AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Seven: CajunBear73, screaming phoenix, Kwebs, Michael Howard, xyzisme, DiaryofPain & Katsumara! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. Sorry it took me so long to update again, but this was a pretty long chapter again, and very hard to translate. Thanks again to Michael Howard for helping me improve my translation! Well now, on to Chapter Eight! ;)

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Chapter Eight: In a Combined Effort

Gradually, the dazed feeling that Kim had experienced decreased, and she tried to sit up a little again. It seemed improbably hard for her to move, though she was definitely conscious. Even though her vision became clear again, in her head there was absolute chaos. She knew exactly what had happened: Drakken had stolen her abilities, like those of Shego and of all the others. She had also clearly seen that Ron had just gotten up, and she had clearly heard what he had shouted at Drakken. But what was about to happen now, was a mystery to her. What was Ron up to? What would Drakken do? What should she do? She just had to be able to do something, but not a thing came to her mind. Thousands of thoughts were racing through her head, an endless number of memories were passing by in her mind's eye, like a carrousel – but she could not stop it! She was no longer able to focus on just one of these many thoughts. A feeling of helplessness struck her – and that scared her.

Ron, on the other hand, forgot all his fears at that moment. They had been completely replaced by his rage against Drakken. His whole body was shaking, not only with rage, but also with energy – an energy that had been given to him by the suddenly activated Mystical Monkey Powers. Driven by the one thought that Drakken had to pay for what he had done to Kim, Ron rushed forward with raised fists and gritted teeth. Drakken was still surprised at the unexpected action of the "buffoon" – the name still escaped him –, but he immediately made use of one of his most recently stolen abilities again. With one hand, he performed a backflip – that Kim could not have done better – and, even before landing back on his feet, fired a green plasma ray at Ron. Quick as a flash, Ron evaded the plasma by moving to one side, but kept running towards Drakken. Several more plasma rays followed, but Ron was unstoppable. He ducked one way, then the other, jumped to the side or backwards – none of Drakken's attacks was able to get at him.

The closer Ron got to Drakken, the more uneasy Kim became. Anxiously, she crawled further back under the table, until she bumped into something – no, into someone. Carefully, she turned her head, and the other person turned to look at her as well. Suddenly, Kim and Shego came face to face with each other. Both twitched with a start, turned away from one another and screamed in unison: "Ah! Don't hurt me!"

Soon after that, both risked a look again, and Shego said unenthusiastically: "Gee, I'd so finish you off, if I could…"

"Ditto!" Kim retorted.

"You've got problems!" Mego's voice suddenly sounded behind them in a dramatic tone. "I have lost my abilities! What am I supposed to do without my shrinking power?! That's disastrous!"

Meanwhile, Ron kept going. As soon as he had reached Drakken, he grabbed the villain by his wrists and pulled up his arms. He wanted to push him back, make him drop the ability transferator. But Drakken fought back fiercely. He kicked at Ron, wanted to headbutt him, but Ron managed to evade every attack. At the same time, he never lost his tight grip on Drakken's wrists – but all of a sudden, Drakken stopped and started grinning diabolically. Without warning, he did a backflip, taking the surprised Ron with him, kicking him away during the somersault. Ron crashed into a wall and collapsed panting. His back hurt from the impact, his stomach from the kick. Wincing in pain, he lay there.

"Ron!" Kim cried in despair. She was now watching again, while Shego and Mego continued arguing like little kids about which of them had it worse. But that was about all Kim could do – sit back and watch.

Ron's eyes went open. The energy of the Mystical Monkey Powers grew again. But the pain was still stronger. He glanced over to Kim and saw her fear again, her helplessness. At once, the pain decreased. At that, he suddenly became aware of a movement in the corner of his eye and looked straight ahead again. He saw Drakken standing a few feet away from him, slowly turning to face him. With an evil grin, Drakken threw a green plasma ray at him again, but Ron jumped away from the wall just in time, sliding forward across the floor, towards Drakken. When he came to a stop at Drakken's feet, lying on his stomach, the villain looked down at him in a mocking way, saying: "Not all that bad! Maybe the sidekick's abilities do make a nice addition to my collection…"

The very moment Ron saw the ability transferator aimed at him, he reacted as if on reflex: Propped up on his hands, he swung his feet forward with all his might, doing a backflip that way, kicking the device out of Drakken's hands while doing so, catching it as he landed. This action had taken up all the energy that had been given to him by his Mystical Monkey Powers again, and he could only marvel himself at how he had managed to pull off that maneuver. Drakken had landed roughly on the floor, surprise and pain temporarily paralysing him. Ron seized the moment…

"Worry not, KP, I'll get your abilities back for you in no time!" he called back over his shoulder, aiming the ability transferator at Drakken.

