Kim's eyes shot wide as she re-read the card, being absolutely certain that she wasn't imagining or misreading its content.

The message was brief, and to the point.

KP,

Miss you. Home soon.

Love,

Ron

Rufus scampered down Kim's arm holding the card to look at it more closely, before letting out an ecstatic squeak.

"He's coming home!" Kim squealed at the top of her lungs, almost loudly enough to shatter glass. She grabbed Rufus and pulled him close to her cheeks as the two shared a joyous hug.

She couldn't believe it. After all this time, she had almost given up entirely on Ron returning from Japan in time for the new school year. She could barely contain her glee.

It took Kim at least fifteen minutes to calm down enough to go over to her closet and retrieve a specific shoe box that she kept hidden. Kim moved aside the light top to reveal an entire summer's worth of post cards, each bearing a different image of an historic figure or building of Japan, and each one written in the same hand writing, and finished with the same last two words.

Kim almost never removed the box except at night, when she would go through her collection again in order of date mailed. They had been her anchor throughout the entire summer. She had memorized every word of every postcard, reading each one at least twice the day of its delivery, as well as reading the entire collection once a night.

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Inside his newest lair, a Dr. Drew Lipsky, better known to the world as Dr. Drakken, waited impatiently for a very important delivery. The fact that this delivery was not coming by any legal or normal service did nothing to ease his brooding mind.

"Ok, one Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer all set." Shego announced wearily as she entered the room, motioning to a group of henchmen pulling the unpleasantly heavy device into the large, mostly undecorated laboratory via a set of powerful ropes and pulleys.

"Aha! Finally. " Drakken rushed past Shego to the large apparatus, his fingers almost caressing the device as if it were a lost lover.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. Really." Shego rolled her eyes at the pitiful sight of man and his machine before her.

"My precious Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer. You have no idea, the plans that I have for you; all the great things that we are going to achieve together." Drakken's voice was disturbingly soft and tender, as if the machine could possibly be aware of him.

"Unless those plans involve it being a slagged paper weight, you're going to have to put them on hold, Dr. D, because this thing is heading straight from your lab to the garbage dump." Shego's voice raised, adrenaline flowing through her as her gloves lit with green energy.

"SHEGO, NO!" Drakken just had enough time to leap at Shego, tackling her and throwing her aim off as her emerald attack went wide, impacting into the side of the cave wall, sending some rock tumbling harmlessly to the ground. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Never been saner. Now scram." Shego kicked the ineffective scientist to the side, then rose and renewed her aim. Drakken was forced to scurry in front of the device, throwing his arms wide and using himself as a human shield to keep the Inducer from being reduced to melted slag.

"Shego please. Don't you realize how useful this device is? It's potential!" Drakken knew he had no chance of forcing her back with brawns, so he was forced to try reason with his brains, which was not really his strong point either.

"I know the last time you turned that thing on, you got some fruity makeover and I got stuck in intensive care." A fierce growl crossed Shego's face.

"Shego, you were just a nurse." Drakken reminded frankly.

"Exactly, I don't do 'nurse.' I do pain. I don't work in hospitals, I put people in them! Now move." Shego added, hoping that Drakken might pick up on the not so subtle threat in her words.

"NO! Shego, listen, if I can get this thing working properly, the possibilities for us are limitless. Imagine the most fantastic science fiction weapons ever right in our very real hands. You could beat Kim Possible to death with technology that would make that battle suit of hers look like a birthday suit." Drakken forced a smile across his face.

Shego paused for a moment, pondering this happy little scenario, before shaking her head. "Sorry, I'll just have to do it with my own hands. If you lovers have any last words, now's the time."

But before Shego could fire, the entire room came alive with a light blue energy that centered around a strange swirling vortex located directly within the center of the room, illuminating the entire chamber with an eerie glow. The vortex flashed and simmered fiercely like a storm in the middle of the lair. Shego turned to Drakken furiously.

"What did you do?"

"I-I didn't do anything." Drakken insisted hurriedly.

