"So it turns out that Senor Senior Junior didn't kidnap Ricky so much as hire him," Ron explained. He and Rick were both sprawled in the bleachers, exhausted after football and cheer practice. Both workouts had been harsh, so they took the advantage of exchanging stories in the chill air, resting up before lugging themselves off home.
"Isn't he a bad guy?" Rick asked. "I mean Junior."
"Yeah, but apparently it's cheaper to pay a guy really well than it is to kidnap him." Ron told him. "He had Rotiffle using a supercomputer to find him a girlfriend."
"Okay, timeout on that," Rick interrupted him. "The guy is stinking rich and even though my bread isn't buttered on that side, he's got the looks. He needs a supercomputer to find a girlfriend?"
"A supercomputer being run by a world-renowned programmer," Ron added. "It seems that finding the right combination of incredibly hot yet breathtakingly shallow isn't as easy as you'd think. Rotiffle was doing a worldwide search and Junior was mad about how long it was taking him. That's when Bonnie came in."
"Okay, two questions," Rick interrupted. "First, who's Bonnie and second, why was she on your mission?"
"Long story," Ron warned him.
"I find myself strangely willing to be lazy here for a while longer," Rick assured him. "Every minute you spend talking is another minute I spend resting before the walk home."
"Okay," Ron snorted, then took a quick look around, making sure that they were alone. "Bonnie is Middleton's version of Michelle, a very hot girl who knows it and is very status conscious. She's the cheer captain and seemed to have cheated her way into becoming the homecoming queen. Anyway, it turns out that her boyfriend from last year, who's now in college, broke up with her. Shook up at being single, she made a play for the homecoming king, who happens to be dating another girl on the cheer squad, a sweet girl named Tara."
"I'm keeping up," Rick told him, when he paused for breath. "But do continue."
"Okay, Bonnie had some sort of a breakdown when Tara called her out for what she was doing, since Tara and Bonnie were pretty good friends before the make a play incident. It's probably not shocking, but they aren't friends any more. Bonnie was shook up about nobody wanting her around, Kim felt sorry for her and let her come along on our mission; since it didn't sound all that dangerous."
"And she wound up completing it for you?" Rick prompted.
"Strangely, yes," Ron shrugged. "It turns out that Bonnie was everything that Junior was looking for; insanely hot, shallow and looking for status. Junior was everything that Bonnie wanted; cute, buff, rich, dumb and ruled by emotion. It was dysfunctional love at first sight. I may have witnessed the beginning of this century's greatest narcissistic, teenage romance. We didn't even have to arrange for a ride back home, Junior flew us back himself."
"Well, all's well that end's well," Rick grinned. "And the explanation took sufficient time to give me the energy to lurch home. Catch you tomorrow?"
"Sure," Ron agreed, heaving himself to his feet, only to find himself confronted by a blonde girl. "Julie," he greeted her. "What brings the head cheerleader out here after practice?"
"I wanted a word with the two of you," she told them.
"Sure," Rick shrugged. "but you may want to stand upwind of us."
"I'll take my chances," she smiled at the humor. "I wanted to talk to the two of you about the squad, after football season."
"I think she wants to talk to you," Rick told Ron.
"Wait," Ron held up a hand, putting two and two together. "Are you saying that you want me to try out for the squad and try to take the mascot position?" Ron looked to his friend, expecting him to be upset. Instead, Rick seemed cool with the sitch.
"You weren't here last year," Rick explained. "You see, after the fall sports season, I leave the squad and head to the mat."
"What?" Ron asked.
"Wrestling," he explained. "You know, the activity that young men do during boys basketball season? That's my sport and Julie here was kind enough to let me be mascot during the Fall, knowing that I would be leaving in the Winter. She's looking for the new eagle."
"There will be tryouts," Julie informed Ron. "But seeing how you performed as the mad dog, I'd like you to take a run at it."
Ron thought about it. He didn't have any plans for activities after the football season. Being the mascot would give him something to do, look good on his transcripts and keep him in shape for missions and maybe college ball. On the other hand, the memories of being the mad dog weren't that great. Now that he could look back on it more or less objectively, he realized that he had been pathetically following after Kim. Instead of doing something for himself, he had followed after her, even though she hadn't wanted him to. Her distaste had shown through to the rest of the squad. Even after he proved himself as a capable mascot, the rest of the squad had never seemed to really warm to him.
"I know we didn't treat you all that well at Gottagrin," Julie chimed in, breaking through his memories. "You were trying to warn us all about that Gill guy, and we wouldn't listen to you. Some of us even called you a loser and threw stuff at you. That wasn't right and we should have apologized a long time ago. We won't do anything like that again and I'm going to say right now, I'm sorry."
Nowhere near as sorry as I am about Wanaweep...
"I'm not upset about the yelling," he told her, guessing that she was wrong about why he had gone silent and started frowning. "At least not anymore." Suddenly, the thought of Bonnie seeing him performing with another squad came to him, prompting a truly evil grin to find it's way to his face.
"Should I be getting a little nervous right now?" Rick asked.
