Trembling and hesitant, Wade very slowly peeked out from beneath the computer desk in his bedroom. The uncanny poltergeist activity had ceased only a minute earlier, and he was still too scared to stand up straight, lest a blunt, heavy object was suddenly hurled at his head by some grumpy ghost.

"Is it...finally over...?" he whispered to himself as he crawled his way out from beneath his monitor. His room was a complete wreck, but things had finally gone silent - whatever crazy, otherworldly phenomena that was responsible had apparently just blown on through and then moved on elsewhere.

"Whew!" he whistled as he slowly climbed up to his feet. "What a night...no...wait a minute..."

His relief was short-lived when he suddenly remembered the anonymous warning that he had received earlier that evening. With alarm, he heavily flopped down into his desk chair and jumped back into his work, searching frantically through tab after computer tab until he finally located the one that he was thinking of - a mysterious text message sent from an unknown address that was made up entirely of random letters and numbers:

KIM. DANGER. TONIGHT.

He slowly leaned back in his chair as his eyes went wide and his breath stopped.

He suddenly felt very afraid for her - and Ron. And her family. Something strange and terrible was obviously going down at her end, but in all honesty, was there even much that he could do about it, since ALL of his communications with her had been completely cut off?

Yes. He knew what had to happen.

"I can't believe I'm doing this...but it needs to be done..." he whispered to himself, as he clenched his hand into a fist.

He simply had to get over to Kim's place. Which meant he would actually have to...unbelievably...

...leave the house...

...let alone, his bedroom...

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" screamed Ron as Kim began to lose consciousness and stagger backwards in stop/start little fits.

"Please be quiet, boy" said Kali, dangerously, as she smiled thinly and folded her arms. "The novelty of this place is wearing off and you're all beginning to irritate me."

Tim and Jim were paralyzed with terror, watching in helpless frustration as their sister, the Kim Possible, was finally being brought down to her knees. And without even so much as resistance on her part...

"R-Ron..." Kim wailed, her cloudy eyes meeting his in quiet desperation just before her eyelids closed and she suddenly collapsed to the floor like a bundle of sticks. But before Ron could even dash over to her side and catch her from falling, Klaus had just zipped across the hall, fast as lightning, and seized the now deeply sleeping Kim in his small but powerful arms.

"Ah, there's a good lass!" he chortled monstrously as he held her sleeping form, draped supine and heavily across his short and chubby arms, with his hands (with their oddly long and sharp fingernails) curled gently around her shoulder and knees. "Sweet sleep, without nasty dreams or heavy cares for the waking world..."

"LET HER GO!" roared Ron furiously as he quickly (and awkwardly) assumed the fighting stance he had learned at the Yamanouchi Ninja school, ready to hopelessly defend Kim to the very end and beyond.

"You're not taking her away!"

He brandished his hands as though they were deadly weapons, even if it only earned a couple of scoffs and sneers from the kidnappers. And yet...

As frightened as Ron was, his normally overwhelming cowardice was slowly being superseded by something far stronger - something that had long been sleeping deep in his soul and was now finally awakening...

...and was mad as hell.

"Shhhhhhhhh..." said Klaus softly. "You wouldn't want to wake your beloved from her slumber, would you? Please have some consideration for the young lady!"

Kim was in such a deep sleep, she wasn't even snoring. If it wasn't for the slow and steady rise of her chest, she would have looked dead and gone.

"Shut up! Just...just shut up you...you-you mean...thing!" exploded Ron as his face went scarlet with rage.

"Uhhh, go easy on him Ron" said Tim, as Jim buried his face in his hands and groaned.

"Dude, I don't care about your stupid master, or his stupid plan, or...or stupid...you!" shouted Ron as his face went all kinds of shades of furious. "This is my FINAL warning, you two! If you don't put her down and get out of here...I'm gonna have to do...this..."

With a glowering expression of threat, he twisted his body around, as if he was winding up for some kind of special, devastating attack.

"Oh no..." said Tim.

"He's actually gonna do it..." said Jim.

"My word, Klaus...I think he's serious!" laughed Kali. "Perhaps we should do what he says and retreat while we still can!"

"Bless me, you just might be right, Kali!" replied Klaus with a laugh as Kim continued to slumber silently in his arms. "I suppose we underestimated these ones!"

'Yeah...you'd better run..." threatened Ron, as he contorted his body into a bizarre position that looked like half yoga pose and half interpretive dance, "because when the Ronster gets started...he doesn't stop until he's FINISHED..."

"Dude, don't!" cried Tim, looking as worried as he could be.

"Ron, you never get this move right!" shouted Jim. "Don't try it!"

"Don't worry, guys!" assured Ron with a determined smile through his clenched teeth. "This time...it's different..."

"Yeah, you always say that..." replied the twins, rolling their eyes.

"Last chance, you two!" snarled Ron as he prepared to attack. "Ready to give up?"

Klaus and Kali said nothing.

"Fine! It's YOUR funeral, guys!"

With a high-pitched, Kung-Fu movie-style battle cry ("WAAAAATAAAAAAAAWWWW!), Ron dashed forward down the hallway towards Klaus and Kali and then jumped into the air, extending his right leg forward in an attempt to execute some kind of elaborate, aerial kick.

"I can't watch..." wailed Tim as he turned away and covered his eyes.

"Dude's gonna get creamed!" said Jim fearfully.

"SUPER DUPER ULTRA DELUXE MEGA ATOMIC FINAL ULTIMATE YAMANOUCHI NINJA STRIKE! AAAAAAARRRRRGHHHHH!" screamed Ron as he hurtled towards the evil duo, both of them wearing self-assured smiles and not worried in the slightest.

