Classic Cowboy: I do plan to make ALoI: Redux, but probably not a sequel. Stay tuned...

noveler00: I modeled the shootout from the last chapter after the 1997 North Hollywood Bank of America robbery... most of those radio transmissions were actually based off of the audio recording of the incident.

Mavric: This chapter should provide some more details about what happened to Team Possible... though action-wise you may be waiting a while... that's not what this story is about.

Chapter One

- Possible Residence -
(Sunday)

The entire neighborhood was cast under an unusual silence…

Though it was just barely past eight in the morning, on most other Sunday's the area around Maple St. would already be buzzing with the sound of mowers, blowers, wood-chippers, and various other forms of backyard equipment that accompanied the last day before a new week.

This morning, however, the only sound that managed to break the silence was the solitary whine of a small blue scooter as it made its way up the street toward its destination.

Even over the din of the bike's motor, sixteen-year-old Ronald Stoppable could detect the unusual silence that hung in the air around him.

To anyone else, the silence would have been automatically attributed to the fact that the temperature outside was hovering just past fifty degrees and the sky was heavily overcast; therefore daunting even the most determined homeowner from venturing out into their backyards to work.

To Ron, however, the reason behind the silence was unquestionable… the Earth was grieving.

'Ok… maybe the Earth's not actually grieving,' He corrected as he brought his scooter to a stop in front of the Possible Residence. 'But I do know of at least one person who is…'

Dismounting the bike, the teen stowed his helmet under the seat and had taken a few steps up the path when he felt a small hand tugging at the base of his shirt. Glancing down, he found Rufus hanging out of his pants pocket.

The molerat was tugging on his shirt with one hand and pointing back toward the scooter with the other: a look of concern on his small pink face.

"What is it buddy?" Ron asked, scooping his pet/friend up into his hand.

"Hmm… flier." Rufus squeaked, pointing to the compartment on the side of his bike. Ron gave him a blank look for a few seconds before Rufus' garbled words came together in his head.

"Oh right, the flier…" He walked back and pulled a slightly crumpled blue sheet of paper from the compartment and gave Rufus a thumbs-up, which the rodent returned along with a happy squeak. "Hope she at least considers this as an option."

With a barely audible sigh, the teen walked up the short path to the front door, rang the doorbell, and waited for one of the Possible's to answer.

Normally he wouldn't have bothered with such formalities and would have just walked right in and announced himself… or at least rung once before opening the door. That was, however, something the 'normal' Ron did, and while not nearly as depressed as he had a feeling his best friend was, he wasn't exactly feeling upbeat and cheery either.

After about ten seconds, Ron heard footsteps approaching and the front door opened to reveal Kim's mom, Dr. Ann Possible. The middle-aged woman actually seemed to relax slightly when she realized who it was on the front porch.

"Oh Ron, honey," She said in a gentle tone. "You know you don't have to actually ring the doorbell here…"

Ron offered her a weak smile and shrugged his shoulders.

"Sorry Mrs. Dr. P… I forgot… again."

The auburn-haired neurosurgeon placed her hand gently on the boy's shoulder and lead him inside out of the cold.

"I take it you've heard the news?" She asked sympathetically.

"Yeah," Ron sighed and nodded. "My parents woke me up at six this morning to tell me… I've also had Rabbi Katz and Dr. Director stop by to give their support and advice."

"Dr. Director stopped by your house too? Well that was nice of her." Mrs. Possible looked over her shoulder toward the living room. "She stopped by here as well in order to personally thank Kimmie for her hard work… and to assure you both that the government's decision was not based on anything you two did wrong, they just felt it was time to take harsher action against those villains…" She paused for a moment and leaned in toward him, as if to tell him a secret. "Though personally I think someone just wanted to ensure themselves a safe re-election come next November."

"Actually," Ron informed her. "CNN said that it was England who brought the Super-villain Enforcement Act to the UN Security Council, not us."

