Their Good Name

by Frederick Aloysius

Kim and Ron find themselves on the wrong side of the law after a criminal conspiracy frames them. Now, they must find out who is behind it in order to clear their good name. Please Read and Review.

6. Chapter 5: Every Dog Has Its Day

Note: Please see the Foreword for updated Author's Notes

Chapter 5: Every Dog Has Its Day

The only thing that saved Kim Possible's life on this mission was Ron Stoppable's eternal sense of suspicion with regards to local law enforcement. Kim had worked with police chiefs and sheriffs and agents-in-charge throughout her career as a crime fighter and had come to place a certain amount of faith in them. Ron, however, had been forgotten and dismissed by those very same people and so he was never able to fully believe in them like his girlfriend did.

Which was why, when the blonde saw Kim trust in the fact that the Middleton cops would look first before opening fire once again, he was just as convinced that they wouldn't care who was standing in front of them and let lose another salvo of bullets. Unfortunately, Ron was right. Just as the teen's eyes were registering what Kim was doing, a nine-millimeter bullet was expelled from Riverez's Beretta on its way to his girlfriend's heart.

Looking back during her debriefing on what transpired in the next two seconds, Kim couldn't give a satisfactory explanation as to just what happened. She knew that Ron had to have been over ten feet away from where she was when the bullet rang out. She remembered turning her head in the direction of the sound of the gunshot. But there seemed to be a gap in her memory because after turning her head, the next moment in time that her memory registered was her, on the ground in a corner of the room, with Ron on top of her.

When the redhead looked up at her boyfriend, she saw a man who was in a complete and total state of panic. The blonde rolled Kim, who had landed on her side, over onto her back and began frantically searching her body for something. Still reeling from Ron's tackle, she couldn't figure out what it was that he was doing until he spoke up.

"Are you hit?!?" Ron struggled to keep his voice as even as he could, but was failing at it. "Are you shot?!? Kimmie, for God's sake, are you hit?!?"

Kim was still struggling to figure out what was going on, but she knew that she had been shot at, which explained why Ron was so terrified all of a sudden. So, she simply did as she was asked and assessed her well being. Finding herself to be intact and unhurt, the redhead let her boyfriend know.

"Ron, I'm fine. Hey, hey," she continued as she gently grabbed his hands to get his attention, "look at me. Look at me. I'm fine."

It took him a second but eventually Ron was convinced that she was indeed all right and that his Mystical Monkey Power had saved the best thing in his life. As his panic ebbed away, it was replaced by another emotion. The logical part of Ron's mind told him that it should have been an intense sense of relief and gratitude at the fact that Kim was fine, but that wasn't the emotion he was experiencing. It was rage. It was hate. It was a fury that not even a hundred Josh Mankeys could have elicited from him.

His girlfriend watched from her vantage point on the floor next to Ron as the panic left his face. But what replaced it was something that sent a chill down her spine. His face began to contort itself into something that Kim would have been hard pressed to identify as her friend of over fourteen years. Then the man, who had taken the place of her Ron, spoke for the first time in a calm voice that did little to conceal what he was feeling at the moment.

"KP, give me the Kimmunicator, please."

"Ron…" she pleaded with him, "I'm not sure that's such a good idea…" Kim wasn't sure what he wanted the Kimmunicator for, but she had her doubts as to what his motives where just then. But Ron wasn't going to let up.

"KP, the Kimmunicator, please," he said, more forcibly this time, while sticking out his hand to indicate that he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Kim debated with herself for a second before she decided that she was just going to have to let her trust in Ron guide her. She silently, but reluctantly, reached into the pocket where she kept the Kimmunicator and handed it over.

Ron took it from her without a word, but he allowed his features to soften for a moment to give her a quick smile. When he turned his attention back to the Kimmunicator, however, his features had hardened once again. He pressed a button on the small device and brought Wade up onto the small screen. The Team Possible tech whiz expected to see Kim when he saw that his computer was linked to the Kimmunicator, but he was taking a sip of his ever present soda so he didn't notice that it was his other friend who had contacted him.

"Hey, Kim, what's…" but he never finished his greeting. What he saw shocked him into silence. At first, Wade thought that he might have done something to incur the wrath of the man on the screen in front of him but he quickly realized that his friend's anger was focused elsewhere and he began to worry.

"Uh, Ron, is everything alright? Where's Kim?"

"Wade, I want you to patch me through to Lieutenant Riverez of the Middleton Police Department. Now."

It was obvious that the teen wasn't going to pay Wade's questions any attention as the blonde got right down to business. Normally, Wade would have wanted more information about the situation before agreeing to such a request by Ron, but his face said it all and the third man of Team Possible made the connection happen in seconds.

"Ron, the best I can do is to patch you into the Middleton police frequency. There's no way to isolate Lt. Riverez's radio independent of all the other officers. So, whatever you say, the entire force is going to be able to hear it."

"That's fine Wade. Make the connection."

The way Ron had reacted to his information, or rather the lack of any reaction, made Wade wonder if Ron was even listening to him at all. But, the tech genius decided that it must be important and, against his better judgment, he tapped his keyboard and opened the connection.

"Alright, Ron, you're on."

Ron wasted no time in getting the Lieutenant's attention. "Lt. Riverez of the Middleton Police Department, this is Ron Stoppable. Come in."

Suddenly, every cop in Middleton was wondering just who the rather angry individual was that was broadcasting on their radios. A moment later, another very agitated voice came on the other end of the line, one that Ron recognized as belonging to the Lieutenant.

"This is Lt. Riverez. Whoever this is, this is a restricted channel. Stop all further communication at once."

Ron, who had been pushed over the line all ready that night, snarled so loudly into the Kimmunicator that several officers thought their radios might have gone bad.

"Aren't you paying attention, Lieutenant?" Ron spat back in way of a reply. "This is Ron Stoppable of Team Possible. You know, the good guys who went into the building? I need you to stop shooting at us!"

But the Lieutenant, who between covert military research facilities and flying cars and women who could shoot green plasma, was not about to take anything at face value that night.

"Look, whoever you are, I have no way of verifying your claim. You could be another member of the team that broke in who got left behind and is trying to make some desperate ploy to get out of here alive."

"Alright, enough's enough Lieutenant! You want proof that I am who I say I am? Fine, then. I'm going to step in front of the opening in the building to give you your proof. Please try not to shoot my head off."

The Lieutenant considered this for a moment. He was still pretty pissed off over the whole situation, but the offer made some sense. "Hold on," he told Ron over the open comm line. Then he switched to a secure frequency, one that Ron wasn't broadcasting or receiving on, that linked Riverez with the sniper team that he had put in place shortly after the initial fight between his men and Shego.

"Sierra One, this is Top Hat. I want you to keep a sight trained on the opening. If anyone, and I mean anyone, other than Ron Stoppable shows himself in the next two minutes, you are to take them down. Is that clear?"

There was a momentary crackle of static then the reply came back, "Top Hat, this is Sierra One, copy that." And the man who was Sierra One, Sergeant Williamson, leveled his sights on the opening and brought his breathing under control in preparation to take down whoever was foolish enough to step into his view.

Riverez, satisfied that he wasn't placing his men in harms way again, switched back to the main police frequency.

"To all Middleton police officers, weapons cold. I repeat, weapons are cold people. Do not shoot unless shot upon."

He waited a moment to make sure that the message had gotten to everyone before he returned to the comm line.

"Alright, if you are who you say you are, you can safely come out now." And, despite his earlier setup with his sniper, the Lieutenant brought his weapon up and aimed it at the hole in the building, just in case.

Ron knew that there was only one way Team Possible was going to be able to get out of the complex safely and continue their pursuit of Draken and Shego. It was fortunate that he was in such a state of rage because had he had the opportunity to think about it, he would have remembered that he didn't trust the officers below and would not have gone through with his plan. But, any voice of doubt was quickly outweighed by the power of his anger just then.

