Chapter 8 – Tiff and Make Up

The message that Shego was defeated and that Stoppable was now inside the lair reached Drakken.

Still hopeful that he could win this, he was ready to confront Stoppable using his newest "weapon," as well as a new tactic, one that just up and came to him. While he was bringing her under his control Drakken remembered something about the boy, something he actually mentioned when this challenge began. If he confronted him also using that, Drakken determined that perhaps he could employ Stoppable.

He said to Kim Possible, who was back in her battle suit, "Let's go."

She followed her "master."

Ron wandered several empty passageways of the lair, encountering not one henchman since his entrance. This was to be expected since the bulk of them were still up on the surface somewhere, out of commission. At the end of one passage was a door. He approached it. The door looked nothing out of the ordinary, having nothing that might require special access like voice recognition or a retinal scanner. There was just a button.

The door casually slid to one side after he pressed the button. Ron looked about the space within. It was dimly lit, but he could easily see the wall-mounted monitors and monitoring systems. Manning many of those systems were more henchmen.

Ron heard one of them, a man with a deep voice, say, "Bob, Stoppable's at the door!"

Hearing this, the heads of all henchmen turned to find their associate was right. Some fled while the rest remained either standing in place or seated.

Ron had no desire to fight them. He came here for Kim, and the less time he wasted, the sooner he would find her. "Unless one of you guys tells me where I can find Kim, I'm ready to play rough." He did not want to fight, but he had to get someone to talk. "I'll behave if one of you takes me to her."

One of them stepped forward. "I'll take you. Just let us be."

With a single nod, Ron replied, "Done."

As Ron followed the henchman from the watch center, the one with the deep-voice said, "Be careful, Bob."

Bob led the way, neither he nor Ron saying a word to one another. The route by which he led the boy brought them to a door. He opened it and entered first into a grand room, a space so magnificently designed it could be a ballroom. Bob intended to lead Ron on, but was halted by the presence of his boss standing at the far end.

Ron also noticed Drakken. Rufus poked his head out from his pocket and snarled at the man. He also caught sight of more cameras hovering all around and wondered if this meant Drakken was planning another challenge against him. Ron could think of no new opponents skilled enough to try.

Drakken stood with his hands behind his back. "Thank you for bringing him to me," he said to Bob, his voice echoing around the empty room. "You may go, now."

Bob stood for but a moment before even Ron spoke up. "You heard him, Bob. Get lost." Bob left, backing out the way he came.

It was now just Ron and Drakken. Ron started walking forward. "Have you decided to lead me to Kim?" His tone was steady.

"No, I want to speak with you first." Drakken held out a hand in a halting gesture. "Stop right there."

Ron slowed to a halt, and then crossed his arms. "What?" he asked with some impatience. Yet, he decided he would listen.

"You have become such a thorn in my side as of late, what with your superpowers and all," Drakken began, saying the word 'superpowers' sourly. "And you have even bested Shego. I heard that you defeated her without even using them. I must admit that I've actually become quite impressed with your powers. I could use them. Why not join me?"

Ron gave Drakken a questioning look before responding, "Fat chance of that happening."

"Now just hear me out," Drakken said with some insistence. "Of all your buffoonery, you actually have a great knack for evil. The Attitudinator proved that. Become Zorpox again, and with his genius and your newfound skills we can rule the world together."

Drakken pulled out a plastic-encased disk from his lab coat. "With the schematics of the Sonic Annihilator and the Mega-weather Generator on this disk, we can produce even more of them as well as other fantastic doomsday weapons with which we will bring the world to its knees." He smiled gleefully from the sound of his vision.

While Ron never remembered what he was like as Zorpox, from what Wade and Kim told him Ron knew all too well just how dangerous his darker half is. "Drakken, I did not come all this way in search of Kim to wind up working for you. And letting Zorpox out of me would be a big mistake on your part, mine if I agreed to let him out. He would totally own you and eventually get rid of you."

Disappointed, Drakken frowned at Ron's refusal. He could see there was no other choice but to eliminate Stoppable.

"Now are you going to tell me where Kim is?" Ron demanded.

"Right behind you, Ron."

At the sound of that voice, Ron whipped around to see Kim, too thrilled to be baffled by her sudden and inexplicable appearance; too thrilled to take notice of her wet and disheveled hair… and was then met with a rapid roundhouse kick to the face that sent him to the floor. Rufus, who had still been partially outside his haven, was thrown from Ron's pocket.

