Legalese: Yes, I have to say it – Disney owns Kim Possible. Don't make me repeat it.

Thanks to Ran Hakubi, CajunBear73, and MrDrP for reviewing.

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Second Mission, Second Thoughts

Chapter 8: Ruckus

"Turn around so's I can see you," commanded the rustler.

Kim gulped. She was trapped and scolded herself internally for leaving something that could be useful on Hobbes. The horseshoe was ever so close but she didn't know how far he was, or how good of a shot the cattle thief was.

Seeing that there was no other course of action, she slowly turned towards him. It was Troy. She gauged the distance to be thirty feet; martial arts would not help her at that distance, especially with a gun pointed at her.

"What the?" said the shocked rustler, "You're just a girl! And a pretty one at that!" He looked her over and remarked with a chuckle, "Looks like I might get me a bonus…"

If she had met this guy in some other place, Kim would have thought of him as a nice looking guy with short brown hair and aqua blue eyes, but his demeanor and lecherous grin quickly dismissed that notion.

"Get over here!" Troy ordered, waving a rather large, older style, revolver, but it wasn't the weapon that worried her – he held it sort of clumsily – it was his sinister laugh, "C'mon, pick it up. I don't have all night!"

She moved slowly and as the redhead shuffled towards him, sadness, not fear, washed over her. "It's over. Our second mission and it's over. We did all this and – RON! Did he make it out? If they did something to you, Ron, I'd never forgive myself."

As Kim neared Troy, more and more thoughts flooded her mind until they blurred together. "Oh, Ron…" she uttered softly.

"Ron? Who's R – "

A blur of gray and black suddenly appeared between them.

"Ron?" Kim's mind asked.

Troy was so stunned by the blonde's appearance, he couldn't do anything but stand there.

Ron, on the other handed, acted. He was holding a long wood stick at one end with both hands – like a samurai held a katana. An instant later, he swung the stick downward, swatting the gun to the ground. Troy howled in pain and clutched his hand where the gun once was. He stumbled to grab the fallen weapon but in a swift, measured motion, Ron flicked the revolver away. It sailed across the yard, landing near the vehicles, where it discharged with a loud boom. The rustler scrambled to get up, but Ron swung low, tripping him. He fell backwards, landing hard and did not get back up.

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All this time, Ron had a look in his eyes Kim never saw before, and it almost made her recoil.

"Ron?" she shouted.

In an instant, the look vanished, "Kim?"

An instant later, it was replaced with his familiar expression. "Kim!" he exclaimed with a large grin.

But then the grin faded and was replaced by a look of fear. "Kim! Behind you!"

She whirled around to find four rustlers, two of them armed with similar guns, who had just filed out of the old ranch house. They had a distinct look of confusion and shock, trying to sort out what was going on, especially since they had just heard a gunshot. As they turned to see the source of the ruckus, they were surprised to see a teenaged redhead executing a flying kick at them. They were so thrown off guard that they did nothing until her attack connected with the lead cattle thief's chest, sending all four crashing backwards. Hats and guns went flying. Kim, using the impact as a springboard, tumbled off and landed near one of the guns. A foot sweep knocked one of the revolvers well out of reach. The other was knocked away as Kim tumbled towards it and kicked it.

She blinked as she realized what she just did, taking on four armed opponents without hesitation.

"Way to go, KP!" he cheered, after witnessing her martial arts display.

"Thanks, Ron, I – Look out!"

The blonde turned around to see another rustler, Gabe, walking towards him with what looked to be a cattle prod the size of a baton. Small sparks of electricity danced on its tip. Instead of the impressive display that was witnessed earlier, Ron dropped his stick and took off, screaming. He took two steps, when his feet betrayed him, sending him to the ground – he had lost his footing and landed on Troy. The blue-hued weapon sailed over Ron as he hit the ground – the fall had saved him from that attack. Gabe retracted the weapon, and thrust it downward, hoping to strike the hapless teen. It missed Ron and struck the downed cattle thief as the blonde scrambled away. His unintended target jerked as it discharged.

The armed rustler looked down, quickly pulling back the pole and sheepishly grinned, "Sorry about that, Troy."

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Kim wanted to help Ron but she heard two of her opponents struggle to their feet.

"Fancy that," one of them muttered, "the girl knows kung fu. Well, girlie, so do I!"

"You want back up, Chad?" the other cattle thief asked, grabbing a stick.

"Are you kidding me, Tyler? This will be a piece of cake," Chad replied and assumed a basic fighting stance, his knees slightly bent.

"C'mon, let's see what you can do," and beckoned her with one hand.