"Uh, Ron…" Kim could not think straight, but some memory on her mind told her that Ron was about to make some mistake…

When Drakken just got ready to fire a green plasma ray, the ray of the ability transferator hit him. He twitched as a small share of his laboriously stolen abilities was taken away from him again. While the pump on the device in his hands started flashing, Ron turned around to face Kim. But then, the valve on the rear end of the pump opened, and Ron was surrounded by the energy ray. In his shock, he almost would have dropped the ability transferator, but he would not even have been able to let go of it during the transference.

As soon as the energy ray had disappeared, Ron felt changed. All of a sudden, he was totally concentrated. Before, he only had been led by the rage, by the energy, by the Mystical Monkey Powers, actually had acted blindly and without thinking. But now, there was a clarity in his thoughts he did not know he was capable of. And then, he immediately remembered: "Aw man, right! The abilities are always transferred to the one pulling the trigger. Sorry, KP, I totally forgot!"

Ron immediately ran up to Kim, who was still tensed up underneath the table. While doing so, he quickly looked back over his shoulder – but Drakken was nowhere to be seen! He would have reckoned on Drakken shooting some plasma rays after him or doing something else to stop him from running up to Kim with the ability transferator. Where did Drakken go? Ron looked all around him while running – not a sign of him! Just before he reached Kim, something started glowing in a purple light at his feet. It was Drakken, hardly taller than a mouse – but in the next second, he grew back to his normal size, knocked down Ron with full force, taking away the ability transferator again in the process. Ron lay on the floor, Drakken jumped over the table, laughing diabolically, shouting back at him: "I'd love to stay and watch your miserable attempts to stop me for a little longer – but I have a few things left to do! You should rather help your little girlfriend and explain to her where her abilities have gotten to! Muahahaha!"

With that, he first grabbed Shego with his free hand, took her over his shoulder, then he tossed Mego on his other shoulder and, still laughing evilly, ran back to the jet. Soon after that, he was up and away.

-xXOXx-

Ron grumbled something to himself, while picking himself up off the floor – almost the way Kim would normally do. But there was no time to be annoyed – they had to go after Drakken right away, for Mego would certainly tell him where to find the rest of Team Go without further ado, in his current condition. And once Drakken would get hold of their abilities, things would really get ugly. The thought of a red glowing army of super strong, super capable Drakkens sent shivers down his spine. They had to stop him at all costs! Well – or rather, he… with Kim's abilities.

First of all, Ron carefully helped his girlfriend back to her feet. He was more than relieved that Drakken did not take her with him as well! However, she still seemed pretty weakened to him. While he lay her left arm around his shoulders with his one hand and held onto her right at her waist with his other hand, he asked slightly concerned: "Kim, you're not hurt, are you?"

"Hurt? No – much worse! I've lost my abilities!" Her voice almost cracked, out of sheer desperation. "What am I supposed to do now?!"

"Easy, KP, we'll have that fixed again no prob," Ron tried to soothe her. Then, he took a step forward. "Come on, first, we have to get back to the car."

While Ron kept supporting her to walk, Kim went on wailing uncontrollably: "This just can't be happening! All I could do was just sit there and watch! And then, there was Shego – Okay, she didn't do anything to me, but if she had done anything, then… Oh man, I have no idea what would've happened then! I really don't know! I really can't think straight anymore!" Suddenly, she clung to Ron's shirt and looked at him anxiously, while spluttering out: "Ron, I feel so helpless! Do you have any idea what it feels like to be so helpless?!"

Ron frowned and said hesitantly: "Well, I …kinda. In a way." With that, he thought back to several missions when he had not really known what to do, while Kim had had everything under control. Now, it somehow seemed to be just the other way round – though Kim's current helplessness had to be way more extreme. Gradually, Ron started wondering how he could possibly manage to stay calm just like that. Of course, he worried about Kim, and he also was a little scared – but he could suppress these feelings quite easily. He was just way too concentrated on the mission to let himself be distracted by his feelings. It was somehow …as if he had flipped a switch! That was it! That was exactly Kim's way of thinking …normally.

Now they had reached the car. When Ron stopped to stand in front of it with her, Kim shouted totally shocked: "Oh no, I don't even know how to drive a car anymore! I don't have any idea how to do that anymore!"

Ron held his left hand out in front of her, asking: "KP, I need the car keys. Do you remember where you have them?"

