"Very well agent Marla," The director said, with a slight tone of appreciation. "Will and I are going to tend to the paperwork. You bring our heroes back safely." Without another word, she and Will walked towards the same corner to their left, and kept walking until they disappeared completely.

Was that even the same corner she came out of?

Ugh… this is making my head hurt

"Hey kid," Marla said, point her finger directly behind her. "There are some snacks and treats in that room right behind if you want."

"BOOYAH!" Ron exclaimed, running straight forward in the direction Marla pointed without any hesitation.

"Ron!" Kim called out.

"Be back in five KP!" He called back. In a few minutes he disappeared as well, leaving only Kim and Marla in the room together.

She tried not to seem uncomfortable, but it was hard with the way Marla was smiling so intently at her.

"Um…," She said hesitantly, rubbing her arm in sheer awkwardness. "So your name's Marla?"

"It is." Was all she said.

~~Section VII~~

As the World Goes Around

Area: Haye's Residence

Date: July 21, 2006

Time: 1:35 p.m.

These past few days have been lousy. Lets be honest, they have been really lousy. This summer, what was left of it anyway, was really starting to blow. A week ago she and Kim were planning on going to a movie together. But now that was gone.

Everything sucked right now. And Monique was hoping she could forget about everything last night. Just for a little bit. But unfortunately that didn't work out the way she wanted it to. Seriously, how did people find these things fun?

She should have known better then to believe what she saw on movies and television. But man, she honestly didn't think the real thing would be that much of a disappointment.

Where she expected new wave music, all she heard was over the top ear splitting bass. Where she sought new generation individuals, all she found were a bunch of dead beats huddled around a couch. And instead of dancing, all she had to work with were a bunch of frustrated college boys gyrating angrily and off beat.

If there was someone to sue, she would have done it by now. Cause she had been mislead. College parties in real life were nothing like how the big screen made them look. Smoke covered the air, the guys smelt awful, like they didn't even shower before they showed up. And the girls dressed like they all shopped from the same store, with identical personalities purchased on a bargain sale.

After a few hours, the raven haired girl ran for the hills. Or at least she tried. Not only were the boys were a real disappointment, they were unbelievably clingy. She once thought high school boys were the worst. Words could not describe how crushed she was to see they could actually get worse. It's almost as if they got more immature the older they got. So many of them acted like they had something to prove. And if she so much as complimented one of them, they wouldn't leave her alone for the entire party. She once tried to get rid of one boy by telling him that she had to go the the restroom. As soon as she got out, she saw him at the end of the doorway staring right at her. He was actually waiting for her to get done.

That was just a new level of disturbing.

Why was it that she always managed to attract complete losers?

Why couldn't she ever get run into a nice, cute, intelligent man? Someone normal? Someone fun? Someone who didn't wait for her outside of the bathroom ?

Was there something wrong with her?

Na…that can't be it…

Whatever the case, the party was a big flop. And frankly she needed a nice long hot shower to wash out the stain of failure from her body.

But mid stride to the tub her phone began to ring.

"Man I'm on a roll today. "she groaned. "Can't wait to see what else decides to annoy me." She reached for her flip phone, and activated it.

"Hey," she said annoyed. "Who's this ? "

"I'm assuming this is Monique correct?"

He didn't know it was me?

"Yeah," She said in hesitation. "This is Monique, what's up?"

"A lot is up apparently. And I'm going to need some help with that. Hence this phone call."

"What—"

"Your time is very limited Miss Hayes," the speaker intercepted. "You need to move quickly."

This wasn't making any sense. And for some reason, Monique was just counting the seconds until it was polite to hang up.

"How is my time limited?" She wasn't genuinely interested. She just wanted to go take a shower.

"Because you need to be somewhere. And you need to be there fast."

"Be somewhere," She questioned. "And just how far is this 'somewhere' ?"

"Very far."

"I see," She said. "And how fast do I need to get there?"

"Impossibly fast."

Okay this is just getting stupid...

"Oh huh," She said in monotone manner. "Right, I'll get right on that buddy." Without another word she immediately closed her phone, disengaging from the call.

She didn't know who that guy was. But she was more or less done with boys for the time being. All she was concerned about was getting in that bathtub and washing away anything last night related.

However she didn't make it far. The minute she placed her phone on the table, it began to ring again.

