The small plane dipped and tumbled as it flew through the storm clouds. Visibility was limited to a few feet, forcing the pilot to fly by instrumentation. The roar of air past the open cargo bay drowned out nearly all sound, except for the booms of thunder from the near-continuous lightning strikes between the surrounding clouds.

Kim Possible stood in the open hatchway, ready to jump.

With one hand she gripped a hand-hold attached to a small cargo crate. She was using her other hand to wave back to the pilot. Because of the noise, there was no way to properly thank him for the ride, so she settled for mouthing the words and giving him a goodbye gesture.

Ron was on the other side of the crate, gripping a second hand-hold. By leaning over until her mouth was only inches from his ear, Kim was able to make herself understood.

"You ready, Ron?" she yelled.

Ron shouted something unintelligible back, but the important part was that he nodded his head in the affirmative.

Without waiting for anything else, Kim jumped from the plane. Her weight dragged the cargo crate off behind her, and the combined weight pulled Ron off too. In an instant, they were in freefall. Kim and Ron were wearing wetsuits, and the skin-tight garments served almost as well as conventional skydiving clothing for cutting down on wind resistance.

Kim waited until they had dropped clear of the upper layer of clouds, and then triggered the chute on the cargo crate. It nearly instantly disappeared upwards, as Team Possible continued their freefall. They fell until they saw the open ocean spreading out below them, and Ron triggered his parachute. Kim delayed a couple of seconds to ensure that she would hit the water before Ron, then followed suit.

Just before she touched down upon, Kim triggered the releases on her chute and dived cleanly into the salt water. She swam a few quick strokes back to the surface and pulled a packet out of her equipment pouch. Triggered, it expanded into a small rubber raft. Kim got on board, then quickly assembled a small paddle and began paddling out to Ron, who had landed by this time.

Ron Stoppable was tangled up underneath his parachute, unable to see as it covered his head each time he rose above the surface of the water to breath. Kim used her paddle to snag the chute and flip it to the side, uncovering Ron.

"Fine, I'm just fine," Ron said as he scrambled into the raft. Kim hadn't asked, but he could have been reassuring himself.

"Not the most fun jump ever," Kim said. "Do you see the engine parts? This mission is going to be a bust without them."

"Right over there," said Ron. He pointed out the crate, which had almost reached the ocean's surface.

Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator and aimed it at the crate. She pushed a button, and small water wings inflated from the sides of the container as it hit, allowing it to float neatly on the surface of the ocean. She made a pleased sound and smiled.

"You seem pretty happy," offered Ron cautiously. He had broken out his own paddle, and both he and Kim were maneuvering to the floating container. The water was a bit choppy, but the storm above hadn't yet made the waves unnavigable.

"We're on a mission and things are going according to plan. I'd say I'm definitely on the right side of satisfied. Dancing the jig of joy. Cooking the cake of content. And maybe, just maybe, hiking the hill of happy." Kim's tone was teasing, and she alternated her words with paddle strokes.

With Ron reaching out to steady the crate, Kim carefully opened it and pulled out a small motor. She attached the motor to the side of her raft, and suddenly they were no longer depending on muscle power. The crate was tugged along behind them, trailing via a rope.

Ron collapsed back into the raft, rubbing his forearms. "Good to hear it," he said, continuing their conversation. Speaking in a rushed and anxious tone, he said, "Kim, there's something I wanted to ask you abou-"

Kim's Kimmunicator went off, interrupting with its distinctive beeps.

"Hold that thought," Kim told her sidekick. She flipped on the Kimmunicator's screen. "Wade, what's the sitch?"

The young genius's image was lined with static and his voice was crackly and hard to understand. "I've loca- pop the ship. The Kimmuni- snap take you there. Sorry about the static, the storm is- crackle-crackle -transmitting instructions into memory."

"I've got it Wade. I'll try to call you again once we're on board." Kim shut the Kimmunicator's screen off.

