Author's note: Much as I wish I could post this often, I can't make any promises. But hey, if you're one of those sadists who like the fact that my stories shoot past the hundred thousand word mark, then you're in luck. Had some plot developments yesterday that are sure to accomplish that target and probably surpass. Apparently I just can't write a short story. Also fair warning: This story's gonna be darker than its predecessors, so I will try to balance it with humor wherever possible. Anyway, a very special thanks to Sentinal103, CajunBear72, Widowshark, Librana, Rye-Bread, kmtdiccion, and ajw1970.

Onward:

Chapter 2

They didn't see each other until preschool, and even then there was no real interaction between them, largely because they were only at the school for three days, and he barely acknowledged her existence. When several boys started pulling her hair and throwing sand at her, he joined the rest of the bystanders and watched until one of the instructors intervened. When one of those boys later threw sand at him, he picked up a Tonka Truck toy and bashed the other kid directly in the face. He did this simply as a reaction, without anger or malice. It was a response designed to get the other kid to leave him alone. And while the pain of the incident was highest on the list of the other child's woes, that child couldn't help – even at the age of four – the feeling that something was not quite right with the boy called Stoppable. There had been no anger on his face, no clenched teeth; he didn't even say anything. The young blond lad, immediately upon having sand thrown in his face, simply looked around for the nearest implement and drove it into his tormenter's head. As soon as the other child went down, young Ron dropped the bloodied toy and walked away.

For her part, Kim was terrified at the prospect of meeting other kids. The first four years of her life were solitary, with the exception of her parents. Despite Mrs. Doctor Possible's efforts to socialize the girl, playdates always ended with Kim in tears, unwilling to play with others; not because she didn't like them, but because she was afraid of them. Despite being paired with some of the gentlest and most pleasant children one could hope to meet, she was convinced there were sinister intents behind their smiles, and on the rare occasion when another child became aggressive, she would take it as confirmation the world was full of monsters or potential monsters. She made her dad check the closet and under her bed every night before she could even contemplate sleep, and most days she refused to even go outside, preferring to clutch a stuffed toy or blanket and watch TV on the couch.

Both Kim and Ron were sent to specialists at a very young age. Ron's parents were alarmed at his almost complete lack of emotion. Nothing made him laugh, or cry, or even smile slightly. His eyes were always half closed, and as soon as they had taken in whatever surroundings he occupied, he would always revert to staring straight ahead. If his mother sent him outside to play, he sat on the porch and stared at the front lawn. When his dad took him to a minor league baseball game (The Middleton Mastiffs were a Double 'A' affiliate of the Gotham Knights), Ron didn't clap, or cheer or root for either team.

The best neurologists and psychologists in the country gave both children clean bills of health, despite Mrs. Dr. P being convinced that some aspect of the autism spectrum was involved. Both children were openly social with their familiars, both responded to tests of motor skills and intelligence normally, though Kim scored quite a bit higher than Ron on the latter. All functions were within parameters both physically and mentally.

But as the years went on, Kim had to be homeschooled because of her steadfast refusal to socialize, and Ron was constantly getting notes sent home about his unwillingness to participate in interactive class events or sports or anything that involved him developing a relationship with anyone else. He would certainly speak with others, but it was only if he felt there needed to be an exchange of information. In his first few days in Middle School, Ron was antagonized by boys larger and two grades ahead of him, for it's usually the anti-social or shy ones who are tormented at this age. Ron felt no fear, no anger, and he certainly was not intimidated. Despite taking quite a few punches and several minor injuries, Ron determinedly let the other boys know he was not to be trifled with.

At home, Kim excelled in her studies, with both parents trading days off from work to take part in her education. When the twins were born, however, Kim withdrew further into herself, convinced all her parents' love was now going to be directed toward her brothers. She didn't tell them this, of course, and her further withdrawal only increased their confusion.

