Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

    Kim’s eyes opened to the sun shining through the blinds of her room, before reaching over to grab her Kimmunicator and turn off the alarm she’d set on it. Standing up and stretching, she started to make her bed as her mind processed her dream from the night before. It was an idyllic image. Danny and her slow dancing at their junior prom, him even being able to float her up a little bit and spin her around in the air, then letting her go for a moment as he moved on and did the same with Star. She imagined some girls would be very jealous to watch their boyfriend dance with another girl, even in her dreams, but Kim was far too happy with their relationship for that. It wouldn’t be their relationship if Star, Sammy, and Ember weren’t there. It was part of what made it so special. That she had the other girls to share it with. That they could bask in the sunshine that was their shared love together, and bear the dark stormclouds together as well. She didn’t know what she would have done without the girls’ support following the incident with the Tempus Simia, or how they would have managed in the agonizing hours after they watched their children fade from reality. Kim considered herself a strong girl, but some weights would simply be too much to bear alone. Thankfully, she wasn’t alone. She had a loving family, good friends, and a boyfriend she loved more than life itself. 

     Her good mood was compounded by the upcoming prom. She’d beaten Sammy and Star at rock-paper-scissors to be Danny’s ‘primary’ date for that night, as in she got first dance, and right of taking over if a song she particularly wanted to dance to came on. It was a system they’d developed over time, when treating any given dance as a solo date was infeasible due to lack of other opportunities around it. They’d been running themselves ragged with hero work recently, between supervillains, metahumans, and all manner of natural disasters they’ve been recently tasked with helping people with, it has been difficult to find time to just be a normal teenager. 

    Prom though, was just that opportunity. Bizarre relationship mechanics aside, she was just going to be a regular girl, dancing with her boyfriend, enjoying a lovely night together, and then going home together. She’d already gotten advance permission from her parents to stay the night at Danny’s, which she could tell her Dad gave at great distress, but she’d gotten it anyway. She didn’t know if what he was worried about was going to happen, but she wasn’t going to discount it. She loved Danny, and had tangible proof that at least in one future, it worked out to a wondrous conclusion for at least a few years. 

    That got her thinking about the future. Their junior year was almost over; they had only a single week left after prom, and then after the summer they’d be seniors. They’d be touring colleges, choosing careers, thinking about moving out. All big steps in their lives. It was a bit overwhelming to think about, and it made her head spin a bit, but she knew she’d have Danny by her side at every step of the way. With her mood soaring, Kim rushed through her morning routine, hoping to get to spend a couple extra minutes with Danny before classes started for the day.

—-

    Vlad was having a miserable day. He glared down at the orange prison jumpsuit he’d been placed into, and at the ghost restraint bracelet on his wrist. His face darkened even further when he saw the Fenton branding on it. He forced himself to relax though, knowing his incarceration wouldn’t be long. Despite what Dr. Director had mentioned to Danny in Colorado, human cloning was not illegal in most of the United States. Not in Wisconsin, where Vlad was from, and not in Colorado, where said cloning actually took place. In that regard, he was completely clear, as his lawyers had said. What was proving to be a harder charge to drop though, was the holding of DNAmy. It wasn’t a kidnapping charge, but it was the holding of a fugitive. His lawyers were shakily confident in their findings that the holding of someone who was untried and had never made it to the police station for processing represented an area of the law that currently didn’t exist, but they weren’t convinced of that argument themselves. Thankfully though, he had no intentions of waiting for the legal process.

    His guard opened the cell door, his irises glowing red as he held the key, before he came in and used another key to unlock the bracelet on Vlad’s arm releasing him from its power. “Well done, Skulker, well done.” Vlad said with a smirk as he looked over the guard.

    The hunter ghost exited the guard’s body, leaving him unconscious on the floor. “The pay better be worth it Plasmius. This wasn’t an easy heist to pull off.” He said, his eyes narrowing at his employer.

    “Have I ever not compensated you for your work?” Vlad asked as he stepped out, the pair moving towards the nearby security desk. “Come now, Skulker, have a little faith in me. Now, do you have the footage I requested?”

    Skulker nodded as he handed Vlad a USB drive. The billionaire plugged it into the computer, letting the program overwrite the footage within, as well as deliver its other virus payload. He fully believed that Global Justice would be able to stop his attack easily, but the attack on their servers was not the full intent here. Merely a distraction for the overwriting of the footage for this moment. Five minutes of altered camera logs and footage hidden under a massive data stealing virus would be effectively invisible, especially since he was also doing so with the cameras of random other cells. A perfect distraction. With that done, and the drive stored safely away inside of Skulker’s armor, Vlad transformed, and the pair flew invisibly out of the facility. 

    “So, what’s the plan now that you’re free?” Skulker asked, a mechanical eyebrow raised. “Liquidate enough assets to lay low on a beach for the rest of your life?”

    “You should know better than that.” Vlad said, glaring angrily at the horizon as they flew towards it. “No… I believe it is time I take the kid gloves off, and truly get my revenge. Daniel, Kimberly, and those blasted spies ruined my legacy. I believe it is time that I turn the battle in my favor.” Vlad let out a dark chuckle, as he and Skulker shot off.

—-

    Bueno Nacho smelled as it always did, like stale corn chips, spicy salsa, and the same 8 or so ingredients remixed in a few dozen different ways. To Tucker, this establishment was such a monumental affront to the senses that the mere sight of it would send him to the nearest receptacle to empty the contents of his stomach. To Ron though, this was heaven on Earth, and as such he and Sam were here on a ‘not really a date’ date. “Why do I let you bring me here again?” The goth girl asked as she raised her eyebrow at her blonde boyfriend as he bit into a Naco, while his pet mole rat buried himself inside of a plate of nachos.

   “Because this place makes me happy, and you seem to like seeing me be happy.” Ron said in a lightly teasing tone, earning a blush from Sam, as well as a punch in his arm for good measure.

    “Dork.” She said, although there was a small smile on her face as she did so. 

    “I appreciate it though. I know you don’t like this place, but it does make me that extra bit of happy that you put up with it for my sake.” Ron said with an earnest smile on his face. “So, excited for prom coming up?”

    “I am, actually.” Sam said with a small smile and a flush on her cheeks, smoothing out her skirt in a lightly embarrassed tick. “It feels so weird to say, like I’m some random vapid teenage girl, but… I am genuinely excited to go to the dance with you. We haven’t really gotten to do anything like that since we got together.” Her mood soured a bit though. “I’m just not looking forward to hearing Paulina or Bonnie trying to trash talk me all night. Calling you a loser, calling me a loser, all that stuff. I don’t care what they think, but it doesn’t mean I like getting called those things all the time.”

    “You know we don’t HAVE to go if you don’t want to.” Ron said, reaching out and placing his hand on hers. “We could just go to the mall and do the arcade. My mom would want a picture of us in prom clothes, but we don’t need to actually go to the thing.”

    “No, I want to go, really.” Sam said, shaking her head and squeezing his hand, then threading her fingers with his. “Aside from the fact that it is a traditional high school milestone, our friends are all going to be there. Tucker, Valerie, Danny, Kim, Star, Sammy, Alex, and Clover, they’ll all be there. That’s more people I want to see than people I don’t want to see, so that balances out.”

    “As a bonus, you also get to watch Paulina and Bonnie be miserable with Dash and Kwan as their dates.” Ron pointed out, earning a laugh from both of them.

    “Those two are so desperate to be on top of the proverbial high school food chain they’re making themselves miserable.” Sam chuckles, simply imagining Paulina having to deal with the fact that her date is probably going to spend more time making moon eyes at Clover than actually paying attention to her. Which probably was for the best, since she’d be wondering why she couldn’t convince her precious ‘Ghost Boy’ to go to prom with her. “I’m glad I never cared about that kind of thing. No, I found a boy who I loved for who he was, not because of any type of social hierarchy.”

    Ron smiled, flushing a little bit. At that moment, his phone went off in his pocket. He flushed again. “Sorry, that’s KP’s beep. Might be important.” He said sheepishly. Sam nodded, letting him know it was okay. He pulled it out and his eyes widened.

    “Important?” Sam asked, seeing his reaction.

    “Yeah. Looks like Kim and I are on the next flight to Japan.” Ron said, scrolling through a document on his phone.

     “Monkey stuff?” She asked, remembering their own trip to Japan at the start of their sophomore year.

     “No, just a toy mogul who thinks he’s being targeted.” Ron said. “Nakasumi-san’s a repeat customer. We saved him during our freshman year, then Kim saved one of his employees during that whole Mind Hackers thing. He’s also given us rides a few times. He’s good people. Plus… well he’s Nakasumi-san! He runs Nakasumi toys!” There was a tone of complete wonder in his voice, his excitement about seeing the man again coming through.

    “Well, I hope you have a good time.” Sam said, leaning over the table and kissing him. “Go save the world superhero.”

—-

     Akihabara at night was usually a lightshow on its own, but it seemed to be going out extra hard tonight. Music blared through the streets, blasting forth from parade floats of various Nakasumi Co. characters. Riding at the back as the main attraction, was the star of the show for the day, a massive eight meter tall Z-Boy, that waved over the crowd, his creator, Nakasumi-san, doing the same with his assistant Kyoko at his side. The Z-Boy Movie premier had drawn quite the crowd with tens of thousands of people lined down the main boulevard joining in the hype and excitement of the parade.

     The crowd roared as a plane flew through the city so low, people in high buildings were able to see the top of the dark green colored jet. As it flew over the end of the parade where Nakasumi stood atop his float, it opened its cargo doors. Instead of confetti though, three ninjas dropped out of it, bounding down the oversized Z-Boy to land in front of the eccentric toy designer.

    “Nakasumi-san. Surrender yourself, and there will be no reason to harm you.” The lead ninja threatened, one hand gripping the hilt of a katana on his waist, the other reaching forward in a grabbing motion.

     “And if you give up right now, there’s no reason for me to harm you.” Came a voice from somewhere the ninjas couldn’t see. Kim flipped out from a hidden compartment near Z-boy’s feet and fell into a fighting stance as she looked over the trio of armed ninjas.

    “No, it’s not possible.” The lead ninja said, his eyes wide at the teenage girl standing up against them.

    “Kim Possible, actually, but close enough.” She retorted with a smirk. She got why Danny did this all the time, it WAS a lot of fun. The ninjas drew their katanas, but instead of steel blades, what they had appeared to be some kind of laser swords. The edges glowed with an almost unbearably bright light and made the air smell like ozone. “Ninjas with laser swords? Really?” She rolled her eyes, in disbelief, but smirked as she leapt into action. With a running leap into the air she somersaulted and planted her feet on the face of the ninja who spoke, sending him to the ground as she launched herself into a backflip, which she landed cleanly. Another one of the ninjas slashed forward with his laser katana, forcing her to duck back. As the smell of burnt hair filled her nostrils and she saw the very ends of her hair were singed in a small patch, she whined, “Hey! Watch the hair, I’ve got prom coming up and need to look good for the pictures.” She dropped low into a sweep kick and knocked the ninja that swiped at her to the ground. “Ron! Could use a hand!” She called out to her partner.

    “Occupied KP!” Ron called back, as he stared down his own opponent. While Kim had engaged the laser ninjas, Ron had been treated to his own opponent, a hulking behemoth of a sumo wrestler in ninja attire. “You know, Sumo Ninja is sick and wrong!” He called out in mild panic. Admittedly, this was a fairly normal emotion for Ron to feel, so anyone who actually knew him figured that this was a regular level of panic.

   “Strong like the raging river, immovable as the mighty mountain, yet silent as the night itself. Fall before the great Shinobi Yokozuna!” The mammoth man spoke, before shooting forward with surprising quickness to grab Ron. However, there was no one on the planet with more experience running from villains and their henchmen than Ron Stoppable, so despite the hulking man’s speed, Ron was that much faster.

    “A shinobi AND a Yokozuna? This guy has everything.” Ron bemoaned, with Rufus sticking his head out of his pocket to see the man before them. He squeaked, seemingly surprised by the man.

    “You will taste my might!” The ninja spoke, moving forward again. Something clicked inside of Ron, and in a brief moment,a blue light shone forth from his body, guiding him into a backflip kick that caught the massive man under his chin, knocking him up and back, forcing him to slam into the area below where Kim and the laser ninjas were fighting.

   Kim moved out of the way of the meteor of a man, managing to avoid the fallout of his belly flop by being in the air. Her ninja opponents however, were not as quick to react, and were knocked off their feet by the attack. She looked over at Ron, who still had the glow around him for a moment longer, but it faded. “Ron? Are you… monkeying around?” She asked, a touch of concern in her voice as she looked back at her best friend.

   “Uh… I think? Weird. That hasn’t happened since I was evil.” Ron said, waving his hands for a moment.

   “We’ll have to put a pin in that.” Kim said as she heard the rapidly approaching sound of a jet. The green aircraft shot down the wide Tokyo street, a claw shooting out from the underside, and latching onto Nakasumi-san. The man was caught around his entire torso like a prize from a claw machine, and rapidly pulled into the air. “Be right back!” Kim called out as she launched into a sprint, then jumped and clicked her heels together, causing a set of rocket skates to appear. With a series of boosted jumps, she managed to blast herself up to the level she could grab the hook Nakasumi-san was attached to. “Don’t worry Nakasumi-san, I’ll get you out of this.” She reassured the toy designer. 

    Ron looked on as Kim shot up, and realized he needed to help. Shifting his backpack into position, he pressed the button on one of the straps that caused two large wings to flip out of it, rocket boosters heating up for a moment before shooting him in the air. “AAAAAH” he screamed, as one of his thrusters sputtered for a moment, messing with the stabilization controls, and sending him careening wildly through the air. 

     Kim tugged at the claw that held Nakasumi-san, unfortunately unable to get it to move. “Man, times like this I really wish I had super strength.” She muttered to herself, locking her heel into the arm of the claw and her hand in another, trying to use her entire body to force it open. It still wouldn’t budge though. “Looks like we’re taking a more destructive route. Hold still Mr. Nakasumi, this is going to be dangerous if you move around too much. She repositioned herself, holding onto the claw with one hand while the other dug into her pocket. A laser lipstick came out, and Kim pointed it at the center of the claw, letting the high intensity beam start to cut through the metal.

    Ron’s uncontrolled flight led him directly in front of the jet, where he crashed into the cockpit windscreen with a thud. Looking inside, he locked eyes with the pilot. “Shego?” He questioned, confused to see the superpowered henchwoman piloting a plane kidnapping Nakasumi-san. Not that it was out of character to DO a kidnapping, just that it was rare for Drakken to hit the same target multiple times.

    “Ugh, sidekicks.” Shego groaned from within the cockpit, a sound Ron couldn’t hear, but was good enough at lipreading to pick out, helped by years of knowing Shego at this point. Shego turned the yoke and sent the jet into an aileron roll. Ron slipped off the front of the aircraft, sliding down the belly before grabbing onto the cable that attached the claw to the jet.

   “Ron!” Kim called out in worry as she saw him slide off, but sighed in relief as she saw him catch the line. She turned back to her work on the claw, managing to burn through the outer hull and into the internal mechanism. A quick repositioning of her laser, and she managed to completely sever the power to the motor assembly that gave the claw its grip. She pushed open the claw, hoping to free Nakasumi-san. It did work, but there was a bit of a complication. Without the prong to support him, gravity took hold, sliding him out of his jacket and sending him tumbling towards the ground. “Nakasumi!” Kim called out, jumping off and diving toward him. Ron got the picture and dived down as well.

    Kim caught up to Nakasumi-san, grabbing him and pointing her heels to the ground, using the boosters in her rocket skates to slow their descent. Ron swooped by with his jetpack, using his wings to pull them into a more controlled glide, getting slowed by the boosters of Kim’s rockets. They touched down near the parade float safely, before ushering Nakasumi-san into a nearby building. Shego cursed, setting course back for Drakken’s secret lair, calling the mission a wash.

—-

     Shego stormed into Drakken’s lair, holding the expensive jacket of Nakasumi-san in her hand, and slamming her fist into the wall in frustration, the green glow that surrounded it melting into the solid stone of the underground lair.

    “I take it you did not successfully capture Nakasumi-san?” Drakken asked, his tone remarkably neutral for having seen a woman punch through solid stone.

    “Of course not bluebrain!” Shego said, slinging the jacket at him, making him catch. “Princess got in the way again. Add rocket skates to the equipment list.” She added with an angry roll of her eyes.

    “Ooh… that Kim Possible, always ruining my plans!” Drakken groaned out in frustration, tearing the jacket in his hands apart. He threw the shredded remains of the garment to the ground, getting ready to order a henchman to clean it up, when he noticed something slip out of one of the pockets of the suit. Bending down, he pulled it out, and noticed a piece of paper. Looking at what was on it, he let out a little giddy laugh. “Oh Shego! You did it!”

   “I did? What’s on that paper that’s got you so hyped up? You wanted Nakasumi himself, didn’t you?” Shego asked, raising an eyebrow.

    “I did.” Drakken said. “I had wanted him so I could use his design brilliance for part of my plan, since it required a specific touch he was uniquely qualified to provide. However…” Drakken turned the paper around, revealing a drawing of a chibified robotic devil. “You managed to deliver unto me a suitable replacement for his designing skills, a functional design already.” Drakken began walking through the lair, towards what Shego knew was the central command room, motioning for her to follow.