So, he helped his girlfriend to her feet and put a hand on her shoulder, indicating to Kim to stay put. He quickly crossed the distance between the corner of the room that he was standing in to just before the opening in the exterior wall. Taking a deep breath and bringing a sense of calm to his features that he didn't especially feel, Ron took one last step and exposed himself, hoping desperately in the professionalism of the Middleton police force.

The Lieutenant was watching as he saw a figure step out from behind the cover of the wall but with the bright glare of the search lights that were trained on the building, he was unable to tell if it was Ron Stoppable or not. He quickly toggled his radio over to the secure frequency that would place him in touch with his sniper team.

"Sierra One, this is Top Hat. Can you confirm the target as Stoppable? Repeat, can you confirm its Stoppable?"

Sergeant Williamson was really the only one on the ground who was able to get a good look at the man who suddenly appeared in the opening. He was looking through the scope attached to his rifle when he caught a glimpse of messy blonde hair and knew instantly that it was indeed Ron Stoppable. He removed his finger from the trigger and opened the channel to his Lieutenant.

"Top Hat, this is Sierra One. I have a visual confirmation, the target is Stoppable."

Riverez let the breath that he had been holding go as he slowly dropped his hand back to his side.

"Sierra One, this is Top Hat, copy that."  Then he switched back to the main police frequency. "OK, Stoppable, you're clear."

Upon hearing that he had successfully convinced the Lieutenant that he was one of the good guys and that he wasn't going to get his head blown off, Ron felt all the muscles in his body relax. He wasn't aware that he had been so tensed up, and suddenly he felt the toll of a day's worth of school, baseball practice, and a mission hit his system. He was tired, both physically and emotionally, and right now, police Lieutenants and super villains and military research projects were the furthest things from his mind.

Ron was starting to succumb to his exhaustion when he felt a delicate hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at it and noticed that Kim had crossed over to where he was and was now gently rubbing his shoulder. She quietly reached down and took the Kimmunicator out of his hand, meeting with no resistance from the blonde. He wasn't even aware that he still had it let alone that Kim had taken it from him. He remembered vaguely hearing Kim thank Wade, but all he wanted to do was focus on her wonderful hand.

Slowly, she reached up with the same hand that was rubbing his shoulder and gently cupped his chin, drawing his focus away from her hand and up to her face. He felt an intense amount of sorrow (he would later come to realize that it was an emotional aftershock of having almost lost Kim not once but twice in one day) and the only thing he wanted to do was to put his arms around the woman he loved and hold on for dear life. But he couldn't seem to get his arms moving. A small part of him wondered if he was hurt, but that wasn't it. His arms simply seemed to have stopped obeying him, as if what they were being called upon to do was too insignificant to be bothered with at the moment.

So, he focused on the vision of beauty that was in front of him. "God, how did I get so lucky?" he thought as he focused on the one part of his auburn haired girlfriend that he loved the most: her eyes. As he stared into them, he could see every reason why he fell in love with her in the first place, her compassion for others, her fierce determination, her unquestioned loyalty, and her undying love for him. He was just about to lose himself in their warm, emerald gaze when her voice brought him back to reality.

"Ron," her voice was low and caring, "are you okay?" She wasn't quite sure what was wrong. For a moment there, he looked like he was going to take on the entire Middleton Police force all by himself. The momentary haze of confusion that she had when Ron tackled her had lifted and she was able to put the pieces together of what happened. She had been shot at, and he had saved her.

She didn't blame the police, not really. It was her own damn fault for being so careless on a mission, for not taking into consideration what it must have looked like from the cop's point of view. She would just have to learn to be a little more careful the next time a mission involved gunfire. But just because she was understanding in the matter, that didn't mean Ron was.

Which explained why he was in such a state of rage after it had happened. She knew that he wasn't too fond of local law enforcement because of the way they treated him, dismissing him and his contributions to Team Possible. And he clearly blamed the cops for her near miss just a moment ago. But now, after the moment had passed and everyone was safe, he looked like he was in a trance. She looked into his eyes and saw a tiredness there that she had not seen before. Kim saw him blink, but when her boyfriend didn't respond to her after that, she became a little more insistent, her fear and concern for him threatening to overpower her calm, asking him again if he was all right.

Ron had heard her the first time, but it seemed like she was speaking to him across a vast distance, his own personal ocean of nothingness. What she had said really wasn't important; all that mattered was her eyes. As he was lazily staring into them, blocking out everything else in the world, he noticed another emotion swim to the surface. It was concern, and for a moment he couldn't figure out what Kim was concerned about. She was safe, she hadn't been hit with a bullet, and the police would no longer shoot at them. He couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong until a voice in the back of his head, one that had been dormant since just after his anger took over, spoke up for the first time in what seemed like awhile. "It's you she's concerned about…you need to wake up and let her know that you're alright…you need to wake up now…now…now!"

The little voice was just enough to get him going again. He blinked, and when Ron heard Kim ask him for a second time it he was okay, he was able to respond. 

"Yeah, I'm fine KP. Just a little tired, that's all. Nothing to worry about," he replied, flashing her his trademark goofy grin in an attempt to quell her concern for his well-being. Having been snapped out of his daze, he suddenly felt his second wind kicking in, albeit after a day like the one he was having, it was more like his fourth wind.

Kim, however, wasn't totally convinced by his little pronouncement. It looked to her like he was waking up from a long sleep, but when he started moving again, stretching and bending in what she could only assume was his way of clearing out the cobwebs, she started to feel better. She was about to ask if he was all right once more, just to allay the last of her doubt, when he kissed her quickly on the cheek, and brought Team Possible back to focus.

"Come on, let's get going, KP. Shego and Draken are still be in the area, and we might be able to catch up with them."

"Right. Let's get outta here."The cheerleader smiled at him, put aside all other concerns for the moment, and got back into mission mode. She once again pulled her grappling gun from the pocket where she kept it and walked up to the edge of the hole. Then, turning away from the opening and facing back into the building, she signaled Ron to give her a hand. Taking his cue, the other half of their team walked over to where she was and grabbed hold of her utility belt. Once Kim felt Ron get a secure grip on her, she slowly leaned back out of the hole and over the ground below. Allowing herself to lean as far back as she felt she could safely go, she aimed the grappling gun at a spot just below the top of the building and fired.

It took only a fraction of a second and the hook hit its mark. She had loaded a special embedding claw into the grappling gun this time so that, when it hit the concrete exterior of the complex, it drove right through it instead of bouncing harmlessly off of it. Once it was safely impacted by about six inches, Kim gave the rope a solid tug to ensure that it would hold her weight. She then let out enough slack on the gun and tossed it down the four stories to the bushes that were directly below them.

Ron had been watching Kim intently the entire time, making sure that his grip was tight and she wasn't going anywhere. When he saw her toss the gun down to the surface, he figured that this was to be a repel down the side of the building to get out. It made sense to him, and when Kim looked back at him looking for understanding, he nodded in her direction. The redhead grabbed hold of the rope that was hanging in front of her, bent her knees, and let Ron know that she was ready. Feeling his grip on her release, Kim bounced slightly off the edge of the opening and out into the space beyond. Years of experience kicked in as she expertly used the rope and the wall to slow her decent as she made contact with the ground two seconds later.

Once Ron was sure that Kim had safely made it down, he followed suit, making the repel down the side of the complex as easily as Kim had. Kim retrieved her gun and, after recoiling as much slack as she could, pressed a button on the side of the grappling gun to cut the rope. Giving her tool a quick once over to make sure that it was still in good working order, she put it back in its pocket and turned to face the rear parking lot of the Photonic Imaging and Concealment Lab.

***

While Kim and Ron were making their way out of the complex, Lt. Riverez was reminded that he wasn't the only commanding officer on scene. Shortly after lowering his gun after getting confirmation that it was indeed Ron Stoppable that he was talking to, the Lieutenant's trained ears began to pick up on the sound of engines approaching his position. Still highly suspicious of any unknowns given the current situation, the Lieutenant dropped once more behind his cop car and turned to face whomever was coming, but kept his finger off the trigger of his Beretta; he had already made one mistake tonight that almost cost a life, and he was not about to make another one.