"Car keys… the car keys…" Kim mumbled to herself, then the keys appeared in her mind's eye for a very brief moment. It was some memory showing her where she had put the keys. "I think they're in that thingy…" With that, she pointed down at the side pocket of her mission outfit that was buckled around her right thigh. But other than that, she did not do a thing, except for looking at Ron with that helpless expression again.

That was when Ron realized that even opening that pocket was too complicated for Kim without any abilities. He pulled her a little closer with his right hand, opened the pocket with his left hand, searching for the car keys.

"Ooh, Ron…" Kim let out. Somehow, in her condition, that seemed more like a warm embrace than anything else to her.

Slightly ashamed, Ron looked to the side briefly. Actually, he would have loved to enjoy being close to Kim, but then he finally held the keys in his hand and unlocked the car with the push of a button. He went to the passenger's door, opened it, gently helped Kim sit down inside the car, fastened her seatbelt and closed the door again. Now he sped up as he ran around to the driver's door, opened it, sat down inside, closed the door, fastened his seatbelt and turned on the engine. First of all, he turned the car to drive off the remote small island where the Go Tower was located. Fortunately, the car could go underwater as well.

While Ron was driving back to Go City beneath sea level, he contacted Wade through the built-in kimmunicator system: "Wade, quick, where are Hego and the Wego twins at the moment?"

Wade did not react at all first, except for giving him a confused look. The fact that, all of a sudden, Ron was sitting behind the steering wheel and Kim in the passenger's seat – on top of that, she was wearing a look that he would almost describe as helpless – somehow gave him a strange feeling. After a few seconds, he uttered a suspicion: "Uh, Ron, what's wrong? Does Drakken have Kim's abilities?"

"No, Ron does!" Kim blurted out. It was all too obvious again that things were not looking good for her self-control.

At that, Wade looked even more confused than before. "How did that happen?"

"I'll explain that to you in a few, Wade," Ron replied. "First, I need to know where Hego and the twins are, before Drakken gets them."

"Alright," Wade said and typed something on his keyboard. "When I warned Mego this morning, I also asked him where to find his brothers. Hego is at a Bueno Nacho branch manager seminar in Mexico City. I guess this is gonna be Drakken's next destination. The twins are no longer in Go City, and that was the last info that Mego had. So, Drakken won't find them there."

"So, then we'll go to Mexico City as fast as possible," Ron said. Normally, he certainly would have started raving about Bueno Nacho and Mexican food now. But thanks to Kim's ability to completely focus on the mission, he managed to restrain himself. Now, he was just coming back on land and saw to it that he could drive up on the street.

"I sent the exact whereabouts of Hego to the car's GPS," Wade informed him. Then he inquired: "So now tell me, Ron, how come you have Kim's abilities?"

"Well, see, first, Drakken stole Kim's abilities, and then… well…" Ron began.

When he hesitated, Kim interfered: "Then, Ron somehow got his hands on that thing and now he has my abilities!" Her voice had that desperate tone again, but somehow, she almost sounded a little angry as well.

"I only wanted to steal them back for you, KP…" Ron said apologetically.

"But then you should've given Kim the ability transferator," Wade started. "The abilities are always transferred to the person who…"

"I know that now, Wade," Ron interrupted. "I just forgot about that for a moment! I wasn't thinking! Like I never think about things…"

"But you did do a lot of thinking yesterday…" was Kim's snide remark.

"That was brooding, KP," Ron replied. "Brooding, not thinking, there's a diff."

"In any case, you… have my abilities! That's just so… wrong!"

"Okay. But better me than Drakken, right?"

"Well, that's true," Wade said, who was slightly confused again by the course of the talk now, though.

"Huh, I don't know…" Kim grumbled, the brainwork currently being too much for her. "I just want my abilities back!"

"You'll get them back, Kim. As soon as Drakken is captured, you'll get them back," Ron tried to soothe her. Then, he added: "And I swear to you, KP, it wasn't on purpose! I didn't mean to take it all from you!"

"Well, but you did! Just wait 'til my Dad finds out!" As soon as Kim had spluttered out that sentence, she added in a confused way: "Wait a second, something just made me say that, but I don't know what. What'll happen, if my Dad finds out, anyways…?"

"Then I am so toast…!" Ron sighed, thinking about what else Kim's Dad might find out. He already saw himself being sent to the black hole in a rocket by Mr. Possible in person…

"I don't get it, Ron," Wade threw in. "It's not like this is the first time something like that happened. Remember the time when you two were brain-switched? I think Kim's Dad got used to situations like that by now…"

"You have no idea, Wade," Ron said, shaking his head, and just for dramatic effect, he repeated: "You have no idea."