    “What plan are you concocting that needs a toy design?” Shego asked with her eyebrow raised with skepticism.

     “One I’m not concocting completely alone. I’ll have to introduce you, or re-introduce you to our new ally in this endeavor.” Drakken said with a coy smile. “He’s provided some very valuable information to us, in exchange for a few concessions that I’m quite happy to provide.”

    “This better not be that creep Tim Scam again. If I ever see that sleazeball again I’m going to turn him into a puddle.” Shego growled, her hand clenching into a glowing green fist in front of her.

    “Come now Shego, I know you wouldn’t work with him again, and I wouldn’t make you.” Drakken said, pacifying his henchwoman. Shego did have to admit that he was pretty good about getting her approval for things like that. Drakken was a supervillain, but for a supervillain, he was a decent boss.

    “Who is it then?” Shego asked as they entered the room, the question answering itself almost immediately. Inside was a very well dressed man, with grey hair slicked back into a short ponytail, his hands clasped behind his back with an easy air about him. “Vlad Masters?”

     “Indeed, miss Shego.” Vlad said, stepping forward and taking her hand, pressing a brief kiss on her knuckles. “Not used to seeing someone like me on the other side of the equation? I’m sure you’ve kidnapped enough CEOs in your time.” 

    “Ease up, touch of grey.” Shego said, pulling her hand back. “So what, you decide to take a dip into villainy because being rich wasn’t evil enough?”

    “No. I’m here to get revenge on Kim Possible and her little boyfriend for taking away my legacy.” Vlad said with a growl. “I assure you I’m quite familiar with the villain game. You should know, you assisted me once.” Vlad said, as he transformed in front of them, his vampire-like form standing before them.

    “Plasmius?” Shego exclaimed, her eyes wide. “You’re dead?”

    “Not quite. I am a half-ghost. One of three on the planet at the moment.” Vlad explained, his tone calm and collected. “The two others are Phantom, and the clone I made of him.” 

    “What is with you evil guys and cloning?” Shego groaned, looking over at Drakken. “No cloning. We’re not doing it!”

     “I know Shego, it’s in your contract.” Drakken said, before turning back to Vlad. 

     “Anyway, back up. Kimmie’s boyfriend? What could some civilian kid do to you?” Shego asked, raising her eyebrow at Vlad.

     “He’s no civilian. Danny Fenton is the human form of Phantom.” Vlad said, a stern glare setting on his face as he said so. “He’s been a thorn in my side for far too long, and I need him to be dealt with, although I need him alive.”

    “Ha! So all this time I’ve been teasing Kimmie about dating the Phantom kid, I’ve been right!” Shego laughed a bit at that, before calming herself down. “So, what’s the plan?”

    “That is what we are going to work on. We are four adults with deep knowledge of how our quarries operate, surely we can collectively create a plan that will stop them once and for all.” Vlad said, turning back into his human form and moving to sit in a chair at the large board room table that dominated the space.

    “Four? Check your math there dead man, there’s three of us.” Shego said. At that moment, Skulker appeared, pulling a chair out to sit next to Vlad, looking rather comical as his hulking robotic body was sat in a fairly standard office chair. “I stand corrected.”

—-

     “Dinner’s great Dr. Possible.” Danny said as he took another bite of the spaghetti that Kim’s mom had made. Ever since Danny had revealed his secret to James, and he’d finally fully accepted his and Kim’s relationship, dinner with the Possibles went from a thing that happened on special occasions, to something that happened with some degree of regularity. To Danny, it was nice to really get to be friendly with his girlfriend’s parents. Star usually didn’t invite him to dinner at her house, because it was fairly rare that her mother would eat at the same time because of odd work schedules, and Sammy’s family seemed pretty disconnected from her life; almost certainly as a result of being unable to know about the spy thing.

    “Call me Ann, Danny. You know better.” Ann Possible said, pointing at him with a fork while giving an odd smile. “Especially since according to the last story you told us, I’ll be your mother-in-law before too long.” 

     Danny and Kim both flushed a little red at that. They’d found it necessary to tell both of their parents about the adventure with their kids from the future, largely to attempt to receive their support in dealing with the tumultuous emotions it caused. It was still a sore spot for them, a hole in their hearts they hadn’t quite managed to patch up yet.

    “Although it better be on a bit of a delay. My Kimmie-cub still has her schooling to worry about.” James Possible said, sternly, although it didn’t have the angry bite it may have had once upon a time. Hearing that in the future Danny and Kim had had kids, and that they had gotten married had been an actual balm to his nerves about the whole situation. It was undeniable proof that Danny was completely serious about his daughter, and they had the potential for a happy future.

    “We’re definitely holding off on any wedding plans until after graduation, at a minimum.” Danny said, his face still beet red, although he did reach over and hold Kim’s hand. “Maybe while we’re in college, although we haven’t really put too much thought into it. Kids from the future kind of… sprung the reality of that on us.” He chuckled awkwardly.

    “Ugh… I’m never getting married. Too many cooties.” Ellie said from her place at the table, sticking her tongue out and shaking her head. Her presence had been a new one for the Possibles, and Danny had explained her status as a clone, and how for all intents and purposes, she was his little sister.

    “Tell us about it!” Jim and Tim cried out in unison, the pair of thirteen year old kid geniuses pressing their fingers to their mouths as though they were gagging.

    “Oh, I don’t know… last I checked Tim, you were still asking me for advice about that girl you like.” Danny said, dragging a teasing tone out, causing the twin to flush a bit.

    “Oh come on!” He cried out, earning a laugh from everyone else at the table.

    “So, Danny, you had mentioned you had an extra reason to bring Ellie to meet us, beyond just an introduction.” Ann said, pulling the topic away from her boy’s early battles with romance. “What was it?”

    “Well, Ellie will be starting school with Jim and Tim when the new school year comes around. As best we can tell, physically she’s around 13 years old, and while Vlad did give her academic knowledge beyond what she’d be learning at that age, she does still need school to socialize, plus starting an actual paper trail for her as a person.” Danny said, reaching over and rubbing the top of Ellie’s head. “She’s never socialized with anyone that isn’t one of us, Vlad, or DNAmy, so while she has a concept of it, she needs to practice. Since she’s about Jim and Tim’s age, I was hoping they’d be able to give her a hand, introduce her to some of their friends, and try to include her.” Danny looked over to Jim and Tim. “Think you guys can handle helping my little sister make friends?”

    “Hey! I can make friends on my own!” Ellie said, squirming a bit in her seat as her face flushed a little bit. “I don’t need you to make them for me!”

    “I trust that you’ll be able to, but there’s a bit more to it. For one, if you start having issues with your powers, Jim and Tim can cover for you, since they’re in on the whole hero thing. Besides, I know you’re just as interested in rockets as they are.” Danny said, smirking at his little sister. “Vlad might have just given you my hobbies, but that just means I know exactly what’ll get you excited, and I’ve never met rocketeers as excited as Jim and Tim.” 

     “We’ll help!” Jim said, looking stoked. “Come on! We should show you our rockets! We think our last one managed to make it to the moon!” 

     Ellie looked back and forth between Jim and Danny for a few moments, before begrudgingly deciding that she did very much want to see the rockets. With a nod of approval from the adults at the table, the trio of fledgling teenagers bounded off towards the garage.

    Ann watched them go off with a smile. “You were really worried about her making friends?” She asked, looking back at him with a raised eyebrow.

   “Not really.” Danny said with a small smile. “I imagine she’d manage to make some on her own, but she’ll be spending plenty of time with the twins anyway, both through school, and just because I’ll be around Kim. Plus, Vlad gave her all of my interests, which means she’s just as crazy about space and rocketry as the twins are. They were going to be friends with or without my intervention.”

    “Lets just hope they don’t decide to use their new super powered best friend to up their pranking game.” Kim said with a groan.

     Danny chuckled at that. “Oh, she’ll be in big trouble if she starts abusing her powers like that. Mom is not going to let that fly, and I’ll be making sure she learns the old adage about power and responsibility.”

    “Have you thought about helping her find ghost friends? Living in both worlds?” Ann asked, and Danny nodded in response.

    “I’m sure Kim told you about Youngblood, the kid ghost from our trip to the pirate cove. I took her to meet him too. He’s mentally younger than her by a bit, I think he’s like… 10 maybe? With any luck he’ll grow up to match her, and they can be good friends.” Danny said, looking a little proud of himself for it.

    “Well, beyond that, how’s the hero work going? Kim doesn’t mention too much of the day-to-day details to us because it’s a bit old hat now, but I could always stand to hear more stories.” Ann asked the pair, leaning in with interest. It was pretty obvious that their hero stories were probably her equivalent of a soap opera, which was fair enough. Maybe in another universe they could have made a TV show or two about it.

    “Well, Ron and I saved the head of Nakasumi toys the other day.” Kim said, tapping her chin with her finger as she tried to think of things she hadn’t told her parents yet. “Shego was trying to kidnap him, although I have no idea what they’d want him for. Taking his tech is one thing, Nakasumi Toys has some of the most advanced robotic assembly machines in the world, but it’s not like Nakasumi-san himself makes them, he’s just the head of the company.

    “Probably nothing good. Last time Drakken messed with Nakasumi toys was during the Mind Hackers thing, and that almost shut down the entire world. It’s what made us form the team, after all.” Danny said, pointing out the connection. 

    “You’re not wrong about that. Good thing he didn’t actually succeed though.” Kim said with a shrug. “Either way, this whole thing is making me glad we finally have a slightly more stable version of the Centurion Project online. Means that if the going gets really rough, I can trade blows just like Danny and Jake.”

    “I’m glad I got to help work on that. Makes me feel pretty good that I got to have a hand in something my daughter is going to use to save the world.” James said, a proud smile on his face as he sipped from his coffee mug.

    “You helped with it Dr. Possible?” Danny asked with a raised eyebrow. He hadn’t heard about that at all, although he really didn’t know that much about the development of the suit at all. Global Justice had been pretty hush hush about the thing, even with him, because they wanted to make sure no one could steal the work. He also figured it’d be way above his ability to comprehend anyway. He could build basic electronics and robots, but he was by no means a genius.

    “Yes, I did. I’d been working on this thing called the Hephaestus Project, which creates this kind of living metal. Really it's a collection of self-replicating mass-controllable nanobots that can take on any structure, liquid, solid, cloth, anything like that. Global Justice found out about it and asked if they could test it on their Centurion Project armor. We managed to work it out and get the prototype that’s upstairs. I’ve made some breakthroughs with the technology since then, it’s actually far more advanced now than it was when that suit was made. I’m hoping that we go through another round so I can get those improvements put in.” James said, letting his inner scientist ramble on for what was likely longer than necessary. He was rambling to Danny though, who ate the entire thing up, utterly fascinated by the work that was put into the development.

   “Huh… that kind of sounds like that robot we fought from the future.” Danny said, thinking about the liquid metal drone they’d fought with their kids. 

    “You’re right.” Kim said, thinking about it herself. “I wonder if Dad developed it in that timeline too?”

    “Maybe. This one is supposed to end up better though.” Danny said with a smile, earning him a hand squeeze from Kim, since she didn’t want to give her Dad a reason to be mad.

—-

     Principal Ishiyama caught Danny as he entered the school. “Mr. Fenton, can you come with me? And before you start worrying, no, you’re not in trouble. I just need your assistance with something.” She said, smirking a little bit at the sudden rigidity he took on as she spoke to him.

    “Okay, Principal Ishiyama.” Danny said, letting the anxiety flow out of him once she said he wasn’t in trouble. While Danny did his best to not stir the pot too bad in school, there were always issues when hero work and bullies were involved.

     Principal Ishiyama walked with him to her office, explaining along the way. “We have a new student coming to learn with us. Her name is Erica, and due to the way our scheduling algorithm works, she ended up sharing more or less all of your classes. You have two of them swapped, but beyond that, identical schedules. As such, it simply makes sense for you to guide her around on your schedule for the day. Show her where her classes are and introduce her to the staff and some of the other students, and hopefully tomorrow she will be able to manage the day on her own.” 

    Danny nodded. Usually Dash was the one who ended up showing new people in their class around, but maybe after Clover complained about him hitting on her enough times, Principal Ishiyama finally decided to have someone else do it. Danny must have drawn the short straw this time, but it was far from the end of the world. They made it in front of Ishiyama’s office, and standing there was a fairly pretty girl. She had lightly tanned skin , brown hair that she kept in a high ponytail, and brown eyes that had small flecks of green in them. She was rather pretty as well, her skin clear, and what make-up she had on was simple and understated, very girl-next-door. “So you’re Erica then?” Danny asked, holding out his hand for her to shake.

    “Yessir!” She said, her voice slightly higher pitched than Danny would have expected, it was kind of cute. “So, you’re my guide, Danny?” She asked, and he nodded. “Great! Thanks for showing me around.”

    “Not a problem, do you have your schedule? Principal Ishiyama said that you have the same classes as me, just some of them are in a different order. Let's see where the changes are.” He said, and Erica passed him her schedule. “Oh, your third and fourth period are swapped. That’s no big deal then, they’re in the same hallway. Come on, I’ll get you to your first period and introduce you to Mr. Lancer.” Danny said, before leading her out of the office and towards the English wing of the school.

    “So, is it true that Kim Possible goes here?” Erica asked, her eyes wide in excitement. 

    Danny wasn’t too surprised that someone would ask about Kim. She was a fairly well known celebrity hero, and ever since the team started saving the world in more open ways, her popularity only grew. She’d even had an entire fashion line named after her, and had appeared on a few magazine covers. Danny actually had a collection of every one he could find, since seeing her be recognized for her work made him quite happy. “Yeah, she does. I’d recommend not trying to fangirl over her though. She doesn’t like it too much, makes her feel awkward.” That was the understatement of the century, the last time someone had asked her to sign an autograph, Kim was almost mortified. She’d done it anyway, but it was something she tried to avoid.

    “Oh, I’m not really a fan girl like that. I just think it’s neat!” Erica said, her bubbly voice popping through. “You’re her boyfriend, aren’t you? I think I remember seeing your name in a press release about her.” 

    “I am.” Danny said calmly. THAT was also a terrifying thing about Kim’s fame. It put an extra spotlight on him, which he was even less comfortable with than Kim. Thankfully, Global Justice had been making sure that any talk about Danny himself being a hero were viewed as crackpot theories. 

    “But she’s not the only girl you’re dating, is she? I remember the tabloids saying a lot about how you were three-timing her with two other girls.” Erica pushed, the high pitched valley girl accent somewhat accusatory.

    “It’s true that I am dating two other girls besides Kim.” Danny said, carefully keeping his phrasing to where he wasn’t lying about the existence of the third. “But it’s far from three-timing. Our relationship is unconventional, but it's open and honest. Now, I’d really appreciate it if we didn’t talk any more about it. I don’t know you that well, so I really don’t need to explain my love life to you. Let’s just get to class.” Danny walked off with a slight annoyance to his step, Erica skipping along behind him.

     Classes went without issue for the morning period. Danny showed her to her first few classes, letting her see where she would be spending her time, and giving her the route she would take to her third period when she joined her actual class the next day. Danny really didn’t think lunch could come soon enough, because he could really use a recharge from his girlfriends. Erica had been all but grilling him for information, but it seemed to be about anything BUT the school.  Danny guided her into the cafeteria, the tiredness pretty evident in his voice as he told her about it. “Here’s the cafeteria, it's like any public school cafeteria. The food sucks. You can’t make any petition to change it though, because if you do the ghost of the former lunch lady shows up and attacks. That’s not a joke by the way, Amity Park’s ghost problem is very real.” Danny said in warning, remembering the last time he’d had to fight the Lunch Lady.

     “I’ll keep it in mind.” Erica said, as she looked around. “Where do you normally eat?”

     Danny let out a sigh, he’d hoped he could let her find her own group of friends to hang out with, but she’d been so attached to him the entire time that he couldn’t even pawn her off to Dash to hit on for a moment. “There’s a couple tables outside, unless it’s raining or freezing, we usually eat at one of those near the big tree.” Danny said, gesturing over his shoulder towards the doors. He went towards them and she followed along beside him.

    As he made it to the table, Star and Kim scooted apart, making some space between for him to sit at. They raised their eyebrows though at his follower. “Hey babe, who’s this?” Star asked, curious at the newcomer.

    “This is Erica. Principal Ishiyama wanted me to show her around today to get her used to the school.” Danny said, introducing the girl. He wrapped his arms around Kim and Star’s waists, pulling them in for side hugs as he briefly recharged his batteries from them. They always made him feel better. 

    “Well, nice to meet you Erica!” Alex said, some extra chipperness in her voice as she patted the seat beside her. Erica took the offered seat, smiling at the dark haired spy girl.

     Conversation at lunch was at the very least, a pretty regular affair. Introductions to everyone at the table were made, with Erica talking a bit about why she was at the school. It was odd for someone to transfer so late into the school year, with literally only a couple weeks left before summer break, but she said that her father had recently gotten a job in the area, and they couldn’t put off the move until the school year was over. 