"Oh… well, I haven't been watching the news too much this morning anyway." She noted as her eyes traveled down to the piece of paper in his left hand. "What've you got there?"

The teen followed her gaze to the paper in his hand and extended it for her to examine.

"It's a flier Rabbi Katz gave me," He explained. "It's not exactly saving the world, but it is still helping people… kinda."

As she looked it over, her expression seemed to brighten slightly.

"This looks like fun, I'll bet Kimmie will just love this idea!" She handed the flier back to Ron, whose expression was still a bit uncertain.

"Um, how is Kim taking the news?" He asked hesitantly.

"Well," Mrs. Possible sighed. "You know her… I think she sees this as a failure on her part. That if only she had worked harder, or been better, the government wouldn't have gotten involved…"

"I don't think that's the case." Ron replied.

"Yeah, well, try telling her that." She sighed again, only this time out of frustration rather than depression. "She's in the living room, curled up in a ball watching CNN or something…"

With that she gave Ron a reassuring shoulder-squeeze and walked into the kitchen, leaving the freckled blond alone in the entryway. Taking one last look at the paper in his hand, Ron took a deep breath and entered the living room; not quite sure what he was going to find….

---

When Mrs. Possible had stated rather harshly that her daughter was 'In the living room, curled up in a ball', Ron thought it to be an exaggeration. As it turned out, her statement was not an exaggeration.

Kim was sitting on the couch, feet apparently drawn up into her chest, covered from her shoulders down with a large blanket. Thought the TV in front of her was tuned to a local news channel, Ron noticed rather quickly that her eyes were actually fixed on a spot about four feet in front of the TV… a spot occupied by the familiar blue shape of her Kimmunicator.

Ron was at a complete loss for words. In their eleven-year friendship he had never seen his friend like this. She was always the strong one… the leader… not the type of person who would curl up on the couch and sulk.

Granted Ron hadn't expected her to be upbeat and cheery… but he hadn't expected her to be an emotional zombie either. His first impulse was to say something funny to try and cheer her up, but he decided against it. She needed friendship, support, and ideas… not humor.

"H-hey Kim…" He made his way slowly over to the couch and sat down next to her. "Uh… how you doing?"

"They shot Dementor…" Kim answered in a hollow voice. Her gaze never left the derelict Kimmunicator.

"They got Dementor?" Ron repeated.

"No, they shot Dementor…" Kim clarified, turning her head to face him.

Ron looked toward the TV and then back to Kim.

"Who shot Dementor?"

"I don't know…" She shrugged. "Some kind of special forces team probably."

"Is he…" Ron was hesitant to know the answer but asked anyway.

Kim shook her head.

"The news says he'll live."

She turned her eyes back to the TV and the room fell into an awkward silence for close to a minute while Ron tried to figure out what to say next. He finally settled on the first thought that popped into his mind.

"This doesn't have anything to do with you or me y'know. I mean… we didn't mess up or anything. The UN just got tired of Drakken and the rest of them threatening the world on a weekly basis and decided to take action. Dr. Director told me the only reason this didn't happen years ago was because we came along."

"I know," Kim sighed. "I'm not upset because I think we've failed…"

"Then why…" Ron began to ask.

"They kicked us to the curb Ron!" Kim cried. "We worked our butts off for three years dealing with mad scientists, mad golfers, mad… everything… and what do we have to show for it?"

"Kim…"

"I know, I know…" Kim interrupted. "That's totally shallow of me to say… but it's true!"

As Ron listened sympathetically to Kim's rant, she got up from the couch and retrieved the Kimmunicator from its place on the floor. As she returned to the couch she tossed it to Ron.

"Go ahead and try to contact Wade… see what he has to say about all this." Kim commanded. Her depression, Ron noted, was quickly turning into anger and bitterness.

