This was it… Mik had been waiting for this moment for seeming eternity. With slow deliberation, she reached out. Her weight shifted, blindingly aware of every possible sound, every hair trigger that could be tripped. Her breath was silent, her eyes wide and unblinking. It was the moment of absolute tension… of perfect action…

*thlop!*

"GAAAAAH!" Shego lunged from her seated position and started dancing around wildly. "Get it off! Get it off!" She heaved with all her might and flung a good foot long slug quite far into the jungle spread out all around them.

Mik was laughing hysterically on the ground. As soon as Shego recovered enough from scrubbing herself clean of slime, she proceeded to chase Mik in dizzying circles around their newly improvised camp.

Kim sighed in irritation as Shaundra's eye twitched.

"Ya' know, it was amusing how well they got along the first few days… Now I'm starting to want to strangle them." Shaundra's eyes narrowed as Boo assisted Mik in pelting Shego with squishy fruit they'd been carrying past their freshness.

Kim watched wistfully. A part of her was getting fed up with the childish behavior, but she knew that as she was Mik's only outlet for energy, Mik was in sore need of more attention that Kim could possibly give. It wasn't healthy to only have one or two people you could actively socialize with. Kim still had a feeling she was mucking things up entirely. She was desperately trying to sort things out, but it'd been a difficult road. She was still coming to terms with the gray areas in life. She'd gotten so used to everything being laid out in black and white she'd never taken notice of the things that never could possibly fall strictly into such neat little niches.

Prior to Mik's introduction it was like living in a world of strictly three colors. It was all fine and dandy until someone (Mik) forced you to notice that there were four more colors that existed and you just weren't seeing them staring you in the face the whole time. You were so overcome by this paradox that you had to gape stupidly a long time just to come to terms with this new experience, let alone adjust and start actively working with it.

They'd also spent the last two and a half weeks searching down their missing person. They hadn't figured out who it was, and they still hadn't seen signs of anyone else besides themselves in their travels. There were no tell-tale campfires or left over shelters that they could identify. They'd been trying to keep a strict pattern to search in, but with the following antics of Mik and Shego, the rest of the party was getting sorely impatient and ready to be rid of the island and each other.

It didn't help that they were still debating how life would turn once Mik was introduced to the real world. Kim was already talking with Shaundra when the "children" were distracted. She was trying to formulate a plan of action that would allow Mik to finally mold herself into society properly without having to consistently panic about being discovered. It was still a strong factor, but it was deterred enough that if they pulled off the ruse here, then she was relatively certain it would mean she'd have to make Mik look like she'd always been part of society like any other normal girl her age. Discovery was less high if people were not thinking about looking so close to home.

Shaundra had voiced some relative ideas, but they were forced to concede the point was moot until they got off the cursed island.

"Seriously Kim, if you don't start trying to tame your pet, I'm going to start-"

Kim rolled her eyes and interrupted before Shaundra could even finish her threat. "Look who's talking! You have done absolutely nil about your sister! She's just as much to blame as Mik! SHE'S the one who decided to start pulling a prank war! You know how Mik gets with those kinds of challenges!"

Shaundra's mouth snapped closed with an audible click. She huffed and turned to find a laughing Shego racing away from a mud splattered Mik who was waving something around in the air with a rather wild look in her eye.

The elder of the group sighed. "Why is it now that they both decide to relieve childhood fancies? We already have enough on our plate as it is…"

Kim shrugged, poking their purposefully smoking fire with a stick. "I figure this is the best place to let loose. No one is here to witness anything and there isn't a lot they can destroy out here that won't grow back eventually."

A huff answered her comment.

"DINNER!"

The shout was unexpected and startled the two at the fire greatly. This was only doubled by the fact that something came sailing out of the air to land squarely in dirt between them.

On instinct alone, both of them leaped away and into defensive positions immediately…

Only to blink at the two large dead fish where said object landed.