    Their conversation however, was interrupted when Danny felt a chill run down his spine, bringing his hand up to his mouth to cough, trying to hide the cyan mist that poured out of it. Star helped sell the illusion by patting him on the back, making it seem like he was just having a bit of a coughing fit. Danny glanced around as subtly as he could, trying to spot whatever ghost might be trying to attack. His question was answered when Skulker appeared, floating in the air above the courtyard, looking down over the gathered students. Holding his wrist up, a microphone came out, into which Skulker spoke. “Phantom, I have come to claim my prize. Come and face me, or I begin dying the grass with whoever I can get my hands on.” 

    Danny’s eyes narrowed as he tried to process that. The threat was VERY out of character for Skulker. Wanting to mount him on his wall? That was fairly standard, he could deal with that, but even Skulker had never really threatened civilians as anything but collateral. He shot his gaze over to Star, who was already jumping into action before he even had to. Star grabbed Erica’s arm, standing up with her and dragging her towards the school building. “Come on, we need to get to cover. Phantom will come to deal with it, he always does.” She said, the other members of their group helping corral the new girl away from where the fighting would begin. The rest of the students outside were also running toward the building in a blind panic, so it was easy for Danny to quickly take cover under the table they were sitting at and transform.

    Danny flew up level with Skulker, his eyes narrowing at the hunter ghost. “Alright, Skulker. I’m here. You ready for your monthly butt kicking?” He asked, readying himself for the oncoming fight.

    “No, but I am ready to finally mount your worthless head above my mantle. Maybe I’ll put a bottle opener in your mouth, make it actually useful.” Skulker said as he raised his arm and fired a series of tiny missiles at Danny. Danny shot up into the air, attempting to dodge the projectiles. They followed him up though, tracking him as he moved through the sky. Danny held his arms out to the sides, noticing how some of the missiles altered their trajectories to match his now outstretched arms, and smirked. He started spinning, the missiles beginning to corkscrew in their paths as they tracked specific points on his body, and then pulled his arms in.  The outer missiles quickly shifted towards the center as they tracked, but slammed into other missiles, setting off a cascade of mini ectoplasmic explosions. Danny then shot back around, using the smoke cover from the missiles to hide his approach as he delivered a two-booted flying kick to Skulker’s face, sending the hunter flying. Danny followed it up with a pair of ecto-rays, shooting the energy blasts forth from his hands to deal even more damage to the hunter.

     Skulker growled as he righted himself in the air, brushing off the bits of singed coating on his armor, before flicking his wrists and allowing a pair of plasma-edged knives slip out of the tops of his hands. The hunter shot forth with the katar-like weapons, stabbing and slashing at Phantom as he aggressively pushed forward. Danny dodged and weaved around the weapons, bending his body in odd shapes in times that raw speed wasn’t enough to dodge, before coating his fist in ectoplasmic energy and slamming the ionizing punch to Skulker’s midsection.

    The pair traded blows back and forth; Danny dodging the knives with finesse, although still occasionally getting grazed by the very edges, while delivering counterblow after counterblow to the hunter ghost. After a moment, Danny finally managed to get in a solid blow to Skulker’s jaw, causing the head of his suit to unscrew, revealing the blob-like true form of Skulker inside. “Gotcha.” Danny said, pulling out the Fenton Thermos and sucking up the blob and his suit. Capping the thermos, he slid it back onto his belt, before touching down behind the tree in the plaza and transforming back into his human form. He checked over the places where he’d been nicked by Skulker’s blades. There were thin white lines on his human form, equivalents of some scratches, but nothing that he was worried about, if anyone asked, he’d simply say he hid himself in a bush while Skulker attacked, no one would bat an eye at that.

     Danny gave Star, Kim, and Sammy each a kiss as they separated in front of the school; Star and Kim headed for cheer practice, while Sammy was meeting Alex and Clover for some girl time. Danny was actually a little bit excited even to have an afternoon to himself. He loved hanging out with his girlfriends, but he hadn’t had an afternoon completely alone to pursue a solo hobby in a while. Jim and Tim had gotten him a model kit for his birthday, and he was fairly excited to get a moment to put it together.

    “Hey Danny, can I talk to you for a minute?” A voice asked, pulling Danny out of his thoughts of a free afternoon. Turning he saw Erica waving him over, and he sighed as he walked up to her.

    “Did you need help finding something?” He asked. He was fairly certain he’d gone through everything she might need to know, but he supposed it wasn’t impossible she was wanting to find one of the afterschool clubs to introduce herself for meetings next year.

    “Nope.” She said, popping the P. “I think I have something you’d like to see though.” She said as she held up her phone. On it was a video, a low angle recording of the underside of a picnic table. There was the shuffling of feet as people moved from the table, and then Danny ducking down beneath it, transforming before flying out.

    Danny could feel his heart pound in his chest, and it took all his control to try and not let the absolute despair he felt take root on his face. He searched his mind for an out, anything that could explain that video away. “A.I.s gotten pretty impressive, hasn’t it? Almost looks real.” He said, completely aware of how lame it was an excuse, but he needed ANYTHING.

    “Oh, it has, but I think we both know this is genuine.” She said, rocking on her heels. “Just so you know, I’m not planning on telling anyone about this… provided you do me a favor.” She flashed a smile of pearly white teeth, a shit-eating grin if he’d ever seen one.

    Danny was backed into a corner and he knew it. He’d been a lot more liberal with revealing his secret identity to his friends and family than he imagined most superheroes would be, but he’d still taken great efforts to prevent that information from getting out into the world. “What is the favor?” He managed to get out, his mind rushing through the awful things she might want him to do.

    “You’re going to date me, be my boyfriend.” Erica said simply, reaching up and pressing her index finger to his nose with a light ‘boop’ sound.

    “I mean, I can’t really go on dates or anything as Phantom, it’s kind of hard to sell the illusion if he’s ever in anything but the hero gear.” Danny said, trying to imagine himself as Phantom wearing any nice clothes to go on a date in. He could change clothes in that form, but wearing anything but the costume was a bit of broken mystique that would make separating Phantom from Danny even harder.

    “Oh, I don’t want to date Phantom. I want to date Danny.” She said, walking her fingers up his chest flirtatiously. “I don’t see why you’re being so hesitant about this. You’ve already got four girls, what’s a fifth?”

    The fact that he didn’t care about her at all, for one. The fact that she started this relationship with blackmail for another. A million other reasons why he wanted nothing to do with this girl flowed through Danny’s mind, but he was trapped. To say no was to lose all sense of privacy, becoming a celebrity overnight. “Fine.” Danny said, as his mind raced for a plan. She’d get bored of him eventually, especially when he didn’t care for her the way he did the other girls, and if she broke it off, surely she’d recognize that was her backing out of the deal, meaning she forfeited the right to share the secret? Danny was banking a LOT on her being generally good natured, but he had nothing else to pin his hopes on.

    “Goodie!” She said, bounding up and down. “Now, you don’t get to tell anyone else about our little agreement here.” She said, pressing her finger to his lips. “I find out you told someone about this? I go public anyway. We’re going to be so good together Danny.” She said, before standing up on her tiptoes and kissing him on the lips. “Now, how about we go for a nice walk in the park, and you can tell me ALL about Amity Park.” She said, wrapping her arms around his arm and setting them off down the sidewalk.

    Danny wanted nothing more than to wash his mouth out with soap.

—-

    Lunch the next day proved to be even worse. Danny got to sit between his “girlfriends” but instead of it being Star and Sammy, which was what the normal rotation said it would be today, instead he was forced to have Erica by his side, who had wrapped herself entirely around his arm, rubbing her cheek into his bicep.

    Star, Sammy, and Kim looked on with a raised eyebrow, their eyes locking on Danny’s face that definitely screamed “I don’t want to be here.” Kim, ever the one to get to the bottom of things, decided to speak up first. “So, Danny. Is there something you need to tell us?” She asked, glaring daggers at the brown-haired girl. As she thought about it, she looked decently similar to Bonnie, with the same skin tone and hair color. The texture and styling of her hair was different, but it wasn’t enough to drive that distaste away. The way she was holding on to Danny was also very much making it worse.

   “Uh… yeah. Erica has decided that she’s my girlfriend.” Danny said, a pained look on his face that they could tell very much meant he wasn’t thrilled about the situation. Sammy took notice of his words. Danny wasn’t one to lie, instead he would tell the truth to the best of his abilities, anything that he avoided saying, he avoided for a reason. 

    “You know Danny, we talked about how if there was ever going to be anyone else, we’d talk about it first, we always have.” Kim said, tracking the emotions on Danny’s face. If she didn’t trust Danny as much as she did, she’d think that he was being some kind of cheating asshole, but she knew Danny far too well for that. 

    “Well… something unforeseen happened.” Danny said, deflecting. “We’re just going to have to deal with it.” 

    “They’re just being fuddy-duddies about it. Come on Danny, let's go.” Erica said, standing up and dragging the boy away from them.

    A silence washed over the table for a moment, before Valerie decided to interrupt it. “You girls are just going to let him treat you like that?” She asked, looking on incredulously at Star, Sammy, and Kim. “He just picks up another girl without asking, and you’re just going to LET him? Why aren’t you kicking him to the curb?”

    “Because he doesn’t want her.” Sammy said, turning her gaze to Kim. “You noticed it too, didn’t you? SHE decided she was his girlfriend, not that he had any input on it.” 

    “You’re right.” Kim said, although she was racking her brain. “Although I have to wonder what she did that made him not just tell her no? Danny’s been pretty explicit that he’s not really looking to add another girl to the mix. Says the four of us run him ragged enough.”

    “Didn’t consider he wouldn’t just pick up a new thing off the block for the novelty?” Valerie questioned with a raised eyebrow. “I know you girls love him and all, but he’s still a teenage boy. Maybe she just put out.” 

    “Valerie… we’ve watched him almost die for us.” Kim said softly. “I watched him throw himself at a robot that was actively killing him just for touching it over and over again to save my grandmother, who didn’t even like him, because she was important to me.”

    “We met our kids from the future, it might not exist anymore, but we met them. We know he loves us, loves us deeply enough that we got that far.” Sammy said, her mind flashing to her little boy that didn’t exist anymore.

    “And if it was something as simple as putting out… well it’s not like it hasn’t been offered.” Star said, earning a flush from her, Kim, and Sammy. “No, it's more than that. Danny wouldn’t do this to us. Besides you girls saw his face, he wanted her here even less than we did.”

    “Yeah. I know Danny better than almost anyone on the planet, and that’s not like him at all.” Sam spoke up in his defense. “Something’s definitely up.”

    “We’ll have to get to the bottom of it then.” Sammy said, and the three girls nodded at each other, determined to figure out what Erica was doing to Danny.

—-

    While they hadn’t figured out whatever Erica was doing with Danny in the days that followed, they certainly felt the effects of it. The girl seemed to be joined at the hip to Danny, constantly holding onto his arm, or laughing at something he said even when it wasn’t a joke. She’d completely overtaken the spot on his left side at the lunch table, resting her head on his shoulder as she spoke on and on about everything and nothing all at once. The girls could tell that Danny wasn’t thrilled about it either, but it didn’t change the fact of the matter. They hadn’t gotten any time with him in days.

    “It’s just so frustrating!” Kim said, burying her head into her crossed arms as she sat with Sam and Ron at Bueno Nacho, something which she’d realized she hadn’t done before. She couldn’t think of a time that it had ever just been this particular trio. A double date with Danny had happened multiple times, the pairs of best friends with their respective partners enjoying the camaraderie between the entire group. In some ways, that made Danny’s absence sting that little bit more.

    “I get it, KP.” Ron said, reaching forward and patting his best friend on the head, shooting her a smile he hoped was reassuring. 

    “He just… I haven’t had any time with him since she showed up. No moments where it's just been us, or even with Star or Sammy. Just from total bliss to a complete shutoff. He hasn’t even kissed me in the past few days.” Kim bemoaned, feeling sorry for herself. “I’m sorry for just blowing this out on you but…” Kim looked up at Sam. “I realize this is probably really wrong and selfish, but I was really hoping you could give me some help with this, since… well since Star and I kind of did this to you in our freshman year.”

    Sam nodded as she realized what she meant. “First off, no, you didn’t do THIS to me in freshman year. Yeah, you two ‘took’ the boy I had feelings for, but it was because he genuinely cared about you, and you genuinely cared about him. Lest you forget, you had also offered me the chance to be a part of it, and I declined because I couldn’t share.” The goth girl said, placing her hand on Kim’s arm in a sign of solidarity. “What you’re feeling is jealousy, and a lot of it, and almost certainly it's not even misplaced. What I’m surprised at though, is that you haven’t found a way to deal with it before now. You share him with three other girls, has this not happened before?”

    “No.” Kim said, shaking her head. “I’ve… well I’ve never felt jealous about Star or Sammy or Ember spending time with him. Even when I don’t get to be there, I’ve never worried about the fact that they were getting more than I was, or they were taking part of him from me.” She looked out the window towards the parking lot, illuminated by the street lights and the large taco sign. “They never made me feel… left out, like I’m feeling now.”

    “I suppose that’s a sign you have a good relationship then.” Sam said, going through her brain. It was weird to be giving romance advice when the person she was giving it to had more experience than she did. Sam had never had a boyfriend before Ron, just her crush on Danny and that stalker Elliot. Ron had mentioned that Kim had had a couple boyfriends in middle school, even if they were nothing very serious. By numbers, Kim had her beat by a wide margin. “Well, you know he’s not happy about it, that counts for something, right?” She tried to ask, unsure about the whole thing.

    “It does and it doesn’t.” Kim said, blowing a stray lock of hair out of her face from where it had been messed up by her moping. “It makes it better in that I know he’s not doing it on purpose. I know he’d never do something like this, but it still hurts you know?” She added, trying to reason it out in her own head. “What makes it not better is… if he doesn’t like it, why is he putting up with it? Why is he letting her take up all his time?”

    “I don’t know, but you know Danny.” Sam said, trying to be reassuring. “Has he ever given you reason to doubt his feelings for you?”

    “No… he hasn’t.” Kim admitted, shaking her head. “I just don’t know why he’s not talking to us about it. If she’s doing something to him, surely he’d tell us about it right? I thought we’d broken him on this whole ‘suffer in silence’ thing.” She’d had to beat it into his head following the incident with the Tempus Simia that he needed to let other people help him with his problems sometimes, that getting support wasn’t a bad thing. They’d come out of the other side of that experience stronger, supporting each other through it.

    “Well, some things are just hard to tell somebody.” Ron said, speaking up for the first time in a bit. “Even, and sometimes especially to the people you care most about.” Sam looked over at him with a quizzical expression. “Maybe something happened that he doesn’t think he can talk to you about, or she’s blackmailing him or something. Either way, you’ll just have to either trust that he knows what he’s doing, or you’ll have to come to terms with… whatever is going on there.”

    Kim thought on that for a moment, letting the idea sink in. “I’m going to trust him.” She decided, nodding to herself. “He’s never given me a reason not to, and he’s definitely going to be making it up to me later, but I’m going to trust him.”

    “I figured you would, KP.” Ron said with a smile. The Kimmunicator chose that moment to go off. “Go ahead and take it, might be important.”

    Kim nodded and pulled out the device. “What’s the sitch, Wade?”

    “Drakken’s got a deal set up with an information broker at a high-roller’s club called the Bermuda Triangle.” Wade said, displaying an image of the club for her to see. “No word on what he’s looking for, but with Drakken, it’s probably not anything good.”

    “Got it. Get us a ride and we’ll be on our way.” Kim said, looking up at Ron who nodded at her. Kim paused for a moment, before speaking up. “While we’re travelling, think you could do me a favor Wade?”

    “Sure Kim, what do you need?” Wade asked quizzically.

    “I need you to do some research on the new girl at our school. Her name is Erica, and she started earlier this week.” Kim said, letting out a breath before speaking again. “She’s… doing something with Danny. Says she’s his girlfriend now, and has been taking up all of his time since she got here. Danny’s not been acting like himself either.”

    “You think it’s villain related?” Wade asked with a raised eyebrow.

    “I have no idea. I just… Danny wouldn’t do this unless something was happening, even if it's just a normal girl doing this somehow, I’d like to know why.” Kim said.

    “I’ll trust your gut here, Kim. That doesn’t sound like Danny, so there is something up. I’ll see if I can find anything. You’ve got a boat waiting for you at Ventress Marina.” Wade said, showing a street address.

     “Spankin’, thanks Wade.” Kim said, waving goodbye as she turned off the device.

    “Is it ethical to send one of the top intelligence agents in the world against a regular teenage girl you’re jealous of?” Sam asked, although it was clear she had no objections, given her smirk.

   “Hero work is weird, but it does come with perks. Come on Ron, we’ve got a date at the high-rollers club.” Kim said, getting up.

    “Don’t go stealing my boyfriend because yours is ensnared by some sea-witch.” Sam said, earning a chuckle from the other two at the table.

—-

     Danny peddled the swan boat out into the middle of the pond, sighing as they made it to the center. The sun setting over the horizon painted the entire sky a glorious orange, and the gentle quacking of the nearby ducks would have made the entire situation eminently romantic if Danny was with Star, Sammy, Ember, or Kim. 

    He wasn’t with any of them though, he was with Erica, who was happily chattering away about something as he sat there completely uncaring. In some manner, he did feel kind of bad about that. She seemed genuinely interested in him, but he definitely found it nearly impossible to like her because of the situation she’d put him in. Blackmailing him to date her, forcing him to hide things from his friends and family, and monopolizing his time so much he hadn’t even managed to get a moment alone with any of his other girlfriends in several days.