As high school drew closer and the physical changes that accompany such an age began to take hold, Ron and Kim started to relax – in a manner of speaking – and both began to come out of their shells. They were still essentially the same people they had always been (Kim withdrawn and Ron apathetic), but something was bubbling beneath he surface of their conscious minds, though they were as-yet unaware of it.

Of course, no one could have possibly known it, but the potency of the DNA-altering chemical that continued to reproduce itself within their brains was being deluged with hormones and the accompanying changes that come at such an age, and it did not have the strength and physical influence it once did. This is not to say Ray Beam's chemical compound was eliminated, it continued to exert its presence at the sub-molecular level, but with less effect. The changes were gradual, and Kim and Ron most certainly did not revert to their hero and sidekick personas, but they were not the extreme personality types they had been as younger children. Naturally, both sets of parents were somewhat relieved, and had they known their children's brains had been chemically altered, certainly would have been up in arms. But Ron's father was glad his son was now less likely to wind up in jail, and Kim's parents decided it was time for her to get out of the house. Like it or not, she would be attending Middleton High School.

At this news, Kim ran up to her room and cried for hours. The next morning she refused to get up, but instead sobbed off and on for the remainder of the day. Kim's father wanted to relent and just continue homeschooling her, but Mrs. Doctor Possible was adamant. The girl needed to socialize, needed the kinds of skills that would prepare her for adulthood, needed to learn the things that can't be taught by a parent. It was time for Kim to be pushed out of the nest for eight hours a day.

So, on an unusually chilly September morning, two cars pulled up in front of Middleton High School, the drivers recognized each other and waved while their children got out and began making their way toward the main entrance of the building. Despite their mothers getting together once a month for coffee and chat, Kim and Ron had not seen each other in the ten years since preschool. They would not have recognized each other, but then Kim wasn't looking at anybody. Despite having a backpack, Kim clutched the bag to her chest, pushed her glasses up on her face, and kept her eyes focused rigidly on the ground a few feet ahead. No one said anything to her, and no one really took notice, as was her intent. Her mother had taken her shopping for school clothes, and she deliberately picked the plainest, drabbest and most unnoticeable clothes she could root out of the clothing bins.

She made her way up the front steps and reached for the door when a hand got to it first. Pulling it open, Ron gestured for her to go on in, though his motivation was more to clear his path than chivalry. She looked up to say a timid 'thank you' and their eyes locked…

…what happened next was something they would both spend months trying to comprehend.

The world stopped. It didn't go into slow motion, it stopped completely. They were physically unable to remove their gaze from each other. Around them, living statues were posed in various aspects of heading to class. Steam breathed from mouths and noses hung in the air like unmoving clouds. Yet, despite the sudden ceasing of movement, there was still sound. At least, they both began to hear something, but they weren't sure if it was happening around them or inside their heads. Neither of them knew they were both hearing the same things; noises, odd zapping and electrical sounds, 'booms' like explosions, all of it very far away with an echo quality that made it all sound as if it were emanating from a vast cavern. Then a voice, and then, many voices. Shouting, grunting, more explosions, all coming from very far away, muted yet echoing.

Finally, an oddly familiar voice. Kim thought it was her mother.

"Focus, Ron!"

Ron thought she had said it, though her lips didn't move. Their eyes remained locked.

"Kim!"

Thumping noises that sounded like punches being thrown.

"Watch the henchmen, Ron!"

Grunts, more zapping noises. None of it got any louder. In fact, it began to fade.

An unfamiliar voice, "You think you're all that!"

Both of them were becoming alarmed, but unable to tear away from each other's gaze. The world remained unmoving.

Many voices, many noises, all jumbled together,

"Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Doctor P!"

"Hicka bicka boo!"

"Signal strong…and annoying!"

Series of beeps.

"Wade, can you get us a ride?"

"What's the sitch?"

"You'll never get away with this!"

Zapping noises.

"Booyah!"

"I can send you into deep space. Black hole deep."

"I couldn't save the world without you."

"Shego!"

More explosions.

"You'll never stop m-"

Ron was jostled by someone trying to get around him through the door. The gaze broke and the world moved again as though some massive remote control was used to un-pause the universe.