Most of his officers had also heard the noise and were taking cover, their weapons trained on the spot where the uninvited guest would appear from around the corner. It took only a moment and then Riverez was treated to a sight that he was both grateful for and annoyed with at the same time. Turning the corner of the military complex were three military hummers, each loaded down with what looked like half of the Marine compliment for the base and in the shotgun seat of the front hummer was their leader, Captain Millar.

Riverez stood up from behind the car and holstered his weapon. He took a quick look around at his men and noticed that several of them still had their guns trained on the Marines and had a mixture of fear and anger on their faces. He grabbed his radio off the roof of the car and opened a channel to his men, informing them of what was going on and reminding them that weapons were cold.

Millar, it turns out, had been quite busy since he saw Kim and Ron disappear into the lab after his little briefing. Not one to just sit around, the Captain felt he needed to do something despite his orders not to enter the restricted area. Given the fact that he knew nothing about who the thieves were or what kind of armaments they were carrying, he decided that this situation fell under the 'special circumstances' provision of his standing orders. Normally, his Marines simply provided guard duty for the building, packing nothing more than military issue side-arms. But, some general somewhere way higher up the food chain than he was knew just what the scientists were working on here and had decided that, should the need ever arise, he wanted the Marines on guard duty to have a little more punch than a handgun.

Which was why the Captain was walking away from the main complex towards a small, plain building that looked like a garage, tucked off to the side of the grounds and partially hidden from view. By his side was a Gunnery Sergeant by the name of Johnny Gannon, a veteran of both Gulf Wars who was none too happy with his current duty assignment. He had been bored for the last six months with guard duty and craved a little action, which explained why he was happy tonight. Not that you could tell from the all business like manner that his body language told anyone looking at him.

Millar walked around to the left side of the building, right past the single garage door in front. The side of the building was a single, uninterrupted wall of concrete cinder block except for the gray, metal door that was set into it towards the front of the building. The two men walked quickly over to the door, and Millar removed a set of keys from his pocket. He thumbed through them for a minute until he came to the one he was looking for, put the key into the lock and twisted it, and then opened the door.

It was pitch black inside, as there were no windows in the walls of the building. Groping just inside the door, Millar's fingers found the light switch and flooded the interior with harsh fluorescent lighting. The Captain had been in this room a few times before just to check on things, but the Gunny hadn't. What Gannon saw reminded him of the old days of fighting over in the Middle East.

Lined up in single file were the three hummers all decked out with special, reinforced armor plating and bulletproof glass. Hanging from pegs mounted to the wall were rows and rows of flack jackets and Kevlar helmets. And located on storage racks that went around the room were all sorts of various field equipment: radios, med kits, even a few pairs of night vision goggles.

As the gunny was busy admiring the never before used gear, Millar walked past him on his way to the rear of the garage. Spread out along the back wall were four metal lockers that were about six feet tall and three metal footlockers, one in between each full sized locker. The Captain went to the next key on his key ring and quickly opened the first locker, revealing a dozen M-16 rifles, all polished, oiled, and in complete working order.

Upon hearing the slight squeak made by the doors to the locker as they swung open, Gannon turned his attention back to his CO. He couldn't tell what the Captain was doing, but he had removed something from its resting place. Then, he shut the locker doors and opened up one of the foot lockers, grabbing something in his hand. When Millar finally turned back to Gannon, the Captain was holding his M-16 in one hand, pointing it into the air, while slamming home the magazine with his other hand.

"Sir?" the gunny asked Millar, his face still serious but unable to hide the excitement in his eyes.

"Go get your men, gunny," he replied, one Marine to another. "I want to be ready in case hunting season for thieves comes a little early this year."

This time, Gannon was unable to hide his smile. "Yes, sir!" the gunny told his CO and off he went, double-timing it to go collect his men in preparation for whatever the Captain had in mind.

The gunny was a highly efficient and motivated soldier and so, by the time Shego was blowing a hole in the wall of the complex, all of Millar's men were assembled and geared up for the mission at hand. He had just finished briefing his men on what little he knew about the situation when he heard the first cop car explode. He wasn't sure what had happened, as it had been all quiet up until that moment. Millar was just about to send two of his men forward to scout out what was going on when Shego let loose her second blast, destroying the second car.

Millar was now sure that the Middleton cops were under attack and were being hit with what sounded like artillery. After determining that the blasts were coming from the rear of the building, Millar sent Gannon and twenty of his men to the front of the building in case the explosions were a diversion while he and the rest of his men got into the hummers and sped off in the direction of the detonations.

It took the Marines a few minutes to travel the distance between their equipment shed and the rear of the complex. Turning the corner of the building, Millar was treated to a view of what looked like a battleground, with its visibly shaken police, their weapons drawn, and the two cop cars that were still in flames. He had been witness to many such scenes in his career in the military, but he never expected to see one in Middleton.

He quickly identified where Riverez was standing and instructed his driver to head for the police Lieutenant. The lead hummer immediately changed it course, and the other two quickly followed its lead. In a moment, the three military vehicles came to a halt just in front of Riverez and Millar got out.

All previous arguments between the two men were forgotten as their professionalism overrode the memory of their earlier power struggle. Millar went straight up to Riverez as his men filed out of the hummers behind him and asked him what was going on. Riverez quickly launched into a short description of what had transpired since Shego had announced her presence to the Middleton police force.

Millar took the story in stride, a plan already forming in his mind. Once he heard that the perpetrators of the break-in were out of the lab and heading for the roof, he knew that he was finally able to do to what he had been tasked with in the first place: protection of the complex and the elimination of all threats against it. His orders specifically stated that he was not to enter the restricted area under any circumstances; they said nothing, however, about the roof of the building.

Just as Riverez was finished updating Millar, Kim and Ron joined the little group. The Lieutenant took one look at Kim with her bandaged head and he knew that his suspicions about Team Possible's abilities were correct. He wondered again, for what seemed like the hundredth time that night, just who would be so criminally negligent as to let to kids go on such a dangerous mission.

He regarded Kim with an 'I-told-you-so' look and said, completely condescendingly, "Well, it looks like you've got yourself quite a nasty cut there, little missy. Now, why don't you run along to the medic station and get that looked at while the adults fix this situation."

Kim probably should have hit the roof when Riverez called her 'little missy'; the last man to do so had learned the hard way Kim Possible was not a fan of that particular moniker. But she was way too tired to deal with a fool like Riverez and way too focused on getting Shego to care. Ron, however, had plenty to say to the Lieutenant about proper police procedure and how to verify a target before shooting at it.

Kim watched as her boyfriend walked right up in front of Riverez, just a few inches from his face. Both men looked like they wanted to take each other's head off and Kim wasn't so sure that the blonde wouldn't just go ahead and do it. A more timed man would have backed down at the sight of Ron Stoppable just then, as his anger came flooding back to him. But Riverez was not about to give any ground to someone whom he blamed for the catastrophe that was that night.

"What?" he snarled at Ron.

"Lieutenant," Ron began, his voice shaking with rage, "if your men ever, ever fire on us without looking first again, I will personally make sure that you get a much nastier reception than the one Shego just gave you."

The Lieutenant responded by giving Ron a single, forced laugh. "You and what army, little boy? Just be thankful that I don't arrest you for obstruction of justice. Now, back up," and Riverez gave Ron a little push to get his point across.

That push caused more than just to put a small amount of distance between Ron and Riverez; somewhere, deep inside Ron, something snapped. Kim watched in horror from a few feet away as Ron silently fell into a more stable fighting stance. Riverez, it seemed, did not know martial arts otherwise he would have realized that he was now dealing with man who was as dangerous as a coiled snake, ready to strike. The redhead simply couldn't believe what she was seeing as the Lieutenant gave Ron a smug look, as if to convey who was top dog around here, while Ron used the man's moment of self-congratulations to rear back in preparation to attack.

Thankfully, the strike never came, otherwise Ron probably would have spent the night in jail. Just before the blonde was about to let loose on Riverez, Millar called Ron and Kim over to where he was. The Captain had apparently used the time that Ron and Riverez had been occupied to good use. He had a schematic of the building out again, only this time it was a drawing of the roof, and he was talking into his radio.

