I don't own these characters; Disney does.

10: The Possible Crew

Kim sat on the pier, dripping wet and a little bruised, but smiling as her bare feet dangled. She was happy to still not only have all of her vital organs, ten fingers, and ten toes, but she also still had most of her hair and eyebrows. God really looked out for her when that black powder exploded and blew her small, lightweight body over forty feet away, she figured. Her boots had not been so lucky, but they were an acceptable loss.

She went into her pocket and checked on the map. It was a little wet, but no worse for wear. It was a good thing the map was not made of paper or she would have been in some serious trouble there.

"God must really be looking out for me," she mumbled. She took this as a sign that she truly had to find whatever this map led to no matter what. The only thing she really lost in that blast was her boots, as she was blown right out of them. She almost chuckled at the thought of her boots empty, but standing and smoking on the dock. Wiggling her toes, she decided to forget the boots. They were probably gone by now anyway, so she would have to buy new ones no matter what.

"So, what's the map to?" a newly familiar voice inquired from behind the redhead, breaking her out of her thoughts.

Kim did not bother looking up, knowing exactly who spoke. With a light groan, Shego sat down next to her. She gave the black-haired pirate a sidelong glance. It appeared God had taken mercy on Shego, too. Aside from some singed hair and the smell of smoke, along with sea, everything looked fine on her, too.

"You made out of iron or something, kid?" Shego inquired, unable to believe her eyes that the redhead was not only alive, but well enough to brood while sitting on pier.

"Tough stuff, that's for sure. You?" Kim countered. From her recollection, Shego was actually closer to the explosion because she stuck the barrel out to block a strike. Shego should be more injured than she was… not that that said much considering her condition.

"I told you, I'm a dragon. A little explosion would never stop me," Shego boasted with a proud smirk on her face. "So, again, where's the map to?" she asked again.

Kim shrugged and ran her hand through her soaking hair. "Not sure. My captain entrusted it to me and I'm going to find out why. Speaking of captains, where's yours?"

It was Shego's turn to shrug. She glanced over her shoulder, as if looking for him, knowing he would not be there. "On his way to jail or in jail, I suspect," she answered. It was what she was led to believe anyway after asking around.

Kim's brow furrowed. "What happened?"

Shego shrugged again and rolled her eyes before leaning back a little, resting her weight on one arm. "Hell if I know. I was getting a noon time bath at the time." She nodded toward the calm ocean. In reality, she knew actually what happened thanks to some brief investigating. She just would rather not think and talk about it.

There had been plenty of witnesses to tell her what happened. When she and Kim hit the water after that explosion, the Navy showed up because of all of the commotion their fight caused. Drakken was an easily recognized pirate with his skin tone and he was arrested on the spot, along with most of the crew, who were in no condition to escape thanks to Kim. Drakken was defenseless without Shego, so it was quite simple for the Navy to take him. Shego was also nowhere to be found considering the fact that her body had a lot of trouble grasping the concept of floating. She was presumed dead at the time. Sad thing, by now the Empire should know I don't go down, not for them anyway. Her crew, she had no clue where to start looking for them and honestly did not care. The person she stuck around for was Drakken and he was definitely gone.

Kim nodded. "That was a good fight. You're a good fighter. You from the East?" The older woman had a somewhat Eastern look to her and her fighting style was definitely from the East. Kim had studied enough martial arts to know that much.

Shego waved the question off. "You're not bad yourself. You're the Red Devil, aren't you?"

Kim flinched at the nickname. She had earned that moniker while hanging out with Betty Blackheart. It was not a name she would ever embrace like most pirates. Hell, even Betty, who was far from malicious like her name implied, enjoyed being known as "Blackheart" and "the Hound of the Sea." Kim would never refer to herself "Red Devil."

"Kim Possible," she introduced herself, holding out her hand.

Shego looked for a moment, like she did not understand the gesture, but then reached out and grabbed the offered hand. "Shego." There was a pause for a moment. "So, you served under Betty Blackheart, Hound of the Sea, huh? What was it like being a sea dog on that ship? Or should I say sea-pup?" A teasing smile lit up her face.