Kim took a timid step backward and self-consciously looked around. No one else seemed to notice what had just happened, and this strange boy was staring at her. She clutched her bag tighter to her chest, averted her eyes to the floor and scurried away.

Ron watched her for a few seconds and then lost her in the crowd. He looked around and found a bench nearby. He was a little dizzy. Sitting down, he tried to parse out what he had just heard. As much as he wanted to dismiss what had occurred, he couldn't brush it off. Among the jumble of voices and explosions he'd heard something that disturbed him to his very core.

He heard himself.

It was a bright, Spring morning. The skies were clear, shuttle traffic was minimal, birds were regaling each other in the trees. The last of the dew was evaporating from what looked like an endless green carpet that led up the side of the mountain.

From that side of the mountain, a very elderly Japanese couple were carefully making their way to the base of Mt. Yamanuchi, almost hobbling, but supporting each other as they walked. They spoke to each other rarely, and even then the conversation was muted. He was bald except for his facial hair, which consisted of a very thin wispy beard that stopped halfway to his chest. Her hair was gray to the point of white, and her eyes carried a lot of history with them; care-worn and ancient. His eyes, for their part, looked even older, as if they carried much more history than hers. They both wore simple white robes and pants that ended just below the knee, with the simplest of sandals for their feet.

When they reached a certain point, near where the base of the mountain met the edge of the plain, they stopped and began gazing into the sky.

An explosive 'boom', like thunder, shook the ground and a large, blue-hued hole opened up in the air a few feet away. Barely able to keep their feet, they stared in astonishment as two people, a large rodent and a dog walked calmly onto the base of Mt. Yamanuchi from wherever the other side of the vortex originated. Both elderly folks did a double take as they realize it was one human and one sort of monkey-human hybrid being. They did a triple take when they recognized who the monkey-hybrid being was.

"Toshimiru!" The old woman was unable to contain her astonishment.

"Mother!" The monkey-hybrid exclaimed in response, "Father!"

Behind them, the vortex closed with a sort of reverse thunderclap and the six of them were left standing on the grass in a clear and bright Japanese Spring morning.

Toshimiru was a dark haired, dark eyed young man who walked upright most of the time, yet still had a monkey's hands and a monkey's feet/hands. His body was covered in very short black fur, yet he preferred to wear clothes, and he had a prehensile monkey's tail that was fully functional (and came in very handy when he was in battle). Though he called the elderly man 'father', it was, in point of fact, his adopted father. But the elderly woman was his biological mother and he loved them both as much as he loved his own life, though maybe just a tad bit less than he loved his wife, who stood smiling beside him as he had a tearful reunion with his parents.

Toshimiru's mother, Yori, shed most of the tears. For while she had lived as a co-instructor at the Yamanuchi School for Ninjas these last five hundred years with her husband, Kintaro, who had been Shogun of Japan over twenty-one hundred years before, the longevity granted to them as the Yamanuchi schoolmasters did not extend to their only child, nor their grandchildren, and so forth. When she last saw him, he had been laying in his casket, a wizened old warrior who died at the age of one hundred and eight. But here, he was young and full of life, most of which was still ahead of him.

"I am sorry, my manners have escaped me in this emotional time," Yori turned to the young woman who stood smiling patiently and startled her by throwing her arms around her. "Welcome to you also, daughter. We could not be more pleased to see you both."

"Thank you," Veronica returned the embrace. "I was going to say I wish we could be seeing you under better circumstances, but I suppose there is no good reason for anyone to travel through time."

Kintaro nodded his head vigorously after fiercely hugging Toshi and Ronnie-Anne, then dropped to one knee and extended his hand toward the pink three-foot-tall rodent who stood by patiently, "Greetings, Rufus Three Thousand, you are looking well."

"As are you, Kintaro-sensei. As always, it is my honor to be in the company of such great warriors. I echo Agent Stoppable's regret at the circumstances under which we see each other again."