Ron flipped the Kimmunicator over in his hands and pushed the call button. Normally this would open a two-way video feed between them and the ten-year-old super genius, but when Ron hit the button all he got was a blue screen and an error message.

"Invalid Dst. Address - Video feed error." Ron dictated before looking up at Kim. "What's this?"

"He disconnected his hardware." Kim announced; grabbing the device and tossing it back onto the floor.

"He ditched us?"

"No," Kim corrected. "GJ offered him a top-level research position in their Upperton headquarters and asked him to stop working for us."

"GJ offered him a job?" Ron shook his head in disbelief. "But he's only ten!"

"Yet he has an ability they wanted, so they took care of him… as for us?" Kim threw her arms up and fell back onto the couch next to Ron. "Thrown to the curb like useless garbage…"

"Well, we could still do the Team Possible thing…" Ron offered rather unenthusiastically. "Sure the crime fighting is over, but we've still got other things we could do. Things like…"

"Babysitting?" Kim interjected. "Thanks, but I'd rather just call it quits…"

She threw her head back and let out a frustrated groan.

"Hey KP?" Ron asked after another moment of silence.

"Hmm?"

"What exactly are you going to miss about the hero work?"

"What do you mean?" She asked, pivoting slightly so that her entire body was facing him.

"Well…" He paused. "Earlier this morning Rabbi Katz asked me why I was always so willing to go on missions anywhere in the world at a moment's notice and face unimaginable dangers to do a job that, realistically, should have been handled by a team of Navy SEALS. I realized that up until that point, I'd never really thought about why I was willing to do it… I just was." He reached into his pocket and pulled the flier out. "At first I thought it was just so that I could help you and make sure you were safe. But when I really thought about it, I realized it went deeper than that…"

Because his gaze was fixed on the paper in his hands, Ron missed the affectionate smile Kim gave him when he spoke of wanting to keep her safe.

"I realized that I fought along with you because I wanted to protect people… not just you, but everyone who's lives could be put in harm's way by Drakken, Dementor, Monkey Fist, or any of those other lunatics." He looked up at Kim and handed her the piece of paper. "That's why Rabbi Katz gave me this…"

Kim took the flier and began to read it. When she finished, she looked back at her friend with a rather skeptical look on her face.

"You want us to become police cadets?"

"Why not?" Ron rationalized. "Katz is somewhat familiar with the Middleton Police Department's program, he say's it's great for teens who want to help others like we do. And there's no obligations either… if you don't want to be a cop you aren't gonna be forced into it. It's just a chance for us to keep putting our talents to good use by saving the world 'One citizen at a time'."

"I don't know…" She said hesitantly. "Working for the police might not make us the most popular people among our classmates y'know."

"What are you talking about? You're The Kim Possible…" Ron said energetically. "You'll be respected by everyone no matter what you do… well, except from Bonnie… but she's, y'know… Bonnie."

"First of all," Kim retorted. "Since when does my name have a 'The' in front of it? And second, why do you want me to become a cadet too? If it interests you, you should move on it… you don't need me to go with you."

Ron leaned over and put his hand on Kim's shoulder.

"We're still a team KP…" Ron said, looking her directly in the eyes. "And our motto is to never leave a man behind."

"Ron," Kim sighed. "Isn't that a Marine Corps. motto?"

"Yes, but it's still a good motto." He joked. "If you don't want to do it, that's cool… but I do think this could be a unique experience for us."

"Well…" Kim paused.

"Look at it this way," Ron shrugged. "Worst thing that happens is we don't like it and we quit… not like it'll be any more dangerous than fighting Drakken ever was."

After a few seconds Kim sighed and nodded her head.

"Alright," She handed the flier back to Ron. "I'll try it out."

Ron pocketed the flier and gave his friend a wide grin.

Returning her friend's smile, Kim added, "This just better not end up getting me shot at or I'm gonna kick your butt!"

"Don't worry," Ron chuckled. "It's Middleton… what's the worst that could happen?"