     “You’re not even listening to me, are you?” Erica asked, looking over at him with narrowed eyes, annoyance clearly present in her tone and her body language.

     “I’m not.” Danny said, not seeing any reason to lie about it. He was putting up with this for the sake of his secret, and was incredibly hopeful that she would just decide he was a bad boyfriend and leave.

     “You know, you should be thrilled.” Erica said, rolling her eyes at him. “You’re here, alone, with a girl who is into you, who likes all the same things you do. Any other guy would be chomping at the bit right now, and you’re just acting like I’m an annoyance!” Her voice went higher as she spoke, frustration starting to seep out of her very being. “You’re not even thinking about me, you’re probably just wishing it was one of the other girls here.”

    “You’re right. I am. Star would love this.” Danny said, mostly done with this conversation. He didn’t want to be here, or at the very least, didn’t want to be here with her. She’d been wearing down every bit of patience he had, and he didn’t have any of his outlets to work through his frustrations available to him. There’d been no ghosts or supervillains to serve as stress relief to fight, and she’d been on top of him so much he hadn’t even been able to work on any of his hobbies on his own time. 

    “Would she love it if the whole world knew you were Phantom?” Erica hissed out.

    “She wouldn’t, but I’m holding up my end of the bargain.” Danny said, glaring at her himself.

    “In what way? I said you had to be my boyfriend, to date me, and all you’re doing is ignoring me!” She growled out angrily, her brown eyes almost shaking with fury.

    “I’m dating you. This is you and me on a date. One that would normally be pretty nice.” Danny said, gesturing to the gorgeous scenery, and the other couples that were having a much better time than they were. “I’m doing every part of this that I can, but I can’t force myself to like you, nor would I want to. The terms of that agreement were that I date you, and I’m doing that. But I don’t have any feelings for you. My heart is with the others.”

    Erica opened her mouth to speak, but closed it quickly. Her eyes scanned over his face, before looking away with a huff. Danny took the silence gladly, leaning back in the seat of the swan boat, closing his eyes and simply taking a moment to enjoy the subtle rocking of the boat and letting his imagination think it was one of his other girlfriends next to him. He could easily see Star sitting right there next to him, looking excitedly over at the ducks and trying to lure them close so she could pet one. He could imagine Sammy pulling out her phone to get a picture of the sunset and its beautiful colors, before getting a selfie of the pair of them. He could imagine Ember trying to compete with him on who could paddle the fastest on the boat, laughing the entire time. He could see Kim there, smiling happily at him and just holding his hand, the pair of them enjoying a tender moment together. They weren’t here though, instead it was Erica, and his mood maintained its sourness.

    Danny paddled them back to the dock they’d rented the boat from, hopping out and still offering her his hand to help her out as well. The nicety was something he couldn’t turn off, even for someone he didn’t like. “It’s getting dark out.” Danny pointed out, as the first stars were beginning to appear in the sky as the brilliant orange was being conquered by the inky black void of the night. 

    “I’ll find something for us to do tomorrow. Something you’ll like better.” Erica said, looking at him and still deciding to double down on everything. “You’re going to love me, Danny Fenton.”

    “The fact that you think you can force that to happen is one of the reasons it never will.” Danny said, shaking his head. “But we’ll do something tomorrow.” He accepted. He had no choice, because the second he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain, she would almost certainly run and tell the world. In some ways, he almost wished she’d just do it, so he wouldn’t have to keep holding up this charade; so he could finally be with his girls again, and apologize for all he’s had to put them through this week. 

     Putting his hands in his pockets, he started walking back home, his gaze shooting up to the sky to the stars that were beginning to come out. His mind drifted back to that night in November of his freshman year. When he first told Star and Kim he loved them, when Sammy had joined their group, when Danny pointed out the Orion constellation in a moment that mattered so much to him and Star they named their son after it in at least one future. Looking up to the sky, he hoped to see the hunter constellation, but he was nowhere to be found, hidden on the opposite side of the world.

—-

    The Bermuda Triangle was a high-end club that catered to the ultra-elite on paper. High price tags, gourmet chefs, and poker tables that set small blinds at five figures. In practice that was still true, but it tended to be more commonly attended by those who acquired their wealth in less than moral ways. The club existed on a small man-made island in the middle of the titular Bermuda Triangle, far enough away from any shore that no country could lay proper claim to it, leaving it a perfect place to engage in activities that would be illegal within any borders.

    Infiltrating it had been exceptionally annoying and difficult. Kim and Ron had needed to get a boat from Miami, and then about a mile out from the actual club, scuba dive through a series of water defenses to get to the island. For people less skilled, it would have been a death trap, but Kim and Ron managed to make it through with little difficulty. Stepping up onto the craggy shore, they shed their diving equipment and pulled towels out of the waterproof bags they carried to dry themselves.

    “So, what do you think Drakken’s looking for, anyway?” Ron asked as he rubbed the towel on his face, before moving to pull off his drysuit. “Think it’s related to the Nakasumi thing?”

    “It’s the only real lead we have anyway.” Kim said as she followed the motion, stepping out of her dry suit and smoothing down her dress, thankful it didn’t seem to get damaged by the swimwear. 

    “He’s never gone to a broker like this before, has he? Usually he just goes after a thing or a person.” Ron said, thinking aloud about their previous encounters with the demented blue scientist.

    “Yeah, usually he’ll just read about some great discovery or device or something and try to steal that.” Kim said, as she affixed a wig onto her head. She turned her attention over to Ron, before raising an eyebrow. “What is that?” 

     Ron stood, popping the collar on his suit. It was a wild leopard print suit that sat on him a little oddly, obviously not sized for him specifically. “Suit my Dad was supposed to wear to prom back in the 90s. I was supposed to wear it to prom, but well, Sam took one look at it and said no way.”

    “She was right to.” Kim said, her face scrunching a bit as she looked over the garish garment.

    “Yeah, probably. Means it can get destroyed on this mission and I don’t need to feel bad about it.” Ron said with a smile. “So, I guess we go in and see what’s going on?” Kim nodded, and the pair headed inside.

     They split up to cover more ground as soon as they entered, leaving Kim alone with her thoughts as she scanned the crowd for their blue-skinned target or his glowing green second. Her mind wandered as she worked, leaving her annoyed with herself and her inability to focus. Everything seemed to bring her back to the weight in her heart though, the girl snuggling up to a man at one of the casino tables, a tanned brown-haired waitress, a high-roller with messy black hair and blue eyes, things that forced her to think about Danny and Erica, and how she was with him now and Kim wasn’t. 

    Her mind forced her to conjure images of the pair of them on a date, Danny enjoying Erica’s company, letting the words ‘You’re so much better than Kim’ slip out of his lips. She knew in her head that Danny would never say that, would never even think that, and also in her head, she knew that he was not thrilled about Erica either. Her head wasn’t the one who got the say in that decision though, it was her heart, and her heart ached at even the baseline concept. Anxiety filled her very being as she was consumed by the ‘What if?’.

     What if Danny didn’t dislike Erica as much as she thought? What if he liked Erica more than her? What if she was losing him? A thousand insecurities and anxieties filled her as she thought about it, her steps getting more and more uneven as she moved through the place. She tried to reassure herself, picturing Danny’s distressed face whenever he was with Erica. She tried to force memories of the strength of their relationship. She thought of when he finally told her he loved her under the stars. She thought of getting to hug their children from the future, and she thought of how he held her while they both cried after they were gone. She hoped that those memories would reinforce in her heart what she knew was true. Danny loved her, Danny would always love her.

    She was pulled out of her thoughts by a grunt of exertion from behind her, her fighting instincts kicking in and telling her to be anywhere but where she was currently standing. She jumped off to the side, and saw Shego’s fist impacting the floor where she’d been the moment before, her fist glowing green. “Caught you slipping, Kimmie.” Shego said with a smirk, standing up and smoothing down her skirt as she moved into her combat stance.

    “What’s Drakken after, Shego?” Kim asked as she pulled her wig off, letting her red locks fly free since she’d already been made. She fell into her fighting stance, infinitely grateful that she’d finally worn a dress she could actually fight in this time.

    “Like I ever have any ideas what his whack-job plans are? I’m just here to fight you and drink mimosas.” Shego said as she shot forward, delivering a right hook towards Kim’s head. The cheerleader dodged to the side, shooting out with a punch of her own to the metahuman’s gut, earning an oof in response.

    Their fight played out as a back and forth for a while. Neither of them really managed to land any hits that stuck, both being too agile to be tagged by anything more than a glancing blow. Kim made distance with a backflip kick, landing on top of one of the dining tables in the central lounge. She picked up a stack of plates from the center, throwing them like frisbees at Shego with pinpoint precision, the verdant woman smashing each one with her glowing hands before they could properly hit her.

    “KP!” Ron called out, causing her to glance over in his direction. He pushed a serving cart forward, catching Shego with it and sending her away. 

    “Good shot Ron.” Kim congratulated him, before noticing the small wicks of blue crackling energy that would flash around his hands. “Monkey power acting up again?”

    “Yeah… not sure why, but it’s at least being helpful.” Ron said, as he and Kim dropped into fighting stances again, Shego having recovered from her encounter with the serving cart.

     The green woman pounced, her fists glowing with green energy, and slammed a double fisted punch into the ground where the pair had been standing. Kim capitalized on her miss by trying to drive a kick into her head, but Shego caught the blow. She had, however, not expected Ron to knock her to the side. “Oh? Since when has sidekick grown a pair?” Shego taunted, but neither Kim or Ron rose to the taunt.

     Shego was lightly on the back foot as the pair pressed their advantage. They were sloppy though. Ron wasn’t incredibly comfortable with the monkey power, unable to fully commit to using it despite the innate advantages it provided. Kim, even during combat, kept finding her mind wandering to Erica, Shego’s face occasionally morphing into the brunette’s forcing Kim to wrestle with the anger and the jealousy over and over again.

    “Shego!” A familiar rough voice called out, as Drakken stood atop a set of stairs. “I have what we came for, let us leave.” 

    “Later, Kimmie!” Shego said, mimicking Kim’s earlier move by launching into a backflip that sent a kick to Kim’s chin, before running up to Drakken, a platform on a cable busting through the ceiling and whisking the pair away.

    “You may think you are all that Kim Possible, but you’re not even close!” Drakken called out as they vanished into the night. Kim sighed, defeated as she collapsed into a nearby chair, her head going to rest in her hands as the emotions of the situation overwhelmed her.

   “We lost.” Ron said to himself, almost like he couldn’t really believe it. He looked down at his hands, where they still crackled with the tiny amounts of monkey power, although it was fading.

    “Feels like I’ve been losing a lot of things recently.” Kim said, as Ron came over and gently patted her on the back.

—-

     Star made her way to Fentonworks in the manner she had so many, many times before. The walk from her house to Danny’s was second nature to her, to the point she could do it blindfolded. She knew every twist, every turn, every crack in the sidewalk that she would pass to get to her boyfriend’s house. It was a safe space, sometimes feeling more like home than her own house did, warm and welcoming no matter when she arrived. Jack would ask her how she was doing, Maddie would offer some tea, and Danny would greet her with a kiss and just hold her while she told him why she was there. As she came in that day though, none of that occurred. Jack and Maddie were down in the lab, she could hear them conversing with Technus about something, the details lost in the distance but their voices still recognizable. She wouldn’t fault them for not greeting her at the door, she hadn’t informed anyone she was coming. She needed help, advice and someone to listen to her problems. Her own mother was out of the question, not only since this involved hero work, but because she wouldn’t want to sour her mother’s image of Danny, and didn’t want her mom to see her crying over a boy like this.

    To that end, she was glad Maddie wasn’t here either, because she didn’t want to cry about her son to her face. Maddie had been like a mother to her since she and Danny had really gotten serious, and Star loved her to bits, but there were still things she wouldn’t want to talk to her about. That had left one option available to her. 

    Heading up the stairs, she passed by Danny’s room, opening the door to peak inside. It was empty, of course, he was out on a date with Erica, and that thought made her blood boil for a moment before she forced herself to calm down. She moved on down the hall, not letting herself dwell on it, before knocking on another door. She heard a soft “Come in” from the other side and opened it, revealing two red-heads sitting on the bed.

    “Oh, sorry. Didn’t know you had company. I’ll leave.” Star said, getting ready to turn around.

    “No, stay.” Sammy said, smiling at her friend. “I imagine we’re here for the same reason.”

    Star nodded and entered, taking a seat on the bed with the other two girls. She glanced around Jazz’s room for a second. She’d never really been in here, but she would have been able to clock it as Jazz’s in an instant. Two tall bookshelves took up one corner of the room, filled to the brim with books on psychology, as well as Jazz’s other reading passion, romance novels. A clean desk sat with a laptop on it, a Phantom sticker resting on one of the corners, which made her smile a bit. Sat upon the nightstand was a well loved teddy bear with wild hair and a labcoat, Bearbert Einstein she’d heard Jazz call it many times, her long-suffering animal companion.

    “So, you two are here because you think Danny’s replacing you?” Jazz asked, a serious look on her face as she examined the two girls. They nodded, but weren’t able to look at her, instead keeping their eyes focused elsewhere. Jazz laughed. It wasn’t a small chuckle, it was big, loud, and boisterous. She fell back on her bed, laughing and rolling as though what she’d been told was the most hilarious thing in the world.

    “This isn’t helping Jazz!” Star said, her tone rising in anger. She couldn’t believe Jazz would just LAUGH at them like that. They came here hoping for support, and are instead getting ridiculed.

    Jazz calmed herself, sitting up and looking at them both with a warm smile. “I’m not laughing at you guys. I’m laughing because that is far and away the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You think Danny Fenton, the boy who you’ve literally met your future kids with, is trying to replace you?”

    “I mean, that timeline won’t happen anymore.” Sammy said, lightly rubbing her arm. “Clockwork told us it wouldn’t happen.”

    “If Danny told me correctly, he meant that in regards to a robot apocalypse, not that a future where you all had a happy life together didn’t exist. You met another version of them from a different timeline anyway.” Jazz said, looking over them. “Danny’s crazy about you girls. He’d never let you go.”

    “But… he’s with Erica now. He hasn’t been with us in days, its just all been about her. Every moment he’s not occupied with school or something she’s wrapped around him like garland on a Christmas tree.” Star said, frustration coloring her voice. She loved the boy, she really did, but he was killing her right now.

    “He hates every second of that.” Jazz said, a small frown forming on her face. “I know he does. He’s not the same when he comes home, and… well I think I heard him crying about it last night. He misses you girls terribly.” 

   “He’s making it hard to feel that right now.” Sammy said, pulling her knees up to her chest. “I know something is wrong, but… it’s really hard to go straight from ‘We really have a future together’ to ‘Can’t get him to stop seeing another girl’ over the course of a couple days.”

    Jazz nodded, her face looking conflicted for a moment like she was thinking something over. After a moment of deliberation, she stood up. “One second, I need to show you something.” She walked out of the room, and then came back with a small box in her hands. “Now, I need you two to promise me something. You do not tell Danny I showed you this.” Jazz’s voice was serious, and her face matched. “I’m doing this because I know you are hurting, and because I love you like my sisters, since you will be someday. I’m also doing this because I love Danny too, and I know that you hurting also hurts him.”

    “We won’t tell him.” Star said, Sammy nodding in agreement. “But what is it?”

    Jazz opened the box and inside were a set of four rings. All four were silver bands with small clusters of gems on the top. One was shaped like a flower, with topaz petals surrounding a circular sapphire center. The next had an aquamarine in the shape of a plectrum, and the one beside it was a lovely emerald in a square cut. The final was a ruby cut like a heart. Star reached out and pulled the flower one out of the box, on the inside of the ring there was a single word engraved ‘Star’. Sammy did the same with the square cut emerald one, finding her own name written within. 

    “These aren’t engagement rings.” Jazz said with a small chuckle, tempering expectations. “He does love you all, but you’re seventeen. He’s got years before he’s ready for that question.” She sat the box down on her desk before walking over to a photo album, pulling out a picture. The girls recognized it to be a much younger Jack and Maddie, and Jazz pointed to Maddie’s hand. “There’s a sort of… tradition with men in the Fenton family, or at least, this is what our Dad told us. When you’re really, really serious about a girl, and intend to marry her someday, but aren’t ready to actually pop the question, you present her with a promise ring. Dad apparently used grandpa’s class ring, that’s what Mom is wearing in this picture, and he offered his class ring to Danny to use for you girls, but… well there’s four of you and one ring, so that wasn’t going to work out.” She held out her hands for the girls to put the rings back into. “He got these custom made, and wanted them to be special for you. He’d intended to give them to you girls at the Prom, since Dad had really only told him about the tradition a couple months ago, and the incident with your kids told him he needed to do it sooner rather than later.”

    “If… if he does love us like this though… Why is he with Erica now? Why is he doing this?” Star asked, not to Jazz or Sammy, but to the world at large, wondering why the universe would pull at her heartstrings like this.

    “I wish I knew the answer Star, but I can say one thing for certain: He’d rather be with you.” Jazz said, before reaching over and pulling her future sister-in-law into a hug. 