"Gunny, you got all that?" they heard Millar say into the radio as they approached him.

There was a momentary pause before the reply came through. "Got it. Two hostiles, one friendly, we are clear to engage on the roof."

Millar had noticed that he now had Team Possible's undivided attention. He knew that Kim was not going to like what he was about to say next, but he was a soldier tasked to protect both the Mirage and Dr. Fedor at any cost. But, she had a right to know what was going on and would not hide what he was doing from her.

He locked eyes with hers, toggled the radio once more, and informed Gannon in no uncertain terms, "And, gunny, you take them down with whatever means necessary. Including deadly. Understood?"

"Understood. Gannon out."

The Captain saw the redhead's eyes go wider a touch, but she stayed silent as the gunny's reply came over the comm line. In all the times that Team Possible had faced off with Shego and Draken, Kim and Ron had never even though about the use of deadly force, much less used it against the villains, despite the fact that Shego seemed bent on killing them. Kim understood why the police would return fire after being fired upon, but to order someone to go off and terminate Shego and Draken seemed somewhat out of place in their mission.

"Captain, is it really necessary to eliminate them? We've never had to resort to that kind of a response before," Kim argued.

The Captain shook his head. "I'm sorry, Kim, but I have my orders. I cannot allow them to escape with Dr. Fedor. And, as you can see," he continued with a gesture towards the still smoldering cop cars, "they have no qualms about using it on us."

Kim still wasn't sure about it, and looked over to Ron for some help in making her case, but it looked to her like her boyfriend might actually agree with Millar's tactics. He was staying very quiet and was trying his best not to meet Kim gaze, instead staring intently at the map of the roof that was laid out before him. She wasn't sure what he was feeling just then, but Kim made a mental note to have a talk with him about it after all this was said and done.

Regardless of any argument that Kim and Millar might have been having at the moment, Gunnery Sergeant John Gannon had been given his orders and he would carry them out.  It took him only a few seconds to convey the tactical information to his men and they were moving. They might have been tasked to provide security, but that didn't mean that the twenty armed men weren't still Marines, in excellent physical condition, and this enabled them to climb the four flights of stairs in record time. Once on the fourth floor, they quickly made their way over to the roof access, which was a separate staircase remarkably close to Dr. Fedor's lab. He left four of his men behind to cover the only exit from the roof into the building and proceeded up the last flight of stairs to the roof.

The stairs ended at a small platform just before the last obstacle between the Marines and their objective. The single, metal door thankfully swung out into the roof, but it looked like it was made of the same reinforced titanium that the air shaft grating was made of. Gannon grabbed the handle on the door, gave it a twist, and gently tried to push open the door. Unfortunately, it seemed that the door was locked and prevented anyone from getting either in or out. The gunny knew he was losing time fooling around with the access door, so he made a quick decision. 

"Green," Gannon called out to his demolitions expert.

The lance corporal rapidly made his way to the front of the group. LCP William Green had at one time been a very proficient master of explosives for his country until an unfortunate incident with a kid in Afghanistan led him to give it all up in favor of something less stressful, like a security post in the States. But that didn't mean that he had forgotten how to use them, and the gunny knew this and was going to take full advantage of his know-how.

"Here's the deal," Gannon informed him. "I need you to rig an explosive to take out this door then a couple of flash-bangs to disorientate the targets. Got it?"

The lance corporal nodded his understanding and began to get to work. It didn't take him long to place a small amount of plastic explosives over the lock on the door. Green decided that it would be too dangerous given their close quarters to simply blow the door off its hinges, so he was forced to use a limited quantity of his C-4. He just hoped it would be enough against the reinforced door, otherwise it would alert their enemy to their presence.

Once he was confident in the rig, he signaled for everyone to move down the stairs to a safe distance. He indicated to the gunny that everything was in place and handed two flash-bang charges over to the two privates who would be the first wave. The plan was that once Green blows the door, the privates would throw the charges out onto the roof so as to disorientate the target, while the rest of the squad would follow to engage the target.

As soon as everyone was in place, Green looked over at Gannon and got a slight nod. The lance corporal then twisted the handle on the detonator, sending an electrical charge to the plastique. The Marine hadn't forgotten a single thing about his training in Afghanistan, the gunny saw, as the locking mechanism on the door was turned into pieces of scrap metal. A half a second after the initial blast, the two privates threw the flash-bangs into the open space of the roof; the rest of the squad waited for them to go off, and then the Marines charged their enemy with Gannon in the lead.

The explosion of the door had caught the occupants of the roof off guard. It had been fairly quiet since Shego had piloted the hover car over the edge of the roof and out of the police's gunfire. The villainess was not one to waste time, so she had been busy making the most of the authority's lack of response.

It would take the jet a few minutes to fully warm up; normally they would have left the engines running but stealth took a higher priority on this job than speed. While this was happening, Shego opened the cockpit to her jet to get Dr. Fedor in. The brunette's jet was decidedly different from the Global Justice jet that Kim and Ron had arrived in. While the GJ jet was designed mainly for transport, Shego's was a fighter. Her jet was much smaller than the GJ jet, which allowed from much greater flexibility and maneuverability. Also, it only had room for only two passengers, with one seat behind the other. Yet, the biggest difference between the two was a nasty little surprise that was concealed in the real underbelly of her jet, there in case anyone got a little to close for comfort.

As she silently worked, she wondered why the cops were giving her so much time to make her escape. But what she really couldn't figure out was where Team Possible had gotten off to. Usually, once Kim Possible attacked she was like a pit bull, never letting go until the job was done. But the brunette hadn't seen nor heard from Kimmie since she had smashed her into that wall some thirty minutes ago.

"Maybe I hurt little Kimmie more than I thought," Shego though as a bemused smile crossed her lips. The woman let herself indulge in one of her fantasies for a brief moment as she continued to work. She could picture Kim's lifeless body there on the floor of the hidden room with the buffoon by her side, sobbing at his loss. It was quite the perfect picture (at least, perfect for Shego) and one that she wished she could see first hand. But, she had a job to do and could no longer afford to indulge such daydreaming.

Once the brunette was satisfied that the holographics expert was safely in place, she turned her attention to Draken. Her blue skinned boss hadn't said much since she had shoved him into the awaiting hover car, and it was clear that he was pouting. Shego went to say something to him, but never got the chance because at that moment, two things happened. First, the jet engines became fully charged and ready for takeoff. And, second, the door to the roof was violently blown open.

Shego had a fairly good idea of counter-terrorism procedure and instead of staring at the open doorway, she quickly averted her eyes to avoid the brilliant flash of light that she knew was coming. Draken, however, was still sulking about being shown up by Shego on this job and was looking for something to take his mind off of the humiliation that he was feeling just then. So, when LCP Green destroyed the door's locking mechanism, Draken's mind jumped at the distraction. He turned to see just what had happened, and was focusing his full attention on the doorway when the two flash-bangs went off.

By the time the flash from the charge had dissipated, Shego had already summoned her deadly plasma energy and was running to her right to take cover in the hover car. She knew that whoever was coming through the doorway next, be it the FBI, Global Justice, or the military, they were someone serious. Using one of the few advantages of being the bad guy in the situation, the villainess didn't wait to be fired upon first, and started to unleash bolt after bolt of her green blasts at the Marines in the doorway.

The gunny had wasted no time after he saw the privates throw the flash-bangs towards their targets. As the squad leader, he felt that it was his duty to be in the front, leading his men; it was the only way, he believed, that one could effectively command one's troops. Thus, the first man out onto roof was the gunny, who quickly identified one of the hostiles (its not hard to miss someone described as a babe in a green and black cat suit). He moved to his right as soon as he was out the door, running as fast as he could to take cover behind an ventilation unit, while bringing his M-16 up to fire upon his enemy. The next man out of the door turned out to be LCP Green, who was doing much the same as Gannon except he ran to his left.