"What could be so bad for Kim's Dad to…" Wade pondered – and then, it hit him. "Oh! Uh… Oh my... Uh... You... eww…" he stuttered, his face twitched, his gaze fluttered around and his cheeks started burning. "Uh, …uh, …I'll …call back later." And as soon as he had said that, he had already disconnected.

"Argh, great job, Ron!" Kim grumbled. "What's Wade thinking of us now? And who're you gonna tell next? Drakken?!"

"Well, first: I didn't tell anything, Wade just did some conclusion-jumping. Second: Even if I was gonna tell anyone, then certainly not Drakken! And third: What Wade or anyone thinks of us, should be the least of our worries at the moment…"

The thought that he had just almost sounded like Kim again really occurred to Ron only afterwards. Somehow, he did worry a little about Wade's reaction – and about Kim's. Who could tell if her behavior was entirely due to her current lack of mental abilities like self-control? Or was she really mad at him? But Ron just shook his head, as if to get rid of these thoughts. And when he noticed that they had already left Go City behind by now, he pushed a button on the dashboard to activate the car's rocket propulsion. Normally, Ron only drove Kim's car to park it, while she already chased after the villains. And even in the passenger's seat, the high speed of that car sometimes scared him a little. But now, it was only natural for him to switch on the rocket propulsion and let the car take off into the air. Kim gritted her teeth, looking out of the window anxiously, while they flew towards Mexico…

-xXOXx-

The building was located a little outside of Mexico City. It was six stories tall and had a flat roof, so, basically it was quite insignificant. Originally, it was supposed to become another Mucho Grande Bueno Nacho restaurant, but meanwhile, it was used as an ordinary office building, as well as for holding seminars. As soon as they had been quite some distance away from the city, Ron had brought the car back to the ground and covered the rest of the way on the street. He had only been able to catch a fleeting glimpse of the roof, but if his eyes had not deceived him, Drakken had just been about to land with Shego's jet at that moment. Hopefully they would still get there in time!

After he had parked in front of the building, Ron quickly packed a few things that seemed useful to him, and then he got out of the car. However, he did not go without looking through the passenger's window, which he had left open now, once again first and assure Kim: "I'll be right back, KP – as soon as I've taken the ability transferator away from Drakken."

"You wanna leave me alone here?!" Kim demanded in a desperate tone.

"Kim, it's much too dangerous for you up there… in your condition, I mean. And by the way, I'm not gonna leave you alone…" With that, Ron reached into his pant pocket and pulled Rufus out of it, who seemed to have taken a nap on the way from Go City, as he was now having a good yawn, stretching in Ron's hands for a long time.

When the naked mole rat had finished his yawning, Ron held him up at eye level and spoke to him in a forceful tone: "Rufus, you stay here with Kim. I want you to take good care of her and be there for her. And whatever happens, be alert! You got it, buddy?"

Rufus nodded, then performed a backward somersault in Ron's hands, making squeaking sounds, and ostentatiously took a defensive posture as he landed: "Hi-ya! Okay!"

"Thanks, Rufus! I'm counting on you!" He quickly patted Rufus and then carefully placed him on Kim's shoulder, but she could not suppress a slight twitching at that.

Then, Ron told Kim once more: "I'll be back soon, KP. And then you'll get your abilities back right away!"

After that, he quickly gave her a peck on the cheek, and then he was running towards the building already, holding Kim's "hairdryer" in his hand. While Kim watched him go like that, she said to Rufus with a sigh: "Now I can only sit back again – and not even watch!"

The little rodent patted her shoulder in a soothing way, squeaking: "Aw…"

-xXOXx-

On the roof, Drakken was just about to remove the cover of a ventilation shaft, in order to sneak into the building and surprise the superhero. Before, he had tracked down a crowd of people arranged in a circle on the top floor with the help of an infrared camera that he had found somewhere on board of the jet – probably that funny seminar, but Drakken wanted to creep up through the ventilation shaft first to check that.

Not only had he gotten hold of just one of the Team Go brothers by now – and his lame superpower was never even enough to be able to pass through such a ventilation shaft! No sir, then he also had to discover that the twins were nowhere to be found in the whole of Go City! And if he had not exactly known that Mego would not even have been able to lie to him any more, he certainly would have spent hours getting their true whereabouts out of him. But that was not the only setback Drakken had to experience. He had meant to attack yet another outpost of Global Justice in Mexico City, just to be on the safe side, but he had to discover that it had been completely abandoned. At least he could almost touch Hego's superpowers now – unless there was yet another unforeseen something getting in the way! There was one thing Drakken had realized by now: Even in spite of all the amazing abilities of planning ahead that he now possessed, there was always something there that was able to ruin that seemingly perfect planning…

Or someone, in that case… For just as Drakken had unscrewed the last of the screws that had fixed the grating in front of the ventilation shaft, he perceived a well-known voice behind him: "Not so fast, Drakken!"