With disturbingly good timing, both turned to glare heatedly at Mik who chuckled innocently and turned to dash back into the jungle as Shego gave a shout and chased after her again.

Shaundra growled a moment before thumping back down into her seat. "I swear she's turning out too much like me. I'm starting to lose my patience."

Kim snorted. "What patience?"

Shaundra shot her a withering stare. "I'm serious. I've been out of the loop from my company long enough to know it's going to get ugly quickly and I need to be there to help keep things from getting ridiculous. If what Mik says is true, things are about to get more dicey than usual. We need to start preparing. There's a lot more hang-ups in this than Mik's future."

A rock whizzed by Shaundra's head and could be heard pinging loudly off a tree a good six yards behind her. Kim's hand was outstretched, face set low in a scowl. "Do not play lightly with such comments. I won't forgive them."

A small staring contest ignited between the two of them and burned with a disturbing intensity before Shaundra huffed and looked away. She ran her hand through her hair. "That's not what I meant, and you should know that by now. By no means do I take any less merit in the importance of Mik's life, but I'm not stupid enough to blind myself ONLY to that problem. I have to worry about the fact that she needs a safe place to keep said life supported. Heck, we ALL need said place to keep existing. I've worked my whole life so people like Sharee and my family can live safely and comfortably. I will not see what I've worked hard for fall apart because I wasn't keeping track of ALL of my priorities."

At first, the redhead said nothing. She poked the fire several times and listened intently to the popping and crackling noises it issued. Her lips were pressed into a firm line, and her entire posture was stiff.

A puff of air on Kim's ear made the redhead's spine snap to attention.

"Relax…" whispered Mik. She calmly took a seat next to the redhead as said redhead looked ready to beat her over the head with the stick in her hand. "You look far too serious over here. Personally, the only hard part has been left on Shego's shoulders, so I don't see why we can't enjoy ourselves in a much needed vacation."

"This isn't the time or place," commented Kim, jaw still clenched as she counted backwards from ten in her head.

"Why not? At the moment, we're having zero luck with anything but the mission on hand. There isn't any way to make it go progressively faster, and it isn't like we have any interruptions." She turned to Shaundra. "I also know that you've trained your people well enough to handle the battle stations until you've returned. Give your people some credit here. You've gone on long missions before. They're used to being able to handle small emergencies until your return."

"But this isn't small," pointed out Shaundra, blue eyes locking with Mik's in a moment of seriousness. "I like to joke around, yes, but this is on a larger scale than we've ever managed before."

"And guess what? One of your key information finders is already digging into things. He will know to immediately go to the rest of your team once he has enough material that court action is possible. They will take all possible steps to mediate things until you arrive and start helping collaborate a more steadfast and firm plan to nip this in the bud." She looked pointedly at the woman she often used as a role model besides her… err the "original" her. "There's nothing any of us can do productively because when I left there wasn't enough information to start formulating deterrent plans with. Charging back right now will only make you sit and twiddle your thumbs and drive everyone insane with your impatience. The way I see it, this is an awesome chance for a break before things hit the fan."

Kim was watching Mik with a simple yet thoughtful expression. "I hate to agree with relaxing, but it isn't a bad idea. We have been covering a lot of ground lately, and there is a degree of 'hurry up and wait' that we're stuck dealing with in regards to any other missions we can actively participate in." She sighed. "The idea of completely relaxing has been out of my realm of possibility for quite a while. It'd be nice to slow down."

"Exactly," Mik said calmly. "We've all been in a tizzy lately. We've earned a break."

Shego rolled her eyes, having listened in but hovered in the background because she "didn't want to be part of the group".

"And what if we find the missing person tomorrow?" the green skinned woman sneered. "Your vacation would be cut prematurely short."

Mik grinned, earning a groan from both Kim and Shaundra.

"Firecracker, I do believe you just said 'we'."

Shego, having decided she was tired of chasing the blond around, merely lobbed a fireball at her with a verbal hiss.

