It was funny to Kim Possible about how only certain details registered to her. The fact that what was physically before her was a thousand times more horrible than the image that she had been shown by the bus monitor—but she realized it was because she could see the details—

She was aware that her boyfriend had literally fallen to his knees behind her, making strange gurgling noises, but her concentration; her focus was on what was before her . . . not because she wanted it to. The exact opposite was the truth . . . for she could NOT tear her eyes away—

And it was the details; the matted, crazy insane hair that encompassed his entire head and reminded her of cartoon caricatures she had looked at in history class of mad European anarchists. His exposed skin, so much of it visible due to the shredded clothing that hung uncaringly from him. That skin, almost gray where it could be seen under the dirt, filth and blood—for there were wounds too numerous to count, probably from sharp edges and corners, all uncared for, many infected and festering—

But it was the drawn features that were only hinted at under the mob of hair—even more emaciated than Monique or even Felix, with eyes so sunken back into the skull—

Eyes that held—

Kim couldn't even force a swallow when her eyes met those—

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Inside the body of He Who was once Drew Lipsky/Doctor Drakken, a feral intelligence looked out at those of whom he had been waiting soo long, an emotion akin to vindication exploding throughout him. Without word or gesture, the hand resting on the right control box slid over and pressed the third button—

And then he screamed silently to himself—revenge—fulfillment—the glorious realization that a plan that had finally reached its completion—

And self-fulfillment realized by the looks of The Two—those who were ALL THAT! THEY now knew the truth! They had seen in him, everything they needed to know—

THIS WAS THE MOMENT—LONG PLANNED! HE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR SO LONG. HE HAD DENIED ENTERENCE TO ALL OTHERS, BUT MADE IT EASY FOR THESE TWO TO ENTER SO THAT THEY WOULD BE THE FIRST TO KNOW about the END!

THEY—HIS SPECIAL FRIENDS/FOES—WOULD BE THE FIRST TO UNDERSTAND AND REALIZE—

And the horror and understanding on the Those Two's faces told him that THEY KNEW THAT HE HAD WON!

He screamed . . . ALOUD!

An inhuman scream of rage and triumph—

Then—He Who was once Drew Lipsky/Doctor Drakken collapsed down into the chair, mission completed—

While He Who WAS Drew Lipsky/Doctor Drakken—freed at last from his bondage deep deep inside, screamed a human scream to himself within the shattered psych that existed inside the shattered body and he tried to fight his way back to the surface against that body which was rapidly shutting down—

Drew knew he had only moments—

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At the moment of the scream, Kim had dropped into an instant fighting stance, a reaction of pure instinct . . . because all she really wanted to do was turn around and run—

Ron had started to do his mad-running-skills, but then realized . . . where could he run too? So he turned back about, steeled himself for—

Then the HORROR in the chair collapsed like a popped balloon. The couple stared for maybe half a second—

Their heads then flicked to each other . . . disbelief/denial/disorientation flashed like a radio beam between them—

Their heads turned back to the collapsed form—

Ron felt as if his usual self-congratulator dance/verbal Booya wanted to well up inside him . . . but it didn't because after all the buildup . . . this couldn't be all there was—

Kim felt . . . amazed . . . relieved . . . SCARED . . . because it was almost as if the . . . thing before them had suicided after doing a bellow of victory—and she didn't even want to think what that might mean.

"I—I—is he . . . d—d—dead?" Ron managed to shutter out.

"I—I don't know," Kim managed in reply, her face going totally grossed out when the thought occurred to her that she should reach in to . . . it? him? whatever it was? to check for a pulse.

Then the two teens rightly jumped clear off the floor as the towering device over to their right with the huge coil atop of it, suddenly burst into a Christmas tree of colored lights and emitted a deep, throbbing but ominously growing 'hummm'. The coil itself started to sputter and snap with electrical discharge—

The two teens eyes again met, wide-eyed . . . wide-mouthed—

But in moments—

Kim and Ron both felt their karma's, shocked out of kilter by the physical encounter with Drakken 'snap' back into place. Shooting a glance at the now collapsed form in the chair and fervently hoping that it wasn't an imminent threat, Kim already had her Kimmunicator in her hand—

"Wade!" she started—

"Working on it," came the response as her young friends fingers moved faster than sight. "But it may take a while. This is a total unknown above and beyond the other energy that was first present so we have to start from scratch and I don't have access to a lot of my information sources! What's going on with Drakken?"