Ron had just enough time to open his mouth to speak when Kim suddenly offered him the Kimmunicator. "Ron, can you navigate? These waves are getting a little tricky, and I want to concentrate on driving."

There was nothing for Ron to say but, "No problem, KP." He reached out to take the Kimmunicator. It was slick in his hands from the salt water, and he pulled it back a little too fast. It popped out of his hands and arced over the side of the boat towards the ocean.

Ron fumbled to try to grab it, but he already knew he'd be too late. Just before the Kimmunicator hit water, however, Kim caught it in her right hand. Her arm moved so fast, Ron could barely make it out. They just stared at each other for a moment, and Ron suddenly looked very uncertain. He seemed to shrink in on himself a little.

Kim just smiled at Ron and extended the Kimmunicator out to him again, like nothing had happened. He took it from her, much more carefully this time, and activated the tracking function. Kim's confidence in him seemed to have restored his confidence in himself.

"Okay… no, no, there! The University's Pride should be over there," Ron said after a moment. He point in what he thought was the proper direction and struggled to see through the rain. Visibility was getting worse.

"I see it," Kim replied. A ship appeared up ahead. It was about thirty meters long, and the name 'University's Pride' was neatly written on the side.

Once Kim had pulled the raft up along-side the ship, she used a grapple to snag the railing and climb the side. Ron followed her up and together, with much heaving and straining, they drew the crate up after them. The ship was silent and empty, and no one came on deck to greet them.

Ron rubbed his arms again. They had been getting more of a workout than usual during the mission. He said to Kim, "Remind me again of why we're here for a ship that doesn't have any people on it?"

Kim was searching around, looking for a hatch that led downstairs. "Did you not listen when Wade was briefing us?"

"Of course I was listening! Kind of. I might have been a little distracted. Well, I remembered we were looking for a ship," Ron admitted in order.

"Ship carrying valuable archeological artifacts. Ship has engine trouble, and they don't have the parts to fix it. Big, big storm coming. Ship gets evacuated, but there's no room for the artifacts. Team Possible shows up to fix engines and get ship out of there before the storm sinks it," said Kim, summarizing in short.

"So there's no villains involved in this one," said Ron.

"Not unless you count Mother Nature," answered Kim.

While they were talking, Kim had found the hatchway leading down to the engine room and they had dragged the box of engine parts down to it. She flipped open her Kimmunicator. "Walk me through fixing the engines, Wade."

Static was the only response.

"Uh-oh, said Ron.

"No, it's no big. We expected this," answered Kim. She punched a few buttons on her Kimmunicator, and an alternating set of schematics and instructions appeared on the screen. "Wade downloaded everything we need to tell us how to fix the ship."

As she spoke, there was a wriggle from Ron's belt as Rufus pushed open his special carry pouch. He hopped out onto the floor and yawned.

"Oh, now that we're finally out of the rain, you show up," Ron said.

"Yep-yep-yep," was the mole rat's response.

Together, the three of them started working on the engines, following Wade's instructions. It wasn't easy going.

Ron fidgeted for a while, trying to get himself back into the talking frame of mind. "Hey Kim," he finally said.

"What, Ron?" said Kim without turning from the engine.

"I wanted to talk to you about something," he said, pushing ahead.

"What, now?" There was a little bit of exasperation in Kim's voice.

"Yes, now. I am definitely not going another now without checking up on my best friend's well-being."

There was a moment's silence and Kim finally looked up. "Wait, there's something wrong with my well-being?"

"I'm talking the tennis team, KP. I overheard your mother talking yesterday. I know she banned you from doing competitive sports. Your mother's a doctor, Kim. I'm pretty sure that counts as going against medical advice."

"Mountain. Molehill," Kim said.

There was a squeal of protest from inside the engine.