The third Marine was not so lucky. By the time Green was dashing out onto he roof, Shego had taken up position in the hover car. With a quick shove to get Draken down and out of harm's way, she ignored the gunfire coming from the two Marines already on the roof and let loose a shot at the doorway. The Marine who happened to be in the doorway at the time took the blast on his right shoulder, instantly charring his skin and fracturing his collar bone. The force of the blast was enough to send him flying back into the building, taking down several of his fellow Marines in the process.

Shego noticed this and decided that she had an opportunity to cut the number of people who were after her from a lot down to two. As the Marines were trying to regain their footing in the small stairwell, the brunette fired off another shot, but this time, it was directed at the small enclosure that the doorway was in. The hover car's shielding giving her the precious few seconds of cover she needed, Shego was able to melt the metal surrounding the doorway, effectively cutting off the other eighteen Marines from the two that were on the roof.

"Two against one. Now these are odds I like," the brunette thought with a malevolent grin. Despite the fact that they now had no backup, the gunny and the lance corporal still had their orders to stop his crazed woman. Which was why they paid little heed to when Shego melted to doorway as they continued to fire upon the hover car. But, for all their direct hits, it seemed as though the shell of the vehicle was immune to gunfire because, while the woman was taking extra care to stay behind the side of the hover car, she regarded the Marine's gunfire as little more than a nuisance.

But, now Shego could afford to focus her undivided attention on the hapless soldiers that continued to fire on her. She turned he attention to the sniveling coward that was her boss, pulled out the Mirage from her jumpsuit pocket, and handed it over to him.

"Dr. D," she informed him with the tone of someone giving orders to a subordinate, "I'm going to create a diversion. Once the gunfire stops, get the hell out of here and I'll meet you back at the lair. Got it?"

The blue-skinned madman simply nodded his head silently as he stared back at Shego with a look of fear in his eyes. The villainess simply rolled her eyes and shook her head, wondering for the umpteenth time today why she worked for this guy. She sighed, and, placing any thought about her future career with Draken on the back burner, made her move. Standing quickly, the brunette pointed one hand at the ventilation shaft that Gannon was hiding behind and the other hand at the ventilation shaft Green was hiding behind and fired.

The two metal protrusions that the Marines were hiding behind instantly exploded, completely destroying the front of the air shafts and throwing both Marines backwards. It was lucky for Gannon and Green that Shego decided to fire two shots at once. This effectively cut the power behind each blast in half, because a full blast to one airshaft would surely have killed the Marine that was crouched behind it. As it was, Green was simply disorientated, and Gannon took a small piece of shrapnel to the left forearm.

Yet, the goal was not to kill or even injure her attackers, it was merely to get them to stop firing upon them long enough for Shego and Draken to make their escape. This the villainess accomplished. The second she let lose her plasma energy, Shego preformed a back flip up and out of the hover car landing gracefully on the roof surface. Not wasting a moment, she began running for her jet, keeping her entire focus on making it to the safety of the jet's shielding before the Marines recovered.

She made it to her objective in a few scant seconds and quickly leaped into the open cockpit. Gracefully settling into the pilot's seat, she expertly worked the controls to close the canopy and bring the extra shielding online with no time to spare. Just as the onboard computer announced that the shielding was at full capacity, she heard the ping of gunfire ricocheting off the fuselage of her jet. She gave a quick glance over to where the hover car was, but it appeared that Draken didn't need to be told twice to get the hell out of Dodge.

The gunny was the first to recover from Shego's attack. Part of his mind registered that his forearm was injured, but he pushed aside the pain for the moment. He was not about to let that bitch get away from him now. He knew that he was hurt, he had no idea if Green was even alive, and he wasn't sure what had happened to the rest of the squad. It was time that the raven-haired vixen paid for her misdeeds, so, despite the pain in his arm, he brought his rifle up, took aim at the cockpit where he saw his target, and opened fire.

Unfortunately, his rounds seemed to have as much effect on the jet in front of him as they did on the flying car. He continued to fire on the jet for a few seconds before realizing the futility of the situation and stopped. Gannon watched with barely contained rage as the green and black woman powered up her engines and brought the jet up off the roof. Once she was a few feet into the air, she turned the engines ninety degrees in preparation for forward flight, looked right at the Gunnery Sergeant, blew him a kiss, and went streaking off into he night.

While the rooftop assault party was learning just why Shego was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, Millar, Riverez, and Team Possible were left to wonder what the situation was on the roof. They had heard the explosion from the C-4, then the two flash-bangs, followed by gunfire and the sounds of the two ventilation shafts detonating. But what really got their hearts moving was the sight of Shego's jet rise into the air and then take off like a bat out of hell.

"Is it possible that she took out twenty of my Marines?" Millar thought. He couldn't see how a single person could do all that but he had just seen her get away after engaging in a skirmish with his men. He didn't have to wait long before the answers to his questions came to him over his radio.

"Captain, this is Gannon, over."

Millar quickly grabbed his radio and pressed the transmit button. "Millar here. What the hell happened, gunny?"

"We engaged the target a short time ago. She was able to cut off most of the men in the stairwell before we could get onto the roof. Not that it would have made a difference, her jet has some kind of armor that makes it bulletproof. Captain, I personally shot the damn thing with a couple of dozen rounds and they all just bounced harmlessly off it."

"Have you taken any causalities?"

"Two. One medium and one superficial. Jackson got some third degree burns on his shoulder and a broken collar bone after he got hit by one those green charges the woman emits from her hands and I took a small piece of shrapnel in the forearm."

"What about the targets? Where are they now?"

"The blue-skinned man took off in the flying vehicle and the green and black woman escaped in the jet along with Dr. Fedor."

Kim and Ron had been standing close enough to Millar to hear the entire exchange between two men, and upon hearing that the two villains had escaped, they looked at each other and engaged in a silent conversation. It only took a fraction of a second for them to reach a conclusion, with Kim speaking first.

"I'll get Shego…"

"…while I'll get Draken" Ron finished her thought.

Kim felt good to be back in the game; it seemed to her like she hadn't really hadn't made a contribution to this mission in awhile and was looking forward to a chance to settle the score with Shego. The police had had their chance at her, as had the Marines, but now it was Kim Possible's turn. And before anyone could say another word to her, she took off in the direction of the Global Justice jet.

Ron, however, had a bit of a problem. While Kim was able to follow Shego in the GJ jet, he had no way to follow Draken. As he was watching his girlfriend race towards her ride, Ron began to ponder his situation when he heard the Lieutenant shout at Kim, "Hey! Just where do you think you're going?"

His little outburst attracted the blonde's attention and he turned to his right to tell Riverez to shut the hell up when something behind the police Lieutenant caught Ron's eye. They looked like they were brand new, still all nice and shiny, and despite the fact that Ron had never ridden one before, it looked like the police motorcycles that were about fifty yards behind Riverez were the answer to his problem.

Making a quick decision, Ron was off and running at the bikes, his mind barely registering Riverez's demands to know what he was doing. The Lieutenant didn't have to wait long before getting his answer as he watched the male half of Team Possible come to a sudden halt in front of the two bikes. Struggling to figure out just what the blonde was doing, he realized with a rising sense of dread just what the boy planned on doing as he swung his right leg over the motorcycle.

Ron looked down at the instrument panel and gave a silent prayer of thanks to whoever left the keys in the ignition. Unbeknownst to Kim, he had taken up a recent interest in movement of the two-wheel kind. He knew that she would worry about it way too much if he started riding all of a sudden, so he had decided to study up and practice well in advance of telling his girlfriend. He had gotten the studying part down; he knew where everything was on a bike and how to ride one in theory. But he had yet had the chance to actually get on a motorcycle while it was running and put the theory into practice.

"Oh, well, there's no time like the present," the teen hero thought as he turned the ignition key to 'On', checked to make sure the bike was in neutral, set the choke, opened the gas tank, and pushed the electronic starter button. His efforts were rewarded with a gentle roar from the bikes powerful engine which grew increasingly louder as he turned the throttle.

He allowed himself a small smile while he brought up the kickstand and put the bike into first gear. "Here goes nothing," he thought as he released the clutch and engaged the throttle. For a split second, Ron thought he might just be the most natural motorcyclist in the world until the bike promptly stalled on him.

