It was exactly 8:27 when Kim Possible got the alert on her Kimmunicator. She

flipped it out and turned it on. "What's the sitch, Wade?"

"There's a hostage situation at the Bueno Nacho. Three people inside."

"Single person job?"

"Yeah. We can't you any uplinks to the security cams because all of them have

been destroyed."

"I'll manage," Kim said. She was already racing down the stairs to the main floor

of her house.

"Hey, by the way is Ron there?" Wade asked.

"Nope. He went to the GWA tournament to see some new wrestler," the teenage

superspy told him. "Could you give him a call? I need all the help I can get."



"Yeah, get him Knuckle Popper!" Ron yelled at the noisy GWA tournament as

the Knuckle Popper twirled the Hammerhead up in the air and then threw him out of the

ring. The crowd went wild.

Bright lights shone around the crowded area, casting flickering shadows all over

the place. The heavy metal music playing was so loud that Ron didn't hear his brand new

communicator beeping until the third alarm. He fumbled around in his pocket,

withdrawing the high-tech device and flipping it on. Wade's face invaded the screen.

"Hostage situation at the Bueno Nacho," Wade informed him concisely. "Kim

needs your help."

Ron could not hear a word that he was saying so he made his way into the

Middleton Mall café. "What was that?" he asked again. He put a little more emphasis on the last word than necessary when Rufus began to wiggle around in his pocket, waking up from his nap.

"Hostage sitch at the Bueno Nacho," Wade repeated. "Kim needs your help."

"Ron highly doubted that Kim would needed his help with anything but it sill was

nice that she'd said that. "Why would anybody try to rob the Bueno Nacho?" Ron asked

finally.

"I don't think the criminal's intent is robbery," Wade said. "So far, there have

been no demands, no noise, no nothing. The doors have been welded shut and the police

can't figure out how. Now hurry."



When Ron arrived at the Bueno Nacho, he as a little surprised at all the

commotion. There were reporters all over the place, asking all kinds of people different

questions. News vans littered the scene and the most frequent sight was an emergency

vehicle of one kind or another. There was a group of policemen huddled together over a

computer monitor, talking excitedly.

"Ron!"

Ron turned around to see Kim running up to him.

"Lots of commotion," he commented as she slowed to a halt beside him.

"No kidding. We need a plan.and fast. Whoever's in there has sealed off all of

the entrances."

"Maybe he or she overlooked some," he suggested.

"It's a definite possibility. The police are poring over a map of the structure as we

speak."

We can't wait for them," Ron said. "They don't seem to be making any progress."

Kim clapped her partner on the shoulder. "I'm open to suggestions."

Ron blinked. "Um, what about the skylight?"

"Somehow, it was sealed shut too," Kim told him.

"Underground entrances?"

"Why would there be an underground entrance to a fast food place?"

Ron shrugged. "Who knows, it might be worth checking out." Ron looked up at

the now dark sky. This standoff had to end. Soon. He took out his new communicator.

Time to call in another couple favors from Wade.



Wade knew who it was before even checking the Comm ID. And he knew what

they needed.

"Wade, we need another favor," Ron told him once the video signal was out. He

was going to have to get used to seeing Ron's face on the other end instead of Kim's.

"Already on top of it," Wade informed him. He pushed the send button on his

computer console, giving Ron and Kim a map of the Bueno Nacho and the entire

surrounding area. Outlined in red was the route that Wade had found just a few minutes

earlier.

"What's this?" Kim asked as the map appeared on both her and Ron's devices.

"This is your way in there. There is a small, underground passage that leads into

what was once the freezer room of the Bueno Nacho; back before it was the Bueno

Nacho and it was Mel's Diner. The other end of the passageway is in the gift shop across

the street."

"Thanks Wade, You're one in a million," Kim said. She pocketed her

Kimmunicator. "Lets go Ron."



Cleo had to admit that she was at least a tiny bit disappointed. She had expected

Kim to come storming in over fifteen minutes ago and she was getting impatient. A half

hour had passed since she'd first taken control of the Bueno Nacho. The cashier she'd

K.O.'d had started to come to so she'd knocked right back out, causing the janitor to start

crying and the old lady to give her a lecture. Keeping the situation under control for the

next few hours would not prove difficult but Cleopatra was itching to face off against the

famed Kim Possible, to test the other girl's abilities.

The janitor's weeping increased and Cleopatra whirled to face him. She couldn't

believe that a grown man was sitting there bawling like a baby and the very sight made

her sick.

"Shut up," she commanded simply. She focused her inner energy into her eyes,

making them glow like hot embers for added affect. The janitor, who was sitting against

the wall stopped crying pretty fast.

