Testing, one, two, three, Testing.

Chapter 3

"Hey…hey…hey their starting with him again!" a cry brought about the attention of those who had assembled.

"Look they've separated him from the others, never done that before."

"Whoa look she's working with him herself."

Like most gathered about this little bit of Global Justice command center Kim was more than a little surprised to notice that the Director was taking a personal interest in the challenging of Ron Stoppable.

The woman in question was the officer commanding the entire Global Justice network and had never taken a personal hand in testing any of the latest attendees, preferring to let others take care of the more mundane tasks. Her physique was rather stocky with multiple layers of heavy muscle built up after years of strenuous daily work outs. This had the advantage of making the almost skin tight uniform still look rather sexy upon her middle aged body. Strewn about the uniform were numerous pockets and strapping designed for holding all sorts of do dads designed in aiding the crime fighting super cop. Lower down was the standard thick black leather boots that added that little extra to the "I'm going to stomp you into the dirt look."

But the most sticking feature was upon her face. She was not as worn as one might expect a person would be with all the stress involved with running this massive bureaucratic nightmare. Dark hair was always neatly trimmed with just enough jell to ensure that it stayed in place through most of her normal activities. She wore little in the way of makeup so her face didn't really stand out as an exceptionally attractive. No the one major feature that attracted attention was her one small shadowy eye that seemed to penetrate to the sole of all those who stood before her. How she had lost the one patched over had never been mentioned to Kim but the girl imagined it had been in a major fight with forces of evil.

And now with a sigh Kim watched as Ron wondered into the room with this formidable woman. She was working under the assumption that he was going to get mangled in some way, shape or form. None of the other tests had been fatal but she didn't think her lover would be able to pull the same silly little tricks on this woman as he had done in his other assessments.

Ron wondered across the room with his hand extended outward in friendship. "Hey Betty." He called out as he advanced.

Smiling unceremoniously the boss replied "Please call me Doctor." as she took the boys hand, shaking it readily in acknowledgment.

"No problem Doctor B" cried out as he released the woman's hand and deposited both his into his pants pockets, but not before shaking the one a little, acknowledging that her grip was more impressive than his own.

"Well Ronald as you have hopefully surmised you have just passed though several tests to see if you're worthy to be accepted into the ranks of Global Justice. So far you have been moderately successful in a round about way, achieving the desired goals but you have one final assignment. Behind me" Dr. B twisted around her good side to point in the direction of the far wall "is a gold card. All you have to do is get past me and retrieve the card." There wasn't really a friendly smile upon her face as one more akin to causing intimidation in the viewer.

It worked, Kim was worried. Ron had wormed his way through the other tests but with the Director it would not be so easy, she was a grizzled professional and not easily fooled. A few other things that caused anxiety in our poor heroine was the other woman was obviously a master at martial arts and close quarter fighting something Ron was not, thus the odds were heavily in her favour. With a sigh Kim figured that at least Betty wouldn't kill him.

"Is this sort of like a job interview?" Ron asked in a timid fashion.

With a nod "Yes it is."

"Then you mind if I ask some questions. I thinks Kim's gonna want to know some of this."

"Certainly. If Ms. Possible wishes to join she'll need to know this information."

Brightening up Ron began of fish through the pockets of his webbing and eventually pulled out a small some what mangled spiral note pad and pencil. "Ok like what does this job pay?"

The pair had snuggled up some and were shoulder to shoulder. The Director looking on as Ron jotted his notes down as she spoke. "Well first we usually like our applicants to have some, preferably graduated, some form of post secondary school. And no: art and philosophy majors don't count; it must be a credible diploma. Opening wage is just over twenty thousand dollars…"

"That's not a lot." Ron interrupted.

"No but usually food and lodging are included, you have to go through a training process regarding our equipment and procedures. It goes up significantly after completion"

Nodding the whole time he scribbled. "What about medical?"

"When out on a mission it's all covered, otherwise, things like dental we like to have a quote on before the procedure can begin and we only pay like sixty percent."

"That could get expensive if a kid needed braces."

"True but we don't have the budget to do all the things we'd like." Betty gave a little shrug of bureaucratic helplessness.

"What about maternity leave? I think Kim wants kids someday."

From the other side of the screen Kim flushed red all the while mentally yelling at her consort not to tell them those types of things.

The Boss continued not realizing that she was being watched so closely. "It's a full one year time off and you have to go through the employment offices to get about sixty percent of the normal pay check. No day care afterwards."

"Will she still be on missions even when…"

"Oh no no no as soon as its determined the woman is pregnant she's in front of a desk. We try to avoid having disasters like that, bad for PR."