"Oh, you'd be surprised," she thought. Kim gritted her teeth as she took a basic stance and then charged in. As Kim neared her opponent, she saw him draw his arms back slightly, readying for a straight strike. "He's giving himself away?" she self-questioned as she closed the gap.

At the last instant, she twisted to one side and sidestepped his forward thrust. The redhead came in, batting Chad's outstretched arm out of the way, and followed in with two quick jabs to the chest. Chad lost his breath from the blow and tumbled backwards. But that was not the end of the fight.

He threw himself further backwards, using the momentum to roll out of the way, briefly landing on his hands. In the process, he kicked high and wide as a defensive measure. Kim rolled to one side, barely avoiding the blow. Flowing with the rolling motion, Chad cart wheeled away, landing on both feet and assumed the same fighting stance. "Ya like that?" he jeered.

"So he's got a few more moves. C'mon Possible, you can do this."

She looked him over for a second, reassessing the situation. Then she grinned. She took a different stance – a much different stance. The smug expression on Chad's face melted away and a shiver crept up his spine. "What is that? A different style?"

The red-haired teen's face gave away a slight smile as she weaved in. She could see that changing styles caused him to drop his guard just enough for her to get in and land an attack or two. Kim struck high and then low with a series of quick jabs. Her opponent staggered as she moved behind him and used a snap kick to the shoulder. Chad threw up an arm to block the side strike but all it served was to lessen the blow. Chad spun to face Kim only to have her come in again. This time he was able to parry off an incoming fist. He returned her attack with one of his own but only scored a glancing blow. Kim rolled off to the side but snapped back with a strong palm thrust that sent Chad stumbling backwards, then to the ground.

"You need help, now?" Tyler asked mockingly.

Chad wiped the sweat from his brow, "Now would be nice!"

"All right, I'm going to bop you something fierce!" Tyler said as he squeezed his baton and bolts sparked from its tip.

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Rufus was not content sitting where he was – back at the last rock outcropping. Acting as a 'tail gunner', he watched as Kim had made her way to the gate as his human made his way back to the horses. When Rufus saw Kim in trouble, he alerted Ron. The moment after realizing that Kim was in trouble, Ron acted, and in one swift motion, deposited Rufus quickly but gently atop a nearby boulder and dashed to the rescue. The naked mole rat blinked, he had never seen his human move that fast. After a second of standing there, the hairless mammal assessed the situation. Things were becoming nasty; Kim was fighting two guys at once, a human with a glowing stick was chasing Ron, and the cattle was still caged. Rufus had to do something. He took a second to make sure the coast was clear, and then bolted for the pen's gate.

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Ron sprinted in a wide arc away from the cattle prod wielding rustler, trying to head back towards Kim, but Gabe forced him towards the garage. He would have to figure some way back to Kim. Frantically, he knocked everything he could down to the ground, hoping to slow his pursuer as he ran. His efforts did help, and with Ron's fear-induced speed, widened the gap by a fair distance. Still, even though he had lost the blonde intruder, Gabe followed as best as he could, with prod in hand.

"Oh man, how did I get myself into this?" Ron moaned as neared the garage.

He threw aside a trashcan and uttered, "All we were supposed to do was find a lost cow."

Ron hoped that the garage either had something he could use or offer a place to hide. He looked about wildly; he didn't see his pursuer but knew he was coming; the glow of the cattle prod gave him away. Then, he spied something – rope hanging off a fence post and grabbed it. "Maybe I can rope that guy…" he muttered as fumbled with the hemp cord.

Gabe spotted Ron and bolted towards him. Drawing in a deep breath, Ron stood his ground but as Gabe closed the gap, the blonde saw the cattle prod. He lost his nerve, uttering, "Aw, who am I kidding?"

Ron threw the rope in the rustler's direction and tore off in the opposite direction, screaming. Gabe saw the mass of rope but was moving too fast to stop. It landed on top of him, catching one of his legs and tripped him. Gabe fell to the ground but was forced into a roll, induced by his forward momentum. His tumbling only lasted a few seconds, but as Gabe stopped, he jerked suddenly and howled as the cattle prod discharged. The screaming soon stopped, as did Gabe's thrashing.

The blonde stopped and turned around as soon as he heard his pursuer cry out. Ron saw a tangled mess of rope and rustler. He stood there for a moment, drew in a deep breath and loosed a hearty "Booyah! The Rondo came to play!"

Then, suddenly he felt a draft – his legs were cold. The blonde teen looked down to find the source of this coldness and saw that his new pants had fallen. "Aw, man," he remarked, as he pulled them up, "Must have bought them a size too big. Man, am I lucky that no one was around to see this. Now, that would have been embarrassing."