She gave it a quick glance, but decided to pay in no mind. She already knew who it was. Most prank callers had this weird habit of wanting to be taken seriously. So it didn't spoil their fun. Unfortunate for him, Monique had no intention of playing his game. After a minute of ringing the call finally stopped. She hoped he had left her a voice mail. That would be really entertaining to listen to. But then something strange started to happen.

Her house phone began to ring.

This took Monique by surprise. It was one thing to have her cellphone number. But her house phone to ? That was a little weird. Granted anyone with a phone book could have found her number. And considering what happened to Kim and Ron, it wasn't too unusual for her to get a little bit of side attention from all of it. Still, to go through all this trouble. The guy had hear, Monique had to give him that. Hopefully if she just ignored him, then he'd get bored and go away.

Sorry buddy, just not in the mood for this right now.

She made her way to the bathroom for that long and beautiful shower she was imagining. And then things got even weirder. As she made her way through the hallway, she heard a large noise in her living room. It sounded like a loud bang, and what followed was a variety of strange noises. From what she could gather, her television had just turned on. Which was odd, because both of her parents were at work. She knew they were. She didn't have any siblings and she definitely didn't invite any guests over and she didn't have any pets.

So how could the television be on right now ?

She quickly spun around and made her way to the living room. And just as she predicted the television was on. She searched around the room and didn't see a single soul. The remote was siting on a nearby table. No signs of anyone tampering with it. She looked towards the screen and noticed what looked like some old western playing. And then things began to get weird again. The image on the television began to fade. It's image beginning to distort. Static appearing on it, with the colors and images fusing amongst each other. Picture frames smashing together and tearing apart until nothing distinguishable was apparent. And then, it faded to black, then grey, then red, then blue, and then white. With a low toning sound being the only thing that could be heard.

Monique stared in shock and horror at what she was seeing. She wasn't sure what was going on right now. And then that's when she saw it. Letters began to appear in her television. Almost as if someone was typing and she was seeing the result. It wasn't much, in fact it was on just one sentence. But it had everything she needed to see. Just enough to make her realize that this wasn't a game. Five words...

Ron Stoppable is now awake.

And just like that her phone began to ring again. But this time, she was finally interested in what the man had to say. Without a moment's hesitation, she flipped open her phone. "Who are you ?" She demanded.

"That's classified."

"How do you know about me ?"

"That's classified."

"How did you find out about Ron?"

"That's -

"Are you joking," She yelled. This was getting her nowhere. "You called me to tell me that you can't tell me anything ?!"

"Not exactly."

"Okay then," She said impatiently. "What can you tell me?"

There was a brief moment of silence before he spoke. "I want to help." He said. "Trust me on that much."

She couldn't tell if he was completely sincere. But she didn't want to just ignore him. Not now anyway. One thing was for sure, if this was a prank it was a damn good one.

Whoever this guy was, he seemed to truly want to get this message delivered to her. That much was apparent.

So she needed to see just what she could get out of him.

"Okay, lets take this from the beginning then."She said. "You said you needed me to be somewhere really far."

"Affirmative."

"And that I needed to get there fast."

"Impossibly fast, yes."

"How," She questioned. " How on Earth am I supposed to do that? I don't own a car."

I don't have a license either….

"Look outside your window, in front of your house."

"What…"

"Look outside-"

"I heard you the first time boy," Monique shouted. "I'm not stupid."

"Then why did you-"

"Shut up."

She walked over toward her front door and peeked through her mirror. And what greeted her was the site of very tall man in a dark suit. His hair perfectly combed back, with small black gloves on both of his hands. Probably so he would leave no fingerprints. His suite was jet black as he wore perfectly shined brown dress shoes. He even had glasses on to conceal most of his face, as he stood next to a mid height midnight blue colored vehicle. He looked like he had just walked right out of a super secret spy movie.

Monique wasn't sure what all was going on here, but this had officially stopped being funny.

"This is a prank isn't it?" she said into her phone. "You're just some dumb middle scholar kid who wanted to get a kick out of messing with me right?"

"I'm afraid not." The voice spoke. "I know I'm putting you in an awkward position right now. But you were the only person I could think to contact."

"Why me," She said. "Why didn't you contact Kim? Or Ron's parents? Or Kim's parents? Or even Rufus? Why me ?"

"Because you're the one person nobody would've expected."

The raven haired girl clamped her lips shut. She had no response for that.

"You're running out of time Miss Hayes. I'd recommend getting dressed before your departure. And please do take a shower, I can smell you from here."