"Not you, but someone else," Ron told him. "It's a deal, I'll try out. Of course, there's no guarantee that I'm going to be the best applicant."
The expressions on both Rick and Julie's faces told them what they thought of that chance.
"Fair enough," the cheerleader smiled at him. "I'll leave the two of you to keep making bad jokes. Good-night."
"There's no such thing as a bad joke!" Rick yelled after her. "There's only a joke that's taken bad...ly, or poorly, or something." They could see that Julie was shaking her head. "Okay, that was weak," Rick admitted.
"Which means it's a good time to call it quits for today," Ron decided. With a fist-bump, the two friends headed towards their respective homes. For Ron, it meant unwelcome thoughts while he was alone.
There were three unanswered emails waiting for him, all from Yori. He had not been able to bring himself to communicate with her since Sensei spoke to him. He knew that she had nothing to do with what had been done to him, or at least he thought he did. Like Kim had said, Yamanouchi was a secretive organization and wouldn't want all of its members knowing what every other member did. If Yori was out on a mission and got caught, the best way to assure that she didn't give up information under torture or drugs was to not give her the information in the first place. Still, for some reason he couldn't quite describe even to himself, he thought that she knew or suspected...something. Every time he sat down and tried to describe the hurt that he felt, the words just wouldn't come. He also couldn't bring himself to write and act like everything was normal. He just didn't know what to do about Yori.
He missed her, he could admit that. He could also admit to being in love with her; at least as much as a seventeen year old dealing with the only girlfriend he had ever had could understand love. He really needed to talk to someone about it...but who? Felix was a good friend and Rick was becoming one, but just starting to get the whole sitch off of his chest to one of them would not only mean revealing secrets he couldn't tell, but opening the verbal door to still more secrets.
"I don't know what to do," he could hear himself saying to one of them. "I'm massively in love with her and she's all I could ever want, but she's part of an organization that mutated me with monkey DNA. What? Oh, it happened during the cheer camp and competition at Wannaweep. How? I jumped into a toxic pool in order to get mutated and fight Gill, but I didn't think it worked. It turned out that a ninja was nearby and threw monkey blood into the pool so I'd be mutated with it and become the Mystical Monkey Master, instead of the English nobleman who wanted the title for himself. When did I find out? Well, I noticed the changes to my feet starting a few weeks after the Wannaweep incident, but I didn't put two and two together until that same nobleman fought me and Yori, lost, and called Kim to tattle. When did this happen? Well, remember a few weeks ago when there was that short-lasting seismic disturbance in Thailand? Well, that was caused by a temple, containing the last part of a three-part key that revealed the location of a mystic weapon, emerging then re-submerging into the Earth. That was when and where our last fight with the nobleman took place. Why didn't I come home afterwards? The secret ninja school put us up in a resort for three days to make people less suspicious that I had anything to do with it...and those were the greatest three days of my life. So, I'm massively in love with this ninja girl but her organization mutated me and didn't tell me about it until an insane nobleman tattled on me and now it's too late to do anything about it and I miss her but it isn't exactly easy for me to get to Japan on a school night, unless it's to fight some freak who's trying to take over the world...so what do I say to her?"
He actually snorted. That was the kind of confession that would get you thrown into a padded room, even if you admitted it to a close friend. Trying to talk to his mother was out of the question and his father...
For all that his father was usually an absent parent, in a couple of small aspects, he was actually a better father than Mr. Dr. P. Whenever Kim wanted to talk about subjects that made her father nervous, he would clam up and divert her to her mother, even if the neurosurgeon was performing a procedure. On the other hand, whenever he brought up a difficult subject with his dad, the man would set aside whatever he was doing and address the issue as best he could. The only problem was that he would inevitably bring the subject up with mom...and that never turned out well. Once his father found out that he couldn't dare have kids, the man was sure to tell mom.
That...was something that he wasn't about to face.
Kim was also out of the question. While the two had reached some sort of equilibrium and had gotten their friendship back...to an extent...it was still a question about a romantic relationship and he wasn't about to bring that up with her. This left him muddling through on his own and he really didn't know what he wanted.
That was a lie; he knew that he wanted to be with Yori and maybe that was part of the problem; there were some things that he wouldn't trust to emails and he wasn't able to get together with her and work things out. Even if he were to call in a favor and fly to Japan, she might not be able to get clear of her school, or even a mission she might be on, for what he was sure Sensei would consider the trivial issue of a teenage romance. Yet, it was the only romance he had ever experienced, so it was far from trivial to him.
He could only hope that it was far from trivial to her.
He wasn't that great at logic, and he suspected that logic didn't work that well when it came to romance. Logically, he should move on; he and Yori might not ever see each other again, so it would make sense to move past her. The only problem was that he couldn't even look at another girl without thinking of Yori. It wasn't just what they had done in the suite, it was the memory of tackling her into the ocean, of kissing her underwater until both of their lungs were screaming for air. It was seeing her laughing on the moonlit beach...
