The world slowly began to take substance and form around him as Ron Stoppable gradually awoke to the most unpleasant sensation of his face being dragged across a cold stone floor. The experience was not entirely new to him, but that made it no more enjoyable.
"You know I actually think this thing is heavier in this world." A voice mused absently; referring to an object in its hand, totally oblivious to Ron's slowly returning consciousness as it dragged him along by his left foot. Ron could barely look back to see a trail of blood marking his path through the tunnel behind him. It took him five seconds to realize it was his.
Ron could not help but groan in a dull agony as the ache of his body suddenly reached his mind, overpowering his desire to remain silent and unnoticed, yet he quickly closed his eyes as he did so, hoping against hope to fool his captor.
"Well, well. Rise and shine." Ron's conqueror taunted as he continued to drag him along the floor, picking up his pace just slightly. "Come on now, we don't want to sleep through the show, do we?"
Every muscle in Ron's body painfully reminded him of his failure. He'd gotten his butt handed to him. It was as simple as that. It didn't matter that he was fighting someone just as strong, smarter and more lethal than him wielding an ancient mystical weapon. Sensei had always taught him that such factors were meaningless. As long as the three elements were balanced, a true warrior could never know defeat.
So what did that make him? What was he missing that this guy had? How he could fail when so many people were counting on him.
"According to my watch, we've got just a minute to get seated, and then we can all enjoy the show. I know you must be curious which city we picked to go first on the chopping block. We eventually decided on Paris; the food there is just way overrated." The other Ron taunted as he carried his battered twin by the leg with one hand, and his new sword in the other.
Ron wanted nothing more than to just slip back into unconsciousness, and then wake up again finding this was all a bad dream. Sadly, he knew that wouldn't help. Instead, he reviewed his options mentally.
He could just sit back and watch the end of the world.
Bad idea.
He could muster what fading strength he had left and try and jump his double. Try to overpower him, maybe get his hands on the Lotus Blade, and see how Kim was doing.
Also a bad idea. Even if he had the strength to jump his 'twin', he certainly wouldn't be able to accomplish anything but get beat up all over again, and that was assuming he could somehow get the Lotus blade away from his enemy, which was unlikely at best.
Kim. Kim could still save the day. It was what she did best.
This thought quickly evaporated from Ron's mind as his twin dragged him into a large room, scorched by various apparent blast marks, littered with spare tools and equipment and a large steel beam on the floor, and occupied by a certain fearsome redhead, wearing a particular suit of armor that Ron's already horrified mind dreadfully recognized, and holding Kim's unconscious form up by the rough of her shirt.
Oh god no. Ron's mind threatened to shut down at the sight. Kim.
"Well, I got mine. One loser sidekick." The other Ron announced triumphantly as he pulled the original a little further ahead of him before dropping him to the floor.
"I see that, and raise you one spoiled teen princess." The armored Kim declared proudly as she bent over to draw a spare claw across her battered opponent's face, taking actual care not to scratch the skin… yet.
Despair crushed Ron's heart as he looked to his friend, his girlfriend, his hero and her unconscious form. In this eleventh hour like every other, he had always turned to her when things got rough. Now, he felt alone and with no clue what to do. He had absolutely no idea how to beat another Team Possible with super powers.
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. He had no idea how to beat them, but he was sure he knew someone who did.
"Wanna trade?" The other Ron asked his armored partner with a grin on his face. Yet no sooner had he finished his question then the original leapt up off the ground, catching his double completely off guard in a relaxed moment, twisting his hand with the sword in it behind him, causing him to drop the blade to the ground, while simultaneously pressing his own first two fingers to his double against a very specific pressure point he had learned of in Japan underneath at the very back where it met the neck.
A look of shock went wide across the other Ron's face, yet he found himself unable to voice it as his airways were cut off, giving him scarcely enough air to breath so long as he forced his head up against his double's pressure.
"Let Kim go." Ron stated firmly as he eyed the armored villain.
"Well, well. Guess my Ron didn't quite shatter your spine after all." The alternate Kim seemed almost impressed at this turn of events rather than concerned for her partner.
"I won't ask again." Ron eyed her fiercely.
The other Kim merely grinned before picking up the unconscious hero by the shoulder, and bringing her up to her armored chest, holding her up by her neck as she placed an armored claw to her cheek.
