Blue Eyes, Shining 9: Reality Happens

Disclaimer/Author's Notes: Kim Possible and all the characters of the show are owned by the Disney Company. The original lyrics to the songs referenced in this story and the music are the property of the respective authors, artists and labels. All other characters can be blamed on the author (he, however, is not responsible for all of their actions at all times, being barely responsible for himself most of the time).

This is a strictly not-for-profit, just-for-fun work.

Enjoy! Please read and review.

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A/N Forward:

They wanted to graduate from high school, but a spaceship and things falling from the sky seem to have other ideas….

Chapter 1 was the guys (Ron, Felix, Mike, and Chip).

Chapter 2 was the ladies (Kim, Monique, Justine, Sarah, and Bonnie).

Chapter 3 was about the ones who aren't graduating this year, or who have already graduated, some multiple times: Wade, Jocelyn, Slim, Betty, Arnold, Rebecca Jane, Warhok and Warmonga, Becky and Jennifer, Fletcher and Stephen, and Nana.

Chapter 4 began to bring all of these people to their convergences, all centered on Graduation at Middleton High School.

Chapter 5 continued to bring all of these people to their convergences, all centered on Graduation at Middleton High School.

Chapter 6 brought players together at multiple convergence points: Graduation at Middleton High School, Yamanouchi, and the Bunker at the Lazy C Ranch in Montana, and the first hammer falls.

Chapter 7 brings Kim and Dr. Drakken together on the Lowardian vessel. The Bunker and Yamanouchi are both under attack, along with the rest of the planet: James Possible is left standing, and Ron takes Shego, literally…that could leave a mark. Some people decide to fight back...

Details are here, in chapter Seven of Reality Happens: 05/25: Operation Kick: One

Thanks again for reading, and please review.

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Chapter 7 – 05/25: Operation Kick: One

--

Frederick woke suddenly when the proximity warning alarm blared.

He unhooked from his hammock and floated to the window: what he saw scared him so much, he almost couldn't understand what he was seeing.

The big ship was shooting out long objects with round tops, and they were all heading down towards Earth, changing course to land on every continent, it seemed.

Now, he knew why his signal was blocked.

He had to do something, but what?

He decided to meditate; Ron had taught him to do that when he was unsure. Hopefully, that would reveal an answer. He grabbed another tube of banana paste, ate quickly, and began to meditate.

--

Shego watched the ship carrying Dr. Drakken fly away, and she had two thoughts:

One: she needed to get off of this island before whomever or whatever was flying that thing decided to come back and bomb the island to eliminate any evidence.

"Dang it, I need Kimmie," she laughed hollowly to herself. "I swore I'd never have that combination of words ever pass my lips again, after a few weeks ago," she said, and then she had her even more sudden and frightening second revelation:

Two: she (shudder) needs both Kimmie and her dad.

She needed the man behind the Kepler: more specifically, she needed the Kepler.

'I need a geek,' she thought to herself, and the thought was enough to make her smile as she turned and headed in a dead run for the hovercar.

She ran to the hovercar, tied up at the dock on the bay, jumped in, and launched it into the air and headed five miles out as fast as she could, then stopped and hovered about 10 feet above the ocean's surface. Only then did she turn back to look.

No explosions: good. She went to the 'back' of the hovercar and found her extra change of clothes she'd stashed. She stripped out of the bathing suit, wiped the last of the green plant formula off before she donned her underwear and jumpsuit. She reached under for the extra pair of gloves and pulled out two packages at the same time, one larger than the other.

She opened the larger package and pulled out one of Drew's blue lab coats: that made her face leak as she wondered what was happening to him.

"Forget it!" she said as she re-folded the coat and shoved it back in the package, putting it back. She slipped on her gloves and flexed her fingers.

"Gotta get back to Middleton and get some help: I sure as heck can't help him from here," she said to herself as she tossed her swimsuit and the packages overboard, headed back to the controls, and re-started her trip back to Middleton.

All she could think about were those blooms that would pop up on his tendrils...

--

The klaxons sounded throughout every level of the Bunker facility at the Lazy C Ranch, and then the voice cut in with the recording that no one ever expected to hear:

"DefCon Zed; I repeat, DefCon Zed: planetary assault underway; I repeat, planetary assault underway.

"All agents to main comm. room; I repeat, all agents to main comm. room immediately."

Lindsey and Will jumped from the bed grabbing clothes and throwing them on as they went. Grabbing boots and their gear, they were running out of Will's room 75 seconds from the time the alarm was sounded.