Kim winced. "Sorry Rufus! Ron, it's true my Mom didn't want me playing competitive sports when I was younger, but she said I'm old enough now to decide to do it if I want to. So I decided to go for it, and I'm glad I did. The tennis team is fun."

Ron folded his arms and put on his 'no nonsense' expression. "Well if it's so much fun, why did it put you in such a bad mood?"

A slow blush appeared on Kim's cheeks in response. "Have I been grouchy? Okay, don't answer that. I have been, and I apologized to Mom. I guess it's just that doing it even though Mom didn't want me to, it made me feel like I was doing something wrong. And… I got defensive about it and started snapping at people."

"What's your Mom's problem, anyway? You're great at sports, Kim. I don't get why she doesn't want you playing."

"Well that's the-" Kim was interrupted as the ship suddenly listed far to the side, causing their tools to slide across the floor of the cargo hold. Ron was able to catch himself, but Kim was kneeling in front of the engine and couldn't prevent herself from hitting a wall with a painful thud.

"I think we took a little too long." Kim scrambled to her feet, clutching her side. "Rufus, you have those wires together yet?"

In answer, there was a short zapping sound from the engine. Kim flipped a switch, and the ship's motor rumbled to life with an outpouring of black smoke.

"We need to get to the controls," shouted Kim. She ran to the ladder and used one of the rungs as a springboard to jump all the way up to the deck. Outside, the storm had gotten much worse and huge waves were buffeting the ship about.

By the time Ron got to the top of the ladder, Kim was already at the controls, turning the wheel. The ship started to move under its own power, against the waves, and an unsecured pile of chains slid precariously across the deck. Ron managed to duck out of the way just in time.

Unsteadily, Ron was able to make his way over to Kim. She offered him one end of a rope, and he looped it around both of their waists, tying them to the ship's wheel. As he did, Kim was steering the ship over the crest of a huge wave.

"So you were saying?" said Ron, having to raise his voice because of the howling winds.

"You mean about the sports? I have to warn you, this is going to sound kind of arrogant, but it's coming from Mom, not me," Kim answered.

There was a shudder through the ship and Ron was thrown against Kim as they slid down the crest of a huge wave. Kim seemed unconcerned, but Ron covered his eyes with one hand, trying not to look at the seas about them.

"Arrogant, smarogant, braggy, whatever," said Ron. "Just keep talking so I don't have to think about these waves." He pushed himself back from Kim again.

"Well you were saying I'm good at sports. That's the problem; I'm too good at them. Mom thought it would be unfair for me to compete against other kids."

"Uuugghh?" groaned Ron in response.

"Come on, Ron. I learned to play tennis in about five seconds. After a morning playing, I'm as good as Monique. You know how quickly I can get really good at the physical stuff." After that one terrifying slide, they seemed to be moving away from the worst of the waves. Kim let out a small sigh of relief.

"You do learn pretty fast," Ron said. "Would it really have been that bad?"

"You know what I can do almost as well as I do. You remember when I was coaching Jim and Tim's soccer team? What would have happened if Mom and Dad had put me on a soccer team when I was the same age as the tweebs?"

Ron thought for a second. "You would have won every game, every time, all on your own. You know, you're right, this does sound arrogant."

"Told you," said Kim.

"So basically, Mrs. Dr. Possible never let you play competitive sports because there would never have been any competition. And now…" said Ron.

"Well, I can get as good as people who have practiced for a long time, but people who have practiced for a long time can still give me a fight. Little bit of a fight," said Kim with perhaps a trace of smugness.

"It doesn't seem fair," said Ron. "You shouldn't be held back just because you're really good at stuff."

Kim didn't argue with him. She merely said, "My Mom didn't feel that way, I guess."

"Weren't you on the swim team, though?"

"I have to be honest, Ron. More of a swim club, really."

Their conversation halted for a long while, until the University's Pride finally got far enough away from the storm to break into sunshine. Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator.

"I'd better call Wade and arrange pick-up and a replacement captain. If we tried to pilot this thing all the way back to port, we'd definitely be late for school."

