure Gloria's sacrifice would be honored!"

"Sounds like Du." Shego said sourly.

"What sacrifice? Where is Gloria?" Ron asked.

"Attacked… Back at the house… I tried to save her but the creature flew off… Please help me save her." Pat sobbed as her exhaustion and stress began to take its toil on her and she began to uncontrollably shake.

Ron looked back up the pathway towards the ominous house sitting on the hill in the predawn light. "The house?" He asked seeking confirmation.

Pat nodded her head tiredly.

"That's enough for me for the moment." Ron said picking Pat up and slinging her up on to his back, Rufus leaping over to Shego's shoulder to make room for the woman. Ron could of course heal the sprained ankle of Rens using his monkey powers but it would take time and she said time was of the essence and Gloria was in danger so that could wait.

Sharing a look between Kim and Shego, Ron took off running again. Kim and Shego this time meeting his strides perfectly and staying right up by his side.

"Please hold on Gloria." Pat mumbled into Ron's ear as he carried her. "You promised me that there would be time later for me to feel you up. You promised!"

Her statement almost made Ron stumble out of his smooth gait but he regained control a moment later and looked over to Shego and Kim.

"Sounds like a lot has happened since they were dropped off on their side of the island." Shego said showing that she had heard Pat's statement as well.