"But you're on the phone."

"I know..."

Area: Possible Residence

Date: July 21, 2006

Time: 3:00 p.m.

It felt odd.

Not the soundings but the way she felt. Kim was so used to wearing her black cargo pants with her matching was her trademark look. She had been wearing the outfit for so long now it almost felt required. As she stood and observed herself in the mirror, she couldn't help feeling a little underdressed. She still had comfortable clothing for combat. But at the end of the day, dark jeans and a brown holster top simply didn't work. She had been trying for the better part of an hour to find a subtitle substation. But it wasn't working. Nothing was working. And damn it, she was getting tired of trying.

You've emptied out your entire closet. Now what?

Now what indeed. She was never good at things like this, thats' why she settled on her original look. At the end of the day black clothing could work with just about anything. Even black clothing. It was simple, functional, and logical all in one. But now, she couldn't wear that outfit.

She could barely even bring herself to look at it. The minute she got home, she tore them off. Threw them in a bag, stuffed them under her bed and never bothered looking at them since. Her mom requested washing them a few times but Kim didn't want them. She didn't want her mother to see those clothes. She didn't want anyone seeing those clothes.

Not her mother, not her father, not her little brothers, no one...

The redhead decided to sit in her chair. She had been in her bed way too long, and it was starting to really hurt her back. There wasn't a world of options she had though. In her room it was usually a choice between her bed or her chair. Sometimes she chose to stand, but it rarely mattered. The room was still as lonely as it had ever been. And she had spent so much time in it, it was almost starting to feel suffocating.

But none of that was doing anything for her current situation. She needed to figure out what she was going to wear, or this entire thing was going to fall apart. She was already suppose to get in touch with Wade sooner. But she had been so preoccupied that she just couldn't find the time...

Okay, that was lie.

She wasn't preoccupied she just didn't want to talk. After Wade gave her the update about Europe, Kim spent a good six hours wondering if this was really what she wanted to do. There were a lot of pros and cons to this, more cons then pros truth be told, but frankly the cons were pretty big. If this went south and she got caught, it would literally look like she was fleeing the county.

And there was no way that would look good.

It was lonely with all the time she spent in her room. She still wanted to avoid the outside world, but she was really starting to get lonely. Her family had been amazingly understanding of her isolation. But she didn't want to keep them on hold for too long. She knew they were worried about her. They weren't exactly giving her a hard time. And at the end of the day, they were giving her space. Even the Tweebs weren't bothering her. They had been way may understanding then most families would have been.

They were amazing, they always were. And in times like this she wished she could do a little more to show how much she appreciated them. But in order to do that, she would actually have to face them. And in there lied the pink elephant. She didn't want to face them. Or more so, she couldn't. She honestly had no idea what she would say if she did.

And apparently waiting around in her room wasn't giving her any answers either.

But if she was going to do this. If she was seriously going to do this. Then she couldn't just leave without so saying anything to them. They were her family at the end of the day. And they deserved better than this. She wasn't sure how they would take the news. They probably would scream at her for even considering doing something like this.

But it didn't matter. She needed to see them. At least once. Their were a lot of people she needed to see, a lot of people she would need to speak with, and some she would definitely have to apologize to. She had messed things up royally. And she needed to do something to make it right. Or at least try to make it right.

Ron…I need to...I would have visited you sooner but I just…

Oh yeah...a lot of people she would need to apologize to.

She probably wasn't thinking too clearly. But she didn't care, this probably wasn't even the best time to do something like this. But she didn't care, Kim wouldn't accomplish anything by just sitting in her room all day. And it was clear that getting her head in the game for another mission wasn't happening anytime soon. So she would need to try something else.

Something she probably should have tried much sooner to be honest.

"Okay, time to get up." She slowly pushed her weight off of the chair. Once upright she silently stared at her door for several minutes. Her min was slowly beginning to race with thoughts. Part of them encouraging her, the other half...not so much. She slowly began walking towards the door, and once within range Kim placed her hand on the door knob. Finding it surpassingly hard to form a solid grip around the object.

Either her body had been getting weaker over the past few days, or there was a part of her that really didn't want to do this.

But it didn't matter. She had to do this. No, she didn't have to. She wanted to. Somewhat...it was still a little up in the she still wanted to face her family. That much she was almost fifty percent certain of.