Cursing softly under his breath, he quickly reset everything for a second attempt at getting the bike out onto the open road. As soon as he had brought the engine back to life, Riverez came running up to the side of the bike, his face showing a strange mix of anger, panic, and fear.

"What the hell are you doing, Stoppable? Are you trying to get yourself killed? Get off that motorcycle now!"

Ron paid the Lieutenant's demands no heed. He gave a quick sideways glance at the fuming man, let loose on the clutch, and pulled back on the throttle. This time, the blonde had gotten the proper timing down and instead of stalling the massive Harley, it took off, streaking out of the parking lot and towards the highway beyond.

Normally, it takes a person some time to become comfortable on a motorcycle and get the balancing down so that they don't end up a smear on the pavement somewhere. However, Ron Stoppable wasn't just another person; he was the heir to the Mystical Monkey Power. He tried for about all of two seconds to do it all on his own, but after wobbling forward for a few feet, he quickly realized that he would never be able to catch up to Draken this way. So, for the fourth time today, he tapped into his power. The police that were watching the scene unfold had been a heartbeat away from laughing at the hapless teen, waiting for when he fell off the bike. But the next thing that they saw was the teen get complete control of the machine, lean down low to the bike to cut down on wind drag, and take off into the night.

For a moment, Ron forgot all about the mission at hand and simply enjoyed the feel of the wind whipping through his hair and the pure freedom of speeding down an open highway. He let his thoughts drift for only a moment, and then brought his focus back to catching up with Draken. That was when Ron realized that he had no idea where Draken had gotten off to.

The teen hero silently wished that Kim had not taken the Kimmunicator from him back in the complex, otherwise he could have contacted Wade to get a fix on the madman's location. It wouldn't be a hard task for the team's tech guy to locate a flying car in sleepy Middleton.

"Wait a minute," the blonde thought as an idea began to form, "a hover car has got to be something enough out of the ordinary that people are going to be calling it in to the police." Ron flipped on the police radio on the bike and turned up the volume so that he could hear over the noise of the bike. Most of the chatter that he picked up was related to the situation back at the Photonic Imaging and Concealment Lab. Ron was patient, however, and his patience was rewarded a few minutes later when a call came over the radio about reports of a flying car over on Old County Road.

Ron, who had spent his entire life growing up in Middleton, was well acquainted with that stretch of road and gave a silent prayer of thanks that he was not too far away. He quickly raced through the gears on the bike and was pushing eighty when he pulled onto the two lane road. Fortunately, the road was pretty deserted and what little traffic Ron encountered got out of his way at the sound the motorcycle's siren.

Old County Road was extremely straight and flat for Middleton, and gave the teen hero a far view of the road ahead. It didn't take long before he caught sight of Draken on the horizon, and he let the throttle on his bike open as much as it would go to quickly cover the gap between the two vehicles.

As Ron was closing the gap on Draken, Rufus, who had been tucked away in the teen's pocket, felt his curiosity get the better of him. Usually, the naked mole rat was content to wait in his owner's pocket during a mission until called upon to perform some task. But he had felt like he and Ron were moving really fast and wanted to get a better look at what was going on. The little guy unbuttoned the pocket his was in, open the flap, and stuck his head out.

Rufus was clearly not prepared for the assault that the ninety plus mile an hour wind made on his tiny body. The wind quickly knocked Rufus out of Ron's pocket and only the lightning reflexes of the smallest member of Team Possible allowed him to grab onto the edge of the pocket, saving his life.

His terror at the maximum, Rufus began screaming as loudly as he could to get Ron's attention. His owner, however, had placed his full attention on catching up to the hover car; racing down a country road at close to a hundred required everything he had not to wipe out and get himself killed. Yet, even over the roar of the wind and the whine of the engine, the hero began to hear a faint squeaking sound coming from what sounded like the exhaust system. He didn't give it a second thought but as the high-pitched squeaking continued to get louder, Ron began to wonder if there wasn't a problem with his bike.

Not slowing down for even a second, the blonde turned his head over his right shoulder to take a look at the rear of the bike and his heart stopped. There, clutching to his pants for dear life, was his second closest friend in the world. Using his knees for balance, he let go of the handlebars and desperately reached for his pet. Ron, however, was just a split second too late as Rufus' grip let go and the teen hero could only watch in total horror as his friend went sailing off into space.

The blonde's world shattered in a split second as he watched Rufus's body first take flight into the air and then begin its rapid descent towards certain death. As absolutely painful as it was to watch, Ron's entire focus was on his friend, as he let Draken, the mission, and even the fact that he was on a motorcycle going well in excess of the speed limit slip from his mind. Which was why he hadn't noticed the other police motorcycle that had been speeding up Old County Road behind him.

Rufus' savior came in the form of one Lieutenant Daniel Riverez. When the Lieutenant was first starting out in the Middleton Police force, he was assigned to the motorcycle squad. It was his distinction for five years as a motorcycle cop that first got him noticed by the brass and started him up the career ladder and despite the fact that he hadn't been on a Harley in over seven years, all his training came back to him that night. When he saw Ron take off on the police bike into the night, the Lieutenant made the decision that he couldn't simply stand by and watch Ron leave with police property. So, he jumped on the other bike that was at the scene and followed the blonde teenager.

Because he was following Ron, the Lieutenant was in position to grab Rufus with his left hand a few inches before he hit the pavement and save his life. The cop then brought the naked mole rat up to his chest, unbuttoned his left breast pocket, and slipped Ron's pet inside, away from any further danger. The grateful teen flashed Riverez a huge smile and gave him a thumbs up, but the Lieutenant merely pointed in front of Ron, beginning his attention back on Draken.

As the two motorcycles got closer to the hover car, its occupant, who had just been thinking how easy his getaway was going, began to take notice of the siren coming from Ron's bike. Taking his own sweet time, the mad scientist eased up out of the reclining position he was in, allowed himself a good stretch, and then finally turned around to see what all the fuss was about.

Predictably, Draken panicked once he realized he was being chased. He slammed the hover car into high gear, but it was never meant to go very fast and quickly hit its top speed of sixty-five miles per hour. But the bikes were much faster than the car was and he watched in growing anxiety as the motorcycles rapidly closed in on him. Had he thought about it, he could have eased off the throttle and gained some altitude to put him out of the reach of his pursuers; the faster the hover car was going, the lower it needed to be to the ground.

That thought never occurred to Draken, but another one did. As he was staring out the back of the flying vehicle, he realized that it was armed with a laser cannon that was mounted on the back. By this time, the motorcycles were well within the range of the laser. The villain put the car on auto-pilot, activated the cannon, and took aim at the closer of the two bikes.

Ron was getting closer to Draken but was still too far away to make out distinct features on the car, which is why he didn't see Draken bring the laser on line. But the teen did notice the small red light that began to emanate from the back of the hover car and Ron guessed correctly that something was about to happen; he just didn't know what.

He didn't have to wait long to find out. A moment after the blonde noticed the light, Draken fired his first shot at Ron. Fortunately, he was just as bad at using the laser cannon as he was at taking over the world. The shot missed both motorcycles, racing right between them and struck the asphalt, leaving behind a fair sized crater in the smooth road.

The mad genius continued the precise aiming method for awhile, but gave it up when he realized that now that his pursuers were expecting his laser shots, they were able to easily dodge them. So, as his anger at not being able to hit them rose, he decided upon a different tactic: rapid scattered firing.

This turned out to be a much bigger problem than the specific shots were. Dodging one was easy to do, but with Draken firing off so many at them, as they would swerve around one, another would take its place and then another. Both men were good, but they couldn't avoid that many blasts forever.

Riverez was the first to get hit. He didn't take a direct shot but Draken managed to hit the road a few inches in front of the Lieutenant's bike leaving a sizeable pothole which the cop could not avoid. His motorcycle going in excess of a hundred, the ragged edges of the crater in the road surface efficiently tore the front tire to shreds. If it wasn't for his many years of experience and his training in offensive motorcycle driving, the Lieutenant surely would have lost control and skidded out. But, the man had been in similar situations in the past and was able to bring the violently shaking bike under control before veering off the woods on the side of the road.