    “We won’t tell the others about the rings… they should get the chance to be surprised all on their own.” Sammy said as she joined in the hug. “We’ll have to let them know Danny’s still gunning for us. That we’re not getting replaced.”

—-

     James Possible looked down the microscope in his lab, his eyes locked on the small collection of nanobots he’d been working on. The small robots were little more than blobs, glowing a light blue as they maneuvered around a bit. “Test 3-13-P2 initiate.” He said, as his hand lightly pressed a button off to the side. Within a few moments, the blue blob began to wiggle a tad more violently, and then where there was one, there were two. Then four. Then eight. After only a moment Dr. Possible no longer needed the microscope to see the structure, the blue blob now visible to the naked eye, and growing rapidly. “Success!” He called out giddily, as he pressed the button again. In an instant, the material shrunk down, and James looked through the microscope again, seeing the individual nanobot once more. “And Hephaestus Mark 3 passes its final test. We’ll see how the board of directors likes that one.” James said with a proud smile on his face as he kicked away from his desk. He took a small victory twirl in his office chair, before returning to his work station and tapping down a few more commands onto his tablet. “Alright, test results recorded and saved… backup on the central server… and I’m home free.”

    His phone chose that moment to ring, and he answered it with a quick swipe of his thumb. “Hello dear.” He said down the line to his wife, a smile on his face.

    “It’s pizza night, do you want your usual?” Ann asked from the other end as she tapped away at her own tablet, scrolling through the app of their local pizza place.

    “Yes ma’am, get some garlic knots too.” James said with a smile. “Just finished up here, so don’t bother having them deliver it, I’ll swing by and pick it up.”

    “Alright dear, I’ll see you when you get home.” Ann said down the line, before hanging up. 

    James got out of his chair and stretched, going through a few housekeeping tasks as he shut down the lab for the evening, getting his keys from his pocket and locking the door. A chill went down his spine for a moment, before he shook his head. “Guess someone left the AC on.” He mused, before shrugging. He was in a research lab, maybe there was an experiment that needed cold temperatures. With the door locked, he left the building, heading for his car.

    Skulker emerged from the floor a moment later, a usb cable appearing out of his wrist, and plugged into the tablet Dr. Possible was working on. “I’m in, Plasmius.” The hunter said down his earpiece.

    “Very good. I’ve sent the command to duplicate the files onto your internal drive, we’ll pull those off once you return to base. I trust you encountered no difficulties?” Vlad asked through the connection.

     “None at all. I’m far enough from Amity Park that I don’t think Phantom’s little sensors are picking me up. It should be smooth sailing.” Skulker said as his HUD showed the progress on the transfer. He’d be here for a few minutes, but with the lab closed down, and no one here expecting a ghost, he didn’t have any reason to believe he’d be caught. Truly, this was all going to plan.

—-

    “I don’t know Sam, I’ve just haven’t seen Kim off of her game like this since that whole thing with the Time Monkey.” Ron said as he held his head in his hands at the table in Bueno Nacho, the Tex-Mex restaurant a soothing balm to his frayed nerves about the whole situation.

    “Do you even know what happened that time? Did she ever tell you about it?” Sam asked with a raised eyebrow. She knew neither Danny or Kim had ever told her exactly what had occurred on that mission, but it had been clear to all of them once they came home that there was some major change in them because of it.

    “No, whenever it comes up she just says that she’s worked through it, but she won’t talk about it. Danny more or less says the same thing.” Ron said, shaking his head lightly. “Kim’s never not told me something before, so it has to be pretty difficult for her if it’s not able to be shared with even me. That’s what has me confused though. That was a big thing, somehow, something major that happened on a mission that knocked her off. I can get that, missions are rough and scary with high stakes. We literally save the world on the regular, so that’s a lot of pressure. This is… well this is a teenage girl with a crush, why is she having such a hard time with it?”

    Sam thought for a moment, trying to weigh the question in her head. “Well, Ron… how often do you guys save the world?” She asked leadingly.

    “Often, once a month maybe? Once a week in the stopping a bad guy sense.” He answered simply, trying to follow her path.

    “So you do it a lot. She’s used to what it entails. She knows how to handle that. Saving the world isn’t HARD for her. Maybe it pushes her limits, but it’s not something she struggles with.” Sam said, her tone calm as she tried to explain it. “What she doesn’t know how to handle is stuff in her personal life. Kim had like, two boyfriends before Danny I think you said once. Small middle-school flings that resulted in maybe a kiss or two, and a trip to the orthodontist.” Sam said, causing Ron to chuckle at the memory of Kim and a boy she liked at the time getting their braces locked together. “Danny has pretty much been the entirety of her romantic experience, she only knows how to view her emotions in regards to that through the lens of him. She doesn’t have the tools to deal with this type of jealousy, because she hasn’t experienced it before.”

   Ron thought on that, before nodding. “I guess that makes sense. It’s just weird though, Kim can do anything.”

    “Anything is possible for a Possible.” Sam said, repeating the motto. “Then included in that anything will be dealing with this. Just because she hasn’t done it yet doesn’t mean she won’t do it. I might not be as close to Kim as you are, but I have faith in her.”

   “I do too.” Ron said with a smile, getting up out of his seat. “I’m going to go order, do you want anything?” 

    “I’ll take some nachos and a Cancun Crush.” She responded, shooting him a smile back. 

    Ron made his way up to the counter, surprised to not see Ned behind it. Instead, the man behind the counter was massive, with muscles that were barely contained in the orange and green polo shirt, a tie with a cactus wearing a sombrero tied around his neck. His head was bald, and there was a notable scar above his eye that gave him a bit of a dangerous look. “Isn’t this Ned’s shift? Is he okay?” Ron asked, now slightly worried that his friend wasn’t here. He and Ned weren’t super close, but he thought they were friends.

    “Ned has been temporarily demoted while we re-evaluate his performance. It is expected to be a temporary measure, simply a part of the new management strategy.” The man said, his gruff voice fitting his build. “I’m Lars, the new Manager for the time being. Now, can I interest you in one of our new Diablo Meals? Each one comes with a Little Diablo toy.” Lars pointed to the little display box by the counter, where three small toys were displayed in various poses. They seemed to be small devil themed robots, with giant round heads with oversized toothy smiles, yellow horns, and a small goatee. They seemed a little lacking in articulation for figures, but given they were given away free with kids meals, Ron didn’t think anything of that.

    “No, I’ll have a grande Naco meal and an order of nachos, two Cancun Crushes for the drinks.” Ron said, as he reached into his wallet, pulling out a twenty for the meal he’d ordered a dozen times, knowing the price without even thinking about, $17.22.

    “That’ll be $21.17.” Lars said, causing Ron to raise an eyebrow at that.

    “Come again? I get this combo every week and it’s $17.22.” Ron said, confused.

    “Menu pricing changes with the new management. Most item prices have shifted, we apologize for the increased price, and you are welcome to call corporate if you have any complaints, the number will be on your receipt.” Lars said, his tone professional. “Can I interest you in some Diablo sauce with your meal?” 

    “No thank you.” Ron said, his tone disappointed as he grabbed two additional ones, pushing them over the counter.

    “Have a Muchos Gran-day!” Lars said as he pushed the tray over the counter. “Shame you didn’t get a Diablo meal though, they’ve been our best sellers since we put them out. It seems like every kid in the world has a Little Diablo now.”

—-

    “He’s really not coming?” Valerie asked with a slightly angry look on her face. “After all this he’s not coming?” She, along with Jazz, Sam, Alex, and Clover had come with Kim, Star, and Sammy to the mall to help pick out prom dresses for the girls. They had been putting it off, waiting for Danny to be able to come with them to pick them out, but given the prom was the next day, they couldn’t wait any longer. 

    Kim couldn’t even look at Valerie, knowing that she had every right to be angry. Kim herself was quite upset, even knowing that Danny would rather be here than where he was. He’d manage to shoot them a message that Erica had dragged him off to some fancy restaurant to have dinner there.

    “He’s… going through a lot right now.” Jazz said, taking up for her brother, although not feeling the most capable of talking to Valerie about it. Jazz knew all of Danny’s friends, and got along well with them, but it was really only Kim, Star, Sammy, and Sam that she had any real closeness to. “I can tell you that he definitely doesn’t want to be where he is.” 

    “Then why isn’t he blowing her off and coming here? It’s not like she can physically stop him. This is DANNY we’re talking about. There’s like… two or three people on this planet who can genuinely hold him back?” Valerie asked, her tone getting angrier. “You all keep sticking up for him, but he’s treating you like dirt!”

    “Valerie, you are my best friend, and I love you to death.” Star said, speaking up for the first time that trip. She’d been quiet and subdued the entire time, but now she was glaring hard at Valerie. “But I’m not going to hear you say another bad word about Danny right now. Do I know what’s going on? No, I don’t. But I do know that that man is someone I had a kid with in the future. Whatever is happening now is temporary, and I’m sure once it’s over, I’ll look at myself and think I’m dumb for ever worrying about it. Until that time though, the last thing I want is you making me feel worse about it.” 

    Valerie looked down in embarrassment, before sighing. “Alright, I’ll stop talking about it. Now… what were you girls thinking for dresses?” 

    “I was thinking of something warm for me.” Star said, flicking through a rack of red and orange dresses in the store they were in. “Something orange maybe? I usually wear something like that, so I know it looks good. Danny always says it makes my eyes look even bluer.” She said, picking up a short asymmetrical orange dress, holding it in front of herself in the mirror. “Hmm… too frilly, I think.” Star said, her fingers playing with some of the ruffles on the skirt of the dress. “Something more classic maybe? Simple.” 

    “I think that’d be good. I really don’t think any of you girls fit something very… maximalist.” Jazz said, as she picked up a dress that was everything she described. A flashy thing with layers and layers of ruffles on the skirt, and colors spread throughout it, with a top that appeared like it was made of flower petals. It was cute, but a bit overstated for the girls’ taste.

    “Yeah… minimalist is the way to go for you three. Going extra is more my speed.” Sam said, thinking about her own dress, which was all corsets and lace with a puffy lower skirt, almost Victorian in its design.

     “What about this one then?” Clover suggested, pulling out another asymmetrical orange dress. It was floor length, although it had a slit up the front that ended at the middle of her thigh, long enough to cover everything, but still adding a bit of visual interest. It was a warm orange color that seemed to have some glitter in it that made it sparkle a little under the lights of the store.

    “Ooh… that is nice.” Star said as she went over and examined the dress. “I’m going to go try it on! You girls keep looking!” She scurried off towards a changing room, leaving the others to look for dresses.

    “Well… I’ve obviously got to go for a green one.” Sammy said as she looked over the options. “I’m thinking something classy and sophisticated.” She flipped through various dresses on the racks, trying to find something.

    “Oh, well this one has these shoulder length gloves with it, it’s giving Audrey Hepburn.” Jazz said as she held up a rather plain, but classically beautiful spaghetti strap dress, with arm length gloves attached. It was, of course, a brilliant verdant green that would have matched her spy suit.

    “Ooh! Gimme!” Sammy said as she walked over and grabbed it. “Gonna go try it on!” She dashed off excitedly to join Star in the changing rooms.

    “Guess that just leaves me then.” Kim said as she looked through the various dresses on offer. “Kind of unfortunate that I don’t have a color like they do.” She mused as she thumbed through the various dresses. 

    “What about this?” Alex asked, pulling out a light blue dress. It shimmered a bit in the light, having a translucent upper layer that glittered a bit in the light, with a slit on one leg that only came up to her knee. It was fairly simple, and more conservative than the ones Star and Sammy were trying on… but it did seem rather nice.

   “I guess I’ll go try it on.” Kim said, taking it in her hands and heading towards the dressing room.

    She, Sammy, and Star emerged at roughly the same time, the trio posing in front of the full-length mirrors that were near the dressing rooms, their friends examining the dresses. “Oh yeah girls, those DEFINITELY work.” Valerie said, a wide smile on her face.

    “Danny’s going to love them.” Sam said, pulling out her phone and snapping a picture. “It’s almost annoying how easy you were to shop for.”

    “I do really hope he likes them.” Star said, her smile wide, but coming down a bit in the corners as unpleasant thoughts raced through her mind. “Assuming we can pull him away from Erica for a while.”

    “I still don’t know why you girls haven’t beaten her yet.” Valerie said with an eyeroll. “If he’s not doing it willingly like you said, surely there’s no harm in it.”

    “We don’t have any proof there’s anything nefarious going on.” Sammy said, letting out a long sigh as she slowly stripped her gloves off.

    “And if she’s just a normal girl that Danny does genuinely like, two superheroes just beat up a normal girl out of jealousy. That’s not a good look, nor is it who we are.” Kim said, a frown of her own on her face as she checked the dress in the mirror. She did like the dress, but she really wished Danny was here to see her in it.

    “He definitely doesn’t like her, I can tell you that.” Jazz said as she walked up to Kim and helped her with the dress, making sure it sat just right on her frame. “You know how he keeps taking you girls to the photo booths because he likes to keep those?”

    “Yeah.” Star said, nodding. Danny really liked those, they’d each been in one a couple times, and he always seemed to cherish them so much.

    “He keeps all of yours above his computer, I’m sure you girls have seen them when you’re in his room, even if you don’t pay much attention.” Jazz said casually. “Erica must have dragged him into one, because I did find one of the two of them, and besides the fact that he looked miserable in it, I also found that strip in the trash can in the living room. He threw it away the second he got home.”

    That did lift the girls’ spirits a bit. A loud crash then caught their attention, forcing the heroes among them to quickly dash towards the front of the store to see what was going on. The sound of metal on concrete rang out, as three large robots, stylized like demon samurai with red and black slammed into the fountain. People ran around, screaming in terror as the robots vandalized the mall that had only recently recovered from the Masters Blasters incident a few months ago.

     “Girls, we need to gear up.” Kim said, glancing over at Sammy, Alex, Clover, and Valerie, who just nodded in response. They rushed back to the changing rooms, and within a minute they had managed to swap from prom dresses and civilian clothes to mission gear. They rushed out of the store, Kim turning back towards Jazz. “Call Danny, let him know we need to hero up. Whatever Erica’s got on him, it’s not enough to stop him from doing his job.” 

    Jazz nodded, pulling out her phone and dialing, ducking back into the store with Star and Sam to try and avoid the worst of the damage from the upcoming fight.

—-

       Chez Couteaux was everything Danny had thought it would be, and that made it all the more annoying given his present company. Erica sat across from him at the fancy restaurant, her eyes raking over the menu that didn’t list prices to give an even greater sense of the exclusivity and premium quality of the establishment. Something that was slightly diminished by the presence of a kids menu that Danny could see a child at a nearby table drawing on. Soft classical music came from nearly invisible speakers throughout the restaurant, and the lighting was low and soft. Truthfully, the place felt exceedingly romantic, which made it no wonder that Erica would pick this place for a date.

     Danny had been expecting to come here for a couple years now, and had been scoping out the place to see exactly how it would be best to come here, and just how special it was to determine an appropriate occasion… as well as saving up to pay for the dinner that would no doubt be incredibly expensive. He’d imagined taking Star, Kim, Sammy, and Ember here at some point, giving them a chance to really dress up and have a nice dinner, one chance to really spoil them and show them how much he loved them. It was something that had been simmering on the backburner since he, Kim, and Star had made it official. A first thought had been to take them during their first Valentine’s day together, but they’d elected to do the Valentine’s dance instead once Kim and Star had been on the committee to put that together. The next year they’d simply gone to a different fancy restaurant that Kim had picked out, and this year they’d elected to have the party at home. It had just been put off and put off, and now instead of his first time being here being with them, instead he was with her. He was at least glad he didn’t have to worry about the bill, apparently her Dad was loaded beyond reason, and since she picked this place, she was paying for it.

    “You could smile more, you know.” She complained as she saw his dour expression. “You’re on a date with your girlfriend in a lovely restaurant.”

    “I could smile more. I could also be here with the girls I’m in love with. Instead they’re picking out prom dresses with my sister, and I’m here with you trying to figure out what Moules Marinière is.” Danny said back in a light deadpan. He knew it was obvious on his face that he didn’t want to be here, and he wanted that to be the case. He wanted her to see how little he wanted to do with her so she’d call the whole thing off. The fact that she hadn’t after this week of terrible dates was a testament to either her stubbornness or complete lack of care for his feelings. 

    “I’m sure they’ll be just fine without you there. Most guys don’t see the prom dresses until the day of anyway.” Erica said, taking a moment to examine her nails. “You didn’t ask to come with me to pick one out.”

    “I had no desire to.” Danny shot back, pulling the menu up in front of his face so he didn’t have to look at her.

    Her eyes narrowed at that, before sighing and picking a conversation topic. “So, did you hear about the new Commander Cain show coming out? That sounds exciting.” Erica said, bringing up an interest they shared in Space Passage.

    “I haven’t. Been a bit busy with my other activities.” Danny said, lightly picking at his salad, responding just enough to prove that he was putting in effort, even if it wasn’t a lot.

    “Why do you keep thinking about them? Why can’t you be here with me?” Erica asked, her tone angry. “I have your interests, I take you to these fancy places, I’m everything any guy could ask for, and you’re still hung up on a couple of redheads and a blonde.”