The younger woman chuckled just a bit. "Like nothing I've ever experienced before." She would miss it. I can't believe I'll miss serving on a pirate ship.

"And that's her map, you say?" Shego asked with interest. She had heard tales about the fortune Betty had collected over the years. She was one of the few pirates who had taken over thirty prizes. That was an amazing number of prizes with only one ship. More impressive than that was the fact that all of the prizes held large amounts of swag on it. Some pirates thought Betty had actually taken more like fifty prizes just from the amount of riches she probably accumulated. And, maybe it was fifty if the smaller prizes were added in, or prizes people did not know about.

Kim glanced over suspiciously. "Why?"

"I got no crew and neither do you. But, you got a map and you'll probably need a crew to find whatever goodies it leads to. I'll join up with you," Shego declared. It was in her best interest at the moment since she had nowhere else to go, no crew to return to, and Kim was probably sitting on one of the largest fortunes in pirate folklore.

"You'll join up with me?" Kim echoed with an arched eyebrow. That made it sound like she would be a pirate captain with a crew of one.

"Yeah, I'll join up with you," Shego repeated, wondering if she gave the girl some kind of brain damage in their earlier battle.

Kim shook her head. "I don't have a ship," she pointed out.

The plasma-wielder looked at Kim as if asking if she was serious. The expression in those olive eyes answered that one. Kim was an odd pirate, Shego decided.

"We'll get one," Shego simply said, shrugging a little to show it would not be a problem. Hell, getting a ship might be the easiest thing she had to do all day.

"Yours?" Kim asked in a pressing matter, as if forcing it would make it true.

"We'll get one. Let's go," Shego said with an amused smile. After all, the pier was full of suitable ships. Drakken's was not among them, though. The Navy probably took it with them to make a show of sinking it right before they would let Drakken swing.

Shego marched off before Kim could argue any further. The younger woman hopped up and trotted off after Shego. She strolled next to Shego, only now noticing the woman was taller than she was. She was surprised she had not noticed that when they fought, but the height did not seem to give Shego much of an advantage there. Of course, she took into account she was barefoot now. Shego still wore her heeled boots. Being barefoot also made it slightly difficult for Kim to keep in step with the older woman, but she made sure to stay with her. The cries of gulls and her soles slapping against the rough wood followed them.

Shego scanned the dock, trying to pick out the perfect ship, one she would not be ashamed of being seen on. From what she could tell, it would be a long walk. All the sloops were too small, as if they were nothing more than dingy dinghies. Most of the brigantines looked ready to sink to the depths of the sea for a proper burial. The port was so small and worthless — in her opinion — since there were no ships bigger than the two-mast brigs. Unless, of course, she wanted to steal a Navy vessel, but something told her that Kim might not be quite so open to that idea. Not to mention it would get the Navy after them a lot sooner than they needed.

"Hmm… this one looks good," Shego commented, as she came to a halt in front of what she thought was a worthy vessel. She cringed when she saw the name, but she felt like it was a good ship. Plus, it was empty from what she could tell. They would have to board it to find out if it was as empty as it looked.

"The Flying Monkey?" Kim read the name on the hull and then glanced over at her new crewmate. The name alone told her this was not Shego's ship, but she did not want to ask questions. Maybe she could convince herself this was Shego's vessel if she just did not have any other information to go by. Besides, it was not like she had never stole anything in her life.

Shego shrugged. "We can always change the name of the ship."

"Isn't that bad luck?" Kim asked.

"Are you really that superstitious? Can't be too much since we all know most sailors think it's bad luck to have a woman onboard, as well as a redhead. So, how the hell you ever got on a ship is an amazement in itself and since you're still alive, I doubt you're much bad luck," Shego reasoned. Besides, there was no way in Hell she was going to sail around on "The Flying Monkey."

"I can't be that good of luck. I'm sure you heard what happened to my captain," Kim countered. Not to mention what happened to her fiancé. Maybe she was back luck.