Before she could activate it, Ron reached out and grabbed her hand. "Hold up Kim, I got a bone to pick here."

Kim looked at him, surprised. "What's wrong now?"

"I've been your best friend since pre-K. How come you never told me about this no-sports thing before now? How could you keep this a secret? Cold Kim, real cold. I thought we told each other everything." Ron gave her his best judgmental look.

Kim's cheeks colored a little, but then a thoughtful expression crossed her face. "You know, it seems like I would have told you about this- Hey, I did tell you about this! I told you the whole thing. You forgot. You completely forgot!"

"Nice try Kim, but I don't think so."

"Oh yes I did!"

"Oh no you didn't!"

They glared at each other. Finally, Ron asked, "So when? When did you tell me?"

Kim was at a loss for half a second, but then she recovered her certainty. "We were eight years old. You wanted us to join a softball team, and I told you I couldn't. I told you my Mom thought I'd be too good at sports, so she wouldn't let me play. And you said that if I couldn't play you didn't want to play, so you didn't join the team."

Ron pointed an accusatory finger. "That's-" He paused, seeming to remember something. "I didn't think-" He paused again, and then laughed nervously. "Maybe you did mention it. In passing."

Kim crossed her arms, not letting Ron off the hook. "Who's the cold one now, huh? I told you this big thing, and you couldn't even remember."

"Kim… we were eight. Do you realize how many conversations we've had since we were eight? How much I know about you? This brain is not that big, Kim." Ron tapped his head. "It holds a limited amount of information."

His best friend continued looking at him in an unforgiving fashion.

He gave her a grin. "You're not going to hold it against me, are you?"

Kim sighed and gave a flip of her hair and a roll of her eyes in answer. She pulled out her Kimmunicator and turned it on.

"Need a pick-up, Wade. Please and thank you."


A couple of weeks later on the Middleton tennis courts, practice was in session. The ten girls of the team were running laps around the court, many of them gasping for breath. It was hard to complain though, since Mr. Barkin was pacing them the whole way, seemingly not having any trouble keeping up.

Kim jogged up next to him. "Say Coach Barkin, I've been thinking," she said, apparently having plenty of breath left to speak.

There were several groans from the girls behind her.

"What have you been thinking, Possible?" said Mr. Barkin with a combination of interest and wariness.

"Well, these laps are great and all, but is there any reason we can't be working on our racquet control while we're running? We could each try to keep a ball dribbling while we run. It'll be fun!"

To demonstrate, Kim picked up her speed a bit, running ahead of the group to snatch her racquet from the ground. "Ron, ball," she yelled.

Ron, who had been comfortably sitting with his back up against one of the court walls, obediently tossed a tennis ball towards her. Kim began bouncing it against the court with her racquet, keeping it easily under control as she allowed Barkin and the rest to catch up with her.

"Well…." said Barkin, apparently considering it.

There was another, louder, set of groans from the girls behind Kim. From most of them, that is.

"If Kim's up for it, I'm up for it!" declared Monique. The other girls all shot her a dirty look, but she ignored them.

Barkin glanced back, aware of his team's near-rebellion. "I think you've introduced enough 'new ideas' for one practice, Kim. Good enthusiasm, though."

He raised his voice to shout to the whole team. "Take five everybody, and drink some water. We still have serving practice later, and thanks to Kim's suggestions, everybody's going to take turns wearing the wrist and ankle weights. You can all thank her later."

"Oh, no big" said Kim, smiling innocently as she spoke.

Kim walked over to where Ron was. He had gotten to his feet and had a water bottle ready for her.

"Thanks, Ron," she said, taking a long swig. "You know, having you here, it's kind of like you're my personal trainer. It's neat."

"Thanks, I think." Ron rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, the usual signal he had something uncomfortable to say. "As your personal trainer, can I give you a little health advice?"