    “Because even if I did have feelings for you, which I don’t, it wouldn’t invalidate my feelings for them. We have a partnership, a connection we chose by ourselves of our own free will. The relationship is hard, it's work, sometimes we don’t get everything we want out of it; but we love each other, and will keep working on it. You won’t ever get it, anyone who did what you did never could.” Danny said, glaring down at her.

    His attention was caught by a loud crash outside as the ground shook. Danny’s eyes shot out of the window, landing on a large robot terrorizing the parking lot of the restaurant. The red and black samurai robot picked up a sedan, tossing it through the air and smashing several other cars as it landed.

    “I’ve got to go take care of that.” Danny said immediately, getting up to go to the bathroom to transform. Erica caught his arm.

    “No, don’t…” She started, before Danny interrupted her.

     “People are going to get hurt. It's my job to stop things like that. If you’re going to tell my secret over this? Fine. Do it. I’ll relish the fact I’ll have no reason to talk to you ever again. My secret isn’t worth other people’s lives.” Danny said, yanking his arm out of her grip and rushing towards the bathroom. He transformed, turning intangible and shooting through the roof, before hovering over the parking lot. His eyes caught two more of the giant robots in the distance, tearing up a nearby street. His phone rang, and he picked it up. “Jazz, is this important? Kind of got something going on.”

    “The Mall is being attacked by robots. Kim, the Spies, and Valerie are taking them on, but we need you over here.” Jazz said, her voice calm but on edge. Understandable given the circumstances.

    “Bad news, I’ve got three where I’m at too. I’ll handle these and make my way over there if I finish up before they do. Call Ron and have him pick whichever one of us he’s closer to to help out.” Danny said, his eyes examining the robots as he spoke.

    “On it. Be careful Danny.” Jazz said, before the connection ended.

—-

      Kim landed a somersault after she had bounced off the robot in front of her hoping that by throwing her entire weight into it, she could stagger it. Unfortunately, she’d had no such luck, the mechanical menace remained unmoved by her assault. “Man, these things are tough.” She pushed out, rolling out of the way as one of its clawed arms shot forward and left a small impact site where she’d been standing a moment before. “It’d be real nice to have some superpowers right now.” 

     “Tell me about it!” Clover said, as she rooted around in her backpack for a gadget. She pulled out a small icy blue perfume vial. “Alright, gotta thank Jer for this pack.” She said as she advanced on one of the robots, sliding between its legs and spraying them with the perfume. In an instant, massive ice blocks formed around the legs, seemingly locking it in place. “One robo-creep ice queened.” She said with a confident smile.

    Said smile faded away when the robot pulled its legs out of the ice, turned to face her, and chased after her. “Ice doesn’t work!” Clover called out in panic, dodging one of the robot’s arms shooting towards her.

    “Maybe this will!” Sammy called out, pointing a lipstick laser toward the robot. She smiled as the laser cut through the robot’s chassis like a hot knife through butter, the action severing the robot’s arm. “Yes! That worked great!”

    The robot merely picked up the arm that had fallen to the floor, holding it back to the socket as the area between them glowed a brilliant blue for a moment, the arm attaching itself back and being fully functional again. “They regenerate?” Sammy called out incredulously, dodging a counterattack of her own.

    “Just great! They’re like the liquid robot from Valentine’s day!” Alex groaned out sarcastically as she pulled out her own gadget, a turbo-blast hairdryer and tried to blast the robots away. It was decently effective, knocking them off of their feet and creating some distance, but the robots were able to get up.

   Kim’s eyes widened at that. These WERE like the liquid metal robots, and that gave her an idea. “Huntress! Cover me for a second! I’ve gotta make a call.” She said, looking up to Valerie who had shouldered one of her ecto-bazookas.

    “Not the time to schedule a hair appointment, girl, but I’ve got you.” Valerie called out, firing a blast at the nearest robot. A massive hole formed in the center of it, but the blow glow returned and the hole began to fill itself in.

    Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator and quickly smashed her Dad’s contact. “What’s up Kimmie-cub? Need some more money in your account for your dress?” He asked, his eyebrow raised as he answered the phone.

    “Dad, how could I disable the Hephaestus Project?” Kim asked, ducking behind one of the pillars that held up the second floor walkway of the mall, hopeful that it would buy her some time.

    “Why do you need to know, Kim?” James asked, and Kim simply held up the Kimmunicator so he could see the robots. Valerie had fired another blast into one, and the blue glow was regenerating the shoulder she’d taken a chunk out of. “I see.”

    “So yeah, how do I deal with it?” Kim asked, desperate for the help.

    “Well, they need a central command signal, but it’s long-distance radio. That could be miles away and still be working.” James said, closing his eyes and thinking deeply, trying to imagine anything that might help her. His eyes shot wide after a moment. “Electric impulse. They’re still robotic, and the capacitors in them have finite current capabilities. You’ve got to electrify them in their entirety. They can self-repair if even one nanobot doesn’t break at once. You’ll need something big to do that.”

     “I think we can do big.” Kim said, nodding. “Thanks Dad.” She hung up and dashed out to the atrium. “Sammy! Need your big brain for a minute!” She called out to her fellow red-head.

    “Not sure how it’ll help right now, but I’ll try!” She said, using the laser lipstick to cut through another arm. Even if they could reattach them, every second one of them was off was a second it wasn’t actively attacking them.

    “Dad says these things need a big shock all the way through to overload the capacitors in the nanobots.” Kim said, pulling out her grapple gun and trying to tie up one of the robots legs with it. “Think you’ve got a gadget, or something you can jury rig to make that work?”

    Sammy thought for a moment, estimating the size of robots, and taking an initial stock of their equipment. “Huntress! How many Fenton Batteries are in one of your Ecto-zookas?”

    “Twelve!” She called out, firing it again to one of the Robots, blasting through its head, although it just started repairing itself again. “Got 11 at full charge, and the 12th is about half capacity right now.”

    “Swap to a secondary and bring it over here, I need to try something.” Sammy called out, and Valerie listened, tossing the bazooka up to the brainiac and swapping over to a more subdued ecto-rifle.  

     Sammy opened the battery compartment of the ecto-zooka, pulling it out and rerouting wires. After a moment, she held out what was effectively just a battery tower, with two prongs at the ends. “Huntress! Grab this and ram it into it, and make sure you don’t touch any metal part of it yourself!” The green spy called out, and Valerie once more listened.

    She grabbed the battery receptacle, flying at high speed towards the nearest robot, and stabbing the prongs into its metal chassis. Electricity flowed through the metal monstrosity, causing it to buck and jerk, before falling over and shrinking. “Yeah! Right on spy-girl!” Valerie called out, excited that it worked.

    “Check the charge on the battery! How much was needed?” Sammy called out, pulling out a couple other gadgets and getting the batteries from them.

    Valerie grabbed the device, checking the power meter. “Looks like 2, so this one’s still got plenty of juice!” She flew over to the next robot and pressed the prong into it, then followed it up with the third one. The robots jerked and shook, before shrinking down to their original forms. Clover walked over to one of them, picking up the small toy that sat where the robot fell. “A little devil toy? Evil toymaker this time?”

    “That looks familiar.” Kim mused as she looked over it.

    “It’s from Bueno Nacho!” Sam said as she ran over from the dress shop, looking over the three toys on the ground. “Ron and I were just there yesterday, the new manager was pushing these really hard. Said every kid in the world probably had one of these by now.” 

    “Then Bueno Nacho is probably where the transmitter is.” Kim said, turning to look to the spies and Valerie. “We’ve got to make our way there. Jazz, where is Danny?”

    Jazz came out of the dress shop, looking around at the destruction. “There were more of these where he was. He was taking care of them.”

    “Call him and let him know to meet us at Bueno Nacho, that’s where the control signal for all of these is coming from. If we take it out, all of these should go down.” Kim explained, and Jazz nodded. “Come on girls, we’ve got robots to take out.”

—-

      Unfortunately for Ron, he’d been at ground zero for the Diablo robot invasion. A dozen of the robots had formed from the restaurant, fanning out from there to cause massive havoc, leaving four of them at the restaurant itself to guard the transmitter. Ron, being a hero even in spite of the fear that coursed through his veins, tried to find ways to disable them. His hands were glowing blue, and out of the corner of his eyes he could see a spectral blue energy tail trailing behind him, curling and uncurling as he dodged the robots attacks. His body moved largely without him thinking about it, the mystical monkey power acting up to protect its host, sending him dodging and striking around the robot. He could tell his strength was being augmented. Ron was strong for his build, but being able to move the hulking robot with his blows was something that was beyond what he was normally capable of.

    His strength didn’t help him though, as one of the Diablos raised its arm up into the air and attempted to slam itself down onto the blonde sidekick. The boy watched his life flash before his eyes, before a streak of white sailed through the air, slamming into the robot and sending it flying back.

     “You good, Ron?” Danny asked, floating above the boy and firing ecto-rays at the Diablos, keeping them from advancing.

     “Been better! Freaking out about the robots and the monkey power!” He said, his blue aura flashing with agitation at the situation they were in.

      “Get to cover if you need. I can handle the chrome domes.” Danny said, cracking his knuckles and readying to fight.

      “No, I’m helping. Might not be able to do much damage, but I can keep them off of you.” Ron said, crouching low as the monkey power flowed through him. 

      “That’s the spirit.” Danny said with a chuckle. “Go low and I’ll go high.”

     The pair leapt into action, knowing exactly how best to support each other. Ron ran in first, his monkey enhanced agility catching the attention of the robot, forcing it to track his movements around itself. As it was distracted by the blonde boy though, Danny flew in and delivered a devastating haymaker to the machine, sending it flying back into the pavement.

     “Booyah! One down.” Ron said, smirking at the robot that now had a sizable crater in its head.

      “Wouldn’t be counting my chickens, Ron.” Danny said with an exasperated sigh as the robot began to repair itself. A second one moved in, moving to slam its giant clawed hand into Ron. Danny flew down to catch it, his feet planting itself in the ground as the ghost boy tried to hold back the powerful robot. The sounds of servos straining filled the air as the robot pressed down into the half-ghost hero, his other arm whipping around to deliver a similar blow. It was stopped however, when another white streak slammed into the robot, knocking it aside.

    “Starting the party without me?” Ellie asked, shooting Danny a smirk as she started blasting ecto-rays at the robots again. “That’s rude big bro.”

    “Ellie? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be back at home?” Danny asked as he flew up to her, Ron moving to be between them.

     “There’s an army of robots attacking. I’m not just going to sit back and do nothing when I can be helping. I’ve got all your powers too, remember?” She said, before pushing her hands together and firing a larger blast towards one of the robots. “Admittedly, I can’t really figure out how to put these things down.”

      “There’s got to be a transmitter somewhere around here. That’s what Kim said. If we knock it out, they should all turn back into the toys they are.” He said, looking down at Ron. “Ron, you know Bueno Nacho better than anyone. What’s different here than a month ago?” 

    Ron’s eyes darted around, before he looked up at the giant taco sign. While it was still a taco, there’d been a new addition to it. The cheese covering hadn’t looked too out of place, but now Ron could see that part of it stuck up like an antenna, and after a single moment, he saw the top of it flash red. “The sign!” He pointed.

     Danny turned and nodded, flying toward the sign and attempting to grab it to pull it out. Once his hands touched the metal though, electricity filled his body. He let out a scream as the electricity flowed through him, eventually forcing himself to let go of the pole. “It’s too charged up, I can’t grab it and pull it out. It’s like throwing myself at Zin’s robot all over again.”

    “Well we’ve got to do something!” Ellie called out, thinking. “Think we can throw a car at it?”

     “Not without causing an explosion. Anything here will have a full gas tank, and there’s probably people in the buildings.” Danny called out. While there weren’t any residences THAT close to Bueno Nacho, he wasn’t certain about if they were far enough away to not get hit by the shrapnel.

     “What if we knock one of the Diablos into it? They’re heavy.” Ron said, flipping over a strike from one of the robots.

     “Good of a plan as any. Ellie, we’re going to throw one in. Ron, get one in position.” Danny called out, and his two allies nodded. Ron strafed around the parking lot, catching the attention of one of the diablos. It advanced towards him, shooting its claws forward in attempts to grab the teen, but failing.

     Ron dashed by the Bueno Nacho sign, the robot hot on his tail. “Now!” He called out.

     Danny and Ellie swooped in, delivering high-speed flying punches to the Diablo robot. It flew backwards from the force, slamming into the sign and snapping it in half. 

    The Diablo droids shuddered and jittered, before returning back to their little toy forms. “Booyah!” Ron called out, jumping in the air and pumping his fist in celebration.

    “Booyah.” Danny said back at him, before the roaring of rockets caught his attention. Kim, Sammy, Alex, Clover, and Valerie touched down in the parking lot next to them.

    “Looks like you got it taken out.” Kim said with a smile as she looked over the toys on the ground. “Now we just have to figure out who sent these.” She said, tapping her chin as she looked over it.

    “You know… they kind of look like Z-Boy.” Ron said, pulling out his phone and showing the Z-Boy sticker on the back, comparing it to the look of the toy. “Same kind of design, Nakasumi-san’s style is pretty consistent.” 

    “Isn’t that the guy Drakken tried to kidnap in Tokyo a couple weeks ago?” Danny asked with a raised eyebrow. “Think he’d be behind this?”

    “He was the guy behind the Mind Hackers thing!” Alex said, her eyes wide. “It’s the same! He took from Nakasumi then too. Make a thing a bunch of people want, get it in their homes, and use it to take over the world. This time is just less mind control, more force.”

    “How’d he get them into Bueno Nacho though?” Valerie asked.

     Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator, letting Wade appear on the screen. “Hey Wade, think you can look into recent movement of Bueno Nacho stock?”

     “Weird ask, but okay.” Wade said as he typed into his computer, looking over a few things. “Looks like a private equity firm just bought up 60%.... DALV group is the name.” 

     “That’s Vlad.” Danny said, letting out a low growl. “What would he have to do with this though? This is WAY outside of his MO.” 

     “Uh… I just got a hit on the site.” Wade said, his eyes narrowed at the screen. “Patching through a video message, I think you’ll want to see it.”

    Kim raised an eyebrow, but hit play on the video anyway. The grinning blue face of Dr. Drakken appeared, seemingly self confident in his victory. “Congratulations Kim Possible, odd flying boy, and the rest of you… heroes.” He dragged that last part out as if it was disgusting for him to say. “You managed to shut down my plans at the Silver County Bueno Nacho. That’s good, you saved the day at home… now what are your plans for the other thirty thousand Bueno Nacho locations?” Drakken asked rhetorically, as the video feed showed rampages of the Diablo robots across the globe. Seattle, Beijing, Tokyo, Moscow, London, cities all over the world were being laid waste to by the devil samurai robots. “I also have something else that may interest you.” Drakken said with a smirk, as he gestured over to the side. Tied up in a chair with Shego standing over her, was Erica. “Your little boyfriend found a new love interest I see. It would be a shame if something were to happen to her.” Shego’s hand glowed a menacing green in front of the girl. “I’m sure you know exactly where I am by now. Come to me and surrender, and she won’t be harmed. Fail to do that…” Drakken let the threat hang in the air for a moment, before the transmission cut out.

     “IP Tracking put the source of the video at Bueno Nacho headquarters.” Wade said, earning a nod from Kim.

     “Figured. Thanks Wade.” Kim said, before cutting the connection.

     “Well, we’ve got to go stop him and save her.” Danny said, letting out a deep sigh.

     “You know, you’re remarkably unenthusiastic about saving your girlfriend.” Clover noted, looking at his expression. Danny seemed determined, but tired, and not in a ‘just fought a ton of robots’ way.

     “I don’t like her. I never have.” Danny said, shaking his head.

     “Then why have you been going out with her every day this week?” Alex asked, her eyes wide in surprise.

      Danny paused for a moment, thinking about something, before letting his words out. “She got a video of me transforming when Skulker showed up at the school. Said she’d tell the world my secret if I didn’t go out with her. I… I wasn’t ready for the world to know that Danny and Phantom are the same guy.”

     “Why didn’t you tell us then?” Kim asked, her features softening a bit as she realized the situation.

     “She said if I told anyone, she’d tell the secret too. The only reason I think I can do it now is because I’m pretty sure she’s going to blab regardless. She wasn’t happy I left her at the restaurant to go fight these Diablos.” Danny said, before picking his head up. “At least that means I don’t have to go on any more dates with her. Maybe if she wasn’t blackmailing me she would have been nice, but she’s not one of my girls.” He smiled, before pulling Kim and Sammy into a hug. “I’m so sorry, I’ve missed you both so much. Star and Ember too.” 

    “We’ve missed you too, babe.” Kim said, pecking his cheek. “We’ll get sappy about it later. We’ve got a mission to deal with.”

    “Right.” Danny said, pulling away after kissing both of them briefly. “So… Bueno Nacho headquarters, definitely walking into a trap, so we should expect a fight. Drakken and Shego are definitely there, alongside who knows how many henchmen.”

     “Vlad is somehow involved too. He might be there as well, although I’m still not sure how he fits into all of this.” Sammy said, racking her brain looking for answers.

     “For now, it doesn’t matter. We’ll need to gear up. Whatever big guns you’ve got, grab them.” Danny said with a nod. “I’ll ready the Specter Speeder, you guys meet me at my place and we’ll take it.” He turned his attention to Ellie and Valerie. “I want you two to stay here, if this goes south, someone needs to keep Amity and Middleton safe, that’s you two.”