Ron, who was in front of Riverez at the time, didn't see what had happened to the Lieutenant but he heard the loud bang when his front tire blew out. The teen looked back over his shoulder to see where the noise had come from just in time to see the other bike disappear into the trees. Quickly weighing his two choices of stopping to help or continue chasing Draken, the blonde muttered a curse under his breath before easing up on the throttle to head back and see if everyone was alright. The last sight Ron had of Draken was the deranged man, his blue face clearly visible in the moonlight, laughing at him.

***

While Ron was busy on his motorcycle adventure chasing Draken down on the streets of Middleton, Kim was having her own little adventure chasing down Shego in the air over Middleton. Once it had been decided that she would go after Shego while Ron went after Draken, Kim forced any thoughts about the blue skinned scientist and how Ron was going to go after him out of her mind and concentrated on her part of the plan.

Kim Possible, the girl who could do anything, came to the conclusion that, while she probably could pilot the Global Justice jet that she was now running towards at full speed, why take the chance when she had an experienced pilot at her disposal? The pilot, a woman in her early fifties who simply went by her call sign Arrowhead, was standing at the bottom of the lowered entrance ramp when the redhead came running up.

"What's going on?" she asked the teen hero casually. Arrowhead was a pilot, not a field agent like Kim, and so she preferred to stay with her jet instead of going up front where the action was.

"Trouble," the redhead replied without breaking her stride. She ignored the confused look Arrowhead was giving her as she ran up the entrance ramp and into the body of the jet.

The pilot was confused by what her passenger meant by 'Trouble'. "If there's something going on, what the hell is Kim Possible doing getting back on the jet? And where is her sidekick, what's-his-name?" the elder woman wondered. She shrugged it off, figuring that Kim was a pro who knew what she was doing, and turned to head up the ramp behind her.

The GJ pilot was about to ask the teen what her plan was when she realized that the passenger section of the jet that she was walking through was empty. There was only one other place in the jet that Kim could be, and a flash of annoyance crossed her face. The cockpit was reserved for those who knew how to handle the jet, not the field agents that were shuttled around by them.

Kim, however, didn't consider herself a passenger for this flight. She was going to have to track down Shego in her jet and she wasn't going to sit in back and let someone else have all the fun. So, after she entered the jet, the redhead headed right past the seating in back towards the front of the plane, sat down in the co-pilot's seat, and began to strap herself in.

When Arrowhead entered the cockpit, she saw that Kim had already strapped herself in and was running through various pre-flight checks. She gave the teen a look that conveyed a mixture of displeasure at her presence and confusion at what she was doing there. When the Global Justice pilot stepped forward to take her seat on Kim's left, the teen hero caught the look in Arrowhead's eye and began to explain what was going on.

"Shego is escaping in a jet with stolen military hardware. We're going to track her down and follow her to her hideout, then call for backup. Normally, I wouldn't give chase like this now that she's in a civilian area to avoid any further danger to innocent bystanders, but she's got a hostage."

Arrowhead may have been just a pilot, but every member of Global Justice had heard of Shego at some point and just how dangerous she could be and the idea of that woman having a hostage sent a shiver down her spine. Without another word, the GJ pilot slipped into the pilot's seat, secured her flight harness, and engaged the engines. After a brief moment, she pulled back on the yoke to begin their ascent, leveled the jet off just a few feet about the tree line, turned the engines ninety degrees for forward flight, and began their pursuit.

Kim knew which direction Shego had taken off in, but, given the speed and range of her jet and the five minute head start, the villainess could have gotten off to anywhere. But the heroine knew someone that she was sure that Shego's jet couldn't hide from. She once again pulled the small communications device from a pocket in her cargos and thumbed the button to get in touch with Wade. Seeing her friend's face, she didn't waste any time and got straight to the matter at hand.

"Wade, Shego just escaped from the research complex in a jet. I need you to get a lock on her position so that we can follow her back to her lair."

Kim watched as the tech master began to furiously pound away at his keyboard, hacking layer upon layer of encryption until he had broken into a Global Justice mainframe. Calling up the various satellite subroutines, he selected the GJ spy satellite that was in geo-synchronous orbit over the Western United States. From there, it was an easy task to cross reference any object the satellite picked up that could possibly be a jet to an FAA database of all know air routes. When he was done eliminating anything heading along an established route, Wade was left with only one aircraft, approximately ten miles from Kim's present position. And he was able to do all that in under a minute.

"Kim, Shego has headed North towards the mountains. If you plug the Kimmunicator directly into the GJ jet, I can overlay her position onto the onboard radar."

"Ah, thanks Wade, you continue to rock," Kim smiled at her friend. She then pulled the access cable out of the bottom of the Kimmunicator and, after finding the correct port on the instrument panel, plugged it into the jet. Instantly, a small dot appeared on the green monotone radar screen that sat in between the two seats of the cockpit, along with the relative heading and speed of the aircraft. Arrowhead quickly adjusted her flight path to intercept the target, bringing the jet to near supersonic speeds.

"Ya know, Kim," the pilot stated after giving another look at the radar screen, "Shego seems to be taking her time. I saw the jet that she's driving, and it can do a hell of a lot more than 120 knots."

The redhead considered this for a moment and then smiled. "That's because she thinks she's already gotten away with it. I'm kinda disappointed, I expected more from Shego. Oh, well, it'll be all that more of a surprise when a hundred GJ agents come knocking at her door."

Yet, while Kim was underestimating Shego just as Shego had underestimated Kim, the brunette was suddenly clued into the fact that she was being followed by her radar systems. The Global Justice jet that Kim was riding in, despite being a troop transport, had been outfitted with the latest in radar jamming equipment as a preventive measure against surface to air and air-to-air missiles. Both Kim and Arrowhead knew this, which was why they were confident in their ability to get close to the villainess without being detected.

Unfortunately, what the GJ jet had not been designed to do, unlike the military's B-2 and F-117, and what its two occupants failed to consider, was that a jet streaking across the night sky at 550 knots creates quite a heat signature. In fact, it created a large enough heat signature for the sensors that Shego had built into her jet to pick up. The sensors relayed their information to the jet's computer for analysis, who then decided that the very hot object that was rapidly approaching the jet was something that the pilot should know about.

Which was why a blinking red light suddenly appeared on the instrument panel in Shego's jet. Just as Kim had guessed, the brunette had been lost in her own little world, fully believing that she had left Team Possible well behind. When the alarm went off, however, it snapped her back to really. She quickly checked her radar and, noticing nothing within a twenty-five mile radius, switched to thermal mode. Suddenly, the heat signature of a Global Justice jet appeared about three-quarter miles behind her, matching her speed and heading.

After mumbling an expletive under her breath, the brunette decided to try and lose her pursuers in the mountain range instead of turning and fighting; she wasn't sure what kind of weapons the GJ jet had, but she knew that she only had one and using it took up a lot of her resources. So, her plan of action decided, she opened the throttle and her jet went screaming into the dangerous peaks of the mountains ahead.

By the time Shego was realizing that she had guests, the GJ jet was in visual range of its target. So far, the enemy had been making it very easy to trail them with a nice steady flight path and slow speed. Kim was just thinking about what a marvel the GJ jet was when she noticed the cobalt blue jet Shego was in rapidly increase speed and change its heading towards the mountain range.

"Looks like we've been discovered," Kim commented to Arrowhead. "Think you can follow her in between the mountains?"

The elder female gave the heroine a broad smile before replying, "In my sleep." While Shego's jet had a higher top speed than Arrowhead's, the Global Justice jet had a greater fuel capacity and therefore its pilot could afford to spend more time in an afterburn than Shego. Knowing she was going to need every ounce of her skill, Arrowhead leaned forward slightly, hit the throttle once more, and took off after the other jet.

Knowing that she couldn't outrun the other jet, Shego began a series of complex maneuvers once she was among the mountain peaks. Slowing her speed, she first brought the GJ jet in real close then turned, heading straight into a valley with peaks rising up on both sides of her. Shego was well acquainted with this mountain; Draken had had quite a number of his lairs located here over the years. Thus, she knew about the double sharp turns that were coming up. What she was hoping was that the other pilot did not.