Kim swallowed against her nausea brought on by the question as she glanced back at the horrible form. "I—I think . . . but I really don't know Wade. He just—" she didn't even want to finish the sentence.

"I'm getting only minimal life signs Kim," Wade said trying to sound reassuring. "So unless he's . . . got an outside source or device to spark him back up—"

"Don't even say that Wade," Ron managed with shivers in his voice. "He's already worse than Frankenstein. We don't need to add any additional mental pictures—"

"Whatever is in there with you is drawing so much power," Wade suddenly changed the subject (and sounded grateful for it), "that parts of the city are starting to go dark. Scan it with the Kimmunicator."

Kim waved her Kimmunicator across the device, a grimace coming to her face as both the noise and the static electricity in the air around it grew.

Wade was looking into one of his side screens and after a moment, started shaking his head. "Not a clue," he muttered. His attention came back up to Kim, "I'm going to route this to your dad and those I know at the Science Institute and see if they can help."

"As fast as you can Wade please and thank you." Kim finished. When she lowered her Kimmunicator, she looked back and forth from the figure that use to be Drakken to the machine. Ron had his fingers in his ears against the noise; Kim could feel her hair starting to stand away from her body. What she wished she had right now was the old Drakken, ranting to the moon and above, laying out every detail of his plan and the devices abilities—

At that moment, the lighting about the coil, started to whip around it as if caught up in a tornado. It flashed brighter and now they had to guard their eyes as they did their ears . . . Kim's hair was starting to puff out like a dandelion . . . even Ron's was on end—

Then . . . there was a loud SNAP!

And while all the devices lights and telltales stayed lit up brighter than downtown Tokyo . . . there was a puff of black smoke from the very air around the coil . . . and all the lightning/electricity in the air about them. . . went away—

And all the sound from it died.

Kim and Ron's eyes were locked on the big device, waiting for . . . whatever was—next—

But . . . nothing happened.

No . . . that wasn't quite right. Kim squinted her eyes . . . yes she could just barely see it . . . as the edges of the device were just starting to emit . . . what her eyes could only interpret as a 'black' glow.

And with barely perceptible speed, it was slowly expanding out away from the device into the room.

Again the two teens exchanged looks. By then, the cloud of smoke had drifted over them, sending Ron's hand flying as he sneezed and snorted—

Kim knew the smell well thanks to the Tweebs—

. . . . . . burnt out electrical wiring.

And incredulous look came over her face.

And the 'black' glow continued to slowly expand.

Everything in Kim shouted for her to do something.

She turned, almost as an afterthought, gingerly keeping an eye on the collapsed figure in the chair, stepped carefully over to that figure, nose—face—all her senses screaming at the reek/aura about him. Kim looked at the panels on the chair arms . . .

And for a lack of anything else to do at the moment, tried pushing the buttons on the panel—

"Hey," called her shaking voiced boyfriend, "randomly pushing of buttons is my job!"

Kim flashed him a worried smile. "If it works for my boyfriend, I was hoping that it would kind of pass on to me."

"No go KP," Ron replied with an almost hysterical little chuckle, "us sidekicks have to protect our territory from you hero types."

"This hero type," Kim growled at him as she came away from the figure and over to stand next to him and they both looked at the device—and the ever growing 'black' glow around it, "may be forced to forcibly remind you that you are no longer 'my sidekick', but my partner—" and she put a hand into Ron's, both of them needing the loving contact in this moment.

Kim's eyes then locked on the control panel on the device itself—

"So partner, in your professional button-pusher opinion, which button do I push on it to shut this thing off?"

She felt Ron swallow hard . . . before he managed to say, "the one marked 'off'?"

Kim gave Ron's hand a hard squeeze—then walked away from him toward the device, her eyes locked on the front panel which had several prominent controls—

The Kimmunicator was in her hand again—"a little help here Wade? What is this . . . weird glow and is it dangerous?"

"Kim??" and she was startled by the surprise and sudden worry in the young boys voice, "what are you talking about? I was about to call you back because we all thought you had managed to turn the device off already."