As an orphan raised at Yamanuchi, Yori had no last name. Her own adopted father – the teacher known as Master Sensei – had no last name of his own. Kintaro, having come from ancient Japan, also had no last name. Thus, when Toshi and Veronica got married, he simply took her last name.

As Rufus Three Thousand (R3K) and Kintaro-sensei chatted with each other, beside the rodent sat the rigid and alert Ronaldus; a dog R3K once rescued from Ray Beam. At the time, his name had been 'Stoppable' and he was the target for Beam's abuse. But since his rescue, Ronaldus had undergone extensive training under the care of R3K and was practically an agent himself. Many times had he saved the life of every member of Team Stoppable, and while he loved them all, his fierce loyalty and deepest love was reserved solely for the cloned mole rat who had taken a whimpering, frightened puppy and turned him into a hero.

Those who read the story called UNION may be thinking that Veronica was also subject to Beam's monstrous temper, and indeed she was, in that particular timeline. Her father rescued her and took her back to ancient Japan where she was killed in battle. However, when the timeline came around again to the point of the journey back to Japan, Kim and Shego prevented the once-successful assassination of Ron Stoppable when Shego killed Ray Beam. Ron decided to enroll Veronica at Yamanuchi (where she met and fell in love with Toshi), and that was where she was training when Young Ron took TJ and Kimono back to ancient Japan to meet Kim and Yori; thus the timeline was altered and Veronica, having not suffered through the death of her father, and fallen in love (not to mention receiving ninja training), was a very different person from the diminutive, wilting flower she had been in that other reality. This Veronica was a proud and capable warrior, loving and devoted wife, and a deeply protective, nurturing mother to her infant twins Ben and Hannah (whom she had left in the care of their 'aunt' Ariel - the daughter of Wade and Monique – in the past).

Time travel is a cornucopia of confusing concepts.

She was avoiding him, and he was avoiding admitting that particular fact to himself. A few times in the ensuing months he caught her eye from a distance; the other end of the hall, across the gym, whatever, and the experience had not repeated itself. Most of the time, however, he couldn't get her attention from any kind of distance because she had her bag clutched to her chest and was always avoiding eye contact with anyone. She also seemed to wear that same drab outfit every day. He began to doubt the event ever taking place at all. No one else mentioned it, no one else seemed to notice.

It didn't happen.

Except he knew it did on the sole virtue of the fact that he heard himself saying things he knew he had never said in his life. Who says 'booyah' any more anyway? And as if the world pausing for what seemed like hours wasn't enough to disturb him, he was having a very tough time dealing with another unprecedented experience; emotions.

It wasn't as though Ron Stoppable was a completely emotionless person before he got to high school. He was just shallow; a shallow thinker, and a shallow feeler. He shied away from any real, deep emotions the way anyone who's experienced a severe trauma might do. It was just that his particular trauma had taken place before he had developed the capability of memory.

Something else had happened too. Not to him, necessarily but it did affect him indirectly. A loud, blue-skinned man with a pony tail and a scar on his face had conquered and taken over Canada with some sort of weather machine. The Canadians were too polite to fight back, and Team Go suffered a serious defeat when one of their members abruptly joined forces with the blue fellow and assisted his takeover. Doctor Something-or-other set himself up as Canada's first President-For-Life and the U.S. got bogged down in trade negotiations in which a rather severe maple syrup embargo caused the price of the sweet substance to surpass that of milk, fuel or Hawaiian Pizza, which was also expensive since purists tended to put Canadian bacon on their Hawaiian version of Italian Pizza.

Only in America.

What affected Ron – indirectly – was the persistent knowledge that, after hearing one of the Canadian President-for-Life's bellowing speeches in which he threatened to take over the rest of the world, Ron was certain he had heard that voice during the moment when the world stopped...or seemed to stop, anyway. It was another reality he was trying to deny. In a deeper sense, Ron was sure he was trying to deny something he couldn't quite put into thoughts or words; some universal secret that lurked just below the surface, or in the shadows. As if some kind of-

"Watch where you're going, kid!"