Shego rolled her eyes. "Blackheart had a good run. Most of the Empire was looking for her just for the bounty on her head. Forget about all of the prizes she took that had the whole Navy on her back. They were gonna catch up with her eventually. Now, I think the two of us can run this thing with no problem."

Kim nodded. "Probably." At least, in the beginning she figured the two of them would be able to run the ship, but eventually they would need more people if they were going to be any type of pirate ship.

"Then, let's get to it!" Shego clapped her hands and rubbed her palms together.

The redhead did not object or protest, even though it was clear from the look on her face she did not approve of what they were doing. But, Kim went needed a ship if she was going to follow the map. She would not be able to get a ride everywhere, especially if she needed to get to some place difficult. She did not have the money for that. Making matters worse were the superstitions that sailors carried about women and, as Shego pointed out, redheads. Who the hell came up with the idea that redheads were bad luck anyway?

Shego could sort of understand the idea of redheads being bad luck, considering thanks to Kim, she had lost her crew, captain, and ship. But, she had also gained a ship, a crewmate who was obviously more capable than her entire last crew combined, and a map to a likely fortune that would last her for way more than a few lifetimes. Weighing the scales, she thought she might have hit the jackpot with Kim.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Kim mumbled. She would feel better about it if she knew about the person who owned this ship. Did he deserve what they were about to do?

They scurried up onto the ship and noticed there were no signs of life around. They took that to mean the ship was empty, so they went about the business of taking it. They managed to cast off with just the two of them. Shego took care of any problems that port authorities might have had with them taking a ship while Kim explored around for a moment, wanting to do a much more thorough check than their swift scan.

Coming to the captain's quarters and finding a pile of gold crowns with other coins and gems, she could guess just what type of ship she and Shego had casually floated away with. It made her feel a bit better knowing they had taken a pirate ship. The ship was unlike the last pirate vessel she had the pleasure of being on, though. The captain's quarters lacked the aroma of sandalwood. Instead, it smelled like a farm.

Glancing around the room, just from the few pieces of clothing that were around confirmed for Kim this was not Shego's ship or even her captain's vessel. The garments were a mix of the Empire's style of dress and some clothing from the East. The blend caused her forehead to wrinkle in confusion. Who did this ship once belonged to?

The whole place was dark and brooding. Cloth hung around the room, shifting a bit, giving off the illusion that the room was breathing. The bed was narrow and lacked the fine velvets Betty enjoyed sleeping on. Papers littered the table with no sign of organization. Vivian would have probably fainted if she saw.

Going through a few items left out on the desk at the back of the room, Kim was pretty sure they were on a pirate ship. There was a ledger out that seemed to hold records of a few prizes taken and the amount of swag, but it did not make much sense to Kim. Some of the amounts just did not seem to be in monetary form. It was written in a code, but the code was easy to figure out. Still, things did not add up.

"A slaver? But, this is too small for a slave ship." Kim scowled as she looked around again. If it was a slave ship, she was happy they took it now. Maybe it would slow down the slaver and save a few people the humiliation of becoming something less than human. "Guess he does deserve it."

Deciding she had been below deck long enough, Kim returned to the top deck to check on Shego. The pale woman was at the helm and they were moving into open waters. Kim marched over to Shego and looked out into the sea.

"This seemed almost too easy," Kim commented.

"You just have to know how to get by the lazy-ass officials. A crown here or there never hurts," Shego replied with a shrug.

"Do you know who this ship belongs to?" Kim asked.

Shego blew out a breath. "It's ours now."

"I think it was a slaver's. There are some records in the captain's quarters that looked suspicious. I don't think he was dealing in slaves legally either because he had it all written in code," Kim explained.

Shego sneered. "Then we couldn't have robbed a better retched cur. Nothing worse than a skin-dealer who can't even deal skin in an Empire that allows it."

The redhead agreed with Shego in that sense. She hoped by taking the ship, they had stopped, or at least slowed, the slaver's trade in flesh. How pathetic would the slaver have to be to actually have to deal slaves outside of the law when the Empire allowed slavery? She could not even imagine the horrors his captives had to go through if they were being traded illegally.