Completely expressionless, Kim looked down at him. "You should have taken Drakken's offer to join him, Ron." Her battle suit, which its illuminable bands were off, which was so her presence would remain unknown to Ron, powered on.

Ron barely had a chance to stand back up before Kim struck him again. Following a couple of cartwheel rotations and a handspring, Kim planted her feet against his chest, knocking him backwards several feet away. Only briefly was he stunned, but he definitely hurt.

People around the world were also stunned. No one could understand why Kim attacked Ron like that. As far as anyone believed, she was free from wherever she was being held. So, they all wondered why she would start a fight with Ron, someone who searched the world for her, when she should be apprehending Drakken.

As even the Possibles wondered this, brain surgeon Mrs. Dr. P suggested that Drakken might actually have some sort of mind control over Kim.

"KP," they heard Ron say. He was finally standing up again, unsteadily, after a couple of minutes of lying on the floor. Kim had not moved since her second attack. "Why are you doing this? If this is about me kissing Shego, I can explain."

The Possibles remember watching Ron do that. Jim and Tim "Hoosha-ed" and high-fived. It came as a surprise to the Possibles, but they supposed he had a good reason… James Possible at least hoped he did. They heard Drakken laugh, amused.

"For your information, Buffoon, she never even saw your fight with Shego. On the other hand, the world did, as well as your kiss. Oh, I can just see the media now," he added with a snicker. "It's even gonna be the most hit-on footage on the internet."

"And don't bother trying to dissuade Miss Possible from fighting you," Drakken continued, professionally, "because she won't listen!" He pulled out the familiar bottle of Lather, Rinse, and OBEY. "Remember this?"

The next thing the Possibles saw, Drakken unexpectedly became fidgety. He began babbling and patting all about his person, yet touching nothing but his blue lab coat. He would even laugh as though he was being tickled. They saw a little lump moving about beneath Drakken's lab coat, but he was not quick enough to grab at whatever was crawling all over him.

They realized it was Rufus when he popped out from Drakken's coat. In his little mole rat hands he held the very disk Drakken had before displayed to the world, and then pocketed when Kim's fight with Ron began. Before Drakken could react, Rufus leapt from the coat and skedaddled from the large room.

Drakken chased after Rufus, his last words before disappearing from the doorway being, "Kim Possible, destroy Ron Stoppable!" and "Come back here with that you little rodent!"

Ron watched as Drakken took off after Rufus, grateful his little buddy was able to get the disk. He felt fortunate to have ended up near Rufus after Kim belted him like that. Following the painful kick and landing, he slowly regained his bearings and realized Rufus was there ensuring he was alright. Quietly he told Rufus to go and get the disk from Drakken. Acknowledging he understood, Rufus took off. Now, ignoring the cameras, Ron was left alone with Kim.

Kim had her orders. She had not moved while Drakken spoke to Ron about kissing Shego and then showed him the shampoo, but she was ready to go the instant Drakken told her to finish Ron. Taking a fighting stance with her battle suit powered on she said with a dreadful grin, "Are you ready, Ron?"

Ron did not want to fight her. He remained defenseless. "KP, don't do this."

"I have my orders." With that she leapt in and began to fight him.

"I don't want to fight you, Kim." He made no attempt to strike her, but he did put up his defenses to block her hits. "I want to end this mission and take you home." Despite his efforts to protect himself or avoid her attacks, every now and then he would suffer a hit.

Kim was relentless and her assaults intensified. Equally, Ron stepped up his means of defense, still taking a hit now and then. But as with any battle, fighting instincts came along and Ron automatically retaliated, unintentionally thrusting an open palm just above her chest. Kim's balance was shaken and she stumbled backwards.

Rufus' mobility was difficult with the 'oversized' item in his hands. Still, he remained ahead of Drakken and slipped inside a storeroom.

Drakken followed the mole rat into the storeroom. He was not too happy that he would have many tight spaces to search, but he ensured the mole rat would not get out by closing the storeroom door and locking it. There was no other way out than the door. Even the ventilation shafts were screened off which left the mole rat confined to this room.