He shook his head. These sorts of thoughts could blot out the here and now, leaving him to wander into traffic. He wasn't all that concerned about his legacy, but he wasn't about to go out by being hit by a car, with a dopey, vapid smile on his face and a trickle of drool running down his chin. Instead, he kept his mind on the here and now and got himself back home and firmly entrenched in his evening routine...shower, laundry, playing with Hana and then homework. It was only after his schoolwork was done for the night that he could bring himself to open his email account. He honestly didn't know if he was scared or relieved that there wasn't another message waiting for him.
Sitting at the keyboard, he decided to not try to find the right thing to say, but to merely state what he felt. He composed a message about how much he missed her and wished that the two of them could be together. He told her of how used and hurt he felt that Yamanouchi didn't inform him that he could be mutated and that how much he felt robbed that he would never be able to have children.
He paused for a moment, realizing that he had never really thought about having kids, but once he found out it was off the table for him, he was angry about it. Shrugging his shoulders at his own hypocrisy, he got ready for bed. Lying under the sheets, staring at his ceiling, further thoughts came to him.
Yori had sort-of, kind-of given him a free pass to find a girlfriend, but he didn't really know how to be a boyfriend. If things didn't work out with Yori and if he got lonely for a girlfriend, he really didn't know how it was supposed to work. Yori was a special case; like she had said, she was a ninja who spent every day knowing that her next day could be her last. That meant that she wanted what joy she could get, when she had the chance to get it. This meant that the physical aspect of their relationship had moved really, really fast. While it had been...wow...he had to admit that it left him unprepared for the complexity of a typical, teenage girlfriend.
He had to smile at that; only he would consider dating a ninja teen from across the ocean to be more simple than dating a girl from his own city.
How did you even go about asking a girl on a date? He had flamed out with the entire female half of Middleton High's student body, back during Sophomore year. He had asked Zita out a couple of times, but that had been after the two had bumped into each other at a movie and he was pretty much sure that she liked being with him. The only other times he had been on a date had been with Kim; the Middleton Days fiasco, when she had maneuvered him into asking her...only because the chip had her into him, and his cousin's wedding, when she had gone as his date to get him away from the kids' table.
Once you were on a date, what did you do? Okay, that one was easy enough...he guessed. You found something that you both liked, like a nice meal, a movie, or something fun like dancing or a concert. But, what about the boyfriend/girlfriend aspect of it? He had, in his entire life, kissed two girls; Kim and Yori and both times, the girl had made the first move. Zita had never attempted to kiss him and he had never tried to kiss her. Should he have? Again, Kim had only kissed him because of the moodulator and he had already examined Yori's reasons for moving things along. He was pretty sure that it would be up to him to move the physical aspect of the relationship along and he really didn't know how to determine when the proper time to do that was.
And finally, would he be content with a...mostly innocent...teenage romance? Hypothetically, if he were to start dating Crystal, or a girl from Eastside, and he somehow managed to not bungle the whole first kiss thing, what if she was content with the "high school sweethearts" thing? Would he be? Laying in bed, contemplating the beige-ness of his ceiling, the thought of having a girl to hang out with and be cute with was appealing...but how long would that appeal last? His one taste of romance had included the whole physical thing and Yori had been honest with him and had admitted that while she was attracted to him and desired him, the reason she moved things along so quickly was that she might not have that chance again. While he wasn't a ninja, he still faced some nasty, dangerous situations. While the last mission had turned out to be harmless, he had still gone to an island that had spinning tops of doom. Any mission he faced could be his last day on Earth so would he have the same drive to experience everything with his hypothetical girlfriend, and could he accept it if she wasn't down with being experienced?
After all that, what about protection? During their three days at the resort, Yori had told him that she was on the pill...the morning after they did the deed for the first time. Okay, it was the second time and the subject had never come up after the Middleton Days encounter. But the concern was still there. He, and any hypothetical girlfriend, were still teenagers with no income and no prospect of a career anytime soon. If he got a girlfriend and if she was down with getting intimate and if they took things to that point, he was going to need to get protection. The problem with that was his own, big mouth. He had demanded more recognition for the missions and Kim and Wade had seen to it that he had gotten his wish. As a result of that, and his exploits on the football field, he was becoming more well known. In a world where everyone had a smart phone, just purchasing condoms could turn into a public spectacle. He didn't need that kind of attention.
Finally, or maybe firstly, he was a mutated freak. The folks at Yamanouchi knew, but they would most likely keep his secret. Felix knew, but he didn't know the full details and could be trusted to keep what he did know a secret. Wade, Kim and Eric knew, but Kim and Wade knew pretty much everything about him and hadn't spilled any secrets while Eric only had a couple of months left...even if he wasn't trustworthy...which he seemed to be. He had kept his teammates at bay with a story about severe foot fungus and had backed it up with a little gross, cosmetic deception. Could he even try that kind of deception with a girlfriend? Say he had a...less than friendly breakup with this hypothetical girlfriend, could she or would she use knowing about his mutation to make his life miserable? What if it was the opposite and things worked out really, really well? At what point in a relationship was it appropriate to say that he wouldn't father children?