"So, keeper of the map, where we headed?" Shego inquired.

"We need to get to the Middleton colony. The map starts there," Kim answered.

Shego nodded. "Easy enough," she stated. "So, until we get there, how did you happen to escape the Naval round up that hit Blackheart and the Global Justice crew?" she asked. She had heard about that particular harsh incident. Naval sailors had been bragging about it as if they had slain the devil himself.

Kim frowned and turned her eyes toward the deck. She did not want to talk about that particular day. Hell, she did not even want to think about it anymore, so she kept her mouth shut.

"Your reputation for fighting and your fighting ability is enough for sailors to tell fish tales about, so I doubt you deserted, but I guess anything is possible," Shego casually remarked.

Kim's face burned bright from anger. "I didn't desert! I didn't want to leave them! They forced this stupid map on me and pushed me away, threatening to kill me if I didn't leave! Anything is possible for a Possible! I could've helped them, but they wouldn't let me!" she hollered at the top of her lungs, roaring over the waves. She threw her hands up to the sky, as if imploring the gods to give her redemption for leaving her captain and crew, her friends, and her sea-family.

Shego blinked. "Anything's possible for a Possible?" she mumbled, unable to figure out what else to say about the outburst.

Kim shook her head. "Family creed," she grumbled under her breath. It was unimportant. She turned away to regain her composure and took a few deep breaths to help calm down.

Shego nodded for lack of a better thing to do. "Interesting…" She did not know what else to say about it. She hated to think the petite redhead was fascinating. The last time she found someone fascinating, she ended up pirating with the laughing stock of the seven seas, even though he paid well. And he might have been an idiot, but he was her idiot. So, far, she was not sure what to make of this Kim Possible.

The conversation was interrupted as they both heard an odd noise over the rumble of the ocean. Their bodies tensed at the same time, letting them each know the other noticed the noise. They did not say anything, but they were both impressed with how alert the other was. They had never met someone like the other. Even with Betty, Kim did not feel almost instant rapport due to natural ability.

"Sounds like footsteps," Kim said.

"You've got ears like a cat, but obviously eyes like a blind man. I thought you searched the ship," Shego pointed out.

"Not all of it. I checked a few cabins, but nothing more. I didn't have the time. I couldn't leave you to just sail off into the sunset, right?" Kim replied.

Shego could not really argue that, but that never stopped her from arguing anything. "A few minutes wouldn't have killed either of us."

"Yeah, and unless their coming up here with the Imperial Navy, I don't think the owner of the footsteps will be killing us either," Kim countered.

And Shego found herself without a retort. Part of her disliked not having a comeback while another part of her was impressed Kim could render her speechless. Of course, she would never admit to either of those things. She started to think she might have picked the right captain for once in her life. I guess there's a first time for everything.

"Hey, what's going on up here? I didn't think we were leaving for another couple of days!" a youthful male voice called, obviously thinking his crew had returned. "And where is everybody else? It's deader than Davy Jones' locker below deck!"

Shego rolled her eyes. "Well, whoever it is, I can guess he's not the sharpest cutlass onboard."

Kim agreed with that. She barely got into a defensive stance for when whoever it was finally wandered up to the poop deck. It did not take long for a little blond head to pop up from the stairs followed by a cream-colored face sprinkled with freckles and innocent brown eyes. Kim dropped the stance for something more casual before the young man even completely made it up to them.

"Hey — whoa!" The blond yelped as soon as he noticed the women were definitely not the usual helmsman and captain. "Who are you?"

Shego only spared him a glance. He was a lanky kid. She was willing to bet that he and Kim were around the same age. He did not look much like a pirate… just like Kim. The fact that he had appeared to have a naked, tail-less, bucktoothed rat hanging on his shoulder only made him look stranger. It did not even give him a menacing appearance like it might have done for another man. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. She was surrounded by people who would never be taken seriously.

