Bump in the Night.

As usual on a security job like this, the two split up. Ron was outside with Rufus, and Kim spent her time inside, at the security console. They'd change places in about four hours.

Fortunately tomorrow isn't a school day. Her mom had…spoken to her about that, especially after that time she'd fallen asleep at school and flunked a history test… even though the teacher had let her retake it, he'd felt the need to tell her mom… and the fact that she'd just been coming off a marathon three continent pursuit of Duff Killigan, hadn't been taken as a good excuse. Kim's face burned at the talking too she'd gotten from that….and the fact that now, unless the world was about to momentarily come to an end, her mom was only going to allow one or two marathon's in a week…. And those were contingent on her grades.

Girl who can do anything… including having to have a grade report come home to mom every week. Kim sighed. Well, most moms would have simply forbidden it entirely…and mom was right in a way. She'd been getting a lot more tired lately, what with all the senior activities she was involved in. Maybe she had tried to take too much on her plate.

But not this. Just a little babysitting job. And one that paid. Kim smiled at that. Ron was right.

Unnoticed by Kim, the security cams, starting with the ones behind her, began to silently fade out.

Outside, Ron was walking around, the light windbreaker good enough in the warm night air. The cheery slide in the front of the museum…look less cheery now that everything was dark. Ron had a sudden thought.

What would it have been like, on the top of that thing, seeing the water come closer and closer with no place to go…nothing to do but wait for it-

"Brrr…" Ron said, suddenly, shivering. Somehow he'd must have walked into a cold eddy of air. Rufus looked around, made a small squeak and dove into a pocket.

"What's wrong, Little Buddy?" Ron asked. "Just a cold breeze… nothing like evil monkeys." But nonetheless, he walked to check the other side of the parking lot… away from the dark slide.

And why had that little breeze smelled… like ocean water?

Inside, Kim suddenly bolted upright as all the monitors in front of her went out—and turned around, to see that the ones behind her had also gone down. She flipped the switch and frowned as nothing happened.

How could someone shut them down all at once? The diagnostics are still saying they're working. It had to be someone very, very good. Kim grabbed her equipment and called Ron.

"Ron, we have a problem…someone turned off all the cameras." Kim said, "Meet me at the main exhibit hall."

"Gotcha KP." Ron said over the strangely staticky connection.

Inside the museum, Shego quickly popped the duct cover back into place. She'd bypassed all the alarms and had mapped out where the cameras were. Like typical museums, they had spotty coverage, and hadn't thought to fix it. Kimmy'd never know she was here, ensconced in the security center and watching the monitors like a good little rent-a-cop.

"Now, first on my shopping list…those stopped watches." She said, and slipped off into the shadows…which seemed to eagerly reach out an enfold her.

Kim was puzzled. She'd just checked three cameras, and they were working just fine—except for the fact that the monitors were dark. Time to turn on the room lights. Kim decided. She'd go through the building, checking each camera, and turning on those lights in turn. That'd give her enough light to make certain nobody was trying anything clever.

Kim hit the switch in the room she was in: Last Day on the Bridge, and… nothing happened. Now Kim frowned as she hit the switch several times. To no avail.

Which made no sense, because the night lights were on the same cir….

Kim looked up as the nightlights faded out quietly.

There was a cold, damp feel to the air, with the taste of salt water on it.

"OK…. Rufus, now what are we going to say to Kim." Ron told his pet. "That we managed to get lost in a museum?"

"Un-nuh!" The rodent said. Ron paused, listened, and heard…voices. OK, that wasn't normal for an empty building at night, so he'd check it out—maybe Kim was there. Ron walked, and then stumbled, as the building seem to be unaccountably tilted, now he was walking up hill…and there was a smell of oil and sweat in the air. Ron shook his head. This was very….strange. Not even sick and wrong…yet. Then Ron climbed through a doorway, and things…became very sick and wrong.

"What the hell are you doing just standing around!" A man in some sort of old fashioned uniform shouted at him. The chamber—and how could such a huge room fit inside the museum, was a chaos of shouts, shrieking machinery, and strange, unnerving groans. Ron looked up to see vast boilers, smaller machines doing odd things, and men, many of them hanging on for dear life, trying to keep them running.

"Oh God have mercy!" A man screamed out running down past Ron and hammering on a closed iron hatch that had appeared behind him. "We're doomed! We're going to die!"

"Then if you're bloody well going to die, be a man about it!" The officer said, sweat on his brow. "We must keep the electricity up, or there'll be no lights or pumps or radio…it's our duty!" With a gunshot like report, old fashioned circuit breakers popped out and the lights faded, before the officer, cursing slammed them back into place, bringing up the lights again.

"Who the bloody he-" he paused, looking at Ron, "What are you doing down here, lad?"

"Um… I got lost…" He sighed.

"Hurry then, up the ladders, to the boat deck, there may still be time for you…." A tremendous groan echoed through the hull and Ron looked up to see the vast iron girders and braces twisting. Ron didn't have time to scream as he head a terrible sound, as the bulkhead behind him collapsed and a wave of dark, freezing water, extinguished all life in the compartment-

And was on his knees, gasping, Rufus trembling in his coat pocket. Ron touched himself.

"I'm alive." Ron said, and looked around the exhibit hall, no sign of the engine room to be found. The floor was back to level. Everything was normal….

Except for the chill in the air.

Kim was frantically working on her flashlight, which had gone dead moments after turning it on. She could barely see a thing, except for… Kim found herself going into a fighting position, looking at the slightly stooped figure at the edge of the Bridge mock-up.

"Who's there?" Kim said. "The museum's closed." She continued, feeling an odd tremble in her voice. Then, a strange greenish light, like the kind you might get under a few feet of water, seemed to suffuse the room…. And abruptly, Kim looked up and saw diamond clear stars in a sky that was no paint job on a museums ceiling.

"Who…"

"Young lady?" The man said, turning to her. He was older, with a white beard and in a uniform with some medals on it. "You had best proceed to the lifeboats." Kim looked around and saw that the front of the ship- ship? I'm in a room. There's a wall five feet away from me… was already down at the bow, the water lapping far up on it. Behind her, she could hear shouts and orders, fearful cries and the sound of boats being lowered.

"There's no time." He said, coming up to her and taking her by the arm. "There are not enough boats, even for women and children—and you cannot be left behind." Kim, stunned, didn't resist, as he ushered her off the bridge.

"Mommy?" A voice came to her, and Kim looked around. There, near one of the rails, was a little girl, maybe four or five. "I want my mommy."

"Hey." Kim said, "I can help you find-"

"She's not here!" The girl said, running off, and then as she turned the corner, her voice grew indistinct. "You shouldn't be here…" Kim ran after her…

And then painfully smacked her nose into a wall.

"Ow!" She said. The building was back. The lights were on. Everything was normal.

And then she heard a panicked scream coming from deeper in the building.

Shego? Impossible. What could cause Shego to scream like that?

TBC.