He took comfort in an old saying: "If you're concerned that you're overthinking something, you probably are". He had school and football practice tomorrow, a game this weekend and opponents to run around, over and through. Beyond that, he would sign up to try out for the mascot position, crush the audition and have something to do for the Winter sports and cheer competition season. He would see how things worked out with Yori. That would be enough to keep him occupied for the time being. The future would have to wait for the future.
Life was looking up again, even though it was going to get bad before too much longer. Her friendship with Ron was back, she was crushing the cheerleading routines, the squad was actually doing well under Bonnie's leadership and she was solid friends with Tara, Crystal and Felix, as well as Monique. The only problem was that it was getting closer to the end of Eric's life. She had tried to suggest that they do something special, call in a favor to see some beautiful part of the world. She had even said that if he was uneasy going with just her, they could take her parents along. Instead, he said that he wanted to experience the teen life for as long as he could, interact with other students and be a young man for as long as possible. His only concession was to ask if he could go along on a mission...nothing dangerous or involving supervillains, but something where he could see a little more of her life.
The request was in to Global Justice. Kim only hoped that Dr. Director would relent and let him live a little more than he was.
But for now, there was staring at a sight she thought she'd never see in Middleton High.
"Jim, Tim," she addressed her brothers. "What are you guys doing here? You're going to be late for school! In fact, you already are!"
"Not to worry, sis," Jim told her.
"We're at school," Tim continued. "We were so far ahead academically that the school put us in an accelerated program."
"We're freshmen!" Jim finished.
"What? No!" Kim staggered back. "This can't be right!"
"It sure is," Jim told her.
"We tried to tell you this morning," Tim continued. "But you were too busy chasing your cheer uniform."
"Just what did the two of you do to the dryer, anyway?" She demanded.
Her Kimmunicator interrupted the conversation before she could get an answer...not that she would have been able to understand the answer anyway.
"Go Wade," she answered the call.
"Got a request from Britina," Wade told her.
"Okay, what's her issue?" Kim asked him.
"She's been arrested," Wade told her. "For major theft, but she's claiming she's innocent."
"Got it," Kim answered. "When's the ride?"
"Ten minutes, out front," the young genius answered. "Ron will meet you there and I've swung it with Global Justice, Eric can come with you."
"What about us?" Jim demanded.
"Yeah, we can help," Tim added.
"You two have school to attend," she snapped at them. "When we get back, the two of you are going to undo whatever it was you did to my cheer uniform...and the dryer."
Then, she wondered how Ron would react to Eric being along on a mission. While they seemed to have patched up their friendship and he was aware that she wanted to bring her boyfriend along, just to give his life some variety, the actual act might be a little tense.
"I never should have gone on that silly reality show," the starlet, set on the other side of a Plexiglas barrier, bemoaned. "I guess my publicist thought it would help my record sales. Now, I'm accused of stealing money from the safe. There's some fuzzy security footage that shows someone who might look like me robbing the safe, but why would I need the money? My last album, which I released less than a year ago, went double platinum! I'm doing better than fine."
"Okay, Wade," Kim spoke into her kimmunicator. "I need a list of all members of the cast and crew of that show. Then, we'll see if anyone has a financial incentive."
"I might be able to help you there," a voice announced from the door to the interview room.
Kim turned to find the socialite, Camille Leon, standing at the entry. Somehow, paparazzi had managed to get into the police station, as the young woman was almost continually illuminated with camera flashes, at least until several police officers ushered them away.
"Britina..." the newcomer announced, rushing to the Plexiglas. "I came as soon as I heard."
"That was three days ago," the imprisoned blonde pointed out.
"Well, I had interruptions," the rail-thin socialite pointed out. "But I'm here now. Some of the cast isn't doing that great, money wise, but they don't want to admit it. I'll let Kim in on the secrets."
"Wait," Kim was shocked. "You know me?"
"By reputation," Camille shrugged her shoulders. "By the way, I love the look. Oh, hi Ron."
"Uh...hi." Ron looked just as confused as Kim felt as the heiress pulled out her smart phone and called up a series of pictures.
"There's Starlet, those twins, MC Honey..."
"Hey, we know MC,"Kim protested.
"Well, I hear she's thinking of going commercial, so she might be getting desperate," Camille said. "Anyway, I gotta jet. The reality awards show is tonight, and they'll all be there...everyone but Britina."
This prompted a sob from behind the barrier.
"So, you might be able to do that thing that you do," Camille finished. "Who knows, whoever stole the money might make a move during the show."
The heiress breezed out of the room before Kim could comment. Instead, she, Ron, Eric and Wade...via the kimmunicator screen...shared shrugs.
"She has a point," Wade admitted. "I'll do some research. In the meantime, the three of you might as well get back to school."
Seeing no reason to not continue her education, Kim said farewell to Ron and accompanied Eric back to Middleton High, happy that Ron wasn't steamed in the slightest by his presence. That happiness didn't survive first contact with her brothers.
"Did you solve the case?" Tim demanded, between classes.
"I bet you didn't, can we help!" Jim added, from her other side.