"So, we both got hostages. But mine's prettier than yours, I think." The alternate Kim taunted.
Ron's determination did not waver. Instead, he used his other hand to grab his double's right arm with the mysterious device around it and bring it up to his face.
"Your boyfriend tried to shoot me with this gas of his earlier, so I'm guessing that whatever it does, it's not pleasant. Let Kim go or he gets the full thing straight in his face." This threat notably caused the alternate Ron to struggle further, but the original Ron merely kept his two fingers pressed tightly against the pressure point on the throat, holding his twin firmly in place.
For a moment, the alternate Kim eyed Ron intently, before simply smiling. "You don't have the guts."
"Try me." Ron stated coldly.
"Ok." She replied simply. With that, she allowed Kim to fall to the floor, still unconscious, before mentally prompting a laser cannon to appear from within her right wrist, which she then proceeded to level squarely at Kim's head. "You've got to the count of three, and then they burry your girlfriend in a close casket. If you're going to make a move hero, now's the time. One." She announced loudly.
Ron looked down in anxiousness to the device on his twin's wrist, hoping that he had remembered the right button.
"Two." She kept her count.
Ron stared at the alternate Kim, desperately trying to see if she might waver in her threat. He already knew she wouldn't.
"Three!" She announced finally.
Panicked reflex guided Ron's hand to the right button, prompting a blue gas to shoot out right into the other Ron's face. The original dropped his hold over his twin, permitting the other Ron to throw his hands over his face as he fell to the floor.
The armored Kim merely wore a look of astonishment on her face… for a few seconds. This look quickly transformed into one of amusement as she began laughing aloud.
Ron looked at her astonished. "What are you laughing at?"
"You." Kim managed to get out between spurts. "I can't decide whether to kill you or thank you. I've been meaning to do that to him for so long now, I almost feel cheated." Her laugh echoed through the room, almost prompting icicles to form.
Ron knew he shouldn't have been surprised, but he still felt himself at a loss for words.
"You're sick.
"And you're out of surprises." Kim leveled her blaster at Ron to fire.
Honed instinct combined with long dormant Monkey power brought the Lotus blade from its resting place on the floor straight to Ron's hands. As it fell into his grip, the blade magically transformed according to Ron's thoughts into a perfectly circular shield that he brought in time to deflect the oncoming energy blast… right back at his enemy.
Kim felt the force of the blast itself knock her back to the ground. Unharmed, though severely irritated, she looked up to see Ron as he transformed the sword back to its natural state, standing perfectly posed and calmed.
"The true measure of a warrior is not the extent of their powers, but how and to what end they wield them." Ron recited aloud from his teachings.
"Famous last words." Kim growled as she mentally prompted the rockets on her armor to emerge, activating, propelling her forward through the air straight for Ron.
Ron didn't blink as he called on the Lotus Blade to transform yet again, this time into a lengthy chain rolled around his hand. As the armored Kim came flying at him, Ron's muscles leapt him into the air, and over his flying opponent.
As he landed, Ron turned about and flung an end of the chain through the air, wrapping it around the alternate Kim's right leg. Summoning all his strength, Ron pulled back on the chain, holding on to it with all his might as he used it to re-guide and swing the rocket propelled villain through the air around and around again and again before letting go, causing her to fly crashing into the side of the wall even as the chain unwrapped itself and returned immediately back into Ron's waiting hand.
The alternate Kim crashed into the cave wall before falling down to the ground, only to be buried beneath a few spare feet and several hundred pounds of rock, all of which managed to slow her down for less than a second.
Kim burst up from beneath the rubble, aiming dual pulse blasters from both her wrists straight at Ron who this time caught the full force of the attack head on, knocked back into the cave wall himself, only without any cybertronic armor to shield him from the pain.
Fuming mad, the alternate Kim moved across the room, coming up to the battered Ron and grabbing him by his neck, choking him as she raised him into the air for closer examination.
"That's a nasty cut there." Kim referred to the gaping wound in Ron's shoulder, the one that he had barely kept closed with bits of his own shirt. With sadistic glee, she pressed her armored fist into it with the force of a hammer, causing Ron's lungs to emit a deafening cry of agony.
Kim silenced Ron by slamming him back into the granite wall.