Mik laughed as she easily dodged said fireball and made faces at Shego. Boo happened to be copying her in a rather humorous fashion, earning a peeved yet dismissive look from Shego.

Shaundra chuckled despite herself. Even if it tended to be irritating, as the two had been at it non-stop the past two and a half weeks, it was good to know that someone got under Shego's skin enough she forgot herself and got lost in the moment. It was both calming and saddening.

"She has a point, o' apprentice," remarked the brunette.

Kim shot the woman a glare for the apprentice comment.

Mik grinned at all of them. "Hey, if the missing person is safe, who's to say we can't enjoy ourselves a little longer? They did have a specific pick up day anyway. Unless we want it to be REALLY obvious how Kim got here, we need to pretend we're actually stranded. They're no doubt curious as hel-" She coughed mid word at Kim's scowl. "Ehem, they're probably dying with curiosity figuring out how Kim got to the island in the first place. They're probably consistently running radar, scans, and discreet flights and boat patrols at consistent intervals. If we want the jet to remain secret, we need to leave it hidden until after they think we've all left the area. It also is the safest way to introduce me. We can easily say I hijacked an aircraft from Shaundra's hangar to search for her, and once I realized that Kim had her location, we stormed off without thinking. We had engine trouble just before arriving, and had to bail before the aircraft crashed into the ocean."

Shego looked at her like she'd said something along the lines of one of Drakken's rants.

A hesitant gaze between Shaundra and Mik had Kim occupied.

Shaundra stared flatly.

Thirty seconds later, Shaundra was grinning wickedly at her. "Totally believable! That also helps with her identity! We can explain the connection between the two of you, AND pretend she's been hidden from society on account that after adopting her after one of my missions, I've tried to keep her secret so she would be safe!"

"GJ will probably try niggling you into a false identity near Kim if that's how we want to play it," warned Mik. "They've been discussing how to keep you 'contained' for quite a while now. They don't have proof, but they're worried enough that they'll jump this chance and nuke the heck out of it."

Shaundra's grin grew. "PERFECT! I'll be pulling the wool over their eyes yet again! Darling, you're a genius!" She proceeded to glomp the blond and give her a noogie.

Shego was the only one to notice the glaring glimmer of hope that dawned in Kim's eyes. It was all she could do not to go over there and offer some biting comment as some sort of twisted blessed distraction. It was almost gut wrenching how much desperation pooled into those green eyes at the mere mention of Mik possibly being able to live openly with her. Shego hadn't seen that type of desperation in years… a LOT of years. It was a little disconcerting to see it in someone else, and someone she'd been actively trying to hate for years.

A part of her had been tempted to blab the Clone's secret just for the sheer "in-your-face!" value it offered all parties present. It had been a nugget of pure gold, in her opinion, to finally have enough blackmail against the redhead that she could put them on even footing after that tower incident. However, it was disturbing that her psychology courses were proving to be adeptly correct. The more time you spent around people, especially in a twisted sense of close quarters in a jungle, you started to feel… attached. Attached, yeah, that's the word she would use. Plus, the damn clone was proving to be of great entertainment value… when such attentions weren't directed at her. When targeted by such shenanigans, it was oddly infuriating and distressing at the same time. She was able to let out all of her frustrations when tearing after the Clone, and it had oddly helped tame the rage that had been building the past five months.

The point being, Shego was finding herself more internally conflicted with her lack of true anger. She'd been trying to build it up into a frightening crescendo that bulldozed the damned redhead into next year! Only to find herself building a healthy dose of tolerance and understanding that should never have been able to flicker into any sort of flame.

Grinding her teeth, Shego stood up and smashed a fist on each of the two's, most irritatingly intriguing people she'd ever met, heads. Purely on principal for making her doubt her resolve, of course.

The two squawks of indignation made her smirk as she disappeared into the shadow of the trees.