The ground lurched once, twice, three times, and then a fourth, but the fourth felt different somehow. Will and Lindsey took the stairs, two at a time, up the levels to the first level comm. room.

Will slammed through the doors and started for the nearest station, but he only took five steps before he stopped and stared at the monitors from around the world's news organizations. They all showed the same thing: gigantic war machines, smashing everything in their path.

They weren't like anything from this planet.

"Merde," Lindsey heard come from one of the agents on duty, and she nodded silently.

C. P. Adams slammed through the main door, looking and sounding like he'd finished his third full marathon, and yelled out: "Who's got HQ on the satellite?"

"Satellites are all down, sir: primary, backup, redundants three-through nine, as well," came from a GJ Agent who clearly wasn't ready for alien invasion.

"Have you tried the backup landline/trunk routings, Agent?" C. P. asked while Joss came in behind him, almost as flush.

"No, sir," the young male agent's voice cracked. "Trying them now, sir," he continued, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he reconfigured the communications routing and slammed the enter key: he wasn't disappointed this time, and the screen at his desk flashed "ACCEPT" with the Global Justice logo and then began to snap a picture into place.

"Montana Bunker / Headquarters private circuit connected, Jason, and Ive got Commander Adams here for the Director," Jeremy smiled as the voice and data connection begin to resolve.

"C. P.!" Betty called out from the harried surrounding in G. J. Headquarters, and her image appeared on the monitors around the Bunker. "Execute GJ Plan Zed-Star-Zed-Hombre-One, Authentication Zeta-Zeta-Zata-Omega-Niner-Zeta, weapons release infinity-and-beyond," she forced a smile, and Will gasped.

"We've got two confirmed on the ground here, Betty, and I anticipate at least two more," C. P. stated.

"Why?" Will asked.

"I'm betting that they're targeting power generation, power consumption and communication locations, right, Betty?"

"That's why ZSZHO is going into place, Senior Agent Du."

Betty stared into the camera: "You have the con in Montana, Commander Adams. Good luck, and good hunting, C. P., old friend: I know you'll make me proud," and Betty cut the signal with the wave of a salute.

"What's ZSZHO, Dr. Adams?" Joss asked, and Will turned and looked at the young woman who had out-shot him earlier.

"We're going solo, Miss Possible, because there are no other alternatives," C. P. replied. "We are to engage the enemy by any means necessary and report at 24-hour intervals until this is resolved, or..." his voice trailed, and he held a weak smile.

Joss was quiet for a few moments, and C. P. looked worried, but she then looked C. P in the eyes:

"Any means necessary, or any means 'Possible?" Joss smiled wickedly, and C. P. nodded: he'd seen an older version of that smile only a few months before.

"Do you ride, Dr. Adams?" Joss asked, and Lindsey laughed as Will groaned. C. P. nodded, and Joss grinned once again.

"You need to come with me to Level 2, Commander: ah need to git you some toys from Daddy's 'big boy toy chest:' some thangs ah think you'll really lak," Joss turned and sprinted toward the stairs, pulling out her access badge as she ran to open the stairway door to head downstairs.

C. P., Lindsey, and Will followed Joss through the stairwell door to see her leap onto the banister and surf down to the first landing. As the banister ended, Joss launched herself toward the wall; she used her legs like a spring to absorb the impact, then channeled it as she pushed off the wall to again fly toward the banister and land on it to continue surfing down to Level Two: her dad's laboratory. She landed perfectly and waited for the threesome to join her, and she smiled.

"Let's get in: Wade-C: access, please."

"Certainly, Sweet Tea: voice print authentication confirmed," and Joss placed her palm on a spot on the door. "Palm print match confirmed: live palm, and print match confirmed." Joss looked up into the ceiling, and a beam scanned her face. "Face print, and optical scanner recognition confirmed," and the locks drew back, and the door swung open. "Enter, Miss Possible," Wade-C said, and three thin targeting red laser beams suddenly appeared. The dots centered on each of her accomplices' chests, but they disappeared as quickly as they had first appeared. "Welcome, Commander Adams, Supervising Agent Du, Commander Peterson," Wade-C replied as the first lights came on inside the room.

"Welcome to Daddy's 'big boy toy box,' y'all," Joss smiled as the light continued to expand to cover the entire, vast room.

"Mother McCrea," Will whispered, complete with Irish brogue, and Joss chuckled.