"Good I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to Kim."

"Ok is that all?" clapping her hands loudly she stated ready to get things going.

Scratching the back of his head almost as if there was something else on his mind but nothing seemed to enter into his thought process. "I know there's probably more but no I can't really think of anything else."

Doctor Director entered into an aggressive battle stance, legs braced, and fists at the ready. Ron on the other hand went into something more imaginative, one leg was planted upon the ground the other bent at the knee. Arms and hands waved about in an odd bird like movement all the while he made and odd whooping noise. It was not something that would intimidate a four year old let alone the administrator of a world police force.

Suddenly his hands darted behind his head near the base of his skull and when they returned the one flicked forward exposing a brightly coloured gold card.

The director's one good eye almost burst from her head. As for all the others standing upon the other side of the screen, including Kim herself, were equally as dismayed. "Where did that come from?" someone cried out.

"He was right beside her the whole time, how did he get it?"

"Rewind the tape." Some else cried.

As the man worked, Kim smiled she had a pretty good idea of what happened but wasn't about to tell.

Kim leaned closer as the tape began once more, all she and the others could see was Ron and Betty conversing in the center of the room, neither the card nor the doorway was in view.

"I don't see anything."

"There's got to be something, look harder."

Several moments passed as the men watched then rewound the tape a short bit, then watched for a second time and then repeated the procedure for a third glimpse trying to find what had happened.

"Wait…wait…stop. Look there…there…against the wall" one gentleman had leaned over the man working the controls pushing heavily upon his shoulder and pointed bodily at the screen. "It's that rat thingy." All now sat transfixed as Rufus tiptoed carefully, quietly skulking along the very edge of the wall until he disappeared from view. Seconds later he reappeared carrying the card balanced upon his head, little claws holding onto either side. Gradually the little creature crept the length of the room until he was alongside his pet and then he disappeared from the camera once more presumably back into his hiding spot.

Kim smiled, it wouldn't take long for the good Doctor to figure out that she'd been played and most likely wouldn't be happy about it.

One look at the screen told the teen hero that she'd been correct, the director spat venom from her one good eye into Kim's lover. Any semblance of civility was gone she would nock him into the next century and then some. Fortunately Kim knew she wouldn't kill him, just make his life a wee bit more painful.

Snatching the card from his hand the Head of GJ stormed back to where the card had originally been displayed and unceremoniously slammed it back in place. Aggressively heading back she faced the pitiable sidekick and once more entered into a belligerent stance. "Let's try that once more shall we?" she snarled.

A bead of sweat dribbled down the side of Ron's face as he contemplated his future and how short it just might have become. Running away didn't seem to play well into his hand and attacking would most likely get him injured and Ron wasn't like other people he didn't like pain it hurt him.

Stumbling back several steps, more sweat began to show upon his face. Reaching into the back pouches built into his webbing he rooted around for something that might help his situation. The corner of his lip twitched slightly as he had fingered something that might help; both hands flew out with fists tightly balled. With a quick fluid motion Ron let sail multiple large capsules that struck the hard concrete surface. Within seconds of the shells impacting volumes of thick black smoke began to funnel forth quickly filling the room with a black oily vapour obscuring everything.

In the control room there was pandemonium. The man in front of the computer had his fingers flashing across the keyboard hoping to get things working again. "Infrared doesn't work and the radar imaging isn't getting anything either, there's got to be something in that smoke." Kim knew Wade had thrown something into the mix that screwed up sensor devices but she hadn't a clue what, she wasn't a techno geek. She also knew that one pellet was enough to cloud an adversary's vision enough for a quick escape, the number Ron had tossed was enough to smoke out a building.

"There…there." Near by a technician shouted, his finger lancing towards a different screen on the wall. "He's out in the hallway."

Indeed Ron had vamoosed from the chamber and run into the hallway fallowed by the massive cloud of smoke that very quickly began to fill the entire area. The poor boy looked horribly confused as his feet danced about the floor, head darting left and right in a rapid tempo. It looked as if some gleam of intelligence had perchance to enter into his skull and he turned and dove back into the steaming caldron.

Almost the instant he re-enter into the maelstrom a horrendous bleating reverberation began ringing throughout the halls, red lights flashed almost in time with the moans. From the hall camera a great torrent of water began gushing from the ceiling dousing the corridor in a deluge of liquid. Over the intercom an oddly mechanical voice echoed "Warning fire in sector seven! Warning fire in sector seven! All none essential personnel are to evacuate immediately. All other areas are to lock down and wait for further instructions! All fire crew head to ready stations! All fire doors are to be closed tight!" The machine droned on repeating itself several more times.