"Tweebs, what are you doing here?" She demanded. "You may be freshmen, but this is a senior classroom hallway!"
"Freshman math and science classes are way too easy!" Jim told her.
"We've been bumped up to senior year in those subjects." Tim added. "Now, about the mission."
"We've got it handled," she growled at them. "Wade is crunching some data, so we'll be ready by tonight."
"What's up tonight?" Tim asked.
"Like I said, my business," she snarled.
"No problem," Jim told his brother. "We know that it has to do with Britina, so we can whip up a data search and figure it all out by lunchtime."
"Tweebs..." Kim growled yet again, but was interrupted by the class bell. Contenting herself with a harsh look their way, she stormed into her next classroom, only to be shocked by them following her in.
"What's the sitch?" She demanded of them.
"Like we said, we've been bumped up to senior level math classes," Jim told her.
"What could be worse than sharing a statistics class with my brothers?" She bemoaned.
"Having them out-perform you," both twins answered, with glee. The two scrambled to find desks, out of her reach, before Mr. Barkin arrived.
Her day didn't get better. Not only did her brothers out-perform her, and everyone else in the class, Bonnie managed to get a few embarrassing stories out of them during lunch. When she broke up the conversation, the two took it as an opportunity to wheedle more information about her current mission...and prove that they were able to deduct what the mission was. Fortunately...or maybe it was unfortunate, she didn't have any additional classes that day with them. Instead, she had to imagine just what Bonnie was learning from them without her keeping an eye on things. It didn't help that they were waiting in the gym when cheer practice started, trying to give her advice about her mission.
"Off the floor!" She told them. "You do not interrupt a practice!"
"We're not interrupting," Tim told her. "We're here to audition."
"Bonnie told us that she was short a mascot for competition season," Jim added. "It helped Ron get in shape, so why not us?"
"In the meantime, about the financial angle..." Tim started.
"But nothing!" Kim almost yelled at them. "This is our mission! We've handled it without you before and we can handle it without you now! If you want to audition, I suggest you be quiet and warm up, cheerleading is serious, hard work."
For all that Kim didn't care for Bonnie, she had to admit that the brunette was serious about cheerleading. While the brunette might have suggested that the tweebs audition as a way to tweak Kim, she wasn't about to let them slide onto the squad easy. She worked the two boys almost as hard as she worked the varsity cheerleaders, which kept them too busy gasping for breath to ask more questions. She took a little solace in the fact that she had just demonstrated to the irritating siblings just how good her conditioning was, even though she waited for them so that they could all walk home together. Again, they were too out of breath to do much prying into her affairs.
She left them at home while she and Eric met Ron at the Gala Event Center. Once there, and out of the tweebs' hearing range, she called Wade again.
"Anything new?" She asked.
"A little," Wade said. "None of the people that Camille named are really hard up for money. Finances might be just a little tight...for them...but for the rest of us, they're really well off. Not the sort of situation you risk jail time for."
"How about the crew?" She prompted.
"Harder to quantify," he admitted. "They're not as well off as the celebrities but most, if not all of them, have had the opportunity in the past to steal either cash or readily salable valuables. I'm looking into their pasts but so far, no luck."
"Anything else?"
"Well, I have a possible target for any theft," he told her. "There are dozens of goodie bags for the celebrities. Each of them is worth several thousand dollars. Portable stuff that can be sold easily without any method of tracing."
"Well, keep digging," Kim requested. "We'll keep an eye on things here."
Putting away her kimmunicator, she led the way to the green room, intending on seeing which celebrities were present. She quickly saw a familiar face.
"Hi MC," she greeted the performer.
"Kim Possible!" The celebrity declared. "Long time no see GF...and the guy she's seeing now...and the guy who helps her on the missions."
"Yeah," Kim nodded. "I'm sorry to say that this is more business than pleasure."
"Britina?" MC asked.
"You heard?"
"Hmph," MC held up a news magazine with the blonde wearing black and white stripes on the cover. "The worst cover shot that girl's taken since I can remember."
"Hey!" A shout sounded from the stage area. "The goodie bags have been snatched!"
"Whoa!" MC shouted. "Not the goodie bags!"
Kim, Ron and Eric were quickly sprinting towards the stage, to meet...
"Diggity Z!" Kim addressed him. "Did you see who took the goodie bags?"
"She ran right across the stage," the man said, glaring at MC. "MC Honey, it's on camera!"
"But, she was with us the entire time!" Kim protested.
"I believe you," Wade told her, yet again. "But the camera clearly shows her, with the goodie bags, running across the stage. I'm sorry I haven't been able to come up with hard proof to back up your story, but it turns out the camera in the green room wasn't functional last night."
"Well, we've only given you overnight," Kim grumbled. She sighed; she hadn't been able to sleep well last night, but at least the morning walk to school was refreshing. Or would be, except for...
"Doesn't that seem kind of suspicious?" Tim asked.
"I bet that whoever actually did it, had access to the green room camera and set up everything," Jim pointed out.
"Walking to school with us doesn't mean you're in on the mission," Kim snapped at her brothers, growing annoyed at how Eric seemed to find the interaction amusing.