Ron gasped at what he had just done, his attack having sent Kim to the floor. Frantically he began to apologize. He even dropped his guard and rushed to Kim to see how badly hurt she might be. But Kim was quick to recover before Ron could lay a hand on her. Back on her feet she massaged the spot Ron hit and looked at him, smiling wickedly; this brainwashed Kim now felt certain that Ron was ready to fight her for real.

Despite being hypnotized, Kim still knew of Ron's Mystical Monkey Powers. She was eager to take him on, to have him use them against her. She could win. How could she not? She, Kim Possible, can do anything, so why not add conquering the Mystical Monkey Master to her list of accomplishments?

Kim took a leap backwards. "Ron," Kim said, resuming a fighting stance. "Show me your Mystical Monkey Power."

"KP," Ron begged, "please don't make me fight you."

A slightly audible hum accompanied an increase in the luminosity of the battle suit's blue bands. Kim rushed at Ron, repeating, "Show me your power!" In a flash she was on him and repeatedly striking at him.

Once again, Ron did as best as he could to defend himself against her attacks, but he was unable to avoid them all. She was much faster this time thanks to the enhanced speed from the battle suit. Ron realized he really had no choice but to strike back, but only enough to get Kim to stop, and then figure out how to get her back to her normal self.

He blocked and avoided a couple of her latest attempts to hit and kick him and countered using a couple of his own strikes. Kim backed off a few steps to recover from the hits. Ron took this opportunity to repeat a Tai Xing Peq U'ar technique. Again he took the "Be Quick, Be Silent" stance. He hoped being invisible to Kim might buy him a little time to figure out how to get her back. But something was wrong. Kim was looking right at him. She was not fooled by his attempts to disappear.

An internal message from Sensei told him how that could be. Her already hypnotized mind cannot be fooled by an illusion.

Before Kim charged in again, ready to go at him with all her battle suit's advantages, Ron summoned his Mystical Monkey Power.

"Curse that boy and his little rodent!" grumbled Drakken. He still had not located Rufus or the disk. Though the mole rat could not leave the room that did not mean it could not still evade Drakken in the countless small spaces available for it to hide in. He realized, also, that he had long been away from the confrontation between Kim and Ron. Drakken radioed back to the watch center and demanded an update on the fight.

The henchman reporting sounded awed while he updated Drakken on the status of the fight. Not only had Kim Possible begun moving faster than he could believe, but Stoppable was countering most attacks she was dealing out, reluctantly using punches and kicks of his own, covered in that same blue glow that helped him battle the Bebes back at the Petronas Towers. He also reported that Kim kept Ron at bay with a bubble shield from time to time.

There was a moment that Drakken felt an unexpected tremor. He feared that someone might have tampered with the Sonic Annihilator. Asking if someone had, the henchman reported, his tone raised in amazement, that it was Kim. She had somehow managed to use the battle suit to generate a quake centered there in the room where she was fighting Ron. Stoppable, however, kept clear of the devastation and continued fighting her.

In his opinion, Drakken felt that Kim Possible was not making good enough progress in defeating her boyfriend. "Sixteen styles of kung fu… styles taught by her nana... an uber battle suit… Yet she still can't bring down the buffoon?!" he vented in frustration. This in no way improved his mood as he still had not located the mole rat.

Both Kim and Ron were beginning to tire. Ron held up well, considering all his abilities were drawn from within, whereas Kim managed to endure due to the advantages of her battle suit. And so to end this fight she drew upon one advantage she had not yet used against Ron. She went invisible.

Ron's means of invisibility could only fool a nemesis into believing that he had vanished, but Kim's suit was capable of bending light. That could render her invisible to just about everything, including things that cannot be fooled by illusions.

Ron could not let her win despite this advantage. He decided that he must do again what he did fighting Gemini's agents. Only this time he closed his eyes, not wasting time to make a blindfold. He realized that Kim would likely also use the suit's super speed. His awareness now enhanced, Ron had a good idea where Kim stood, but he dared not turn his head her way and risk her changing to an attack he could not defend against quickly enough.

Kim charged, rapidly, but was surprised to discover that her attack was blocked. She tried again, using combinations. Inexplicably Ron was able to block these as though he knew her moves. A few times she backed off, but charged in and tried again.

Combined with the blue field he was generating, his heightened awareness so as to know Kim's location and moves, and his ability to keep up with her, Ron was beginning to feel an unusual surge of energy. Once he made contact with her using a counter attack, the battle suit's invisibility was disengaged, restoring Kim to visibility with an expression of stunned surprise.