"Will, I didn't know you were Irish," she replied with more than a hint of humor in her voice.

"Too many years in Catholic elementary schools, Miss Possible," he replied, and he heard her growl. "Sorry: Joss," he corrected himself, and Lindsey giggled.

Joss placed her face against a reader, then a palm, and the door opened with a 'whoosh,' revealing...

"Get your toys here, folks," Joss called like a carny barker as she tossed out the first pole with two heads on it, and C. P. caught it. He looked it over and smiled.

"This looks like one of Drakken's newest power wands," C. P. commented, turning it end-over-end.

"There's a good reason, Commander Adams." Joss replied as she continued to toss poles out for Lindsey and Will to catch and stack.

"C. P., please, Miss Possible," he replied, and Joss turned and mirrored Cousin Kim, right down to the eyebrow twitch.

"Only if it's Joss, Commander Adams," she smirked, and C. P. was convinced that what she displayed was somehow genetic.

"Certainly, Joss," he smiled, and she smiled back.

"And, you'd be right: Dr. D left a whole mess of these up here when he tried to mess with those scientists' minds with those 'silly hats' of his, and Daddy, Tornado, and I collected them all before y'all came up and pick up his henchmen."

"Please, Miss Possible," a voice came from the back of the room. "Do not incriminate me in the actions of you and your father: I was, after all, only the getaway driver."

"Greetings, Commander Adams," the voice materialized, and Tornado came from the back of the laboratory. "Someday, after all of this is over, and over a tall glass of your special sweet mint tea," Tornado whinnied a laugh, "you'll have to tell me all about your adventures 'Down Under,'" he finished as he nodded to C. P. C. P. grinned and nodded his approval.

"Commander Peterson: your reputation, and indeed, your beauty, both precede you: welcome," Tornado bent a knee toward Lindsey, and she smiled.

"Will," Tornado barely acknowledged his existence.

"Tornado, confirm voice print and override protocols Slick-1, Slick-2, and Slick-3. Verbal authorization Andrea Jocelyn Possible voice print match."

"Voice print and verbal authorization confirmed. Protocols overriden, Miss Possible," Tornado stood, and 6 other creatures appeared, three on each side.

"Access full fusion power recharge capability," Joss said, "arm all energy discharge capabilities, including the Bunker defenses, and set security access to all Global Justice personnel on the premises in security database."

"Even him?" Tornado nodded toward Will, and Will gulped.

"Yes, Tornado, even him," Joss laughed. "Besides, Will's already apologized," and Tornado's demeanor changed.

"I am very sorry, Agent Du: I, like you, am protective of my family and my charges. Please accept my apology."

"None required, Tornado," Will smiled, all the while thinking to himself 'I'm talking to a horse: it's neither alive nor named 'Ed,' and it didn't call me 'Wilber,''' he chuckled inside.

"You may need these, too," Joss tosses a box each to Will, Lindsey, and C. P. She opened hers and clipped two wrist grapplers on, and grinned when she shot a line from one of them into the air, directly above her head, and she rose up toward the ceiling as she added;

"Cousin Kim never tried this, but I was a huge 'WebGirl' fan from the comics, so," she shot the second wrist grappler forward about 20 feet from first, and she released the first and reeled it in as she swung to the second. She repeated the fire/release motions around the ceiling as Lindsey laughed and sang the 'WebGirl' song.

--

"I'm ready," Esther called out.

"I'll be out in a sec: I had to get my stuff from the car," Sarah called from the other stall.

Esther looked at herself in the mirror and smiled.

"Not bad for an old broad," she said with a twinkle in her eyes.

"What old broad?" Sarah asked with a laugh as she opened her stall door and stepped out.

Esther turned, and the two ladies looked each other over with a warrior's eye and smiled. The ladies bowed imperceptibly at each other, and they then grinned. Each grabbed their bags, and they headed out of the bathroom and out of the school.

"My car ok?" Sarah asked, and Esther nodded.

"I assume that you know where Wade lives," Esther stated as Sarah unlocked the car doors. The silence of the night was punctuated by the sound of the machines delivering destruction and the occasional scream.

"Like, next door," Sarah laughed as she fired up the engine, and it immediately died.

"We'll have to hoof it," Sarah said, and after removing their bags from the back seat, they began to walk.

"Not for long," Esther said after a block: she pointed to a car and walked over to it. She opened the door, reached under the dash for a few moments, and the car started.