"Even with the green room camera being out, it doesn't make sense," Jim protested.
"MC Honey knew the stage cameras were running," Tim added.
"Why would she go out of her way to be seen?" They both asked.
"No interrupting while the adults are at work!" Kim barely kept her voice lower than a shout. "Or, almost adults." She paused a moment. "They have a couple of good points," she admitted into the kimmunicator.
"I'm on them," Wade answered. "Everything that can narrow the search helps."
"There's one other possibility," Jim pointed out.
"What if we're dealing with a shape-shifter?" Tim finished for him.
"This is reality, not one of your comic books," Kim rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, but Eric can change his appearance," both twins countered.
"I hadn't thought of that," Eric stopped, his eyes wide.
"Could we be dealing with a synthodrone?" Kim asked Wade.
"It's possible," Wade admitted. "Shego's on the loose and I can't be sure that I've tracked down all of Drakken's hidden lairs."
"Let's go with that for the moment," Kim suggested. "Let Ron know what's going on, okay?"
"Will do," Wade agreed. "Camille's next appearance is going to be a book signing tomorrow in Beverly Hills. Since she was present at both other crimes, it makes sense to follow her. I hope I'll have something more by then. In the meantime, enjoy school and I'll let you know if I turn up anything else."
"So will we," the tweebs answered in unison.
"Tweebs," she shook her head but again, she really didn't have it in her to be depreciating. They had come up with a good point that she could have easily missed.
Back when she was the head cheerleader, plenty of people had accused her of being a control freak. She had to admit that there was a certain justification with this, but she had never had a problem with trying to control Wade. The youngster was incredible when it came to digging up various clues and putting them together. Because of this, she was able to concentrate on her classes, then cheering for the game, without any concern about finishing her mission...Wade was on the case. It was only on Saturday morning, when she, Eric and Ron were on her front porch, waiting for their ride, that she doubted him a little.
"Sorry guys," the genius reported. "Your ride had to bow out and I'm having trouble putting another one together on short notice."
"We have a deal," Tim suddenly declared.
"Tweebs," Kim sighed. "This is not a time for distractions.
"No distraction," Jim protested. "But an offer."
"If we get you a ride, we get to come along," Tim suggested.
"We already gave you an angle you didn't think about, before," Jim concluded.
"I don't think mom and dad will approve," Kim tried, hoping to get away from them for a day.
"They've already said they prefer it this way," Tim answered.
"There's no chance that we'll vaporize the garage if we're with you," Jim explained.
"And pick up is in ten minutes," Tim stated.
"Fine, you win!" She threw up her arms in surrender. "How did you manage a ride?"
"We tutored Mr. Sinclair's son in math," they answered.
"But Kenny's a junior...in college!"
"Nested trig functions and derivatives by parts, so not the drama," Jim shrugged.
"No using my line!"
"Fine," Tim shook his head. "While you're checking out the snooty mall, we're going to be doing something else."
"Like what?" Kim was getting more and more irritated with her brothers.
"Checking up on Camille," Jim answered. "She's the common denominator in both crimes. She had some cosmetic surgery from a guy who isn't completely legit, so we thought we'd check him out."
"You know, that's a good plan," Eric interrupted what Kim was about to say. "Any scrap we can get could turn this case."
"Fine.." Kim accepted defeat...and the fact that her brothers were scary competent when it came to puzzling out a crime.
The western United States wasn't really all that large...when you were traveling via a private jet that didn't have to adhere to established flight paths. A couple of hours later, they were in Beverly Hills and Wade had scared up a ride to take her, Ron and Eric to the mall while Jim and Tim were on their way to a shady medical practitioner.
For a few minutes, Ron reminisced about dropping some money here while he was rich, but he quickly pulled himself from his memories and pointed out the diamond light fixture in the elevator. Kim quickly became both infatuated with and irritated by the sight of Country Club Banana...the store that was to ordinary Club Banana what the Kepler was to a bottle-rocket. She walked up to the entrance, staring longingly into the forbidden shelves. Forbidden, because you needed to pass a credit check to get in and she didn't have any credit. Suddenly, she saw a possible solution.
"Camille!" She called to the young woman that she was currently sort of investigating.
"Kim!" The shallow blonde responded. "What brings you out here?"
"Oh, just poking around," Kim giggled nervously. "Look, I was wondering if you could do me a big?"
"Like what?" The heiress asked.
"Could you clear the way for me to get into here?" She gestured to the store. "I don't have a card."
"Well, I'd love to, but I have to get ready for the signing," Camille told her. "Gotta run!"
"But...it'll only take you a couple of..." Kim protested to the woman's retreating backside. "Seconds..."
"What up, Kim?" Ron, accompanied by Eric, asked. "You look really down."
"I was just asking Camille if she could get me in here, but she said she had to run," Kim grumbled. "She has almost an hour until she starts signing her autobiography, so she couldn't take a minute to make a swipe and let me check out..."
Her complaint was interrupted by a shriek from back towards the elevator. Acting by instinct, she and Ron sprinted that way, with Eric at their heels.