Five minutes later, Cleo got her wish. She would have preferred that Kim burst

heroically through the ceiling or something but seeing Kim and Ron come flying out of

the Employees Only section wasn't too bad.

Wait a minute. She did a double take. Who was the boy with her? Cleo hesitated

for a brief moment and that was all Kim needed hit her hard with a high- flying kick. Cleo

went flying across the room and her back hit the opposite wall hard, sending waves of

pain reverberating through her spine. Cleo growled and hurled a blazing ball of energy

that was inflamed by her fury straight at the duo. Finding out who her accomplice was

could wait till later.

Kim's eyes widened and she instinctively tackled Ron, knocking them both out of

harm's way. The fireball flew right past the space where they had been and hit the front

counter, decimating it instantly.

"I'll take the woman," Kim said out of breath. "You get the hostages out."

"Got it," Ron assured her.

After making sure that Ron understood, Kim turned back to Cleo. "Whoever you

are," she said, "you made a big mistake in tying to rob my favorite restaurant."

Cleopatra laughed out loud. "As if I wanted the money. No, I did all this to lure

you here." With that, Cleopatra lunged at Kim, instinctively coiling her body to execute a

deadly roundhouse kick.

Kim looked around, saw a food tray that had been knocked to the ground and

kicked it up in the air, straight into her hands and just in time for her to block Cleo's kick

with it.

"Hey Kim. The exits are sealed off too," Ron called.

Cleo growled. She had no intention of hurting Kim's friend. Kim's rather cute

friend she noted at a second glance. However, she could not allow him to make off with

the hostages.

WHAM! Cleopatra's distraction cost her dearly as Kim punched her in the jaw,

following up with a vicious uppercut that made stars appear momentarily in Cleo's

vision. She shook her head to focus and decided that she had a pretty good idea of Kim's

abilities now. It was time finish this.

Cleo hurled a volley of energy spheres at Kim and though the teenage superspy

was able to dodge some, one clipped her in the shoulder, sending her sprawling to the

floor. When she looked up, Cleopatra was standing over her, her hand curled a tight fist.

"What are we going to do?" the panicked janitor asked. The old woman looked

expectantly at him as well. Ron could clearly see the police and reporters outside, clearly

confused as to how two kids had managed to infiltrate the Bueno Nacho. The press would

be having a field day with the fact that Middleton's own police force could not manage to

defuse this tense hostage situation when he and Kim were well on their way to doing just

that.

"Could you break the window?" the old woman asked.

Ron shook his head. "Negative. The glass here is virtually unbreakable for

security reasons."

"Well its not doing much for our security now," the old woman muttured.

"No kiddin-" Ron stopped the sentence when he saw Cleopatra standing over

Kim's limp form, ready to inflict some serious damage on his best friend. "Just a

minute," he said.

Kim looked up at Cleo who was towering over her, hands in a two handed striking

position.

"Good night, Kim Possible," Cleopatra sneered. Kim knew the exact moment that

Ron came to the rescue because Cleo's face transformed from murderous glee to pure

surprise.

Ron grabbed Cleo's shoulders and pulled backwards while at the same time he

swept her feet out from under her in the opposite direction, knocking her completely off

balance. It was a move he'd learned from Kim and right now, he was thankful she'd

taken the time to show him. After gaining the leverage, it was a simple matter to hurl

Cleo to the ground.

"You OK?" Ron asked, helping Kim to her feet. She had a large bruise on her

face.

"Yeah yeah I'm okay. We need to."

Kim's voice faded off as she suddenly noticed something and Ron turned around.

Cleo was gone.



It was in a normal apartment in Middleton that Cleopatra reappeared. She sank to

the couch, weary and exhausted. Teleportation was energy-draining enough without

having to do it after a particularly exhausting fight.

Not that Cleo doubted her ability to defeat Kim Possible. Back at the Bueno

Nacho, she'd only been using half of her full strength and still would have come out on

top had it not been for Kim's friend. Hadn't she called him Ron? Well Ron was one

factor that Cleopatra had not counted on.

She sat down on the couch. School was tomorrow and in order to complete her

plan she needed to use her powers to morph into a different guise. She had plenty morphs

to chose from, having had thousands of years to acquire them.

"Which one?" she asked herself. She decided to try out a few and see which one

she liked best.

Fifteen minutes later, she found the right one. In this morph, Cleo had long,

shoulder length golden hair, wide blue eyes, and was a couple inches shorter, putting her

at somewhere around 5' 9". When she looked in the mirror, she couldn't help but grin.

"Perfect."