"Go ahead," replied Kim.

"Being beaten on the head with eight tennis racquets? Kind of unhealthy. And that's where things are going, if you keep pushing the rest of the team like you have last practice and this one." Ron pretended to hit Kim with an imaginary racquet to make his point.

Kim waved off the imaginary assault, irritated. "I just want the rest of the team to do well, that's all. Mr. Barkin likes it."

"Hey, it's your head, Kim. I'm just saying, don't be surprised if a lot of those practice serves end up 'accidentally' heading off in your direction."

"Not from me. I'll match whatever Kim wants to do," said a voice from behind them. It was Monique, of course.

"I'm glad you're on board," said Kim. "You didn't…" She trailed off.

"I didn't feel that way at first?" said Monique. "Okay girl, honest truth is I felt a little threatened at you showing up as the next great Middleton tennis star. But then I thought, is that the way an ultra-cool friend like yours truly should act? I think not. So I'm taking it as a challenge. Whatever you can do, I'm going to do and do it better. And once we've taken out all the Upperton players in the tournament, you and I are going to fight it out for top spot."

Kim nodded.

"And I'm going to win," added Monique.

"That's what you think," replied Kim with a definite edge in her voice.

"That's what I know."

They locked eyes, silently challenging each other. There was no hatred in the looks they were giving each other, but at the moment they seemed more like rivals than friends.

The stare-off was broken was a loud, maniacal laughter rolling across the court. It had a proper villainous cadence to it, though it was a bit nasally.

"Steve Barkin! How do you ever expect to beat me and my Upperton team when you let your team slack off like this?" It was Coach Thomas Rakket, leaning back against the entrance gate in a calculatedly contemptuous manner.

Mr. Barkin walked up to his rival, looking more exasperated than intimidated. Standing next to each other, the tall and muscular Barkin towered over the smaller man. "They're on a rest break, Tommy. Rest breaks are important when you're playing a serious game. I thought you would have figured that out when half your team dropped from exhaustion last year because you pushed them too hard."

Rakket's eyes flicked back and forth like a nervous rat. "That was last year. This year… will be different! My girls are a lean mean, team machine, and you have no chance!"

Barkin crossed his arms. "That's what you said last year too," he said in a tired-sounding voice.

By this time the entire Middleton team had gathered around to watch the show. Monique spoke up. "At least we've got our coach here, training us. Your team's coach is, this girl notices, in the wrong city on the wrong courts, talking to the wrong team. But I'm sure you have it all under control," Monique said snidely.

Coach Rakket was taken aback by the comment. "I- My team is so committed, they don't need me there to run the practice. I just tell them what they need to learn, and they learn it!"


(Back on the Upperton tennis courts)

A tennis ball streaked through the air so quickly that it ruptured when it hit the court, only giving a feeble bounce before it came to a stop.

Ten golden racquets were hoisted into the air. "Vic-tor-y! Vic-tor-y! Vic-tor-y!" chanted ten girls in unison.

"Middleton and then the world!" they continued. "Our game will be perfect."

They paired off and began practicing volleying, so perfectly coordinated that no ball touched the ground for minutes at a time.


"Y-yes," said Rakket. "With their discipline, our victory is assured."

"So what are you doing here, Tommy?" said Mr. Barkin. "If you're just here to spy on our practice and talk about your 'assured victory', I'm going to go ahead and escort you back to your car." He clenched his fists as if hoping the other coach would resist.

"On the contrary… Steve. I'm here on a matter of tradition. We've got to flip a coin to decide which courts we play on. Not that tradition matters to you, I'm sure."

"Fine," growled Barkin. "We could have done this without you interrupting our practice, but whatever."

"Good. Here, we can use this quarter." Rakket pulled a coin from his pocket and handed it to Barkin.

Mr. Barking examined the coin and seemed to find it acceptable. "I'll have one of my girls flip it, and you can call. Deal?"