"You drive, Sarah," Esther smiled as she walked around to the passenger side and opened the door. Sarah was still standing outside of the car with a shocked look on her face, but she got in and laughed.

"That takes care of that," Esther smiled as Sarah put the car into drive and headed home.

"I guess it runs in the family," Sarah laughed.

"What, dear?"

"The 'she can do anything' line," Sarah laughed as she crossed the intersection, dodging the abandoned cars in the road.

"Sarah, where are your parents?" Ester asked after a few moments of silence.

"Still there: they and my brothers and sister are in the gym," Sarah said as she floored the accelerator.

"Did you get a chance to talk to them before we left?"

"I told them I loved them, if that's what you mean, Mrs. Possible," Sarah fought to keep her tears back: this scared her way more than Shego ever did, and that was only a few weeks back.

'Well, maybe my stomach won't glow green this time,' she thought, and the thought made her giggle audibly.

"That's good to hear," Esther smiled in the darkness.

"What?"

"You laughing, Sarah: you've been through this before, and you were replaying something: I could tell. You're scared, and you don't know what's going to happen."

"How did you know, Mrs. Possible?" Sarah whipped around an abandoned vehicle and turned off the major road into the residential area.

"It's Esther, Please, Sarah," Esther laughed. "After all, we're about to fight together, and I promise you that I'll go down before you will. It's the least I can do for the young woman who helped save my granddaughter's life," Esther smiled sadly, and Sarah's head whipped around to stare.

"You…you know?"

"Honey, big bump ahead," and Sarah's eyes went back to the road immediately: she dodged the huge tree limb in the road and turned onto her street, killing her engine and coasting to a stop in front of her house.

"Stealth approach: very good, dear," Esther smiled as they left the car. They each grabbed their bag and headed for the door.

Sarah unzipped her bag as she walked and clipped her stun guns onto her belt, and she watched Esther reach into her own bag and pull out a folded staff that she tucked into her belt.

"Wade's?" Ester asked softly, and Sarah pointed to the front door on the house next door.

The two went to the front door, and Sarah noted that it was open. She held up her finger to her lips, and Esther understood. They entered silently and they followed the sounds and the soft light glow coming from a room that Esther assumed had to be Wade's.

Sarah and Esther flanked the door, and Sarah pushed the door quietly open.

They both looked in and saw a slender woman holding a flashlight, shining it onto a desk-

"Monique?" Sarah called, and Monique lifted her head and shone the flashlight back at the two women.

"Sarah? Mrs. Possible? What are you two doing here?"

"'We should ask you the same question, Monique,' Esther asked, and Sarah was looking at Monique and notice that she had changed clothes: she wore dark brown slacks and shoes that looked like they had kicked butt recently.

'No silk frock for this fashion fighter,' Esther laughed inside.

"I'm getting the wrist grapplers that Wade showed me a few weeks ago, before you two," she nodded toward Sarah, "disappeared, along with Kim, Ron, and Kim's brothers.

"Wade added me to his emergency program, just in case something happened. He activated it remotely before I came over here, and Wade-A just finished showing me where 'the goodies' were all hidden."

She grinned wickedly and hit a light control on Wade's desk, and the room was lit. "Wade was also working on some 'surprises' for Kim that he thought I could use," and Monique palmed the desk. A door opened in the wall, revealing a cabinet. Monique reached in and pulled out three large bags from the cabinet, and Sarah realized that she didn't know everything about Wade. That was when Sarah noticed the covered pouch on Monique's hip.

"I never noticed that before," Sarah smiled as she took one of the bags offered from Monique, pointing at the cabinet door. "What has he been working on, this time?"

"Remember that 'math freak' that Ron and Kim fought?" Monique asked, and Sarah nodded. "Well, he had those marbles that he tossed that would dissolve what they touched. Wade took the idea and 'ramped it up' a notch or two," Monique grinned. "These little 'jewels', when they hit something and break open, will eat thru anything faster than Rufus through a crate of Gouda," Monique added with a laugh as she loaded several of the 'pellets' into a side pouch she was wearing and hooked one bag to her belt and loaded the other into an air pistol she removed from the covered pouch on her belt; the pistol looked like it had spent several months working out with Midas.

"Where'd you get the belt, Monique?" Sarah asked, and Monique laughed.