Ron was shoved roughly aside, tripped and went sprawling across the linoleum floor of the school hallway. Everything he was thinking was pushed away, his mind shut down and he went into auto beast-mode. They were laughing at him, but he didn't care. He did care that they felt they could treat him like their personal amusement plaything. He didn't much like that.

The hallway cleared a large space, like the streets in the old western movies when the hero is about to have a draw down with the villain. Some of them were previously from Middleton Junior High school where Ron had established his reputation to be left alone. High School didn't know it yet.

Yet.

Ron recognized his classmate Bonnie Rockwaller as one of those laughing, but it wasn't she who pushed him. The large young man who had shoved Ron was Brick Flagg, only a sophomore and already on the varsity football team. When Ron got up, Bonnie removed her arm, which was intertwined with Brick's arm and stepped aside to give her boyfriend room.

"You got a problem?" Brick's tone was clearly challenging.

Ron said nothing, took several steps toward a glass-encased box mounted on the wall, put his fist through it, and pulled out a fire extinguisher.

Later that day, Ron was suspended for a month, and only because his parents begged and pleaded Mr. Barkin not to expel him outright.

Brick Flagg spent the remainder of the season on the disabled list.

Ronaldus twitched, turned his head, and barked twice in rapid staccato.

"Everyone!" R3K held up his paws, "Ronaldus has alerted to something. We must be on our guard in case-"

Nearby, a pale blue vortex opened up like a doorway extending upward from the grass about six feet into the air. Everyone recognized it immediately for what it was, and through the opening stepped four people.

"Stoppable-san!" Yori's breath caught in her throat. Kintaro smiled at the sight of his old friends and then uttered his own astonished yelp when he saw who was riding on Ron's shoulder.

"No!" R3K exclaimed and ran toward Ron. He immediately dropped to one knee and held up his hands. "It cannot be! It is actually you!"

"Yup!" Ron exclaimed back, "Believe it, this is me, dude."

"While it is most agreeable to see you," R3K said slowly. "I was speaking of him."

And here the three foot tall mole rat clone pointed to the six inch tall mole rat clone on Ron's shoulder that was regarding him with some confusion. The smaller mole rat was wearing a tiny backpack – an invention of Wades – which housed his artificial mind. Since it was charged by even the faintest of light – including starlight – Rufus was able to go where he wanted without relying on satellites to relay the signal to his receiver. It was TJ's idea to bring him along, thinking R3K would get a kick out of seeing his predecessor. He had no idea that kick was almost at level: worship.

"Uh…hey!" Rufus squeaked as he bounded down Ron's leg and gazed up at R3K, who was taller than he, even when he was kneeling. Sensing something important, Ronaldus lay down and put his chin on the top of his paws.

"Whatever I can do, even if it means my life, I am your servant for as long as you have need of anything." R3K's tone carried the utmost reverence.

"Uh…" Rufus was clearly uncomfortable, "Thanks?"

The chatter between the humans had broken long enough for everyone to witness the moment, but resumed again when Kintaro asked why they had all come.

"The Tempus Simia," TJ said solemnly, noting Yori's startled look. "It's not an ancient relic, is it?"

"No," Yori said quietly. "It is a technological device capable of-"

"I'm sorry," Kimono interrupted with a somewhat angry look on her face. "We know what it is and what it does. What we want to know is: do you have it?"

Everyone looked at the turquoise-skinned warrior.

"What?" Kimono looked around as if everyone else was supposed to be on the same page she was, "It's obvious these two took the Tempus Simia into the past and stayed there with it. I mean, that's Mukashi!"

Here, she pointed at Kintaro.

"THANK you!" Kim said as if being reminded of something she was trying desperately to remember, which is what happened. Old Kintaro's face looked all too familiar to her. "When Shego and I escaped from Mutsu Castle, we wandered through the hills for a couple of days before you found us and got us back to Hidesato's army." She turned an almost accusing eye toward Yori's husband, "It was you! You knew who we were, which is why you found us when we were lost. You knew the whole time and never told us!"