She couldn't keep hiding in her room. That much was certain. At some point she would have to face up to everything that had happened and everything she had done. So with one deep and very long breathe. She finally began turning the knob to her door. Once she heard the signature clicking noise, she pushed it open and stared down her hallway for the first time in days.

It was a lot greener then she remembered. And there was a faint smell in the air. Like someone had been going around spraying mint flavored freshener in the air.

Weird I honestly had no idea they made stuff like that...

Kim stood in the threshold of her bedroom door. Taking several deep breathes to calm her nerves. She wasn't terribly sure what she was doing at this point. But she knew she wanted to do something. So she took one slow step slowly past her bedroom.

And just like that, Kim Possible had finally made it out of her bedroom for the first time in over five days. It wasn't much of a victory all things considered, but for a while she was starting to thing she would actually end up living in that confined space. It probably wouldn't be perfect, but she could probably still pull it off. She could find a way to face her family, her friends, and make an apology for everything that happened.

Hopefully in time they would understand. They loved her, they cared for her, they would understand she was sure of it. Ron would get better, he would also forgive her. She would find someway to sort everything out with the press and the media. And in time things would eventually go back to normal. The thought alone was enough to slowly begin warming her hear.

Unfortunately she would not be able to enjoy it for long. Because as soon as she tried to take her second step, Kim fell over on the floor landing on her knees. Her mind began growing hazy and her balance started to slip.

She wasn't sure what was happening, but it was like she was slowly loosing control of her self. Soon her balance gave way and she fell over on her floor with her head making contact with the ground. Her breathing pattern shortened and became almost nonexistent. Soon enough, her eye lids began growing very heavy. Her body felt as though it was becoming rooted to the ground. And she felt an odd darkness overcome her. She tried to fight it, but something about it was so comforting.

And in the hallway, just a few inches from her room, Kim Possible gave into the sensation that pulled her in. And simply allowed her body to sleep once again, but with no real certainty concerning for how long.

Area: West Palm Beach

Date: July 21, 2006

Time: 8:30 p.m.

"You're late."

"Get off my back."

Jason gave her his customary grin. Lynn couldn't help but notice that he was smiling a lot more then usual. Not that she could blame him. Now was a good time to smile. Even her job didn't suck as much as it usually did. She almost smiled twice during her work hours. Twice! That may not be much to others, but for her that was huge !

And as soon as her shift ended, she actually waved goodbye to her employees. People were a little freaked out by her sudden change in attitude but she couldn't help it. She was just so giddy today. And she owed it all to one person.

Kimberly Ann Freaking Possible

She ran straight home as soon as her shift ended. And as soon as she got home, she practically tore off her stupid uniform clothing. Changed into a casual outfit and ran straight over to Jason's place. His door was unlocked when she got there. He knew she would go there. He was waiting in his room with his computer on.

From what she could tell, all the questions she needed answered Jason had already pulled up for her.

"Before we get started," She said. "I wanna make something really clear."

Jason looked at her questioningly. He noticed a little too late. But Lynn raised her hand and slapped him upon his right shoulder. She wasn't sure if it had actually hurt him. But the sheer surprise caused him to jump back in response.

"Hey," He exclaimed. "What was that for?!"

"For holding out on me." Lynn said. "You knew, I'm willing to bet every dollar I've got. Granted they aren't that many dollars, but I'm still willing to bet them. You knew about this, about Little Miss Sunshine and you held out on me."

Jason scoffed at her words. "Maybe I did," He said. "I was waiting for the right moment. Timing is key. If I just up and told you about all this, without making sure it was on the up and up you could have come out more disappointed than anything."

Not a bad point...

Lynn wasn't mad at him. Not really, just a little upset. Nothing too serious. Besides he was right. If this had turned out to be some dumb prank then she really would have been annoyed. "It's all true then," She asked. She never got a chance to fully read the article. So she really needed to know. "This isn't a joke?"

"No joke," Jason responded. "This is on the up and up. And the more I look into it, the better it all gets." Jason walked towards his computer. "Come on," He said. "You're gonna want to see this."

Lynn wasted no time. She got as close as she needed to in order to get a good eye view. A variety of pop ups were on his computer. Each one in relation to the same thing. "There's articles popping up all over the place." Jason said. "People are blogging about this like crazy."

"Just blogging," Lynn asked. "No news reports?"

"That's the funny thing, there's almost zero to any actual news activity on this."

"Seriously?"

"No joke, there's like one news reports that happened a few days back. Just one, and there hasn't been anything else. Apparently there was another one but it got removed."