Drakken turned around and maliciously shouted over to the other side of the roof: "Aha, looks like Kim Possible's abilities have followed me…"

Ron ignored that comment, clenched his fists and challenged the villain: "Come on, Drakken, let's get this over with! Man against man!"

At that, Drakken replied in a laugh: "Man? You?! Oh please…! Don't make me laugh! More like 'man against buffoon'!"

There was a virtually endless number of possible answers that came to Ron's mind. Finally, he just shrugged and said with a grin: "Okay, I would've said the same thing – but I didn't mean to insult you…"

Drakken growled with anger and fired a green plasma ray. With a skillful handspring, Ron evaded it in time and landed further up in a defensive posture. His gaze was fixed upon Drakken who was just reaching for the ability transferator on his belt. Now it was on, now was the time for fullest concentration! He would have to be able to anticipate Drakken's every move, in order to protect Kim's abilities from him. Ron had to come up close enough to the villain in order to take the device away from him, but at the same time, he had to stay out of range of the energy ray. It was not an easy task lying ahead of him. Ron concentrated like never before in his life, or so it seemed to him. He gathered together all the courage and all the powers that were inside him – and Kim. Slowly, he went forward step by step, his arms always on the defensive, his gaze fixed upon Drakken, his head in the game.

Drakken did not let Ron out of his sight, either, waiting for the right moment. At some point, the "buffoon's" luck would certainly run out, and he would make a fatal mistake… On the other hand, he had really underestimated him before already – and now, on top of that, he also had Kim Possible's abilities, that admittedly really were "all that". No, he had to take action right now, before the "buffoon" would take the offensive! The next time Ron stopped to stand, Drakken shot at him with the ability transferator – only to watch him evade it, leaping to the side with one jump. The next energy ray also missed – a backflip, followed by an impressive somersault carried Ron out of the line of fire in a high arc twice. And at the same time, it got him further up, closer to Drakken! He now missed for the third time, when Ron jumped into the air like a cheerleader, bursting with energy. As soon as his feet touched the ground again, he propelled himself into the air once more, doing another somersault in Drakken's direction. Drakken did not know how he did that – he was moving way too fast for him, always jumped out of the ray's range all the time, way too high and way too far! Not even Kim Possible was able to evade like that – why him?

Ron knew it now – it was all just a matter of concentration! Never before had he managed to call for his Mystical Monkey Powers deliberately. All the time, they had only come and gone as they pleased, controlling his actions for a few moments – but now he was in control! It felt exactly like back then, when he had acquired these supernatural powers for the first time. But still, it was different – the power was much stronger than it was back then! Full of energy, he raced the remaining distance towards Drakken, blocking the arm that aimed at him again with a powerful blow, so that the energy ray was fired into the air. Taken aback, Drakken backed away, holding his right arm, that just managed to keep its grip on the ability transferator, with a pained expression. But he put on a diabolical grin, as an attempt to unnerve Ron with a threat: "You don't really believe you can defeat me by yourself, do you?!"

Ron was just about to answer, when a loud noise and a heavy draft caused Drakken and him to stop. Both held their arms up in front of their faces protectively, as they risked a look upwards. A silver-gray hover-jet had appeared up in the sky, and it was just about to come in to elegantly land on top of the roof in front of them.

"Looks like I'm not all by myself after all…" Ron shouted over the noise in a self-confident tone, though he had no idea what would be in store for him now, either…

End of Chapter Eight

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AUTHOR'S NOTE – I hope you liked this chapter. Kim's abilities and Ron's Mystical Monkey Powers – interesting combination, isn't it? ;) And it seems like there's one thing Drakken never took into account: The Ron Factor!
Now, one more thing before I let you wait for the next chapter again: I was wondering if I should change the story's genre… As you can see, I chose "General/Romance" when I first published it. I thought it fits, because I meant this story to be like an ordinary KP episode (hence genre #1: General), with a few more romantic aspects than in the show (hence genre #2: Romance). But now, it occurred to me that this might scare away other readers who might think there's no action in this story… I mean, it should be clear that there's some action in it, as the summary says Kim & Ron have to fight Drakken. But should I change the genre to "Romance/Adventure"? Unfortunately, the former genre "Action/Adventure" is just called "Adventure" now (or at least it was the last time I checked), so I don't know if that fits, either. Or does "General/Romance" still work? What do you think? I'd really appreciate your opinion on that.
Okay, the next chapter could take a while again, so please be patient, like always. Take care & see you around! :)