A tense silence filled the room. Although the battle was won, the mood was anything but relaxed.
"Oh man, a parallel Shego." Ron groaned in poorly restrained misery. "Why can't any of these twins have goatees? This is totally ruining all of the classic clichés."
"It's me, twerp!" Shego proclaimed annoyed.
"Yeah, it's definitely her." Kim concurred disappointedly. "So, I don't suppose this means you're turning over a new leaf?" The battered teen super hero asked sarcastically.
"I owed that buzzed cut jerk one. This means we're even. That's all." Shego stated coldly.
"Shego agreed to help me. We'll leave it at that." Dr. Lipsky interjected, careful to act before another fight broke out. There had been enough violence already, and he was painfully aware of his role in much of it. Even as he stepped forward, he and Shego exchanged a knowing glance for a moment before the green clad villain turned about, without saying another word, and began walking away deeper into the lair.
"Oh no you don't. You don't get to walk away from this…." Kim moved to act as she spoke at Shego, but was stopped in her tracks as Dr. Lipsky's hand forcefully placed itself on her shoulder.
"Let her go."
"Go? She helps team Possible blow up the Grand Canyon and god only knows how many people in the area, and you want to just let her go?" Kim eyed the scientist incredulously, wondering whether or not he shared any of the same madness that this world's Drakken had.
"I don't particularly want too, but that was the deal for her help." Dr. Lipsky replied as he cast a wary gaze in the direction that he had seen Shego walk off in. "Besides, I rather doubt we really could have forced the issue if we had to." Andrew indicated to several bruises over Kim's body as well as a visible limp in her posture.
"Yeah, you know, speaking of which… sidekick in mortal agony over here." Ron called out even as he continued to press his blood soaked makeshift bandage over the wound in his shoulder.
"Oh god Ron." Kim's concern over Shego quickly vanished, replaced by concern for Ron as she moved to tend to him. Kim brought her hand over to her right shoulder and tore her sleeve straight off her mission shirt. Tensing and stretching the fabric between her hands, she moved to wrap the material over Ron's shoulder even as she moved his original bandage over to take a look at his injury.
"How bad is it?" Ron asked as he bit down the urge to hiss in pain.
Kim paused a moment before shooting Ron a mock look of concern. "Terminal."
"Funny KP, but my death bed is not the place for jokes!" Ron cried out.
"It's not as bad as it looks." Kim replied with an almost maternal tone before her voice shifted, turning just a little naughty. "But it'll probably leave a really sexy scar."
"Really? Badical!" Ron exclaimed.
Kim just smiled as she tore off her remaining sleeve to make a poor mans sling to go around Ron's arm and neck. As she moved to place the fabric around the back of his head, she caught him grinning widely, his eyes roaming over the rapidly vanishing remains of her shirt.
"Don't get any ideas, Stoppable." Kim chided through a grin on her face.
"I'm a guy KP. I get ideas watching the paint dry."
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"You idiot, you stupid, stupid idiot. We could have had everything. Two worlds; that's one for each of us in case that enhanced brain of yours can't do basic math and you ruined it all." Kim shouted from the floor facing up, trapped within the still immobile Centurion armor. Her partner remained unconscious several feet away, his hands and legs tied in case he came around.
"You know, it would probably count as both cruel and inhumane, but you think we could stick the two of them in the same cell." Kim asked as her armored twin continued to grumble and rant on.
"You want to see cruel, sister? Oh just wait till I get out of this. I will redefine every aspect of your life as painful and mmmph!" The armored Kim was cut off as Ron tore a part of his own shirt off and stuffed it into her mouth, gagging her and silencing her threats.
"Listening to that for twenty four hours a day definitely qualifies as cruel and inhumane, KP." Ron explained simply.
"I imagine they will both be put in isolation under extreme lock and guard." Dr. Lipsky stated confidently even as he continued to work on the Dimensional Vortex Generator. With the Mega Cannon already disabled thanks to Shego's help, remodifying it to send him home was the only thing on his mind.
Almost on cue, Dr. Lipsky completed the final adjustment, activating the device, prompting the same swirling blue vortex that had occurred several times over the last few days to appear in the middle of the room.
"And what about you? What will you do when you get back?" Kim asked.
"I suppose what the two of you do so well, save the world." Lipsky smiled back at the young pair.
"Don't sound too anxious dude. It's a full time job, and the hours are cruel." Ron added.
"True, but I'll have help. With team Possible out of the game, Global Terror will be at its own throat, tearing itself apart within the week. And there are other heroes where I'm from. Lord Montgomery Fiske, Lord Killigan, the world's most heroic Croquet player… I won't be alone. I'm getting my wife back and I'm setting my world right." A look of confidence and hope spread across Andrew Lipsky's eyes as he spoke.
"Good luck." Kim smiled, taking the doctor's hand in her own, shaking as she starred the hero from another world in the eye.
"Take it easy dude. Stop by for a visit sometime and I'll teach you how to make a mean grande size naco!" Ron added, forgoing a handshake with his wounded arm in favor of a head nod.