"Remember when Kim went to Milan? Well, I picked up some actual original ideas from the Fashionistas when I wasn't getting punched and kicked covering Kim's back," she laughed when Sarah and Esther both stared over imaginary eyeglasses and furrowed their brows. "Well, I was doing the 'Ron' thing," she explained, and Esther laughed, "and it worked. Anyway, I listened to Kim and 'played to my strengths' when I fought them: I 'accessorized,'" she smiled as she reached back into the cabinet and removed three of Wade's wrist grapplers, clipping on one herself.

"Here," she tossed a grappler to Sarah, and Sarah caught it and clipped it on.

Monique then tossed the other one to Esther, and Esther caught it and deftly clipped it on her wrist. Esther bowed to Sarah, and Sarah bowed back, her head rising with a smile on her face.

"So, that's where Kim got it from," Monique laughed, and Esther nodded.

"Let's go kick some," Monique un-holstered her weapon, Sarah did the same to hers, and Esther snapped a Bo staff together.

"A Bo staff?" Sarah asked, and Esther nodded and smiled.

"With a kicker or two," Esther added. "A gift from an old friend in the military," she smiled as one end flashed red.

Esther looked at the two young women, about to go where no one had gone before, and her eyes teared up a bit.

"I'm so proud of you two," she said, and Sarah and Monique both smiled, then laughed.

"We've got your back, Esther," Sarah held one of her stun pistols in a salutary position.

"Def," Monique said as she did the same.

"For Kimberly Ann, and for Gaia," Esther said as she bowed to both of them.

"Gaia's gonna be mad, and you don't f-… fool with Mother Earth," Monique laughed as she closed the cabinet door, slipping the final bag into a backpack that she then slipped onto her back.

"Won't that be dangerous, dear?" Esther asked.

"Wade made it," Monique replied, and Esther nodded.

"It's showtime," Esther held her hand out, and the two fighters took it and squeezed. "'I've got your back,' as my granddaughter would say," she laughed, and the threesome left Wade's house.

--

"Got one!" Sarah yelled as she fired the first dart, and the electrical charge went all the way up the pod's leg.

"Got one!" Monique yelled as she fired her first pellet, and the pellet struck the leg, stuck, and began to eat through it within seconds, and the pod began to wobble.

"BACK!" Esther yelled as she grabbed the ladies and pulled them into a culvert, and the pod fell with a CRASH!

"We got lucky, the first time out of the gate: stay sharp," Esther called as she pulled them to their feet.

"Wow, Nana, you're one bad grand-mother-" Monique laughed as Esther glared at her and grinned inside.

Esther took her staff, pushed it against the top of the red-topped pod, and pressed a button. The part she touched exploded silently into shards of frozen metal, and Esther pushed them aside after she donned gloved.

"Help me, girls: let's get this top off, stat," and the threesome removed the top cover to reveal…glass fibers.

"No life in here, at least none that we know," Esther said as she pulled a mass of the fibers out, and the pod immediately stopped its twitching and the lights flowing in the fibers went dim.

"Why the gloves?"

"Super-cooling agent: I wasn't sure if it would work on alien material, but it looks like it does, as do Wade's pellets: we were really lucky, so let's not get cocky," Esther dropped the mass of fibers and picked up her staff.

"Let's go find some more," Esther smiled.

"That shouldn't be hard," Sarah smirked.

"Word, GF," Monique laughed, and the threesome headed out for more.

--

"Who is in charge here?" Dr. Drakken asked as he floated in the halls, on the way to...somewhere.

'Just who's in charge of this sitch?' Kim thought as she floated in different halls on the way to...somewhere.

"I got nuttin'" came from her mouth as she looked down.

"Prisoners will be silent!" The voice behind each of them commanded, and their forward motion ceased.

Their bodies were turned to face rearward, and they each saw a handheld device floating in the air...with no hands holding it.

"Now, do you understand?" the voice spoke from the handheld device.

"We have control, and you will be silent!." The voice commanded.

'Ron...' was Kim's only thought as she was turned around and facing forward again. She began to move slowly, but her thoughts were of the man who had tried to save her from wherever 'here' was.

'He held my hand as long as he could,' she thought as her tears began to flow.

'I never had the chance to tell Ron I was scared about everything in front of us: college, marriage, kids,' she smiled. She'd never seriously considered kids with Ron until that exact moment, and the image of three little red-headed tykes with big ears running in the back yard suddenly popped into her mind, and she giggled inside:

'He really does care: heck, he was willing to risk it all, one more time, for me...that's happened to me a lot, this year,' she suddenly realized.