    “Are you sure, bro?” Ellie asked, looking up at him with wide eyes. “We can help.”

    “I know you can.” Danny said, as he got down on one knee in front of her to look her in the eyes. “That’s why I need you here. I’m pretty sure we can take Drakken and Vlad. We’ve done it before, and we can do it again. These robots aren’t that tough, there’s just a lot of them. If we take down the thing that’s sending commands to them all, they should stop. That’s small stuff. He could use the fact that we have to be over there though as a distraction to do something here. Imagine if he kidnapped Kim’s parents, or if Vlad used this as an opportunity to kidnap Mom because he knew we wouldn’t be here to stop him. You and Valerie are here to make sure nothing bad happens. You’ll have Technus too, and you can call Ember, Johnny, and Kitty if you need more backup. I believe in you two.” Danny ruffled her hair. “Now, come on guys, we’ve got to get kitted out. Don’t hold anything back.” They all nodded, heading their separate ways to get geared up.

—-

     Kim placed her hand on the palm scanner in her closet, the laser beam guiding back and forth over her hand as it confirmed her identity. “Run me through pre-flight, Wade.” Kim said, as the genius appeared on a nearby screen.

    “The Centurion Project Mark III should be up and running. Your Dad, Tucker, Technus, and I went over it a few dozen times before we even gave it to you, and I’ve been keeping diagnostics running on it from the beginning. It’s not as strong as the original Centurion Project was, so you’re not going to be punching at that weight class, but that was the trade off we had to make for it to last longer.” Wade said as he tabbed through some diagnostics.

    “What’s the sitch on its actual capabilities then?” Kim asked, as she pulled it off the rack it was on, disabling the cameras in the closet as she swapped out of her mission clothes and into the suit. The white fabric was the same texture and feel of the spies’ catsuits, forming to her body well, although still giving a fair degree of modesty. Glowing blue sections criss-crossed around parts of the suit, one running straight down the middle, and several more banding across her arms. A utility belt hung around her waist, with a holster on one side.

    “The nanobots should self-repair any damage, as well as instantly apply pressure to any wound, and splint any bones you might break while wearing it. Your strength is augmented as well, we’re not sure exactly by how much, we’re guessing you might be able to throw a car, but it could be higher than that, none of us who were working on it know much about muscle kinesis like you guys do, you can probably push it better than we could in testing.” Wade said, scrolling through his list. “The nanobots can take the shape of anything you can imagine, and as long as it can maintain contact with your body in at least one spot, it should be able to morph into almost whatever. Try making a spike for a test.” 

    Kim nodded, focusing her intent for a moment, as three sharp claws emerged from the back of her hand. “Looks like it works. It’s what I was picturing.”

    “Danny showing you comics again?” Wade asked teasingly.

     “I got an actual superhero suit this time, not just practical mission clothes, it's been on my mind.” Kim said with a light flush, but retracted the claws back into the suit. “Any gadgets you got ready for me Wade?”

    “Well your usual kit. Jetpack is there, the rocket skates should interface with the battlesuit without any issue. Your belt should have a laser lipstick in it, confirm that.” Wade asked, Kim checked and found it, sending the confirmation. “I’d not take the grapple gun this time, aside from the fact that your suit can make one, I have something else you’ll need to put in your holster.” Wade said, as a gun-shaped object emerged from the wall.

     It looked like a toy ray gun, and Kim could see that the front section would pop off like it was a dart gun. “Wade, I’m hoping you’re not sending me in there with a toy dart gun.”

    “Well, it used to be one of those, but I modified it. The shell was just convenient for what I needed.” Wade said, pulling up the schematics. “It’s an electronic scrambler. Pretty much an EMP in a dart. Anything the tip touches should short out immediately. I figure if you find Drakken’s central command server, this can shut it down. It’s single use though, so don’t waste it on a security camera.” 

    “Spankin’ Wade.” Kim said, twirling it and sliding it into her holster. “Anything else you got for me?”

    “Just my well wishes.” Wade said, letting out a sigh. “Something feels different about this one Kim. He’s too close to actually winning.”

    “I know, but anything’s possible for a Possible. Plus we’ve got the rest of the team. We can do this Wade, we’ve been in worse spots before.” Kim said, smiling at him. “I’m making my way to Danny’s. Let them know I’m on route.”

    The spies climbed down the ladder to one of WOOHP’s supply depots. After the Walker incident their freshman year, WOOHP had made sure to set these supply drops up all over Amity Park and Middleton in case the girls needed gadgets but were unable to WOOHP themselves someplace. “Hello girls. I take it you’re gearing up?” Jerry asked over the communication in the depot, the girls gathering gadgets from the walls.

    “Yeah Jer. We’re about to go confront Drakken for this whole Diablo thing.” Alex said as she flicked through a couple of the umbrellas, seeing if one of them might be useful. “Any suggestions for how we could disable some electronics?”

    “I believe this might help.” Jerry said, one of the shelves moving out of the wall to make itself more visible. “That is the EMP3, or the Electro-Magnetic Pulse MP3 player. It’s a slightly older model device, but still quite functional. Anything you attach it to that’s electronic should stop functioning after a moment. Single use, unfortunately. The problem with EMP electronics is that they break themselves too.” 

    “Definitely going to help, Jer. Thanks.” Sammy said as she put the device into her jetpack backpack.

    “You girls seem slightly more on edge than usual about this. Do you believe this situation is that different?” Jerry asked, a touch of fatherly concern in his voice. He did care for the girls greatly, in some ways viewing them like his own daughters. To see them not fully confident during a mission like this was fairly new to him.

    “It feels wrong. Danny and Kim seem to think so too.” Clover said, grabbing another bottle of the ice queen perfume. “We walk into traps all the time, but… well this plan is going too well. The Diablos are a worldwide threat already, and he’s seemingly predicted our moves up to this moment. I’m not sure why it's different, but it is.”

     Jerry nodded solemnly. “WOOHP and Global Justice have been sending agents to Bueno Nacho locations as we can. We’ve disabled about 20 thus far, but we’re mostly just stemming the bleeding. I hate to put more pressure on you girls, but we are counting on you. However, know that I believe you are fully capable. You girls might be the best agents I’ve ever had.” He said, a smile forming on his face as he looked at them through the cameras. “You make me proud to be your handler.”

    “Thanks Jerry!” The three spies called out in unison. “And don’t worry. We’ve got this. Never met a bad guy we couldn’t take down.” Alex added, slamming her fist into her palm.

     Danny’s running pre-flight checks on the Specter Speeder, Technus floating around behind him. “All systems are nominal. Batteries are charged, and the Bueno Nacho headquarters GPS coordinates are already in the navigation computer. Once you’re airborne, you should have no issues getting there.” Technus said as he looked over the readings on the screen. “Are you sure you would not like me to accompany you? As this is not a ghost, I believe I am capable of acting with impunity.”

   “They’re going to need you here, Technus.” Danny said, as he loaded up some spare equipment to the Speeder. “I don’t trust Drakken to not just send Diablos here the second he sees that we’re at the headquarters in an attempt to nab more hostages. He already took one.” Danny turned to look at him. “You’re probably the best thing we have against one of the robots. I’d want you to be somewhere you can protect the most people. That’ll be here. Ellie’s also not used to being a hero yet, you’ve been here since the beginning, more or less, and learned as I went. I trust her to do her best, and I trust Valerie, my parents, and you to guide her through everything. I’m leaving my home in your hands, because I know you can do it.”

    “I am touched by your faith in me. I shall endeavor to be worthy of it.” Technus said, nodding. “The rest of the team has just entered the premises. I shall confer with Wade about our next steps.” With that, Technus flew into the computer, and Kim, Ron, and the Spies came down the stairs to the lab.

    “I’m just saying, it’s lame that I’m the only one without a cool superhero suit now.” Ron said, obviously having been through part of the conversation before.

    “I mean, when we get done here I can design you one, but I don’t think you’d like what I come up with.” Clover said with a shrug. “I think we need to accessorise Kim’s anyway, would you be willing to add a jacket to that? I think I’ve got an idea for something that would make it pop.” 

    “I mean, we’ve got to see if it handles the test run first. This’ll be its first real time in the field.” Kim said as she moved around in the suit, still getting a feel for it. “If the jacket didn’t mess up my sight lines or range of motion? Maybe, especially if we could get some extra equipment in it.”

    “Love me a challenge.” Clover said with a smirk. “Well, are we ready to go?” She asked, turning to Danny.

     “Speeder’s ready to rock. Coordinates are in.” Danny said with a sigh, before pulling Kim and Sammy in for a hug. “And my batteries are recharged.” He added with a smirk as he let them go, still holding onto their hands. “Remind me once we’re done with all of this just how bad I need to make the last week up to you four.”

     “As long as you’ll remind us to do the same.” Sammy said, leaning in and kissing him. “Let’s go save the world.”

—-

    Bueno Nacho headquarters was a holdover from an older style of building design, in a way that those present couldn’t help but appreciate. It was a light tan stucco building, curved in shape with a central section that was stylized to be a sombrero. It was far from the boxy, corporate buildings that normally dominated the commercial landscape. Danny touched the Specter Speeder down about half a mile away from the building, before grabbing everyone and flying them inside. 

     They touched down in a side hallway, having phased through one of the walls. “Alright, we’re in. Kim, did Wade get the schematics for this place?” Danny asked, turning over to his girlfriend.

    Kim pulled out the Kimmunicator, flipping it on to Wade’s face. “Did you?”

    “Yep. Possibly a little outdated. Local council shows that there were some new plans approved two years ago, and the blueprints I have are five years old. Given the footprint of the building seems to be the same, I doubt it’ll matter too much, but wanted to give the heads up anyway.” A 3D model of the building appeared on the screen, with a glowing red dot where they were. A room on the upper floors lit up a light blue. “Best guess places the server room there. Any communication they have with the outside world will probably be funneled through there. Take that out, and the Diablos should go down.”

    “Aw man, so will the ordering system for every Bueno Nacho on the planet.” Ron said with a frown.

    “Small price to pay to save the world, Ron.” Danny said, patting him on the back. “We’ve got our target, let’s get going. Stick together, I’ve got a bad feeling about all of this.” 

     “You’re not the only one.” Alex said, shivering, before the team started making their way through the halls. 

    As they stepped down the halls they could all agree it was simply too quiet. It was early evening, the sun beginning to set over the horizon, so it wasn’t too strange that an office building like this one would be on the empty side, but it was still a massive contrast to the anxiety that the team felt deep within their bones. Rounding a corner, they stepped past a large display case, which Ron stopped in front of and gasped.

    “Oh! It’s a display on the first Bueno Nacho!” Ron said, his eyes alight with enthusiasm. “Founded in Downey Plains, the first Bueno Nacho debuted its signature Tex-Mex style to the Big Sky Country in 1957!” He read from the plaque, excitement present in his voice.

    “Ron, happy for you, really need to focus up now.” Danny said, shooting his friend a quick glance.

    “Right, right. Focus.” Ron said, bringing his hands up and slapping his cheeks.

     They moved down the hall some more, eventually coming to a large atrium with three levels. As they walked towards the stairs to make their way to the higher levels, a voice called out to them. “Glad to see Kimmy and her little club friends could make it.” Shego said from the middle level, smirking down at them as she held one foot on the railing. “Dr. D figured you’d come ready for a fight. Big heroes like you never can take anything lying down. Either way, having you all here makes getting you out of the way much easier.”

    “Come on Shego, what makes you think you can take us?” Kim asked, her tone teasing, but with an angry edge to it. “You struggle to beat me one on one, and you’re totally outnumbered. You think you can take us all on alone.”

    “She doesn’t, but that’s because she’s not alone at all.” Came another voice, as a vampiric man floated down from the upper level, his blue skin and red-eyes far too familiar to those in attendance.

     “Plasmius.” Danny growled out as he saw the man descend. “I don’t know what you’re doing working with Drakken, but you won’t be getting away with it.”

    “Oh come now Daniel, I’m sure you can put it together.” Vlad said, causing Danny’s eyes to widen in shock. “Oh yes, Dr. Drakken and Shego know all about little Daniel Fenton. We could have avoided all of this, you know. You could have just renounced your father and become my heir. The world wouldn’t be falling under Drakken’s boot heel, and you could have even kept your little friends.”

    Danny saw red, flaring his ectoplasmic aura and shooting up at Vlad, trying to catch him with a right hook at high speeds. “Phantom!” Kim called out, still used to using his hero names on missions, even if at this moment it didn’t matter. She knew why he was angry, frankly she was furious too, and would be right there beside him if she could. They had to strategize though. “Alright, Phantom can handle Plasmius. Let’s get Shego. It’s still going to be five against one.”

    “Think again, Red.” Came another familiar gravelly voice, as Skulker appeared through a side-door alongside a squadron of synthodrones. “This’ll be fun. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten the chance to really test your mettle.” 

     “Change of plans. I’ll take Shego, you girls take Skulker, Ron, you’re on synthodrones.” Kim said, before rushing forward to take on the green henchwoman. 

     The spies nodded, pulling out their gadgets and setting them to ghost settings.

     Ron merely gulped as he looked at the large gathering of synthodrones, before sighing. He reached into his back pack and pulled out a Fenton rod, extending it and dropping into his stance. “Come on monkey power, please don’t fail me now.”

    Vlad dodged casually out of the way of Danny’s first punch, ducking around the angry boy as though it were a game to the older man. “Come now Daniel. We’ve fought how many times now and you can’t land a hit on me? Surely you can do better than this.” Vlad goaded, enjoying the rage he was seeing on Danny’s face.

     “Do you even know what you’ve done, Plasmius?” Danny spat out as he pushed himself even more, his speed and power increasing as the raw adrenaline filled his ectoplasmic body, pushing itself beyond its limits. “You’ve put my family in danger, my friends. All because of your own ego!” 

    Vlad wasn’t able to dodge as effectively now. Danny’s speed was picking up, and while the attacks were telegraphed by the younger boy’s rage, that didn’t slow them down at all. It was only BECAUSE they were so telegraphed that Vlad could react at all, bouncing them off of construct barriers and morphing his body around the blows. “My ego? You’re the one who was so caught up in their own sense of self-righteousness to take my offer.” Vlad said, trying to throw Danny’s situation back into his face. “If you had just been a good boy and listened to me, you would have fame, fortune, someone who could have taught you how to use your powers better. Imagine a world where money was no object. That you could take those girls of yours on any date imaginable. Surely Star would appreciate personalized training from any Olympian she chooses. Kimberly would appreciate personal transportation to any mission she needed, never needing to trade favors like she does. You could have given them so much more, but you squandered it all out of some vague morality judgment.” 

    Danny managed to land his first real blow on Vlad, a shot to the gut that sent the man doubling over. “If I was the kind of person who would throw away my morals for money like that, I wouldn’t have been the man they fell in love with. That’s something you never understood, Vlad.” 

    Vlad countered by shooting Danny with an ecto-ray from point blank, the overpowered attack knocking the boy back several feet. “And what you never understood was the lengths I am willing to go to to get what I want.” Vlad said as he pressed his own offensive back, duplicating himself and attacking Danny from two sides. “The thing about power Daniel, is one must learn to wield it. You and I are likely the two most powerful beings on the planet, and you squander every second of it.”

    The pair traded blows and ecto-rays, each one ramping up their output by the second. Bits of concrete began to turn to slag as they were hit by stray ecto-blasts, scorch marks appearing on every surface and craters forming in walls and floors as two titans of ghostly power slammed into each other with everything they had. 

     Kim was getting more impressed by the second at the advantages the upgraded Centurion Project was providing her. The battlesuit was supporting her body at every step of the way, her movement was faster, if not as quick as the speed shoes she had worn before, her strength was greater, if not up to the levels she’d seen from Danny and Jake, and the morphing capabilities gave her a good amount of versatility. 

     Shego threw a blast of plasma toward Kim, who morphed her hand into what she could really only describe as a high-tech lacrosse net, before tossing it back at the green woman, who dodged out of the way artfully. “Looks like Kimmie got a little upgrade. Shame it won’t be enough to step to me.” Shego taunted, before rushing in with her hands alight, punching at the cheerleader.

    “Oh please Shego, you struggle fighting me without the upgrades.” Kim said as her enhanced speed let her block and redirect the attacks. For the first time in all their fights, Kim was finally the faster one. Shego’s metahuman physiology had enhanced her body far beyond what a normal woman would have. She was stronger, faster, and more durable than any non-powered individual, and Kim had always kept up by being more flexible and acrobatic, alongside having a much more solid martial art foundation. Shego was a brawler at heart, her powers meaning she never REALLY had to learn how to fight, since the plasma fists would cover for her weaknesses. Kim however, was a true martial artist. She knew 16 different styles of Kung Fu, and was considered a master in three of them. The number of people her age that had anywhere near that level of skill could be counted on one hand with fingers remaining. That edge in knowing how to properly fight had kept her in the game for a very long time, but now with the suit, that edge had evolved beyond that. “Face it Shego, you’re not winning this.” 

    “Oh, I wouldn’t get so cocky.” Shego said as she threw two plasma blasts down onto the catwalk they were fighting on. The blasts exploded on contact with the concrete structure kicking up smoke and dust, giving the green woman an opening to press her offensive even more.