"You know, it's not that this wasn't fun, but seriously. What on earth made you think you had a chance against me?" Kim asked.
"N-nothing." Ron gasped. "B-but I had a feeling he would."
Kim never got a chance to let Ron finish his thought, nor was she able to turn around in time to see her own Ron Stoppable lunging toward her from behind with a sharp tip extending out from his wrist device into her armored backside.
"The purple gas is the poison, the blue is the antidote, you traitorous witch!" Just as it was designed to, the blade tip extending out from Ron's wrist device went to work, releasing a series of microscopic machines that began to seethe and course through the Centurion armor like a virus through the blood stream. The armor's neural receivers and responsive servo motors began to shut down. The suits power drained, and the living armor became an immobile metal straight jacket.
Kim struggled to move, yet the armor would not permit it. She found herself trapped and helpless, completely immobile, unable to even turn her own neck, staring at her own Ron with contempt.
"You…" Kim could not find the words.
"Sorry Kim, but I'm dumping you." Ron smiled as he pushed his helpless ex-teammate over to the floor, causing her to fall over stiffly as if she were an inanimate statue.
"Gee, and I thought you two were so perfect for each other." The original Ron mused sarcastically as he rubbed his bruised neck.
"Shut up." The fists of the alternate Ron came crashing down on the face of the original, knocking his face straight down into the floor. "I don't need a partner to kick your butt all over again."
"But you will for me." A familiar voice came from behind. The alternate Ron was as surprised as the barely conscious original to see the one and only Kim Possible rise to her feet, turning to face him as she readied herself once again for one last battle.
"So, princess. Getting back into the game are we?" Ron asked with the same amusement his partner had shown at his being taken hostage.
"No. But I am going to stop you."
For just a moment longer, the two stared at each other. Just a moment. Then, the moment passed.
The two moved in a blur, imperceptible to almost anyone else on the planet had they been able to witness, as Ron leapt forward to drop kick Kim, who leaned back to dodge the attack. Kim came up with a flying roundhouse kick that hit square on, knocking Ron back and drawing more blood from across his face.
"Game's over." Kim declared firmly.
Ron leapt back with a flying roundhouse kick of his own but Kim back stepped the attack, before moving forward a kick-punch-kick combo that Ron managed to deflect. Keeping her offensive up, Kim swept out and missed before coming up again with a solid blow to Ron's face.
Ron quickly retaliated with a haymaker which went wide, following through with a kick to Kim's ribs that hit, causing the heroine to bend over slightly in pain. Despite her determination, Kim's body still ached all over. She was on her second wind, and it wasn't going to last forever.
Kim came back up with a left that Ron ducked, then a right which he dodged, and finally another left which he caught and twisted. Kim wrists bent unnaturally, bending her with it, and exposing her side as Ron kicked out with force and strength aimed at her already bruised ribs.
"'A' for effort cupcake, but its going to take more than good intentions to stop me." Ron suddenly paused before his adversary as a thought occurred to him, causing him to look around at the tranquil state of the lair in confusion. "Wait a second, why hasn't the cave shaken yet?"
"Because it's not going too. Ever."
Dr. Andrew Lipsky's firm declaration came as a welcome sound to Kim and Ron's ears. The alternate Ron however was not so pleased.
"Don't you ever give up?" The alternate Ron asked as he looked at his nemesis with contempt. "After all the times you've failed, all the times you've lost, why the hell haven't you learned yet?"
"Apparently, I'm very stubborn." Dr. Lipsky replied simply.
Ron prepared to rush his foe when a flash of brilliant emerald energy came from the side, blasting Ron head on and knocking him to the ground unconscious.
Andrew Lipsky smiled as Shego walked over to the fallen form of the short haired Ron Stoppable, pausing for a moment as she whispered inaudibly. "That's for Sheila."
Shego then turned for a moment, smiling and nodding to Andrew Lipsky who returned the gesture.
"Just when I thought I finally had score of who the bad guys were and who wasn't." Ron groaned from the floor. The look of confusion on his face was a perfect reflection of the look on Kim's.
"So, does this mean it's over?" Kim asked uneasily, almost tensing her muscles for another fight, even as they ached in protest.
"It's over." Andrew Lipsky stated confidently, his gaze never leaving Shego's face