'If it wasn't the Tweebs, it was Ron, Wade, Shego,' she laughed at the last one, 'even Monique and Sarah have saved me,' she thought as she continued to float forward.

'What happened to me: I could do anything, but what happened to me, this year?

'Is it that the sitches have outgrown me, or the villains are even more deadly? Have I lost it, that part of me that makes Kim Possible 'Kim Possible'?

'Is it because I said 'yes' to Ron when he asked me to marry him?'

'What's happening to me?'

'Am I getting soft? Is it time to hang it up and concentrate on college, life with Ron,' that made her smile, but then her smile froze as she floated up through the hatch, entering the control room, and she saw Dr. Drakken floating next to her.

'Drakken? And, Me?'

"Kim Possible!" Drakken exclaimed with glee.

'Game on, GF: Game on,' she thought, and she pushed all of her thoughts to the back of her mind.

--

Yori saw the first victim, a young student that was stabbed by the leg of a pod. The pod's leg carried her body two steps before she saw Hirotaka run out and grab the victim, pulling her from the leg as it went up.

'Remain centered,' she thought, while the other part of her wanted to retch.

Two more pods landed, smashing more living quarters on the campus that had just been rebuilt.

'Load-san will not be happy,' she thought, and then she wondered just what happened to him, Kim-sama, Ron-san, and her dream lover from the restaurant.

--

The young woman was subbing at the register tonight: the regular was graduating, tonight.

'Well, maybe not tonight,' she thought as she saw Ned come out of the back room.

'He's so darn cute,' she thought once again, 'and I'm soooo lucky that he asked me to cover tonight: I wanted to spend more time with him, but I could never tell him that directly,' she smiled inside, but then Ned's next words shocked her to her very core.

"Get everybody out of here!" Ned commanded, and people turned and started at him in shock.

"People, go home! There's no telling what those things are going to do, so you need to take care of your families," Ned yelled again as he grabbed a long-handled push broom and turned it into a crowd control device, forcing his patrons out of the restaurant.

"Wow, Ned, I didn't know you had it in you," the young woman at the cash register giggled.

"You all are next," Ned put the broom down on the top of the counter and sat on it.

''Ned' sitting on the counter,' she thought: 'this must be the end of the world.'

"Take all you can carry, guys: you don't know where your next meals are gonna come from, it they are gonna come at all," Ned laughed as he hopped behind the counter and produced Grande-sized bags that he saved for Ron's orders.

"Ned, aren't you going to get in trouble?" she asked, and he shook his head 'no.'

"Besides, what are they going to do: fire me after these creatures destroy everything?" he laughed as he loaded bags with chips, salsa packets, travel-ready containers of the magic elixir 'Naco cheese,' and everything that was in the warming bins.

He ended up with groups of three bags each for his five employees, and he handed them each their collection.

"Ned, what about you?" the young woman asked. She had never told Ned that she had a bit of a crush on him, but at this instant he seemed even more powerful than Ron Stoppable himself.

"There's plenty of food here: I'll cook up some things for myself and lock up before I head out.

"Now, go: 'Via Con Carne,'" he laughed as he shooed them toward the front door.

"'Go with meat?'" one of his employees laughed. "Shouldn't it at least be 'Via con Queso?'"

"I'll see you soon," Ned promised, and the young woman dropped her bags, grabbed Ned, and hugged him.

"You take care, you hear me?" she admonished as she pulled back, and Ned was surprised to see tears on her face. "I think you're cute, Ned," she whispered as she squeezed his hand and, quick as a mouse, grabbed her bags and followed the others out the front door.

"Bye, Nancy," Ned called as she turned and waved at him before heading down the street. "I love you all," Ned said as he locked the front door for, what he hoped, was not the last time. He turned off the dining area lights and the interior signs, and then he headed back to the freezer and pulled out the last of the taco meat: there wasn't much, only a few pounds, ever since Corporate had gone to 'just-in-time' shipping after Drakken's takeover, but there would be enough for him.

"Not enough for Ron, but plenty for me, all by myself," he laughed, but his mind went back to the raven-haired beauty who had occupied his thoughts for the last few months...Yori, that was her name.

"I wonder where she is...I wonder if she made it...I wonder if she ever thought of me, let alone thought of me like I thought of her," he smiled as he plopped the six pounds of beef onto the grill and turned it up on high, searing the meat and sending the steam into the air.

He heard a cracking sound above his head, and then he heard and felt nothing.