Kintaro blinked and was unable to say anything since he had no memory of what Kim was referring to because he had not yet gone into the past with Yori and the Tempus Simia.

Time travel. It makes your head hurt if you think about it too much.

He'd been watching her for several days, and had firmly established her routine. During breaks between classes she would go outside, even if the weather was freezing, and sit on a bench for ten minutes (breaks were fifteen minutes long in order to allow for transition between classes). This was apparently to avoid talking to anyone or having to interact with others. If she had a locker, she never used it, preferring to carry her books in her bag, and as always, clutching it to her chest. She wore her hair the same way each day, pulled back into a tight pony tail so that the hair was virtually stretched across her skull in the most unflattering way possible. If she had a wardrobe, it consisted of the same gray ankle-length skirt, the same charcoal sweater – even if the weather was hot – and the same black canvas shoes. Her glasses drew up to a point on either side, which made the lenses look like the ears of an alien, and the frames were thick, black and not the least bit stylish or comfortable.

He noticed she would be the first person out of the building when school let out for the day and most days she'd be crying; sometimes sobbing outright and other times furiously wiping away tears in an obvious attempt to not let the sobbing get a hold on her. She would climb aboard her bus and sit at the side emergency exit door. No one sat next to her, and if they did, she would clutch her bag tighter and turn to face the window.

Again, the deeper emotions he instinctively pushed away his entire life began to insist their way into his conscious mind from his subconscious. This time the strange new feeling was empathy. He felt something for her; not attraction or even friendship, but something resembling pity. She had no friends, and even shunned those who made any attempt to talk to her in a friendly manner.

Of course, Ron had no friends either, but he was content with this. He talked to other kids at school, and interacted with them whenever they spoke to him, but he never pursued friendships. For him, the hairless rodent he recently purchased at Smarty Mart was all the companionship he desired. He was still trying to settle on a name for the little creature.

Having nothing better to do with his suspension time, and tired of the lectures he was receiving at home about applying himself and getting better grades, Ron decided to begin stalking Kim in order to confirm once and for all whether the experience they'd shared back at the beginning of the school year was real or just some imaginary memory. After almost a week of observing her, he zeroed in on her lunch break, which she took every day out behind the school under the bleachers next to the football field. There she would sit on her bag in solitude and eat her sandwich, staring off at the ground, though some days she had to get the tears to stop flowing before she could eat.

Today he didn't bother observing her. Today he was waiting under the bleachers by the football field. When the appropriate time came, he crouched low in the shadows.

She wasn't crying today, but looked as though she could burst into tears at any moment. She set her bag down, took our her sandwich, and uttered a troubled sigh before lifting her food to her mouth.

Staring straight at the ground meant she had learned to tune out movements in her periphery. Before she knew what was happening, he had her by the arm and hauled her to her feet.

"OW! What are you doing!?" She was sobbing before she finished the sentence.

Not taking any chances, Ron reached up with his free hand and pulled her glasses from her face.

Despite her tears, and despite the turmoil she was currently feeling, Kim's curiosity broke the surface of her mind like a killer whale breaching into the air from the ocean. She too had been fearfully mulling the incident between them from months before. Fear diminished, desperation diminished, anguish diminished, even the pain in her arm diminished.

She turned to him and their eyes locked.

The sound of the wind in the nearby trees abruptly ceased. A moth that had been flitting between the support posts of the bleachers froze, its wings in mid-flap, several feet off the ground. A bird that was just settling to the top handrail of the bleachers hovered, its wings spread wide, its talons outstretched to grasp the rail, six inches above its landing target.

Their eyes did not move, they did not move, nothing moved. Ron was dimly aware she had stopped crying, there weren't even tears welling in her eyes.

From far away, again, as if broadcast from a massive cavern some distance off, the noises and the voices faded in.

"Never work where you food."

