So Not The End Of The World

The alarms rang as Shego ran up the stairs of the bank. She reached the roof and started sprinting for the edge. In the distance she could see a helicopter inbound, but she planned to be long gone before it got to the bank she had just robbed. Turning she threw a plasma bolt behind her and sealed the security door to the roof closed cutting off any pursuit from behind.

She reached the edge of the roof and found the hover bike where she had stashed it earlier. Not bothering to secure the bag of money she was holding she jumped on and gunned it to life and took off. Down below the cops saw her go and fired a shot or two at her, but they weren't expecting her and soon she was down several streets in the downtown district. As she flew under an overpass she hit a button on the bike and jumped grabbing onto an pipe that ran underneath the overpass. A hologram of her appeared on the bike and it kept going without losing speed.

She glanced around to see if anyone had been around to see, but as it was one in the morning the street below was deserted. She jumped down to the street and, after taking another quick look around, removed a manhole cover and dropped down into the sewers. She pulled the manhole cover back into place behind her leaving no trace that she had gotten off her bike.

She landed lightly on the ground and froze. There, standing in front of her, arms crossed and a scowl on her face, stood Kim Possible. Shego turned to run, only to find Ron Stoppable standing on behind in her way. Slowly she raised her hands, turned back to Kim, and gave a small shrug, "Hey Ron, Kimmy… What's up?"

"What do you think you are doing?" Kim asked. She looked exasperated, "You are a agent of Global Justice now! You can't keep doing this!"

Shego lowered he hands and tossed the bag of money behind her, "I work part time, not full time. They can't dictate what I do in my time off."

"They can if you are hurting the people you swore to protect." Kim said, still scowling.

"Oh please," replied Shego, "I stole ten thousand. The insurance will cover it, and then they will raise everyone's deductible by a fraction of a cent. This didn't hurt anyone. In fact, this will give the newshounds something to report and the police of Middleton some much needed practice. If there was a real crisis they would never be able to deal with it as they are now. They have gotten to rely on you too much. How many times did you arrive half an hour before the cops back when we were on opposite sides?"

"That's not the point…" Kim answered, but there was no heat in her voice.

"Yes it is! I swore to protect these people, and what I am doing is helping them. A week long crime spree is just the thing to get a bigger budget for the police." Shego grinned.

Kim rolled her eyes, "Yes… Stealing other people's money, that's real helpful of you."

"Eh, they should be paying me for this. It's so much better than those lousy reality tv shows that have taken over tv." There was no way that Shego was going to admit to giving the money to charities. That would ruin her image completely.

Ron walked around to stand next to Kim. He was still holding the bag of money. He glanced up at her, and his eyes went hard for a moment. In that moment she knew that the caretaker had looked at her, and that he knew exactly what she was doing. The next moment his eyes went normal again. He flashed her a grin, "I know! It's all knockoffs of Stayer now."

Kim gave an exasperated sigh, "Ron!"

Ron glanced back at his slightly tweaked girlfriend, "she has a point Kim. Anyway, now isn't the time to be talking about this. We have a sitch."

"I guess…" Kim picked up the bag, "We'll give this to global justice on the way. They can give it back to the bank and let them know that the crime wave is over." She glanced down at her watch, "We'd actually better get moving, we'll fill you in on the way." She turned and started walking over to where Ron's and her hover bikes were parked. They were just a few feet away from Shego's spare one that she had been headed for.

Shego and Ron fell into step behind her. Shego noticed that Ron's face had gone serious and realized that this wasn't going to be something simple like stopping Gemini again. "What's the Mission?" She would never stoop to saying 'sitch' like Kimmy did.

"Do you remember Graduation?" Ron asked.

Shego stopped walking. She could remember the war against the aliens. She remembered the battle, and how close it had been. It had only been the Caretaker granting Ron full access to all of his abilities that had allowed them to survive it. They had talked of what would be done if something similar happened again. Drakken and Shego had agreed to put aside any differences the instant that there was a possibility of an attack and work with the world to defend against another invasion. The whole thing had happened before they had gone back to being villains, and long before they joined Global Justice. It had happened so long ago that she had stopped worrying. Apparently that had been a mistake.

Shego started walking again thinking over the possibly, none of them good, "The Warlordians are back?" she asked, knowing the answer in her gut.