Immediately Ron approached her. His arms moved about, fluidly, as she just stood there unable to comprehend how he had managed to strike her as he did and disable the battle suit. "KP…" Ron cried as his arms slowed to a halt. His index and middle fingers on both fists were pointed out and tightly side by side. The energy building inside him travelled to those fingers. "Snap out of it!" Ron's fingertips connected with Kim's temples.*

A strange sensation surged through Kim's brain, and the fog of mind control lifted. She became newly aware that Ron stood before her, his hands at the sides of her head. "Ron?" Her eyes went wide and she gasped, crying out, "Ron!" again as she embraced him, overjoyed to see him again.

Glad that she was herself again, Ron smiled and returned the hug.

After a few minutes, Kim relaxed and stepped back to look at him again. She realized how beat up he looked. "Ron, what happened?!"

Realizing that she must not remember her actions because of the mind-controlling shampoo he told her, reluctantly. "Uh… you happened," he replied shyly.

"What?! No, I-I…" Kim suddenly went into a self-bashing rant, chastising herself for being captured and used by Drakken, and for attacking Ron.

After an exhaustive few minutes of trying to calm Kim down and telling her everything would be alright, Ron then told her that they had to find Rufus. Leaving the ballroom via the same door Drakken took to chase after Rufus, they hurried along the hallway, keeping alert of any sort of ruckus from either Drakken or Rufus. Their alertness was rewarded by the audible mumblings of a disgruntled Drakken.

Kim asked Ron for his Kimmunicator. Kim contacted Wade who began rambling about the fight that just happened. He even wondered what might have become of them after saying that the cameras stopped working after she and Ron ran from the room. She hushed him and asked him to override the locking mechanism that sealed the door. Following a click, she pulled the door open.

The unmistakable sound of the storeroom's door being unlocked disrupted Drakken's ongoing search for the mole rat. Peeking from around a shelf he spotted an unwelcomed sight. There stood his teen nemesis with her boyfriend. She appeared no longer under control of the shampoo, and he bet the boy had something do with that. He then wondered why he was not alerted by his henchmen that these two had been looking for him and likely the mole rat.

Said critter suddenly appeared at Drakken's feet, having come from nowhere and hurrying on towards Team Possible, taking with it the disk.

"Rufus!" Ron excitedly cried as the junior member of the team ran to him. He picked Rufus up saying, "Good job," before taking the disk. "Now there's only one thing left to do."

"Right," Kim said. "Come out, Drakken! It's over!"

"Actually, KP, I was referring to this," Ron said, indicating the disk. He removed it from its plastic casing and broke it. "Now, let's get Drakken."

He and Kim searched the room. It was Kim who found Drakken and brought him out.

"This is not over, Kim Possible," the evil genius grumbled.

Kim sighed. "Like we haven't heard that one before, right Ron?" She then gave Drakken a light shove signaling him to get moving, and then they were out in the passageway where they discovered his henchmen all walking away.

"Guys, do something!" Drakken commanded them. "Help me!"

"Sorry, Boss," one of them said. "Not this time."

Another, the one Ron was sure was Bob, added, "Right. After seeing that kid take down most of us and then Shego… You're on your own."

They all continued on after the deep-voiced henchman said, "Way to go, Bob."

Deciding to ignore the departing henchmen Team Possible went on in search for an exit. But something occurred to Ron and he realized Drakken was right. It was not over. He stopped before saying, "KP, wait."

She also stopped which prompted her prisoner to do the same. "What is it, Ron?" she asked.

"We have to destroy the Sonic Annihilator and the Mega-weather Generator. We shouldn't let anyone discover how they work and build others." He walked around to face Drakken. "Where are they?"

"You want them, go find them yourself," Drakken replied indignantly.

Ron eyed him for a moment before an idea came to him. "Actually, that won't be necessary." Summoning up some Mystical Monkey energy, Ron then lightly struck one side of Drakken's jaw with one set of index and middle fingertips at the same time he tapped the villain's forehead with the other set. "Now you'll tell us."*

Drakken was startled by the indescribable sensation he felt in both places. Finding himself incapable of remaining silent, no matter how much he tried to hold back, he divulged the location of the doomsday weapons.

As they started for the location Kim asked Ron, "How did you do that?"