"I'm Kim Possible and that's my… uh… friend Shego," Kim introduced them, motioning to Shego with a sweep of her hand. "Who are you?"

"Ron Stoppable. I run the gallery on the ship. Uh, why are you guys here and where's the rest of the crew?" he inquired, glancing between the two women.

"Uh… we sort of borrowed the ship. We need it for a quest," the redhead explained as best she could without sounding like a thief.

Ron's eyebrows curled upward. "Borrowed the ship?" He glanced between the women again and then his mouth dropped open. "Are you two nuts? Don't you know this ship belongs to Lord Monty Fiske? I mean, Monkey Fist?" he screamed, waving his arms around like a crazy duck. He used the proper name first because he used it whenever he was making fun of his captain alone, but he automatically corrected himself to his captain's preferred name in the presence of other people. The last thing he wanted was for Monkey Fist to find out that he referred to him by a name he did not like. That could mean a terrible, terrible punishment.

"Name sounds familiar…" Kim put a hand to her chin as she tried to place the name.

"Crazy noble from the Capital. He set sail a few years ago. He was a privateer, but disgraced himself while out to sea doing something I don't wanna think about. I figure it had to be horrifying from the way people whisper about it," Shego chimed in.

"Sounds like a real gem. Was he involved in slaving?" Kim asked.

"Among other things. The man is dark, I hear," Shego replied.

"Dark isn't the right word. That man is tar," Ron remarked and the bald rat on his shoulder nodded in agreement along with letting out a sound that seemed suspiciously like "creepy."

"Uh… did the rodent just talk?" Shego asked with a wrinkle in her forehead. She really hoped she was not losing it at such a young age. It had been a long day, though, so it was possible her mind decided to check out for a little while.

"Huh?" Ron then turned to his companion. "Oh, this is my best friend, Rufus. I got him on a trip to Africa a few years back."

"So, you've been with Lord Fiske for years then?" Kim asked.

Ron nodded sadly. "Some of the worst of my life. I don't care you guys that are stealing the ship, as long as you take me with you. Sure, Monkey Fist might catch up with us one day, but that's better than being with him right now or having him find me somewhere else. I'm a very good cook. I can guarantee that." He lifted his chin with pride and smiled.

Shego was about to object, but Kim spoke up first. "Sounds good. I can't cook anyway, so we'll probably need a cook. You're hired!" she declared with a smile of her own.

Ron grinned in return and jumped a little in excitement. "Great! I'll get started on the best supper you could ever have!" he promised. This was the best day he had had in years. I only wish… He shook that thought off. He would not give up on that wish, but he was going to appreciate his freedom for the moment and see what these bold ladies were going to do.

The blond young man disappeared below deck. Shego turned her attention to Kim, who was looking out at the ocean. There was a silence between them for a moment.

Shego's eyes watched Ron as he left and then turned to the ocean. "Do you think that was wise?"

"He was sincere. I could see it in his eyes. Besides, we need a cook. I can barely boil water. Even if you can cook, you've got the helm, so it's not like you can tend to pots and steer," Kim pointed out.

Shego nodded. "Fine, but next time don't just accept a crew member on your own. We're pirates, remember? Fair vote and all."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Kim's cheeks burned with a hint of pink. She would have to watch that in the future. "You're right about that. So, do you need me to chart the course for Middleton?"

Shego blinked. "You a navigator?" Her voice was very surprised. She had heard quite about the "Red Devil," but never heard anything about her being a navigator.

"I have training. You keep with the helm. I'll get us on course. And hopefully Ron will have us fed with something that at least resembles food," Kim remarked.

"I hope his bald friend doesn't go anywhere near the pot," the plasma-wielder grumbled.

Kim laughed a little, but she agreed with that hope. Things turned out to work out well for the trio, though. Kim was able to easily get them on course for Middleton and Shego had no problem steering the ship in that direction. Ron brought up stew and biscuits for supper, which the ladies found to be exquisite. For the moment, things were fine between the new friends.

-8-8-8-8-

Next time: the Possible crew grows twice as large with the addition of Monique, Bonnie, and Wade.