"Well turn that stupid thing off." Shego ordered.

"But it's not on!"

The vortex continued to expand slowly, blowing outwards in all directions, until a single lone figure dropped down from within its eye. The figure landed hard on the ground with a rather painful sounding thud. Even as the figure groaned in pain, Shego and Drakken could see the vortex quickly shrink in size, collapsing upon itself almost as immediately as it had formed.

Shego and Drakken focused their sights on the figure lying on the floor as it slowly rose to its feet.

"Oh my…" Shego stuttered.

"..Stoppable?" Drakken finished.

Shego and Drakken did indeed recognize the face of Ron Stoppable on the figure, but that was the only familiar feature that he possessed. His hair was short, buzz cut, his ears pierced with small skull figurines dangling from the lobes. His form was much larger, his entire body rippled with muscular sinew as opposed to his usually flabby physique. Instead of his loose fitting mission clothes, he wore a tight fitting black shirt and pants. A strange unrecognizable device fit around his right wrist, with his hands covered in black, biker gloves revealing just the top of his fingers.

For a moment, the new Ron paused with curiosity, taking in his surroundings before finally bringing his glare upon the villainous pair, as if their very presence explained everything.

"So, you two. Dr. Andrew Lipsky. I love the new hair." Ron spoke with a dark, smooth, almost cloying voice.

"Really?" Drakken seemed pleased at the compliment. "Well, you know how busy I get. I really only had time to run a comb through… wait a minute. Since when do you use my real name?" Drakken's voice betrayed his confusion.

"And Shego." Ron's eyes moved up her slender figure from bottom to top, scanning her with desire. "So, you finally decided to loose the 'pretty-in-pink' look. I approve." Ron replied mockingly, licking his lips as if eyeing a tender roast.

"Pink?" Shego practically spit out the single word question, struggling down the urge to vomit at Ron's visual intrusion. "So tell me loser, when did you go Goth?"

Shego's question seemed to noticeably catch Ron off guard, causing him to take second, deeper look at his surroundings.

"Wait a minute… where am I?" Ron demanded.

"You're in the path of the bull, and you're wearing red, dead man." Shego leapt forward with glowing fists, determined to take Ron's head off. However, as she came down for the strike, Ron ducked the attack casually.

Furious, Shego kicked out, but Ron merely back flipped away. Shego ran forward, pressing her attack with a swift combination of punches and kicks, each of which Ron deflected with his own limbs before leaping over Shego with amazing strength and power, landing straight in the middle of her and Drakken.

"I won't ask nicely again. Tell me where I am." Ron glared at Shego with a look that could kill, if gazes could truly do so.

"You're at your own funeral. I'll send the princess your best." Shego ignored the question, charging forward again.

Focusing intently on her, Ron dodged the next of Shego's attack, then reaching down and activating a control on the device covering his wrist, Ron brought the device up, allowing it to eject a purple mist directly into Shego's face.

The green and black clad super villain was taken aback, throwing her arms over her face, too little, too late to stop the pain flowing through her.

Shego stumbled backwards in agony, her lungs emitting inhuman screams of pain. So disabled was she, she was powerless to defend herself as Ron grabbed her throat, choking her as he pulled her forward in front of Drakken.

"She's only got thirty seconds so you might want to listen up. Right now, the chemical spray I shot her with is dissolving her optic nerve. If I don't reverse it soon, it's going to be irreparable. After that, there's nothing that will stop her eyes from melting right out of their sockets." Ron hissed at Drakken.

"Alright, alright. Reverse it. I'll tell you what you want to know." Drakken threw up his hands in surrender.

Smiling briefly, Ron paused for a moment longer as Shego continued to scream, his smile growing wider, savoring the second. Ron then pressed down on the wrist device, allowing it to emit a blue spray into Shego's face.

Almost immediately, Shego's screams began to subside, her roars of agony melting into mere groans. At this, Ron threw her to the ground, before walking straight up to Drakken.

"Now then, I want some answers."