Kim stopped dead in her tracks and managed a, "what?!? Wade why—?"

"Because," he friend told her in an abstract tone as he feverishly worked at his controls, "in the last minute or so, the power going into that building, which as of those same minutes ago had almost totally blacked out Middleton, has dropped off to nothing, zip! And neither I, nor the Global Justice or Government sensors are now picking up anything inside other that your presence. We all thought that you—"

"Wade," Kim managed to keep her voice under control, but fear and disbelief were lurking at the corners of—, "this thing is lit up with more colored lights than what the Tweebs hang on our house at Christmas, and . . . and there's this really, really weird glow coming out of it—"

"Kim," and Wade sounded really worried, "we're not getting any of that."

Kim studied the device and the glow for a minute, noticing now that the 'glow' was now expanding out in 'pulses' instead of a steady rate. She reached a decision.

"Well, if there's nothing there . . . maybe there really isn't anything there. Maybe Drakken blew it again and what I'm seeing is a byproduct left over from this thing going around the bend. There was a pop and a cloud of smoke that smelled like one of Jim and Tim's experiments blowing up."

"Kim," called Ron in horror, "you're not thinking of—"

"We have to make sure," Kim stated with far more assurance than she felt. "Wade, keep an extra close watch on this thing. If anything changes when I get up to it—"

"Good luck," was the only thing that Wade could say.

"Kim?!?" Ron managed although he sounded choked—

"Not so the drama Ron," was her reply, her tone mocking her own internal hesitation. "Lets get this finished so that we can at last get on with our lives." And with that, Kim squared her shoulders and walked into the 'glow'.

And it was like she had walked into the softest, smoothest, most comfortable bed she could ever imagine. In less than a moment, her eyes closed and she felt herself fall into the deepest, most desirable sleep she would ever know.

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"KIMMM!!!!!!!!" Ron screamed at the absolute top of his voice as his girlfriend suddenly collapsed like a puppet with all its strings cut at once.

With a pure spinal/knee-jerk reaction, Ron came off the blocks like a sprinter—

And skidded to a screeching halt as the field of the glow suddenly pulsed out like an onrushing wave. Ron felt the sleep envelope him, felt himself surrendering to it—

And then felt the sequence of impacts going up his body as he fell backwards, falling out of the field . . . or at least his top half . . . eyes going starry as he 'cracked' the back of his head hard on the concrete floor—

But he fought desperately to retain consciousness, assisted by the tearing panic within him as he realized that his legs below the knees were still in the glow . . . and they were so totally numb that it was as if they'd been cut off—

Ron rolled over and frantically clawed at the floor, dragging himself out of the field, feeling the 'life' come back into his legs/feet as he pulled them clear of the glow.

Ron scrambled to his feet, terrified relief flooding through him as he realized that other than intense 'tingling' like that of a limb that had had its blood cut off and had 'gone to sleep' and was now coming back—he seemed to be whole and operational.

But Kim! She was totally inside the thing—unreachable due to the expanding pulse—and what the glow field had done to him in the moments he had been in it—

Kim was dieing!

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"Wade!" MrDrP shouted in alarm.

"I know," the youth shot back, both of them realizing that Kim had totally and completely dropped off their sensors.

The father didn't wait for answers. He was out of the chair, out of the bus, running as hard as he could—

Kimmy-cub!

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Ron frantically looked around. There was no way he could get to Kim without losing himself to the field but there didn't seem to be anything about that would help! With a sudden burst of frustrated rage, he grabbed a wrench off of a table and threw it at the device—

It smashed one of the colored lights but did no other damage.

Then Rufus was climbing up him, chittering like mad! Ron grabbed himself and brought all his focus onto his littlest buddy—

Rufus was pointing down—

Ron saw that the little guy had dragged the end of a spoil of light rope over and was making gestures—

Ron glanced at the rope, his little friend, and the inert body of his girlfriend and he understood—

But—

"Will you be able to hang on?" Ron asked Rufus with sudden new fear, "I don't want to lose you too."