Racing out of the smoke and into the passage, the Doctor skidded across the wet floor as she entered into the massive deluge. The look upon her face told of a rage that would provoke the gods themselves. Taking a quick look around she snarled; fists balled in a livid fury, teeth gnashing violently together. Smashing one finger against what was obviously a wrist communicator she roared "Turn that … blasted alarm off! And get those … fans running" before storming out of view of the hallway camera. Kim couldn't quite make out entirely what was said but she very much doubted it was very pleasant.

All around people were racing about adding to the mass of confusion. Obvious fire and support personnel headed off in the direction of the so called fire. Nonessential employees shut down all systems in their area and began to leave the building heading in the opposite direction. The two parties mixed in the middle creating an unorchestrastrated pandemonium. Most of the staff that had been watching so intently the action between Ron and Betty now headed off to their normal work stations to get Global Justice back up and running.

She could read upon the display of most computers the big bold words informing all those who might wish to accomplish something that the computer was locked down and sends all data to a secondary source out of harms way. This was only pulled off by freezing all computer systems at the last point when the alarms sounded and immediately flush all information off. Field agents now began to call in to figure out why they had been cut off, tying up communications. Municipal police and fire called in inquiring if they could be of assistance due to the automatic distress call sent out by the fire alarm, tying up even more systems. The simple firing of a smoke canister had caused a snowball effect launching the Global Justice law enforcement group of effectively shut down.

And the cause of the present uproar cautiously peeked his dirty oil streaked head out from the doorway looking to see if the coast was clear before stepping out into the rainstorm, on his shoulder a blackened naked mole rat, in his hand was the golden card. Seconds later he was unceremoniously grabbed by a pair of uniformed thugs and hauled off too who knows where.

"Well you ought to be proud Ms. Possible it seems your husband is the only person to complete four out of the three missions. Never been done before." The man muttered not quite below his breath.

She was pleased that Ron had been successful in a round about way but Kim was still a little dumb founded again; everyone seemed to think she and Ron were married. It was true that they would be married one day but not for a while. Her mother had always stated that her little love birds had acted more like a married couple than most married couples and had been doing so since about ten years of age. Except for the kissing and cuddling their relationship hadn't really altered, they still did everything together and always would.

Another man on her opposite side snidely added the comment. "He's also the only person to cause Global Justice to close up shop, if only temporarily." The poor man grumbled as he uselessly punched away at the keypad.

Kim thought to herself with a smile that's what you get for kidnapping the master of disaster and forcing him to do your stupid tests.

"KP!"

Kim jumped at the sound of her name bellowed out from across the room. Turning she broke into a big grin as her so called husband charged towards her arms open wide. He was like an oversized puppy dog that had waited all day for its master to return home; bounding across a slippery tile floor, his eyes wide with excitement and a big slobbery wet kiss ready to like her entire face. She accepted his invite and entered into his arms and enjoyed a nice big hug, slobbery wet kiss and all. It was nice to have him safe and sound if not just a little sodden.

"They kidnapped me and make me do some silly tests." He called out still holding tightly onto her.

"I know, I saw." Drinking in his form she noted that he had changed from his wet mission clothes and back into his standard red jersey with matching Rufus carrying pants, she'd have to make sure he hung up the drenched clothing when he got home. His flesh had dried but his hair retained the dampness from being hastily escorted through the monsoon filled hallway.

Looking down at the floor somewhat ashamed he responded "I think I kinda cheated on some of them." His lover could feel one shoe scuff the ground.

"I know I saw that too." Showing a sympathetic smile Kim ran her fingers through the hair upon the side of his face. Excess water trickled over her gloves. "I still think you passed." With that she gave him a quick kiss upon the nose.

He seemed to brighten up at her words of encouragement; most guys did when they learned of their triumphs.

"Now let's go home before they find you some other silly things for you to do." Leaning against his shoulder she took his arm in hers and let him escort her out of the building.

"I came in the other way." He stated pointing towards one of the underground portals.

"I know but I brought the car and it's parked near the other entrance."

Nodding in acknowledgement the young man took several steps before "I don't think Doctor Betty is happy with me."

Trying to suppress a laugh her body convulsed slightly "I fairly certain she's a lot more than a wee bit tweeked with you. Now come on we've missed our little cuddle session and I'm not very pleased with that." And with that the pair quietly slipped from the underground hideaway of the world famous Global Justice law enforcement group. Or at least they will be after all the alarms have been shut down, systems have been reset and water mopped up.