Chapter One: High School Disaster
All was quiet in the town of Middleton. It was a near cloudless night and the moon was beginning to rise. Its light traveled across the city finally bathing the Middleton Museum for the Arts in silvery white light. The museum was silent and empty save three people: the two night watchmen and the prowler, sitting on the roof ready to 'liberate' a few pieces of art.
The prowler pulled a small remote and pressed a button as the moon slid behind a solitary cloud making the darkness complete. Simultaneously the cameras in the museum turned off for approximately five seconds then turned back one, playing the loop the prowler had created. The prowler, silent as a shadow, opened the skylight next to her and tossed the rope piled by her feet in. She slid down the rope and scampered over the nearest display. She pulled out the remote, pointed it at the display, and pressed another button.
She had turned off the pressure pads and they would stay off for about a minute. She quickly shrugged off her backpack, unzipped it, and extracted a small weight. She carefully lifted a statuette of a lion and placed the weight in its place. She slid the lion into the backpack and put the backpack on. She made her way stealthily down a nearby hall and entered into the hall where her real target was. In the center of the room a solid gold bust of an Egyptian pharaoh. She pulled out the remote and repeated the process she'd used earlier and the weight sensor turned off. She shrugged the backpack off again and pulled out another, larger weight and swapped it with the bust.
Backpack on her shoulders, She crept out of the hall and back to her rope to see one of the night watchmen enter the hall. She silently cursed and launched herself across the hall. She reached the rope and began to climb. The night watchman's light illuminated the rope beneath her and quickly slid up. She pulled herself through the skylight so quickly that all Nick Oliverson, the night watchman, saw was the flash of red hair in the beam if his light before the prowler vanished into the night.
"Last night the Middleton Museum for the Arts became the third museum hit in as many weeks. However this time both the cameras and one of the night watchmen on duty caught sight of our mysterious thief." James Carlton, The News reporter was replaced by an image of a blurred figure with long hair.
"While the image lacks any specific details the night watchman said the thief had red hair."
Kim looked at her mom who looked back at her. They were just about the only two redheads in Middleton that they knew of.
"Although he also said he couldn't be sure because it was only a flash of the hair he glimpsed." Carlton continued before Ann switched off the television.
"Mom, are we in trouble?" Kim asked
"I don't know." Was all Ann could think to say.
Kim stood up, "I should go to sleep. It is a school night after all."
Ann nodded and Kim left the room. As she climbed the stairs she thought about what she had just learned. The thief that was giving Shego a run for her money had red hair. It was just a coincidence, right? Kim entered her room, closed the door and flopped down on her bed. It was time to have Wade look into it.
The following morning everything seemed normal until as she was walking to school, a loud alarm started echoing through the still morning air. It only took a moment for Kim to realize that it was coming from the direction of the school. A few seconds later she determined that it was the fire alarm. She sniffed the air with her head tilted back. She couldn't smell smoke but she broke into a run nevertheless. She rounded the corner and quickly took stock of the situation. All of the students were gathered out front of the school, the teachers attempting to create order in the unruly mass. Mr Barkin was off to another side with another teacher and a pair of officers. She ran over to them to get more information. Barkin looked up at her as she joined them.
"You have some nerve showing up here after what you did." He snapped, causing Her to cross her arms and frown.
"I just got here!" Kim exclaimed defensively.
"Eye-witnesses say otherwise." Barkin barked angrily, "Multiple people saw you setting off the fire alarm."
"Whoever they saw, it wasn't me." Kim argued as Tara jogged up to them.
"Evacuation is all taken care of." She reported, shooting Kim a disappointed look.
"Thank you Ms. Johnson. Go join the other students." Barkin told the blond not taking his eyes off of Kim.
Kim wanted to scream. It was just all so unjust. Someone was framing her for a crime she didn't commit. Why would she, the girl who had saved the world on multiple occasions, stoop to pranks?
"Possible, you're suspended!" He roared, "For a month!"
"That is ferociously unfair!" Kim shouted back.
Mr Barkin pulled out a pen and a pad of paper from within his jacket. He scribbled something, tore the top most paper off and handed it to Kim.
"Give this to your parents and get out of here." He turned away and stumped off towards where the students were gathered.
Kim, note in hand walked calmly back the way she had come, notwithstanding the anger she felt. She was almost to her street when Ron, running late as usual, rounded the corner.
"KP, where are you going? The school is the other way."
"Got suspended." She said tersely
"Suspended?" Ron asked, nearly tripping in shock.
"Someone who looked like me set off the school fire alarm and Barkin went ballistic over it." Kim explained.
"That is so not fair!" Ron exclaimed before putting on a confident smile, "But you'll get to the bottom of this. Whoever did this won't get away with it."
Kim felt a brief wave of happiness that was almost immediately swallowed by fear and shame.
"Mom's not going to be happy about this."
Kim's statement was proved half prophetic when Ann read Barkin's note fifteen minutes later.
"There's no way it was you!" She exclaimed, "I'll bet it was the mystery redhead on TV!"
Kim mentally kicked herself, why hadn't she made that connection? The thief from the museum supposedly had red hair, but why would a cat burglar try to frame her?
"If it's okay with you, I intend to find out who framed me during my suspension from school." Kim said, carefully.
"It's okay with me so long as you keep up with your homework." Ann said, pulling the younger redhead into a hug.
The investigation of who had framed her stopped almost as soon as it had started. Wade had done what he could, providing the camera feeds from the school but that had turned up nothing except confirming that she had been framed. To make things worse the redhead on camera vanished between cameras. Ron had looked at the location for Kim since she wasn't interested in being at the school in favor of finding out who her look-alike was, he wasn't able to find anything. In true Ron fashion he had stated loudly how badical it would have been if the school had a secret passageway in it. Kim however, ignored him and instead focused on possible suspects.
Naturally, her first instinct was Camille Leon, but the shapeshifter had been out of villain schtick for a while and the blonde heiress had said she'd been home all morning. A maid had corroborated the claim as well.
Perhaps it was a new villain. One who specialized in rapid disguise change. They were like shapeshifters, but they changed their appearances with wigs and make up. Or maybe it was a clone. Kim groaned, clones were so troublesome. She had yet to face off an actual clone of herself which she found slightly surprising given her line of work. Sure, Drakken had tried to clone her but had managed to mess up so that the clones had dog DNA in them. If it was a clone, it wasn't a Drakken creation.Whatever the case she and no solid leads.
Laughter echoed loudly around the lair as the prowler back in her stealth suit cackled evilly. If the teen heroine thought she was done, boy was she wrong. She went over to the computer and pressed a button. Video feed of the exterior of Kim's house appeared on screen. The prowler's grin widened,
"I hope you're ready Kim Possible, I'm just getting warmed up."