"You remember how he used a truth ray on us once? Well, I basically shut down his inhibitors and 'forced' his mouth to work."

It seemed a reasonable answer, but she was curious still. "How did you know how to do that?"

"Um…" Ron could not come up with an answer, so he shrugged his shoulders. "Lucky guess?"

There they were, Zorpox's very own designs – the rebuilt Mega-weather Generator and the much improved over Drakken's Cocoa-Moo maker, the Sonic Annihilator. It was agreed that rather than blowing them up, the machines should be melted down from the inside out. This was so that no one would know how even the smallest component made them work. Through the Kimmunicator, Wade uploaded the most advanced meltdown program, designed by the boy genius himself.

Global Justice Agent Will Du was in charge of apprehending all of Drakken's henchmen. He and his fellow agents gathered up all who were above ground before descending into the cavern where they also located Shego. Following that, Will led his agents inside the lair where they soon encountered Team Possible bringing Dr. Drakken with them. He decided to take charge of Drakken's arrest.

With the evil genius being led away Will then offered congratulations to Ron. "Job well done, Mr. Stoppable. Global Justice salutes you." Ron dismissed it saying it was nothing.

Before letting them go Will asked them to turn over the disk and to tell him where he could find the doomsday weapons. Under orders from Dr. Director he was to recover these as a matter of Global Security. It was unsettling news to hear that the disk was destroyed.

"And as for the doomsday weapons," Kim began, but was interrupted by a very unpleasant odor of melting metal and burning components which everyone could smell. "Just follow your nose."

By that, Agent Du suspected the machines were destroyed. This news, too, would not please the head of Global Justice.

On their way out of the lair Kim asked Ron how he came to acquire his powers. He told her and her alone everything. He also made sure to tell her of the favor they owed to the citizens of Hafnarfjörður because of the cab ride he was given.

For Kim, it felt great to be outside for the first time in days. All about them there were agents moving to and fro with Drakken's henchmen in their custody. Shortly following Team Possible's exit, out came a few agents bringing the remaining henchmen, plus Shego and Drakken.

Drakken gave them a vengeful look. "You think you're all that, Kim Possible, but you're not!"

As he was led away, Kim responded, "Maybe not, Drakken, but Ron Stoppable is."

He rolled his eyes. "Eh, the jury's still out on that one."

As Shego was led past them, she put in a few words of her own. "That's some boyfriend you got there, Kimmie. He's a great kisser, isn't he?" Shego smiled at the teen heroine's shocked expression. She would remember that look for a long time.

Kim demanded to know from Ron what that was all about. After seeing the way he squirmed and nervously explained and apologized, she let it go. It was time to catch a ride back to Middleton. She was about to ask a Global Justice agent give them a lift to an airport when Ron told her not to bother.

"I've got that part covered," he said. Taking her hand, Ron closed his eyes and thought of Middleton. In a flash he and Kim were gone.*

All there to witness the vanishing, both the good and the bad, stared at the vacant spot were Team Possible had just been. "Since when can he do that?!" they all cried.

In the days following their return, some things returned to normal for Team Possible, once they were caught up with their schoolwork. Ron, in spite of his newfound abilities, seemed to slowly fall back into his essential Ronness and childlike wonder. His dates with Kim resumed, their first date since the end of the mission started at Bueno Nacho. And as for Kim, she was happy to be back on the cheerleading team. There was, however, the issue of Ron kissing Shego. Drakken was right about that footage being broadcasted on the news and the internet. Kim took jibes about it from day to day while Ron was commended for the bold move, but eventually they were let be.

Among the things that did change, bullies kept their distance from Ron. They repeatedly apologized to him and begged him not to hurt them. He simply gave them a thumbs-up and told them not to sweat it. Then there were the girls. They hounded him, as he was looked at as a new man, a gesture he would have enjoyed over a year ago, but no feminine charms could take him from Kim. For her it was quite a task to keep them away from what was hers. Eventually the girls gave up, much to the relief of the couple.

En route to history class one day, a call came in from Wade. The mission was in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland. Apparently there was a cat stuck in a tree.

End.

A/N: The first two places where you see the * are in reference to the anime series "Hokuto no Ken," aka "Fist of the North Star." And the third *, if you're unsure about the last thing Ron did when he and Kim disappeared from Iceland, that is Goku's "Instant Transmission" technique from Dragonball Z.

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