"The diamond light fixture is missing!" Ron pointed out.
"Wade?" Kim asked.
"Working the security cameras as we speak," the genius answered. "and...got it!"
"That's Starlet!" Kim gasped, upon seeing the footage the boy forwarded to her.
"Another friend of Camille's," Ron pointed out. "Right in front of a security camera and without even putting a mask on."
"That's just too convenient," Kim agreed with him.
"Okay, I have just come up with some interesting coincidences," Wade chimed in.
"I'm hearing plural," Kim remarked.
"Yep," Wade grinned. "Coincidence number one, I have solid footage of Britina stealing the cash...and dancing on the set at the exact, same time. I have tracked MC Honey's cell phone and can place her in the green room with you at the same time the cameras caught her fleeing across the stage. I'm working on Starlet right now."
"Okay, was that two coincidences, or just one?" Ron asked him.
"Just one," Wade smirked. "The second coincidence is that Camille's photographed almost twenty-four seven. I checked and found no footage of her during the previous two crimes. Again, it's too early for this one, but I'm digging."
"So, are you thinking that she's a syntho?" Eric asked.
"It's a possibility," Wade pointed out. "All three of these crimes had her in the area; the previous two had gaps in her coverage during the crime itself."
"So she's ditching the cameras long enough to take the form of one of her...or I should say Camille's... friends, then committing the crimes, then resuming Camille's form," Eric concluded. "If that's the case, it isn't Camille we've been dealing with."
"Care for a suggestion?" Wade asked.
"Suggest away," Kim requested.
"She's scheduled to attend a fashion show, tonight," Wade told her. "The last three crimes were at times and places she had been previously scheduled to be present. During this fashion show, one of the models is going to be wearing a very expensive diamond and gold necklace. Whomever is performing these thefts could very well impersonate another celebrity, maybe even the model, and attempt to steal it."
"Can you get us in?" Kim asked. "And get us close enough to keep an eye on the necklace?"
"If you get us in, I have an idea," Eric announced.
"So, we think this doctor might have swapped Camille with a Synthodrone," Jim pointed out.
"So this is could be very dangerous," Tim added.
"Cool!" The two announced.
"Look, I don't think this is a good idea," Wade told them, over the kimmunicators they had constructed for themselves. "It's one thing to make this trip with your sister, it's another thing to confront someone who may be part of a kidnapping ring."
"But we injected ourselves with tracking chips," Tim told him.
"And you're tracking them," Jim added. "If we're kidnapped, you'll be able to track us. If he grabs us, he'll probably take us to wherever he took the real Camille."
"That's still risky," Wade protested.
"I know," Jim told him.
"That makes it fun!" Tim added. "Now, you can either work with us or not."
"Either way, we're going in!" They finished.
Wade could only shake his head at how stubborn the two were. Then, he monitored the two as they stormed into Dr. Beaufox's office, confronted him about radical, experimental techniques, then accused him of making use of Dr. Drakken's technology. However, Wade's eyes flew as wide as the twins' at the confession this prompted.
"So, you guys are sure about this?" Kim asked, caught between the urges to blush and preen a little.
"Absolutely," Eric assured her. "You're beautiful."
"Look, I know we had some toxic moments and all," Ron rubbed the back of his head. "But Eric's right, you're gorgeous and how better to guard the necklace than by putting it on you?"
Kim took another look in the mirror. The dress she was wearing had been sewn around her form; it was flattering in all the right ways, her hair had been done in a style that she would have never thought of and the necklace's diamond sparkled at her throat. False modesty aside, she knew that she was stunningly attractive and having a team of professionals work with it...
Okay, she would never wear a dress or jewelry this expensive ever again, so she took this moment to revel in it. Maybe more than a moment; she would be sure to get some pictures, with professional photographers getting all the right angles, to accidentally let be seen whenever Bonnie started to let her ego run free.
"I'll go keep an eye on the crowd," Ron offered, breaking her out of her indulgence. "I know which seat has been reserved for Camille. If the pattern repeats, she'll show up, be seen, then slip off and change."
"The two of you better be ready to stop her," Kim offered. "I can't move very well in this dress."
"We'll be ready," Ron assured her, then he was gone while a photographer and assistant came in, had her strike a series of photos and recorded them.
The photographer and assistant were fully aware of who she was, which didn't help keep her ego in check. They were patient, working her through poses that a professional model would have already known, while praising her beauty and her work as a heroine. This was the sort of thing that could go to someone's head and she struggled to keep things in proper perspective. She was just doing this to track down who was responsible for the thefts, which would get innocent people out of jail. There was no way she should get used to this special treatment.
"We have a special, guest model today," she heard a public address system announce, prompting the photographer and assistant to head to the stage. "Teen heroine Kim Possible will display Buchie's latest evening gown and Karatgleam's latest necklace. But first, some active-wear from the fine designer."
Music started to play from the stage area and she knew that a series of models would be showing off the clothing line. She didn't envy these models; they would have to change clothes several times, being treated like glorified clothes hangars while she would only have to make one appearance. Running footsteps sounded outside of her dressing room, then the door flew open to reveal her brothers.