After fixing his wardrobe malfunction, Ron considered a victory dance but a realization quickly came to mind and he stopped himself. "Kim!" he shouted and bolted towards his best friend.

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Kim back flipped away from Tyler and was far enough to safely assess the field conditions. Tyler was still advancing, albeit at a slow, careful pace as if he wanted to drive her away. He hadn't landed a blow but held his weapon menacingly. Chad was now back on his feet but stood still. He was breathing deeply trying to shake off Kim's latest round of martial arts. To make things more difficult for her, the two rustlers that were downed from her initial attack were starting to get up. "This is not good," she muttered.

The red-haired teen fought against an opponent before but it was always under controlled conditions being within a dojo and against a fellow student. This was different; it was in a strange place, she was fighting against four people and this was her first real fight. To make matters worse, Kim was getting tired and didn't know how much longer she could hold out. She needed a way out of this or at the very least, a way to better the odds. What she needed was a plan and for that she needed time to formulate it. "Hope this works again," she prayed.

Drawing in a deep breath, she assumed a new fighting stance and started to move in a wide circle towards the ranch house. Tyler stopped, narrowed his eyes and then uttered, "What's a matter? Scared?" he jeered.

Kim took a couple more steps to one side. "Just getting started," the redhead retorted.

"Right," he shot back and charged in.

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As Ron rounded the corner, he witnessed the fight. One rustler rushed towards his best friend, another was starting to move towards her and two more cattle thieves were getting to their feet. "Gotta do something," he said to himself, "But what?"

The blonde glared at the two guys moving toward Kim and then to the two sandy-haired rustlers closer to him. Seeing that they hadn't noticed him just yet, he muttered, "Maybe…I can distract these guys."

Reaching for the nearest thing to him – a broomstick – Ron grabbed it firmly and waved it vigorously. "Hey! Hey! Why don't you take me on?" he shouted just loud enough for them to hear.

Both rustlers turned in his direction, looked to where Kim was and then to each other. They nodded to each, took out their cattle prods and started in his direction.

"Hey, it worked!" he smiled.

Then it hit him. "It worked," he said, with his smile replaced with fearful expression, "It worked? Ohhhh!"

Ron dropped his weapon and started to inch backward. The blonde rustlers moved closer then, abruptly stopped. Ron also stopped and a puzzled look formed on his face. Suddenly; a rough hemp loop dropped out of the sky and landed on him. Before he could react, the rope jerked back, tightened, and pulled him to the ground. The impact forced the air out of his lungs.

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Kim was too focused on Tyler to see what had just happened to Ron. She watched Tyler coming and slowly moved to one side, maintaining her stance. Tyler unimpressed by Kim's change in tactics, rushed in. He swung high and wide, leaving an electrical arc that missed Kim by a long shot. Chad witnessed what had happened to the blonde intruder but didn't act on it. Instead, he started to jog towards Tyler and the red-haired intruder.

Kim saw Chad moving as she arched away from another attack. Then she saw it: a plan. It was a risky one but it was all she had.

She avoided the last attack, scooted to one side, placing herself between Chad and Tyler. Tyler saw her move and smiled. "Big mistake," he taunted as he swung down. This time instead of dodging the strike, she caught his wrist. Kim then drove her foot into her attacker's gut and in one fluid rolling motion, threw him over her shoulder.

"Oh, snap," Chad cursed the split second before Tyler crashed into him.

Kim sprang back up waiting for either rustler to come in but they didn't. Instead, she heard an unfamiliar, adult voice.

"Hey, Red," the voice called out, "If'n I were you, I'd give up right 'bout now, unless ya want somethin' nasty happening to yer boyfriend."

She turned in the direction of the voice where she saw a tall, well-dressed cowboy standing at the far corner of the ranch house. He was flanked by the two rustlers that she had knocked out earlier. Instantly, Kim went pale as she saw that he had one foot resting on a rope-bound Ron and a large pistol pointed at his head. He pulled back on the hammer to emphasize his point.

"P-P-Please, don't hurt him," she choked, "I-I give up."

To be continued…

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Chapter End Notes: I do like how the fight scene turned out. It was hard to choreograph but I watched a couple of kung fu tournament videos to get an idea. The things we do for our craft. Kim's martial arts, the Ron Factor and a touch of some extra stuff that we all know and love. A little premature? I would think that he had something in him before Yamanouchi. They had to go on something in making their decision for Ron to be the Chosen one. See, no freak-fighting hence no weird hi-tech weaponry…