"Why?"

"Some chick who was a news reporter actually said something she wasn't supposed to say. And somebody got wind of it. Now all that's left of it is some rumors on the internet. No one even knows the name of the girl who said it."

"They're trying to keep this a secret." Lynn said. "But why? Why are they being so secretive?"

"She's Kim Possible remember? She looks a lot better when she's not the one losing. I mean how many times have you actually heard stories about her losing on a mission. The only reason we even know about this is because of how huge it is. Someone getting hospitalized is a pretty big deal."

Lynn's eyes shot wide open. "Wait someone's in the hospital?" She said. "You never told me that. Who's in the hospital? Is it Kim ?"

"Nope. Its some blonde haired kid. Short and scrawny. Giant ears and lots of freckles. Looked like a real idiot when they showed us a mugshot of him."

No way...Stoppable ? He's the one who went down?

"So this kids in the hospital," Lynn said. "Where is he ? And how did he get hurt?"

"Nobody knows."

"What? How ? How is someone sitting in a hospital and no on knows anything. Does anyone even know where he is? Speaking of which how do you even know any of this?"

"Relax Lynn," Jason said. "One question at a time. In that order, I don't know. "

Lynn waiting for the rest of his response. But he only stared blankly at her. "Yeah," She asked impatiently. "And?"

"That's it..." He said blankly. Indifferent to the agitation radiating from Lynn's body.

Jason so help me...

"It's clear that someone's trying to keep Stoppable's location a secret." He said. "So people are doing everything they can to keep it on the low key."

"Like that reporter woman?" Lynn asked.

"Exactly. No knows why her broadcast got removed so fast. Barely anyone got the chance to actually see it. Anyone who did can't be reach for any comments either."

Weird...

"But if I were to make a guess, I'd say she said something that gave away too much information."

"Secret information," Lynn said. "Like the hospital he was in? Or maybe the location or street address?"

"Exactly, see she probably didn't even know that the information was secret. And now she's gotten caught up in all of this stuff. Sad really, she wasn't trying to hurt anybody."

"No," Lynn whispered. "She was just doing what they paid her to do. She was just doing her job."

"Word, and i'm guessing when people came knocking they higher ups pulled the video. Along with that reporter girl's career. Maybe her existence as well. Can't leave lose ends with stuff like this."

She wasn't sure why, but Lynn could have sworn the room grew , Jason remained indifferent to her mood.

"People are looking into it though," He said. " Right now people are trying to figure out who the reporter woman was. Once they do they'll be able to draw the right connections."

"Can anyone do it?"Lynn asked.

"From what I'm seeing no. No one here actually has that kind of power on this site. It'd probably take someone with some kind of secret connections."

Or super villain connections...

"Okay, but that still doesn't explain how you know all this."

"I told you already," Jason said. "The internet. It's all on here. Someone made a website where anyone can post stuff anonymously. And people have been posting like crazy."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yup, It's not hard to find this site. All you have to do is just look it up." Jason furrowed his eyes. "Most of it's just a bunch of hate comments though. I mean seriously I'm not a fan of the chick, but she has saved the world a few times. You'd think that'd mean something to these people."

"People always look for something to hate," Lynn said. "Doesn't matter what you do. Doesn't matter how hard you try. People are just waiting for you to mess up."

Jason gave her a sideways glance. "So is that...from experience ?"

Lynn made no response. Instead she walked towards Jason. She bent over him slowly and placed her head, wrapping in her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. She could feel his body stiffen. She couldn't blame him. This wasn't usual for them. But for the time being, she didn't care. For the time being, she didn't want to do anything to ruin this moment.

"Thanks Jason," She said. "I won't forget it."

"Forget what?" The boy asked.

"Everything. I'll see you soon."

Lynn released her grip on Jason's neck and walked towards the door. Jason turned towards her direction.

"Hey, where are you going?" He asked.

"I have a plane to catch."

For the first time in years, Lynn felt happy to be alive.

You sure took you're sweet time.

Aye, Sorry Sorry I meant to get this done a lot sooner.

Well why didn't you?

Well you know, life and all that.

hm, well when you're done making excuses we have a guest to entertain.

Is that so? You mean he's finally here ?

Looks like it. Took him long enough.

Well some of us are late bloomers, no shame in that.

Aye, and the boy is nothing if not late.

Matters nothing he's here now.

Aye, so let's get started then.