"All right people, LISTEN UP!"

"You think you're all that, but you're not!"

"Booyah!"

Explosions.

"Ron, stop playing around!"

"Kimmie, let's not talk about 'hotties' at the breakfast table anymore."

"Never be normal! That's the Ron Stoppable way!"

Laser blasts

"This is sick and wrong!"

"You see, Junior, how awful it is to be poor?"

"I know what's best for Ron, even if he doesn't."

"Can you not be weird? Please?"

Cheering, applause, rhythmic chants.

"So what's the sitch?"

"Sweet Mother of Pearl!"

"What are you two doing?"

"Hey! Didn't you hear me? I said what are you two doing?" Mr. Barkin was glaring at them from the edge of the bleachers.

Kim reached down, grabbed her bag, snatched her glasses from Ron's hand and ran off.

"What was that?" Ron called after her.

"I don't know!" Kim sobbed over her shoulder.

"WHO ARE YOU!?"

For a moment her stride hesitated, then she gave him a truthful answer, "I don't know! Leave me alone!"

"So despite the risks, and the inevitable changes it will make to the timeline, we have to find and destroy the Tempus Simia before it gets sent into the past." Ron Stoppable was just finishing his explanation of why they had all come forward into the future – and why TJ and Kimono had first gone into their own recent past to retrieve Ron and Kim - to Kintaro and Yori.

"Wade said this is the point in time where the Tempus Simia gets taken back," Veronica explained. "Do you have it with you?"

"We do not." Yori was still trying to absorb the fact that she had been complicit in yet another evil plot, but rather than self-loathing, she understood she had been deceived by the agents of evil, and accepted things for what they were. "However, that is the purpose of why we came to the base of the mountain today. We are awaiting its delivery."

Nods all around, and several of them uttered sighs of relief. This was not going to be like other missions. They had arrived at that time and place they needed to be, and in moments, the Tempus Simia would be delivered to them, they could destroy it, and the mission would be complete.

As if on cue, Ronaldus turned his head skyward and barked. The hum of Twin Ion Engines accompanied a shuttle that made an overhead pass and then circled around to land about fifty yards away. Once it settled, a rear door lowered to the ground and a beautiful young blond woman stepped out, carrying a small package about the size of a shoe box.

The entire party had moved to greet the shuttle, but Yori and Kintaro went ahead of them.

"Greetings, Amanda Flagg. We trust your journey was trouble-free." Yori was curt, but polite.

"It went about as expected," Flagg looked around warily. "You have some visitors?"

Before Yori could reply, an alarm sounded from within the shuttle, then a robotic voice announced: "Threat level elevated! Facial recognition protocol! Ron Stoppable! Kim Possible! Veronica Stoppable…"

Amanda took a step back toward her shuttle while the shuttle computer continued to list the names of those who were now standing in a large semi-circle around her, "Computer, prepare for launch!"

"Give us the Tempus Simia!" Kimono shouted and broke into a sprint toward the now-closing door.

Two metallic objects embedded themselves on either side of the raising door, preventing it from closing. Both Ron and TJ had brought their time period's respective Lotus Blades. The shuttle took off anyway and began moving away at considerable speed. It dipped and banked involuntarily as the two Lotus Blades tore themselves from the fuselage and sailed back to their respective masters. The craft disappeared into the air.

"I should have known this mission wasn't going to be that easy." Ron growled through clenched teeth. "Can we track her aircraft? Find out where it's going to land? You guys know who she is. Where is her lair? Where does she live? She seemed American…please tell me she's on her way back to the United States."

Kintaro took a step toward Ron and bowed his head. "I am ashamed to admit that Amanda Flagg was once a student of ours. But she does not live on the North American Continent. Her home planet is Yusei."

"I'm sorry, what?" TJ desperately wanted to believe he miss-heard the ninja master. "Did you say 'home planet'?

"Terrific." Ron folded his arms in frustration and looked toward the sky. "I didn't think we were going to have to search the stars for this thing!"