Rufus responded by grabbing Ron's head with both hands and growling—

In moments, Ron had tied a halter around his friends body/shoulders, gathered the necessary slack in the rope . . . and with the Naked Mole Rat molding himself to the shape of a dart—Ron threw him—

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Monique and MrsDrP looked over startled as a male figure hurtled by them, going through the police line behind the armored vehicles—

And it wasn't until them that they realized just who the figure—

"Jim?" MrsDrP called aloud in sudden horror and understanding. She stared for a moment, then gathered herself—

But Monique was already off, sprinting like an antelope, rapidly catching and passing MrsDrP's husband—

And the Rock of the Possible Household, restrained her impulse to follow—as she was the only one not committed at the moment, she knew she had to stay in reserve—

Even as she prayed fiercely that she wouldn't be needed . . . in any of her capacities.

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Ron Stoppable didn't have to hold his breath. He was so scared at this moment that he had stopped breathing. Unbelievably, his toss of his best friend had been right on target, his buddy landing right in the center of his girlfriends back. Now Ron was carefully pulling on the rope, hoping against hope—

Then the rope went taunt . . . and Ron tired to believe what his eyes told him. In the moment before he had entered the glow field, Rufus had opened his jaws wide and had locked them through Mystical Monkey Power muscle control leaving—

And to Ron, despite the distance and angle, it looked like Rufus's large front teeth had in fact hooked into Kim's utility belt—

But could his friend's body stand the stress of dragging Kim's body back across the floor?

Ron knew there wasn't time to dither about it. He had no idea how much time had passed since Kim had gone down and whatever it was, it was running out. Ron set his 'serious face' grimly and started to pull on the line.

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Monique had hit the door of the warehouse running and didn't even slow down as she went through. The wreckages of the probe robots, what looked like blood stains around were it looked as if there had been explosions, none of it mattered to her—

All that mattered was that she was at last doing something! Striking back at a world, a universe that had, and was still, striving to wreak and destroy everything and everybody she loved—

And had almost destroyed her . . . by caging and controlling her. The heady sense of freedom as she had ran right through the line of cops that had been yelling at Kim's dad to come back, the intoxicating thrill of passing MrDrP and leaping into the lead—even though she didn't have a clue of what it was that he was running to or what she would be facing when she got there—

Monique knew that she could die in moments . . . and it didn't matter, for she had taken charge of her life again!

Monique practically jumped into the main area and skidded to a stop—her eyes taking everything in in a moment—

And making her next decision, she leapt forward.

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Ron was sitting on his butt with his legs spread wide to anchor himself, but the tears of frustration were coursing down his cheeks—

He's gotten Kim across more than half the distance . . . a distance that kept increasing even as he pulled her . . . but her body was twisting about as the tugging on her utility belt pulled it farther down her hips, it was slipping, endangering the tenuous hold that Rufus's teeth had on it—

Then Ron almost literally jumped out of his skin as something screaming what sounded like the Middleton Mad Dogs battle cry leaped over him—

Ron's jaw dropped as he realized that Monique had intentionally jumped into the glow field and—

Ron exploded to his feet, thrusting all hesitation and thought aside when he realized just what it was that Monique had done. He reached in—

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James Possible wanted to slow down and carefully check before he plunged into the warehouse but something told him that there wasn't time. So as heedless as the young girl before him, he raced into the darkness inside and was in moments—

What he found dropped his jaw. A machine surrounded by what could only be a quasi-folded flux field of unknown properties—

And deep inside it, was the unmoving body of his daughter—

But also inside it, stretching in from the edge was the body of his daughter's best girlfriend, who looked as if she had a death grip on his daughter's ankles—

And pulling Monique by her ankles, at the very edge of the field, was her daughters boyfriend and partner, steadily pulling the two girls backwards toward safety—

And then the flux field pulsed—expanding outward, engulfing the top half of Ron Stoppable, whose head dropped, forehead impacting with a sharp crack to the floor—

But Ron had somehow managed to maintain his grip on Monique—

Instantly Jim Possible had Ron by his ankles, trying with all his might to pull the absolutely dead weight of three teens without jerking hard enough to break the fragile grips that connected them together.

Easy now Jim, he said to himself. Just like working on an uber-complex quantum cross-relativity equation. A little at a time, not biting off too big a piece at once.