Coach Rakket nodded in response.

Barkin surveyed his team for a moment. "Possible! Good hustle today. You can flip the coin."

"I can do anything," Kim muttered under her breath as she stepped up to take her place.

After Rakket indicated his readiness, Kim flipped the quarter off her finger and into the air. It spun rapidly, glittering in the sunlight. Kim watched it with an odd expression of intense concentration on her face.

"Heads!" called Coach Rakket as the coin spun.

Kim reached out to catch the coin as it fell and slapped it against her hand. Keeping her hands in plain view to show there was no trickery, she revealed the coin. It was tails.

Rakket huffed for a moment, and then said, "So be it. It'll be just as satisfying to defeat you in front of your whole town. Later, Steve." He walked back out into the parking lot.

Barkin watched him go, and then clapped his hands together. "All right, back to practice, people. Line up for me."

As they walked back into place, Kim said to Monique. "Now we have the home court advantage. Not bad, huh?" She sounded rather smug.

Monique shrugged. "Every bit helps, I guess. We got lucky." She looked at Kim with a measuring expression. "That… was luck, right Kim? You didn't like, fix the flip?"

Kim put on an innocent expression. "To do that, I'd have to be able to pull a spinning coin out of the air so it showed the side I want. Come on, Monique."

A minute later Monique realized that Kim hadn't actually denied anything.


Later that day, much later, the nachos were hot and the cheese thick at Bueno Nacho.

"Kim will be a little late," said Ron, sliding into the booth across from Monique with his tray of Mexican food. He was still wearing his mission clothes. "I'm sorry we had to have a delay on the after-practice crunch-off, but you know how it is when duty calls."

"That's all right," said Monique, spreading sauce on her burrito. "So Kim's not avoiding me, or anything?"

"No way," protested Ron. "I know the two of you have this competition thing going over the tennis, but Kim is still your friend. Believe it."

"I do, I do," Monique backtracked. She took a big bite of her burrito.

While her mouth was full, Ron took the opportunity to ask her something. "I was wondering, do you really think you're going to be able to beat Kim?"

Monique looked left, and then she looked right, chewing her food all the while. "Kim is your best friend, but the two of us are friends too, right? So if I tell you something in confidence, you're not going to rush off and tell her?"

"Cross my heart," said Ron, doing so. "I swear on Bueno Nacho."

"I- She just learns so fast. She already knows all my moves, and every time I come up with a new one, she figures it out after I use it only once. I probably can't beat her."

Before Ron could reply, Monique raised up a finger of silence. "But I'll make her work for it, and I won't give up until she actually does beat me. Having to deal with a little friendly competition will be good for her."

Ron picked up a cheese-covered nacho and held it out. "Now that's what I call being a friend."

Monique picked up her own nacho knocked it against his in a toast.

"Booyah."


Author's Note:

If Kim's explanation of her mother's motives does not satisfy, that's okay. Remember that Kim is giving this to us second-hand. She doesn't fully understand what her mother was thinking. I don't think I'm overestimating Kim's abilities, though.

Originally, the opening scene between Kim and Ron was going to be two paragraphs long and take place in Bueno Nacho. I thought that was boring, though, and I decided I wanted to show them talking on a mission. It sort of grew from there. From the series, I get the impression a lot of their missions aren't against supervillains, it's just that those are the ones the show usually shows us.

I realized that it was not credible that Kim would have kept a secret like the no-sports thing from Ron. They seem to tell each other everything. I did think, however, that it would be reasonable for Ron to have simply forgotten about it. And it made a funny bit.

Thank you again to all the people who commented. You've really kept me going when it comes to this fanfiction business, and your comments were a big inspiration to write this thing. Even just saying you're reading helps and those of you with specific comments be assured I thought about them carefully.

Two more chapters on 'The Kimpetitive Edge', probably, but I already have a couple more Kim Possible fics in mind that will be quite different from this one.