"Someday." Andrew nodded, before turning to his prisoners, grabbing each by a leg as he prepared to drag them back through the portal. "You know I've been waiting to do this for a very, very long time."
"Worth the wait?" Ron asked, already knowing the answer.
"Absolutely." With that, Andrew and the alternate team Possible entered the swirling vortex, and disappeared from sight as the portal closed behind them.
"So, the world famous Team Possible saves not one, but two worlds in one day! That has so gotta be a record, even for us." Ron declared proudly, even as he winced at the pain in his shoulder.
Kim smiled widely as she turned to Ron. "So, did you miss all this over in Japan?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
"You kidding KP, this is what I live for." He beamed.
"And what about this?" Kim leaned, placing her hand gently around the back of his head as she pulled Ron's lips to her own. Their eyes closed simultaneously as they became lost in each other's touch, seconds stretching out into an eternity that both would have given anything to preserve, finally pulling away at the need for air.
"Oh yeah." Ron let out as a whisper. "You know KP, we really haven't had nearly as much 'alone' time as normal." His voice continued in a more normal volume, thickly laced with implication.
"True." Kim continued to grin widely, her arms slowly wrapping their way around Ron's neck as she pulled herself gently closer to him.
"And here we are now, alone, on a deserted island, in the middle of nowhere…"
"If you have to finish that sentence, I will kill you." Kim's lips were mere centimeters from Ron's when the ceiling of the room the pair stood in burst, a large hole opening up on top, through which several ropes dropped down, heralding a unit of GJ agents in uniform, dropping into the room.
"Team Possible." The lead agent saluted as the other agents cleared through the room, securing every corner, every inch of the facility. "We received a call from Dr. Lipsky. We understand you could use a ride home."
"Uhmm… no?" Ron replied uncertainly, as if it might discourage the agents.
Kim, on the other hand, just sighed, smiling as she took Ron by his good arm. "Come on Ron, we should get home. We got school tomorrow."
"What! No, wait, leave me here. Someone's gotta take the Lotus Blade back. I'm sick, I need medical attention!" Ron cried out.
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"Do spies get paid by the hour? Am I going to get dragon pay out of this?" Special Agent Ronnie Stoppable continued on and on even as Princess Kimmie Possible waited anxiously atop the tree branch and it's nailed in wooden boards.
"You are taking way too long! I coulda been eaten by the dragon already or worse… I coulda already been rescued by another knight!"
"How is that worse? Doesn't that mean I can go home?" Ronnie asked.
"Hurry up! It's getting cold up here." Kimmie ordered.
Ronnie merely grumbled something inaudible as he continued climbing. The few branches he had left to climb seemed miles apart as he worked his way up to the top of the tree, finally bringing himself up to the wooden plateau where his princess waited. Ronnie let out an exasperated gasp before finally speaking in a faux British accent, which at the time, he was under the impression, was how spies spoke.
"Princess Possible, Agent Stoppable, Ron Stoppable, at your… rescue." Ronnie announced as formally as he could.
"My hero. And now, for your reward." Kimmie proclaimed. Even as she took her spy by the hand, she readied herself for what she had already decided was her favorite part of being a princess.
Kimmie leaned her face forward to meet Ronnie's, her lips pressed together, causing the young man to take a step back. "Hey wait a minute; I don't remember agreeing to this. Isn't there supposed to be gold involved?"
As Ronnie stepped back in surprise and hesitation, he took one step too many backwards, stepping over the back end of the planks, and falling over.
Kimmie shot forward, leaning over the side of the planks and grabbing Ronnie by his ankle, leaving him to dangle precariously high over the solid ground beneath him.
"AHHH! Help!Quick.Call911.GettheNationalGuard.Pututthebatsignal.Iwantmymom!" Ronnie squealed in hysterical panic, even as Kimmie struggled to hold on.
"Ron… you're too heavy." Kimmie gasped as she heaved to try and lift Ronnie up.
"Hey, are you calling me fat?" Ronnie asked, his mind temporarily distracted from the more pressing issue at hand.
"Ron…" Kimmie could feel her grip slipping. Acting without thinking, Kimmie decided to stop resisting the grip, rolling over the edge with Ron, allowing the pair to fall together.
Even as they fell, Kimmie grabbed Ronnie, pulling him close to her, taking him in her arms as she aimed herself with him in tow for a nearby tree. Almost super human agility and grace came into play as Kimmie directed herself from branch to branch, hopping from one to the other downward in an attempt to move in flow with gravity than fail to resist it directly.
Ronnie screamed the whole way down as Kimmie leapt from one last branch to another, and then down to the ground. It took him another ten seconds of screaming before his mind finally processed that the danger had passed.
Kimmie had taken those same ten seconds to decide that she didn't like playing princess much. It just didn't seem to suit her for some reason. Still, as she paused to look at Ronnie's freckled face, she could still remember the reason for wanting to play in the first place.
"My hero." Kimmie repeated. As Ronnie turned to look at her in confusion, Kimmie brought her face directly into Ronnie's, kissing him and muffling his screams of agony. Of course, those muffled screams endured for approximately three seconds. Their kiss lasted exactly eight.