With his concentration focused, like always when in this mode, everything else faded out—

Then he snapped back to reality when the ankles/legs in his hands suddenly started to kick violently. James released then, humping himself up and over to grab Ron by his utility belt and violently jerk the boy backwards. Ron flew past him and James was at the edge of the field, thrusting his hands in to grip Monique, mind analyzing as he felt his hands/forearms go completely dead—but the muscle groups responded to their last commands, and James again started a steady sooth pull, mentally calculating in his mind the probability of the next field expansion—

And just as he got Monique out to above her hips, James released and rolled back as the field expanded again. He noted that the expansion was less than the prior one, only going as far as Monique's calves, he noted the clue and again started to grip and—

But then there was a second pair of hands and they shifted, James with one leg, a blearily eyed Ron with the other. In seconds they had Monique clear and James grabbed her and pulled her back out of the way, knowing that Ron would at this point fight him to be the one to pull out Kim—

Ron gasped as he actually physically grabbed his girlfriend and like trying to pull a body from a frozen lake—Ron got Kim clear to her shoulders, snatching Rufus off of her belt and dropping him into a cargo pocket. Ron then stretched forward to finish—

"Ron BACK!" MrDrP ordered and Ron reversed gears, throwing himself rearwards as the glow field, as if it was fighting to retain its prey, pulsed out again, engulfing Kim to her hips—

"ENOUGH DAMN YOU! YOU CAN'T HAVE HER!" Ron roared, grabbing Kim's feet and with a lurching backwards half-fall, pulling her all the way out of the field.

MrDrP was half standing, in the process of picking Monique, who was already making groggy movements, up. "Get back Ron. Get at least ten feet between you and the interface." Ron, still weak and disoriented (as well as more than a little nauseated) drug both himself and his girl back as far as he could. MrDrP was able to retreat all the way across the room with Monique, setting her down on a piece of rug. He said some kind words to her as she was nearing full consciousness, muttering and bringing a hand up to rub her aching head. MrDrP gathered himself and started to stand, intending to go and help Ron with Kim—

Only to find that he had set Monique down directly in front of where Drakken sat. As with his daughter, the horror of it jolted and froze him for a moment—

And horror turned into near terror as the figure in the chair stirred—enough to lift its head enough to—

MrDrP's heart was in his mouth as a single eye met his—and a flash of recognition passed through it—and a voice almost too tortured to be human . . . emitted from the figure.

"J—J—James . . . . . . before its too late—"

But James Possible could still recognize the voice. "Drew?" he managed despite his disbelief.

The figure in the chair turned its head just slightly, and the hand, the fingers on the right panel over the three buttons twisted as well. James looked in the direction—

On the counter, just out of reach from the chair . . . . was an open but dormant laptop.

"There—" the voice said again. "Use it . . . before it is too late."

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Ron was ready to explode once again, but this time into a rage of anguish and despair—

Kim hadn't moved.

Spooning into her from behind, Ron tired to wrap himself around her, tired to drag her into him—

He closed his eyes and started to go into the trance—knowing with his current level of energy, with what little he had managed to recover plus whatever had been given to him by Sensei, Rufus and the other, most of which had been robbed from him by whatever the glow field did—

He knew it would either bring her back—

Or it would kill the both of them.

Then Ron heard Kim's voice in his head—

'and if you EVER do that again Ron Stoppable to the extreme that you did it for Bonnie, where it endangers you're life to the extent that it apparently did—and you better not cross that line even if its to save me!—'

Ron was going to disobey his love—

But that was okay, cause he couldn't live without her.

Then—with a suddenness like the kicking in of a self start switch, Ron felt Kim's lungs expand—and as he watched, the color of her skin started to come back as blood once again flowed—

Now the next worry came to him . . . had they been in time?

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Anne Possible was ready to resurrect a childhood habit . . . biting her fingernails, when figures were abruptly visible coming out of the warehouse door. The police/SWAT teams reacted as was expected, shifting positions and—

One of them, went out and 'recovered' the incoming group, which was moving slowly under its burdens. Anne could clearly see that Kim was draped over Ron's shoulder. And she saw that Ron was having a lot of trouble walking straight. He was half supported and guided by Monique who moved along side of him, but who seemed to be having trouble walking as well. And being that she was burden less other that something she was carrying in one hand, Anne had to believe that something had—

Anne also could not tell initially just what it was that her husband was laboring under in a fireman's carry, but as it was offloaded to a couple of SWAT officers, Anne realized just what, or maybe (just maybe) who it was. They came in a little faster now, although Ron was apparently refusing to hand off Kim, he had at least steadying help from fresh, un-fatigued people. Anne moved to the side of the warehouse at the mouth of the alley, where paramedics were already wheeling up their gear. A glance and head nods established that she was in charge—

Now all she could do was pray some more.