--

"Why is it never Cow 'n Chow?" Ron yelled as they turned away from the smashed Bueno Nacho, a pod leg having just stabbed its way into Ron's heart even deeper as it crashed into the sombrero and crushed the building.

'First, Kim, now this: is there anything else worse that can happen to me?' Ron thought with a bitter pill. He never imagined that there might be anyone there: after all, the lights were out.

--

"NED" Yori screamed and doubled over in pure agony.

"What happened, Yori?" Sensei was at her side in an instant, but she lifted her head with a look on her face that Sensei had only seen once before from any student at Yamounichi.

"no one hurts my FRIENDS!" Yori's voice started small and grew until the word 'friends' was a shout, and she sprung into action. She took an impossible leap to the top of the pod and ripped off a portion of the upper red top, and she shoved her hands into it and pulled up a mass of glass-like fibers.

The creature immediately ceased all motion.

--

'Not more!" Shego thought as she stood outside of the Middleton Space Center.. She heard the screaming, and she looked down to see Ron and James grab at the gate, and she watched the creature smash the gate open. The two ran inside, but the creature dropped one leg, then two, then three and four, and Shego was shocked to see a force-field corral form, holding the men inside. She saw James grab a bar and strike at the fencing...

"Good Garden Party, that's hot!" James yelled.

'Geek can't even curse right,' she laughed inside, but she needed him, so she fired up her hands and jumped into the fray.

"Wait a minute...I know that Glow!" came from Ron Stoppable's mouth as he watched Shego dive into action.

--

"Good plan, good plan," Shego smiled, "one twist," and she shot twin finely-aimed plasma shots: one at Ron, and one at James. They both fell without a word.

Shego looked at Ron, picked him up, and strapped him into the Kepler-2's co-pilot seat. She came back out and began to remove the spacesuit from James, but she couldn't help but laugh when she got to the-

"Black boxers, with pink hearts? Oh, James, you naughty, naughty man," Shego laughed as she remoed the suit. "Just what were you planning tonight?" she asked the unconscious man as she lay him back onto the ground and slipped the spacesuit on over her jumpsuit. She checked the oxygen tanks and donned the helmet before she moved James out of the flight line and headed into the cockpit.

"At least he didn't change things much," she said as she engaged the same pre-flight routine that she remembered seeing Motor Ed do, but she shouldn't have worried: after the first switch, the pre-flight was automatic.

"Wha...what happened" Ron asked as he woke.

"SHEGO! Where is Mr. Dr. P?" Ron yelled, but she had strapped him tight into his she seat, so his movements were limited.

"Out there," she pointed as the banging began. She turned and saw the man in his undershirt banging on the cockpit widow.

"Why?" Ron asked.

"This isn't the plan!" James Possible banged on the window.

"I needed the suit," Shego replied as she throttled up the engines, and James jumped away as the trailing fins from the Kepler-2 came at him.

James stood and watched as his rocket hurtled into space, piloted by one of his daughter's arch-enemies and containing her fiancée.

"Please, take care of my Kimmie-cub," he whispered.

"James," a voice he knew came from behind him, and he turned to see Anne standing with a smirk on her face.

"I see you were wearing the 'lucky boxers, " she smirked; "were you planning something tonight?" She smiled, and James fell in love with her one more time.

"Not an alien invasion," he replied honestly, and he held out a hand. She reached forward with one, then she threw herself into James' arms and began to sob.

"James, our Kimmie," she started, and James held her head in his hands and let her cry onto his undershirt.

"She'll be fine, Anne: Ron's going to get her, and Shego's going with him to bring Drew back, too," he replied as she continued to cry..

"James, I'm scared: is this going to be the end of the world?"

James took Anne's face in his hands, and he stared into her tear-soaked eyes. He kissed her cheek and told her, honestly:

"I don't know, Anne: I just don't know," and Anne shuddered.

"I thought someone had a plan when you came out in that jacket, blouse, and the necklace, Anne," he grinned.

"James, I don't want to die without you in my arms." she looked up into his eyes.

"Can we go to our spot?" She begged, and he replied by picking her up in his arms and carrying her silently through the Space Center and out onto the grounds to their spot, by the stream, in the back.

James lay her on the ground, on her back, and Anne sat up and removed her jacket, revealing the silk blouse and skirt. He took her jacket and placed it on the crook in the tree, and he turned back to look at her. She tossed her blouse into the wind and grabbed James, kissing him passionately as they went to the ground…..

--

Steve Barkin drove like a madman, through the fallen poles, around the crashed cars, and, in some cases, over crushed objects.