"My father just picked up a fleet of five thousand ships of what we took down on long range scanners. Anomalies suggest that there are probably a few hundred thousand smaller crafts. There are also at least three ships that we have designated Mother ships. They are each a few miles long" Kim talked as she reached her bike and climbed on.

Shego stopped and stared numbly at her bike, this was worse than they had planned for. Things were going to get bad. She was afraid. She had felt helpless when Drakken had been taken in the last invasion. The fight had been long and hard, and that had just been one ship. She did what she usually did when she was scared, she got mad, "And you were chewing me out for stealing a few thousand dollars? When this is going on, you were freaking on me for stealing? The world might not be hear in a few days. What good is money going…." She trailed off when she felt Ron's hand on her shoulder.

He spoke quietly so that Kim couldn't hear "She needed something normal. This is heavy drama for her because everyone is expecting her to somehow find a way to stop this. After all" he said in an ironic voice, "she can do anything."

In that instant Shego realized just how big a burden Kim was under. Had always been under. The brag that she had coined as a child had come back to bite her. She was expected to succeed. Always. She had pushed herself, and had succeeded most of the time, but now, she was facing the end of the world, and the world expected her to save them. A young woman with no special powers. Someone who was completely average, normal, basic… Unlike her and Ron, she only had her skill at martial arts to fall back on, and what equipment that people could coble together for her in the short time that was left.

Ron though…

Shego turned on Ron, "Isn't this what you are supposed to prevent Caretaker? The end of the world? And you just going to sit there and ignore this threat?"

Kim immediately jumped forward pulling her away from Ron with a 'get away from him'. That was fine, she didn't want to be too close to him right now. He wasn't Ron anymore anyway. The Caretaker looked at Kim and her.

"I don't think you quite understand my limitations Shego." Said the Caretaker in a cold voice, "I can work fast. I am smart. I am not able to bend the laws of reality. I can get a few good planetary cannons up and running, but against a fleet that big, with the weapons that I witnessed, it wouldn't' do much good. I might be able to make a fast planetary shield, but it would only hold for an hour. As for Mystical Monkey power, it would allow me to find them hand to hand, but could I survive against an entire fleet by myself? I know the probabilities, and let me say that it is far more likely that the sun will go out tomorrow. I'll help as much as I can, but I am most use going on the mission to negotiate with them."

Kim looked dazed, "Wha? Hey Ron? Ron?"

The Caretaker looked at Kim, "Hello, Ron's not home right now. I am the Caretaker. I control how smart and strong Ron is at any given time, with his permission."

"But… That's… Impossible!" Kim's jaw tightened, "Give Ron back!"

"Don't worry, he's fine. You can talk to him in a moment and he will explain what is going on. Right now though, you need to get ready for this mission, and I think I have a way to help you." The Caretaker raised his hand and blue power formed around it. He started moving it around tracing symbols in the air. Kim stepped forward past Shego, and Shego stepped back. She knew that the caretaker wasn't lying, but didn't' want to be anywhere near him when he was using as much power as he was.

The Caretaker pointed his finger at Kim as she closed the distance between them and a line of blue light leapt from his finger to her forehead. She rose into the air, energy crackling around her as she convulsed. After a second she fell to the ground, then slowly got to her feet. Ron ran forward to help her up, and it was Ron, the caretaker was gone.

She looked at him for a second, then down at her hands, then up at Ron again, "Why did you hide this from me?"

"Because…. Well…" Ron said scratching the back of his head, "I didn't want him to freak out. He is supposed to be a secret. I didn't find out about him till Shego confided him to tell me."

Kim looked back at Shego, "I am not going to ask right now. But we are about to have a five day trip in a space ship together, and I want some answers from both of you. However now is not the time for this drama. We have to get to GJ now! The Rocket is scheduled to launch in 20 minutes. Drakken's waiting for us."

She turned and got on her bike and took off without waiting for Shego or Ron.

Ron sighed and put his hand to his forehead, "I am in so much trouble now. Oh this is not good."

"Yeah, because Kim breaking up with you is so the end of the world. What did he do to her anyway?" Shego asked as she mounted her bike.

"He said that he taught her how to fight." Ron replied cryptically and took off.

Figures, thought Shego, you can never get a straight answer where the Caretaker was involved.

.x.X.x.

Authors Note: So... Plot bunnies do what they do best and multiplied, and now this is going to be a full story. The next chapter should be up a bit faster than is normal for me, because I have some spare time on my hands right now.