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'Redoubt' maintained her pose of infinite patience and detachment as was required by her position and authority. She had no idea at this point of just exactly was going on—

But her gut instinct told her that it wasn't good.

Doctor James Possible came back into the bus, stopping for a moment under the gaze of 'Redoubt', before going back over to where he had been working. The second Kimmunicator waited there, an anxious looking young man looking out of it.

"Wade."

"Sir," was the boy's polite response. He knew that his friend Kim was alive as she had 'reappeared' on his sensors. Other than that—

MrDrP held up the other Kimmunicator which he had recovered from his daughter. "Check this Wade."

The boy's eyes widened in recognition, with a slight side blush when he realized that he had forgotten or missed that the device held by Kim's dad had failed to 'reappear' at the same time Kim had. With the sensors of the one of the table, Wade scanned the one in MrDrP's hand. Wades eyes then grew large.

"Dead. Completely dead! Not a single amp of power—" Wade looked out of the screen as Kim's dad. "That shouldn't be possiblllll," he then amended, flushing a little more under MrDrP's gaze, "at least, not that quickly or completely."

"That's what I thought," MrDrP acknowledged gently as he set the dead Kimmunicator off to the side. He now brought up what he had in his other hand, an unfamiliar laptop, brought out of the warehouse by his daughters best girlfriend, and placed it to the side of his workstation, saying to Wade and the world at large as he did so, "now lets just see what we have here."

He opened the laptop—and then his eyes narrowed/face frowned as it automatically rebooted—

"Sir," Wade asked.

"Scan this Wade. Is it about to blow up on me?"

Needless to say that statement brought startled looks and some shifting feet from the other operators in the bus.

"Not that I can tell sir." Wade replied after a moment. "It does . . . it seems to be launching preloaded software of some kind."

"Keep an eye on it Wade," MrDrP admonished without his eyes leaving the screen.

And in the bus, the interior lighting brought down to facilitate the viewing of the monitors, it was possible to see, that, despite the fact that a media player suddenly came up and launched, and, "its playing a video file sir," Wade advised. Before MrDrP could query further, Wade continued with, "and that is video that you're seeing. But it's like it was taken in a blacked out room."

MrDrP's frown deepened. "Why would—" he started . . . then stopped abruptly as a voice, a tortured souls words, came out of the small speakers—

"I . . . Me . . . the real . . . I don't want this . . . this way. I—I'm angry . . . . . . yes . . . very very angry over how they abused me – . . . how they raped me (something like a tearing sob ripped out of the speakers causing several to flinch) . . . but not the world . . . not the whole world . . . my mother . . . Shego . . . my friends at karaoke night . . . "

There was a long—long moment of quiet with maybe only a background grunt or sob to be heard.

"The compulsion is impossible to fight. I am only me now because of the pain I have inflicted on myself . . . . . . it allows my conscious to clear just long enough—"

Another rasping breath . . .

"I hope I have left enough on this laptop to allow you to defeat me." There was a gasp full of pain followed by a long, drawn out whimper—

"Kim, Ron, —Defeat Me. Be all that you are. The world needs you to be . . . . . . "

"I didn't want it to happen . . . . . . this way."

And the player ended.

And after a moment, MrDrP took a shuddering breath all his own. He then glanced back over his shoulder to see 'Redoubt' standing there, pale—shaken.

James Possible then turned back to the laptop and the Kimmunicator beside it. "You there Wade?"

"Y—yes sir," was the subdued reply.

"Start a search of this things hard disk. We're looking for files containing—"

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The Strike Eagle was in the air. Middleton Colorado had thirty-five minutes

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A/N: Thanks all again for reading. May try to get one more chapter out before I leave on vacation. Wrench in the works thou because of just discovered credit card fraud (oh, don't we hate the real world) that is sucking up way to much time.

So, if I don't post again, it will be about two weeks. We'll see.

I as always, will remain

Your humble and devout servant

The Wise Duck