Arrowhead was following Shego's jet quite closely ("A little too close," Kim thought), but even still, it's pretty hard to miss the mountain that was looming in their path. The veteran pilot thought she had Shego's plan all worked out, knowing that her opponent would break to her left at the last second and follow the valley hoping that the GJ jet would react too late crash into the mountain. So, Arrowhead was not surprised in the least when the blue jet in front of her broke to the left and the pilot was ready to make the same maneuver. She slowed up just a touch, rolled the jet to the left, eased into the turn, and began to level off.

What the two passengers in the Global Justice jet saw next almost stopped their hearts. Apparently hidden by the larger peaks surrounding it was a much smaller mountain peak about a five hundred yards after the first turn in the valley. And the Global Justice jet was headed right for it.

"So this is what she was planning," Arrowhead thought. "Cleaver girl." The veteran pilot allowed herself only a split second of surprised panic before her instinct took over. She rolled the jet to the right this time and yanked back on the yoke to get some altitude, aiming to miss the peak by going around the top of it. They made it, but not before trimming the tops of several trees in the process.

While Kim was struggling to bring her heart back under control, Shego was laughing hysterically. She knew that the GJ jet hadn't hit the mountain (the lack of an explosion clued her in), but she was confident that she had shook her tail. Now, Shego just wanted to get the hell out of there as fast as she could before someone else came along. So, the villainess brought her jet up out of the valley she was in and headed for home. Shego once again became lost in her own self-congratulatory world when her radar indicator once again lit up. 

The one thing that Shego wasn't going to be able to shake was the Global Justice satellite that was keeping a close eye on her. The entire time since acquiring Shego's jet, Wade had been connected to the GJ jet via the Kimmunicator and continued to provide the feed from the hacked satellite. It took a moment for Arrowhead to bring the jet back under control, but once she did, she quickly turned into an intercept heading and punched it.

Shego let out a low growl as her pursuers closed in once again and was preparing to dip a second time into the valley when her onboard computer let her know that she had another problem: low fuel. Between her unshakable foe and her rapidly consumed fuel supply, it began apparent that the only way to get away was to use her secret weapon. She didn't like to use it and avoided it at all cost as the price for even one shot was a high one, but after quickly taking stock of her situation, she didn't see that she had any choice.

The decision having been made, she went to work making it happen. It required getting the GJ jet in close, down to within a few hundred yards, so she increased her speed, knowing that the GJ jet would match it. Next, she flipped a switch that opened a small hatch in the underbelly of the jet and from this opening, a small laser-like device dropped down. Shego punched in several commands into the computer, and the laser swiveled around, coming to rest on the jet that was coming up fast. Now all that was left to do was the part that Shego dreaded the most, the painful part.

She switched the jet to autopilot and began to concentrate her focus. As she focused, she closed her eyes and lit her right hand with the plasma energy gifted to her by the rogue comet. Shego had learned over the years that she could call forth her energy to varying degrees, and if she concentrated, she could bring all the power she had into a single point on her body. The brunette could feel the power collecting in her right hand. The more she concentrated, the weaker she felt and her hand began to ache under the stress of all that power. When she felt that she had built up as much as she could, Shego dropped the throttle to rapidly decrease her speed with her left hand and jammed her super charged right hand into a specially designed receptacle that was built into the cockpit.

The special device that Shego had built into her jet was similar to a laser, except that instead of collecting and concentration light energy, it collected and concentrated her plasma energy. Through a series of brilliant engineering that the brunette still couldn't believe that Draken came up with, she could increase the power of her blasts twenty times over, more than enough to blast that Global Justice jet and whoever was in it to kingdom come.

And she probably would have succeeded in vaporizing the cockpit of the GJ jet if it hadn't been for the quick reflexes of Arrowhead. Both women watched as what they thought was a laser descend from the cobalt jet. They were once again racing at near mach speeds but the pilot was keeping a safer distance this time. She tensed up slightly at the sight of the laser, wanting to be ready in case anything was to happen. But as several minutes passed and nothing happened, the two women began to wonder just what Shego was up to when the brunette made her move.

They saw the villainess' jet lose its speed in a heartbeat, closing the gap between the two of them down to just a few hundred yards. While Arrowhead was busy adjusting her speed to match so as not to ram into Shego's jet, Kim noticed a strange buildup of green light in the laser-like device. "Funny, that looks a lot like Shego's green energy," Kim thought a second before the plasma gun fired.

She only took her eyes off the sky in front of her for a moment to check her air speed, but that's all the time the device needed to fire off its blast. When the pilot looked back up, she saw that there was some strange green projectile heading right at her cockpit. Her lighting quick reflexes kicking in, Arrowhead stomped on the rudder and yanked the yoke in a desperate attempt to bring the plane down and to the left of the blast. But it wasn't fast enough.

Instead of hitting the cockpit, Shego's plasma hit the number two engine on the right wing dead on. The complex combination of moving metal was ripped violently apart as green plasma reacted badly with jet fuel. The sudden loss of power on its right side caused the jet to lurch back to its right, slamming Kim into the fuselage and throwing Arrowhead from her seat, knocking her out cold. It took a moment for the redhead to clear her head, but once she did, she quickly assessed her situation and decided that it was time to leave the jet behind.

Fighting against the violent shuddering of the jet as it screamed towards the earth below, Kim quickly disconnected the Kimmunicator from the jet's computer and pocketed it. She then reached behind her seat to the overlooked brown backpack that she had placed there earlier and strapped it on. Then, making sure she had a solid grip on the now unconscious Arrowhead, the redhead climbed out of the now downward angled cockpit into the passenger cabin, found the nearest exit from the jet, opened it and jumped.

The teenaged heroine waited until the wind resistance from her body put a safe distance between her and the fatally injured craft before she transferred her passenger over her right shoulder. This freed her left hand, which she used to reach back and pull the ripcord that was attached to her backpack, causing the jet pack's initiation routine to start. Two wings ripped through the sides of the brown canvas while the thruster burst out the back. A tiny arm carefully placed a helmet and visor over the head of the jetpack's owner, which caused Kim to wince as it made rough contact with the gash on her forehead. Then suddenly the redhead felt herself jerk to a stop and begin to rise as the thruster came online and gave the pair of women flight.

Kim brought Arrowhead down off her shoulder so that she could get a better grip on the pilot. She was putting as much distance between her and the GJ jet when it finally lost its contest with gravity and hit the side of one of the mountain peaks, creating a fireball that could be seen for miles.

The shock wave from all the exploding jet fuel bantered Kim around for awhile, but she was able to keep herself aloft. Spying a clearing among the trees, the teen began a controlled descent towards it to make a safe landing. Using both her years of cheerleading and her experience with the jet pack, Kim landed gracefully, bringing both herself and her pilot to the ground in one piece.

She gently placed the still unconscious Global Justice veteran on the ground and shrugged off the now useless jetpack. Checking to make sure that Arrowhead was all right and satisfied that the elder woman was, she pulled out her Kimmunicator and contacted Wade for a rescue. Her tech guy and friend told her that he would have a helicopter there ASAP and to just sit tight, then he blinked off the screen as the Kimmunicator began giving off a faint beep.

"Must be the homing signal," Kim thought dimly as she stared at the now dark screen. She looked up into the night sky, just now realizing the chill in the early spring air. She sat down on the rocky soil trying to get comfortable and began to think about what she was supposed to be doing just then. She tried to guess at the time and figured that she and Ron would have gotten out of the movie by now and began giggling slightly with the sudden realization that the two of them probably would be engaged in activities that would have caused her father to either have a heart attack or give Ron one. But the moment passed as she realized that she wasn't with her love but out in a cold, dark field in the Middleton Mountains and she began to get a little depressed. She looked once again at the stars as Shego's jet streaked overhead towards the horizon.

Kim sighed at the sight, saying to no one in particular, "The perfect end to the perfect day."