The figure moved quietly across the city's skyline, his footsteps quick and strong but silent none the less. He leapt through the night sky, devoid of fear, cutting through the wind effortlessly, before finally landing on another rooftop. For a moment, he paused, stopping to examine a small object in his hand, his 'prize' for the evening's efforts.

"You know, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that that's not yours." A young voice spoke from out of the night. As if from nowhere, Kim Possible leapt out of the shadows, landing directly in front of the masked figure. If this arrival came as any shock to the figure, it was concealed behind his orange and black mask. "Now look, I'm in the middle of something very important, so if you just kindly hand that over, I'll let the police know how cooperative you were, and …"

The figure's only response was to turn away and begin running again.

"… we can all go home. sigh" Kim rolled her eyes before chasing after the figure.

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"So anyway, bad dude stealing cool stuff. Love to stay and chat but I got to go help Kim. Thanks a bunch Dr. P." Ron had just finished with a rather hurried explanation of why the couple might be home a little late, which now, he realized as he put the phone down on its receiver, left him only with the task now of actually finding Kim. As he stood in the middle of downtown Middleton, he came to the uncomfortable conclusion that Kim could have covered a rather impressive distance in the short amount of time he had let her out of his sight, and he wasn't entirely sure in which direction she had taken off in in the first place, or how to even begin searching for her.

Fortunately, the night was about to give Ron its small blessing. As he searched the city skyline, his attention was captured by two featureless shadows bounding from rooftop to rooftop, one in pursuit of the other.

"Kim!" Ron exclaimed in a whisper. Without another word or thought, Ron jumped aboard his moped, and sped off after the pair; 'sped' being as relative as one can get considering the humble limits of Ron's bike.

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Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. This feeling continued to haunt Kim's mind even as she continued her pursuit of the mysterious thief in the night. So far, the masked figure had lead Kim in one big circle around Middleton's business district, making no real effort to loose her amidst the shadows or buildings. In fact, the masked man seemed perfectly content to just run around all night with Kim close behind him, and although she couldn't be sure, she seemed to get the feeling that those powerful looking legs of his were not carrying him as fast as they could be. He seemed to be pacing himself very well… was that his plan? To try and outlast her in a footrace across rooftops? If that was the case, they were going to be at this all night, Kim noted to herself. She certainly had the experience and endurance to keep this up a long while longer. Yet neither did her prey seem to be tiring. He just kept his steady, unyielding pace a few footsteps ahead of her.

Finally, his pace broke. Kim was caught by surprise as the masked man sprinted forward, leaping from one building to the top of a nearby run down warehouse. Kim struggled to keep up with him, only just managing to catch sight of him jumping down through the warehouse's skylight and out of her sight.

After making the jump herself, Kim paused as she reached the skylight. This was obviously an ambush of some kind. Kim was meant to follow in blindly, only to get struck from behind in the dark. Still, she knew it would be a mistake to let this creep out of her sight for too long. Pausing for only a moment as if to ready herself for whatever came next, she tensed her muscles and then leapt down into the darkness.

Kim landed squarely on a walkway over looking the largely hallowed out remains of the warehouse. Kim's instincts immediately brought her to her guard, scanning the room for her prey.

She didn't have far to look.

Sure enough, just a few feet away from her on the walk, standing perfectly upright and still was her quarry. His single eye seemed to bore inside her soul with cruel intent, and it was only too apparent that he had been waiting patiently for her. If he was experiencing any fatigue or exhaustion from their race across the rooftops of downtown Middleton, it wasn't showing. In fact, it was hard to tell whether or not he was even breathing at all behind that mask.

Kim tensed herself, readying for battle. A sickly feeling inside her told her it was unavoidable. "I don't suppose that I could convince you to just return what you've stolen and come along quietly?" Kim asked, her own voice quite unconvinced itself.

For the first time, Kim could see just what had been stolen as the masked figure held up a small disc in between his right fingers. "This? This is merely a prototype of data suppression code. Technology capable of storing massive amounts of data on something as simple and small as a floppy disk. Virtually every data smuggling organization or party in the world would kill to get their hands on it. In the right circles, it's worth a small fortune."

With that, the masked figure simply proceeded to enclose his entire hand around the disc, crushing it easily into small, harmless fragments that fell worthlessly onto the floor of the catwalk. Kim barely had time to appreciate this as she noticed that the figure had already reached behind his back with his left hand and produced some kind of remote control. With the single push of a button, Kim became aware of massive steel doors slamming shut all over the warehouse, echoing with a sound that sealed not only the entire warehouse and every one of its possible entrances and exits, including the skylight that the two had just crashed through, but also Kim's only hope out with them.

"I, however, have set my sights on something far more valuable."