"That's why we took my MumVee-2," Steve laughed as Justine grabbed the handholds inside the car as the vehicle bounded over another hole in the road. "Your car wouldn't take this pounding, and I doubt that you've ever driven in combat conditions before, Miss Flanner."

"It's Justine, Mr. Barkin, please." Justine cringed as another they hit another bump coming into the warehouse district. Amazingly enough, there was little evidence of the machines here.

"Here," she pointed at the building, and Steve whipped the car parallel to the building, driver-side to the world.

"Why?" Justine asked.

"You always protect non-combatants, Miss- Justine," Steve smiled as she opened her door and got out. 'She's sturdier than I thought,' Steve mused in his mind as he got out and headed for the nondescript door that Justine was opening with what appeared to be 'fun' security: palm reader, optical print reader, and combination lock.

She swung the door open and stepped inside, motioning for Steve to enter as she hit the master light switch.

The MICO-1 was as she left it: collapsed on the floor.

"Well?" Steve asked, and Justine motioned for him to follow her to the command console. They stepped in, she closed the door, and she activated the scale servos.

"Great Barkin's ghost," Steve whispered as he rose to 20 feet in the air.

"Well?" Justine asked after she ran the MICO-1 through a few moves, and Steve was speechless for a few moments, but then he grew a very, very wicked grin.

"You didn't name it the 'Mike,' did you, Justine?"

"No, this is the MICO-1," Justine blushed.

"Good," Steve laughed. "I may be in Administration, and I may be old," and Justine snorted, "but that doesn't mean I don't care about my students or know what's going on. I was happy to find out that you and Possible made up over the summer, and I was especially happy to see you and Mike together: you'll be a great couple, Miss Flanner.

"Now," Steve rubbed his hands together, "just how sensitive are those hands on MICO-1?"

"We can hold a fly without crushing, if that's what you mean, Mr. Barkin," Justine replied.

"Steve, please; if we're going to be fighting together, it's Steve, and that's exactly what I mean. Do you think it could hold C-4 without setting it off?"

"Well, D'oi," Justine laughed, and Steve's wheels began to turn as Justine lowered them to the ground.

--

Shego was piloting as Ron talked when the Lowardian ship suddenly came into view.

" Okay," Shego said, trying to keep up her facade of bravery, "I take it back. That is scary.

"All right: we need to figure a way in," she said, and Ron spoke with the confidence of a regular viewer of Space Passage.

"Uh, easy," he replied: "look for the garbage hatch."

" Oh, yeah. I'm sure they have a garbage," as she spoke, a hatch opened, and bags began to shoot out. "Ehh..."

"And the first booyah in space: a Booyah!" Ron exclaimed, but Shego ignored him as she concentrated on the garbage bombs now heading directly toward the Kepler-2.

"Hang on!" she shouted as she began evasive maneuvers.

Ron immediately complied.

"Not to me!" Shego yelled, and Ron took a few moments before he released them.

'Wow, that was amazing, and even through the suit,' he thought with an inside smile that would have had him fried if Shego had seen it. 'I remember first seeing pictures of her, and I remember telling KP that Shego was now wanted in another country, but I never imagined that I would ever get that close to her without getting toasted to a crisp.

'That,' Ron grinned inside, 'was almost worth this trip; well,' he grinned inside again, 'almost.'

'Sidekick's got some grabby hands on him, but they're soft, too: I always wondered what Kimmie saw in that big goofball, but the fact that he's here coming after her, even as scared as he's admitted, tells me he's waaay deep in love with her.

'That was fun for a moment,' Shego smiled inside as he swerved between the last of the bags and headed for the hatch.

'That was fun,' Rufus thought. 'She's softer than Kim, even if she is a villain. I could nap between her and Ron,' Rufus grinned inside.

'But, she'd probably eat all of the Muenster, so that would tear it,' he thought as the Kepler came to a stop inside the Lowardian craft, and Shego opened the hatch. She peeled Rufus off of her spacesuit, and he looked up and grinned.

"Hi," he squeaked, and she laughed as she tossed him to Ron.

"Lets go find Dr. D and Kimmie," she hit her suit controls, and she rose into the air. Ron followed her off the ground to a hover, and the three rescuers headed out of the hatch, flying down the hallway.

--

Coming next:

Details are coming in chapter Eight of Reality Happens: Operation Kick: Two

Thanks for coming along with me on this ride, and please review.

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