"Goodness!" said Klaus.

"Mercy!" cried Kali, mockingly.

"NO MERCY!" screamed Ron as he flew through the air. "NOOOO MERCYYYYYYY-OWWW!"

Somehow, impossibly, Ron actually managed to twist his ankle in midair and then collapsed to the floor with an anticlimactic *THUD*.

"We told you!" cried the twins, throwing their hands up in the air. "That thing never works!"

"OWWWW, geeeez!" Ron howled in pain as he sat on the floor and cradled his ankle in his hands, blowing on it as if it were a beverage that was too hot. "Why does that ALWAYS happen?"

"Perhaps because you're a miserable little fool who simply doesn't know any better..." said Kali in tones of ice.

"Huh?" said Ron as he glanced upwards.

Kali was standing over him, looking down into his face with a stern expression of disgust as though he were a cockroach she was about to crush. She reached down, grabbed him by the neck in a cruel, tight grip (prompting a rubbery *SQUEAK* from Ron), and then effortlessly lifted him into the air as though he were completely weightless.

"I was going to drain you dry...and perhaps a bit more" she began, as Ron struggled and wheezed in her terrible grasp, "but after seeing what a mindless little simpleton you are, I'm concerned that having your foul, stinking blood in my system might prove hazardous to my health."

"H-hey..." he gasped as his face began to turn a pale blue from his oxygen being cut off, "d-don't...you think...y-y-you're...being a...little...h-harsh?

"Darling...I AM harsh" she whispered, her darkly charming smile now replaced with a hateful, repulsed grimace. And then she wound up and threw him with the force of a major league baseball pitcher trying to strike the batter out.

Ron didn't even have time to scream - before he could even open his mouth, he had already sailed down the length of the hallway and crashed headfirst into Tim and Jim, the three of them collapsing to the floor in a jumbled, groaning and painful mass as Klaus and Kali marched past them without so much as a glance of acknowledgment.

"Well, wasn't that a fun little diversion while it lasted!" chuckled Klaus as he began to descend the staircase with the sleeping Kim in his arms. "No wonder you spent so much time on this particular household, Miss Kali! They really were quite entertaining, these four!"

Sprawled on the hallway floor, Ron, Tim and Jim groaned in pain from their heads getting slammed together. It appeared that they were finally down for the count.

"True, but it's high time that we moved on" said Kali as she followed Klaus down the stairs. "I've had my amusements for the evening, and there's still much work to be done. And besides, the master himself said that our fourth and final person-of-interest to collect tonight might prove to be something of a challenge. Even to us."

"Did he really?" asked Klaus in wonder. "Marvelous! Do you recall the name, by chance? I believe it was a young man gifted with some kind of unique power, am I correct?"

"Yes" answered Kali. "His full, proper name is Hugh Go, but he simply goes by Hugo in passing. According to the intelligence that was gathered, he originally hailed from the settlement of Go City, but later migrated to this particular location after a supposed falling-out with his extended family. Apparently, this family fancied themselves as 'heroes' and 'crimefighters' and referred to themselves as 'Team Go' or some such rubbish. They are all imbued with some rather impressive powers, but they are still only frail little mortals. Nothing we can't handle."

"Interesting!" said Klaus cheerfully. "You know, that reminds me! Was there not a lovely, talented young lady from that particular family that had also caught the master's eye? I believe that her informal name was...Shego? Does that sound familiar, Miss Kali?"

"Both yes and no" answered Kali, matter-of-factly. "The one called 'Shego' was actually the one whom we were to collect until the master became aware of her estranged cousin Hugo's powers, which evidently exceed even hers."

Her mouth grew into a hungry, animalistic smile. "His powers dwarf his ENTIRE family's, even."

"How exciting!" answered Klaus. "I am certainly looking forward to meeting this young man, tonight!"

"As am I..." said Kali, licking her lips. "After all, I am still quite thirsty..."

"Ah, ah, ahhhhh!" chided Klaus, with a laugh. "Remember, my dear, we are not to harm the master's chosen ones! No matter HOW tempted we might be!"

"Yes, yes, of course..." she answered. "I suppose I will just have to drink somewhere else..."

As they walked, Klaus gazed down at the young woman in his arms and was quite taken with her beauty. "She really is quite lovely, isn't she Miss Kali?" he mused. "Such a stunning, exquisite visage this young lady has! Much the same as her mother's. I can't help but wonder what the master's plans for her are..."

"Or the other three..." finished Kali. "Something grand and splendid, to be sure..."

"Indeed!" he replied, as he stepped out the front door into the cold misty night with Kali at his heels. As Klaus continued down the concrete walkway towards the limousine with their prize, Kali suddenly stopped, and then slowly turned back around.

"Hmmmm..." she mused to herself with a grin, as she hesitated on the threshold and scoped out the high-end interior design of the Possible home.

"I must confess, Miss Possible" began Kali, as she slowly ran her hand over the expensive, exquisitely patterned curtains obscuring the front windows, "your mother's taste in soft furnishings is...extraordinary."

Still grinning, she turned back and continued after Klaus, and minding her manners, gently closed the heavy front door behind her with a soft *CLICK*.

"Uggghhh...oh man...my head hurts..."

At that very moment, Ron had (just barely) managed to lift himself up from the floor, and with his head throbbing and his vision blurry, take in his surroundings:

Tim was out cold on the floor.

Jim was also out cold on the floor.

Kali was gone. Klaus was gone.

And with a sudden, cold wave of horror that welled up in his gut like a fierce tidal swell, he noticed that Kim was also gone...

He tried to speak, but he just couldn't...

...and then something inside of him finally snapped.