"Kim, it's Camille!" Tim announced. "She's..."
"A syntho," Kim interrupted him. "We know, we were there when the two of you figured it out...which I have to admit was good work."
"No," Jim corrected her. "She's not a syntho, she's a shape-shifter!"
"Nano morphing technology that Dr. Beaufox bought from Jack Hench, who got it from Drakken!" Tim added.
"Okay, more coherent," Kim instructed.
"Camille went to Dr. Beaufox, a really shady plastic surgeon, for an upgrade," Jim told her.
"A major upgrade," Tim added. "The sleazy doctor had done some nanomorphing work before, but not to the extent that she got."
"She now has two forms of nanomorphing cells in her body," Jim continued. "Biological and non-biological. The non-biological can mimic other people's clothes, based on her observations."
"While the biological cells can mimic another person's body," Tim said. "But this is based on a genetic copy that she gets through physical contact."
"Bottom line up front," Jim concluded. "If she makes physical contact with anyone, even something simple like a handshake, she can morph herself to be a perfect match."
"While her memory of that person can give her the clothing that the person was wearing at the time." Tim concluded-concluded.
"Okay, that's both useful and creepy," she admitted. "But it doesn't explain why she would be stealing what's been stolen. Sure, that's a lot of money for someone like us, but she's already living in the lap of luxury and is going to inherit..."
"Nothing," Wade interrupted, from her Kimmunicator...which Eric happened to be holding. There was no room on her current outfit for much of anything. "The family's trying to keep it hush, but she's been disinherited from her fortune and she's about to be kicked out of the house. She has no real skills other than being famous and her reality show and book deal haven't generated the lifestyle that she's used to."
"So she stole cash and valuables, while making sure that she had a plausible reason to be in the area," Kim gasped. "But did the actual theft in one of her friends' forms, making sure that it was caught on camera."
"Man, we don't need friends like that," Jim and Tim commented, in unison.
"So, what now?" Eric asked.
"Oh, hey guys," Ron interrupted, stepping into the dressing room. "Everything's chill out front. Whoa, Kim, you have a couple of hairs caught in the Karatgleam. May I?"
Kim turned her back and faced down, letting her friend get to the clasp and correct the flaw he had spotted.
"So," she asked him. "Has Camille shown..."
Her question was interrupted by her gasp, prompted when he undid the clasp, grabbed the necklace and sprinted for the door. She wasn't able to move properly in the tight dress and there was no way that her brothers or Eric could match him for either speed or acceleration...not that their shock would have allowed them to try. He was out the door before they could even move.
While Kim shook off her shock quicker than the other three, she had difficulty moving in the heels and long, tight dress. Eric, despite starting after her, reached the door first, with Kim on his heels and her brothers on hers.
"Ron!" She bellowed. "Why are you..."
Eric had come to a sudden stop in front of her and she was shocked into silence at the sight of Ron, holding the necklace, being faced down by Ron, with a confused look on his face.
"It's not Ron!" Tim shouted from behind her.
"It's Camille!" Jim added. Then, the two spotted the stand-off.
The Ron, who she assumed was actually Camille, lunged at the other Ron, dropping the necklace while he did so. The two Ron's tumbled on the ground, prompting Rufus to scramble out of the real Ron's pocket to avoid being crushed.
"Okay, how do we tell them apart?" Kim asked.
"Let them fight it out," Jim told her.
"While she has his strength and speed, she doesn't have his skill or experience," Tim added.
That statement was quickly proven to be true. One of the Rons clearly didn't know how to throw a punch; using a swatting motion from the elbow rather than a solid strike from the shoulder. The other Ron kept his hands up, swatting away clumsy blows and delivering strong punches and kicks in return. With the less competent Ron staggered, the more competent Ron swept in and drove a knee into his gut, dropping him to the ground. The lesser Ron lay on the ground, struggling to breathe for a few moments, before morphing into Camille Leon.
"Fine, you got me," she whined, as each of the tweebs grabbed one of her arms. "Just no more hitting, okay?"
"We got her," Kim gloated into the Kimmunicator. "And we should have enough coverage of the Ron V Ron fight to prove our point."
"Yeah, good job everyone," Wade congratulated the group. "There's only one thing that bothers me."
"And that is?" Kim asked, as security and police converged on the scene.
"Camille has to have physical contact with someone in order to mimic them," Wade pointed out. "She's never come into physical contact with Ron before this fight."
"Oh, I came into physical contact with him," Camille, who had overheard, snickered at them.
"When?" Ron demanded. "The only time I've ever been in the same room as you was the jail, you never touched me!"
"Well, I can't expect you to remember the time before," Camille chuckled. "Or, you probably remembered, but didn't know it was me."
"What are you talking about?" Ron demanded.
"Don't you remember the Middleton Days Festival?" She now had a predatory smile on her face. Then, a moment later, it was Yori being restrained by the twins. "We did a whole lot more than just touch."
A/N: As always, big thanks to Joe Stoppinghem for beta reading.