     Clover slid in and sprayed the Ice Queen perfume on Skulker’s boots, temporarily locking the hunter ghost in place as Alex capitalized on the restricted movement by tagging him with a plastic explosive hairpin. The pair of spies jumped back as the hairpin exploded, although Skulker remained standing. “Good thing I’ve had some upgrades.” Skulker said before raising his arm and firing a cluster of missiles towards the girls. They ran behind Sammy, who pulled out the blast-absorbing umbrella, opening it up and catching the missiles on the canopy.

    “Us too, take this!” Sammy said as she hit the button on the handle of the Umbrella, which fired the equivalent energy of the blast straight back at Skulker. Skulker groaned as he took the attack, his form rattled by the blow, but still standing.

    “Neat trick… guess I better make it personal.” Skulker said, as he slammed his arms down, letting a pair of jagged blades emerge from the upper sections of his wrists. He shot forward, faster than the girls expected, and tried to stab Clover in the stomach. 

    Alex managed to push her friend out of the way, using the force of her own push to send her back as well, dodging where the hunter ghost lunged between them. Sammy fired another blast from the umbrella, catching Skulker in the side, but without the extra oomph from his rockets it performed worse than the previous time. What followed was a desperate game of tag, where the three spies were forced to pull out every trick they knew to avoid getting caught by the serrated blades. Skulker was fast, he was ruthless, and it was only their skill and teamwork that let them keep up.

     Ron had to admit he was fairing better against the synthodrones than he had expected to. Five of them had rushed him, and he’d initially panicked, simply swinging his Fenton Rod wildly, hoping to catch one of them in the head. He had managed, the rod connecting and delivering an electric shock to the drone, but it seemed only the physical impact did anything. Whether the drones were simply incredibly well insulated or immune to electrical attacks, Ron didn’t know, but he’d at least seen they didn’t like getting hit with a big metal stick. 

     He let his mind wander back to his week in Yamanouchi, how Yori had guided him through bo staff exercises, something he’d taken to working on a bit more with Danny’s mom. The bo staff was a weapon he found himself comfortable using. It wasn’t bladed, it wasn’t something designed explicitly to kill. It was a tool, a common one. A stick that could be used for any number of things. He moved through the motions he’d learned over his training. A thrust with the tip sent a sythodrone doubling over. A spinning strike, sent another one tumbling across the floor. Rufus’s squeaking encouraged him as his confidence grew. He hadn’t really used this training in a while. Kim usually did the actual fighting on their missions, him usually attempting to disable devices or running distraction, things he was good at. He didn’t know if he was good at this. He’d never been able to match up to Yori or Maddie before, and maybe he still couldn’t, but whether it was the monkey power bolstering him, or his own sense of confidence, Ron Stoppable was holding off five synthetic humanoids that wanted to do him harm, while wielding only a stick.

      “You know Kimmy, your boyfriend’s pretty cute.” Shego said as she threw another superpowered haymaker towards the teen hero, who dodged out of the way and struck the arm with a chop.

     “Oh, I know. That’s why he’s mine.” Kim said as she landed a crescent kick to Shego’s leg. It certainly appeared to do some damage to the green woman, who grimaced at the blow.

     “Is he? I mean, you’re sharing him with four other girls. You’ve got like… MAYBE a claim on his left leg.” Shego teased as she pressed her own offensive, briefly sending Kim backwards with a plasma clap that Kim was forced to deflect off to the side. “Seems like that’s not really fair.”

    “I guess the only thing you’ve ever loved is yourself Shego, so you wouldn’t know about it.” Kim said as she bounced back, pressing the offense back with a large flurry of punches, that forced Shego to go into extreme focus mode to dodge out of the way of.

    “Maybe you’re right. Ol’ Vladdy over there though has some plans for your boytoy. A little brainwashing him into a perfect heir and he’ll have superpowers AND a massive fortune behind him. Maybe I’ll get myself in on the ground floor of that. I’m sure Vlad would appreciate his new son having a partner who can guide him in JUST the right direction.” Shego gloated, throwing another plasma blast at Kim.

    Kim caught it and threw it back, forcing Shego to dodge out of the way of it. “Big creepy Shego. He’s still a minor right now.” Kim said, before launching into a highly practiced series of blows, trying to hit the verdant woman with everything she had. “If you think I’ll let some creep like you at him, you’ve got another thing coming!” Kim connected with a solid blow to Shego’s stomach, sending her flying back into one of the pillars that held up the platform they were fighting on.

     “Wow! Good job Kim!” Came a voice from behind her. Kim turned and saw Erica standing there, her eyes wide in shock.

    “Erica! How’d you get free?” Kim asked, shocked. “Doesn’t matter, you need to get out of here. We can’t risk a civilian getting hurt.” Kim said as she reached for the brunette’s arm, holding her wrist in her hand.

    “It’s a good thing I’m not a civilian then.” Erica said, her smile turning sinister. “Here they call me Synthodrone 902.” With that, Erica’s body filled with electricity, shocking Kim with all the power of a dozen tasers.”Toodaloo Kim, looks like MY boyfriend will be getting an upgrade soon.” Erica said, as she watched Kim fall unconscious.

     It didn’t take long for the dominoes to fall after that. Shego, while still injured, recovered from being slammed into the concrete barrier, and joined Erica in helping Skulker take down the Spies. From there, they disabled Ron with ease, and once Danny was knocked to the floor by Vlad, he too fell to the onslaught of the villainous team-up.

     “Reporting in Dr. D. Heroes all unconscious and restrained in the atrium.” Shego said into her earpiece, keeping an eye on Skulker as he tied them up.

     “It’s still frustrating I can’t take his pelt.” Skulker grumbled as he glared over at Danny.

     “Come now, Skulker. You know I still need him alive.” Vlad said, with an eyeroll. “You’ll have the clone, that one’s unique as well.” Skulker did brighten up a bit at that. 

    “Excellent Shego, Vlad, Skulker. The plan went swimmingly. I take it Erica was as useful as I’d hoped she would be?” Drakken asked over the connection.

    “Of course Daddy! Kim didn’t see me coming at all.” Erica said sweetly down the line.

    “That better not be sticking around Dr. D. It’s real creepy.” Shego said, cringing at how Erica had called him Daddy.

    “You’re right. I’ll fix that in the next revision.” Drakken said, cringing at it a bit himself. “Erica, you are to refer to me as Dad or Father if you are to use a familial name.” Erica nodded in affirmation of that. “Now, Skulker, be a dear and get them tied up in the basement. We have the rest of the world to conquer.”

—-

     Danny heard the groans before anything else. His eyes opened, somehow already adjusted to the darkness of whatever room they were in. There was some light that came through from the hallway, but not a lot. Looking around, Danny saw that he wasn’t alone. Kim, Ron, and the Spies were all with him, each of them tied to a different massively oversized piece of Bueno Nacho fiberglass signage. Ron was strapped to a massive burrito character with a mustache, Kim to a chimichanga holding maracas, and the spies were connected to a massive fajita in a cowboy hat. Everyone was groaning and shaking their heads, trying to wake up from being knocked out. Danny tried to turn intangible so he could go and help them, but as he tried to activate his powers, he felt a massive shock run through him. Looking down, he saw a silver and purple belt around him, a Vlad version of his parents’ Specter Deflector. “Great, just great.” Danny said out loud, venting his frustrations for a moment.

     “Tell me about it.” Kim said, huffing a bit. “Looks like Erica’s shocking surprise temporarily disabled my suit. They emptied out my utility belt too. No laser lipstick or anything to cut through these ropes… and no electronic scrambler for the central server.” She looked up at the spies. “You girls got anything?”

     “Gadgets are all gone for us too… but we’ve got a couple tricks up our heels.” Clover said as she kicked her leg, trying to bring her heel up to the ropes near Sammy, a buzz saw popping out of the heel. Sammy gripped Clover’s ankle and brought it up to the ropes, but as soon as they connected, they just let out a shower of sparks, the teeth of the saw mangled.

    “Looks like it’s some heavy duty cabling. Guess they must have thought we’d have something to break us out.” Sammy said, frowning a bit. “Anyone else got any ideas?”

    The silence that followed that was deafening, as the sextet of heroes simply hung their heads. “I’m sorry.” Was the first thing any of them said after that, as Danny broke the silence. “I was just so… angry at Vlad that I couldn’t even fight him properly. I let him twist me around, get in my head. Looks like he was even playing the long game with it, since Drakken apparently gave me a syntho-girl to blackmail me with.” 

    “It’s not your fault.” Kim said, looking up at him. “We all messed up. I know Sammy and I weren’t exactly at the top of our game either because we’ve been so torn up about Erica.”

    “Yeah. If I hadn’t been so twisted up in my own feelings, trying to deal with the fact that I know you’d never hurt me, but that you WERE hurting me, well… Alex, Clover and I probably would have been able to take down Skulker.” Sammy said, shaking her head.

    “Don’t take that pressure on yourself, Sammy.” Clover said, lightly kicking her best friend in the leg. “Chromedome had upgrades, and we’ve never fought him before. It wasn’t just you being a little off your game, it was just a mismatch, we’ve only ever fought ghosts a couple times, since we usually leave that to Danny and Valerie.”

    “Doesn’t change anything though, does it?” Sammy asked as she looked over the group. “We lost. Vlad and Drakken are going to take over the world, and there’s not anything we can do about it now. These ropes are too tough for us to bust through, and Danny’s got that power dampener on, so he can’t even phase us out of these.”

     “Hey! That’s quitter talk! That’s my thing!” Ron called out, annoyed. “Come on! You five are some of the greatest heroes in the world! Maybe the greatest! I know you’re better than Team Go at least. You don’t get to just sit here and moan and complain about it. There’s a whole world out there that needs our help because Bueno Nacho became Badno Nacho! Now we gotta get out of here.”

    “It’s not that we don’t agree with you, Ron.” Alex said, sighing herself. “It’s just… what can we do now? We’re kind of stuck.”

    In that instant though, a loud pop resonated through the space, as a creature seemed to have teleported in the space between the sextet. “Rufus?” Kim asked, which made sense, since it looked almost exactly like him. The only differentiating factor seemed to be four small spines on his back. The rufus-like creature looked around for a moment, taking note of Kim and Danny, before popping out once more. It returned a moment later, with another pop, alongside three other individuals. 

    “Man, that feels weird.” Jake said as he shook his head, brushing the arms of his jacket off. “Anyone else smell ozone?” 

    “A bit, yeah. Real weird, but can’t argue with the results.” Ember said, smirking as she looked around. “Oh Babypop…. You’ve got some ‘splaining to do.” 

    “Thanks cousin. Wait at home.” Stitch managed to get out in his strained voice, his fellow experiment giving a small salute before popping out of existence once more.

    “Ember? Jake? Stitch? What are you guys doing here?” Danny asked, completely gobsmacked by their presence.

    Ember floated up eye-level with him. “For your information Babypop, I managed to rally the troops. Now… do you want to tell me why I haven’t heard more than a few words from you in almost a week, and when I dragged my pretty rear out of the Ghost Zone to check on you, I hear from Jazz that not only have you run off to save the world, but that you’ve gone completely dark that not even Wade can get ahold of you?” She was annoyed, that was very clear. Her face shifted between annoyance to relief to anger to love and back again in sequence as she looked over him.

   “Vlad and Drakken teamed up… and well… they’re overperforming compared to normal.” Danny said, holding his head. “It’s a long story that I promise you’ll get, but for now can you get us out of here so we can save the world?”

    “Oh, I’ll let you free alright, but you’ve got to make it worth my while.” Ember said with a mischievous grin.

    “Whatever you want, babe.” Danny said, genuinely. He was so happy to see her he could barely contain himself, not hindered at all by the fact that her presence suddenly meant that saving the world just got infinitely more possible.

    “Alright Babypop, here’s what I want.” Ember leaned in and whispered into his ear, and Danny’s face went crimson red in an instant.

    “Ember! You can’t be serious!” Danny said, scandalized. “Is this really the time to ask about that?”

    “Take it or leave it, Babypop.” Ember said with a smirk. “The way I see it, you owe me BIG for both ignoring me for a week and making me worry like this.”

     Danny shook his head, a small smile forming on his face. “Kim and Sammy have to agree… but fine. I’ve been meaning to revisit that, it just hadn’t felt like the right time.”

    “Oh, they’ll agree. We’ve been waiting on you.” Ember said with a big toothy grin. “Build-a-Kaiju, think you can break him out of here? The belt’s ghost proof, but I doubt it’s you-proof. I’ll get the rest of them.”

     Stitch nodded before climbing up the massive tortilla that Danny was attached to, slipping his claws under the band of the Specter Deflector and pulling up, the metal giving way easily. Danny could feel his powers returning to him the second it was released, the white bars that signaled his transformation appearing over him as he flew off the oversized food item. “Thanks bud.” Danny said, holding out his hand for Stitch to give him a high-five. The alien experiment reciprocated with a “woo!”

    Ember phased Kim, Ron, and the Spies out of their binds, helping them to the floor. “Alright guys, what’s the plan here? I left Haley and Grandpa to fight the robots back in New York, so I want this to be over like, ASAP.” Jake asked, looking between Danny, Kim, and Sammy, since one of them usually came up with the plans.

    “Well, the robots will have to all be getting their commands from the central server here.” Sammy said, her mind whirring as she thought through a plan. “We’d originally intended to just scramble the central server to disable it, but since we don’t have those tools anymore… just shutting it down using the console will probably have to do.”

    “Or we could just smash the place up.” Danny said. “No console, no signal.”

    “Now you’re speaking my language.” Ember said, slamming her fist into her hand.

    “Then let’s go then. We’ve got a world to save.” Kim said, smiling as it seemed for the first time in a week, things were going their way.

—-

     “Bring up locations 36, 27, and 87 on screen.” Drakken instructed one of his red-suited henchman, who obeyed, pulling up live feeds of three major cities being destroyed by the Diablo onslaught. “Oh, this feels oh so very good.” He grinned, looking over the carnage. “From Seattle to Brisbane to Moscow to Sao Paolo, my Diablos are conquering the world in the name of Drakken. It almost brings a tear to my eye.”

    “Sir, all units in Hawaii have gone down.” A henchman on one of the monitors said, his tone mildly concerned.

    “How many Bueno Nacho locations were there?” Drakken asked with a raised eyebrow.

    “Eighteen, all mostly concentrated in Honolulu.” The henchman reported. “All of them have gone dark.”

     “I suppose it’s of little consequence. One small island chain will not be enough to stop the coming regime change. Eighteen locations of thirty-thousand is barely even a blip.” Drakken said, shaking his head. “The plan will continue as it has been.”

    “Speaking of… was ALL of this in the plan?” Shego asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “I appreciate the new effectiveness Dr. D, but you and I both know your track record doesn’t support this kind of success.”

     “You’re not wrong, Shego, but with our new associate, things have gone much more smoothly.” Drakken said with a manic grin as he turned to Vlad and nodded at him. “When I had sent you after Nakasumi initially, I had intended to use his design expertise to create a toy so desirable it would end up in every home in the world. The failure to obtain Nakasumi was a setback admittedly, but the Diablo drawing in his jacket pocket had been more than sufficient. The initial plan had been to simply put cameras and microphones in them, create a mass surveillance network I could use for other plans… but then something else fell into my lap.” Drakken paced over to one of the consoles and pulled up an image of a research paper. “The nanobot material that was the Hephaestus Project suddenly meant that if I could get one of the Diablos somewhere, I wouldn’t just have a spy, I would have a soldier, one more powerful than almost anything I had ever had before. A perfect pairing.” 

     “So it WASN’T the same plan all along?” Shego asked with a raised eyebrow.

     “No, Shego, but I would have been a fool to not allow new information to improve my plans.” Drakken said, before continuing his earlier speech. “Vlad’s assistance with the takeover of Bueno Nacho provided the distribution network we needed to get them everywhere, but we knew that there would be a thorn in our side.”

    “Kimmie and her flying boyfriend?” Shego questioned.

     “Exactly. Thankfully, I had been preparing for just that situation. Kim Possible had always thwarted my plans, so I had been researching teenage girl psychology to find a way to disable her, since normal forceful methods hadn’t been working. That is where Vlad’s addition of the flying boy’s identity came in handy. Now we not only had a method by which to knock Kim Possible off her game by toying with her emotions, we could disable the flying boy as well. Without them, their little team would have no cohesion, and would fall apart just like we saw.” Drakken said, laughing to himself.

    “And they’re tied up in the basement as opposed to just being taken out… why?” Shego asked. She didn’t want to kill them, but she knew not all of Drakken’s henchmen would share her repulsion to it.

    “That would be my contribution, Shego.” Vlad said, speaking up. “I still intend to have Daniel become my heir, after a little reconditioning. Having his little girlfriends as hostages will make him more pliable, and should we recondition them as well…” He let a malicious smile come to his face. “You can’t deny their efficacy as a team now, imagine if it is… properly guided.”

    “So, that’s the whole plan? Take over the world with the robots, and then brainwash the hero team?” Shego asked with a raised eyebrow. “Honestly, kind of surprised how close that sounds to something that might work.”

    “Something that IS working, Shego.” Drakken corrected.

    The door to the command center shot forward at high speed, crashing through the large glass window of the Bueno Nacho command center overlook. Danny brought his foot down from where he’d kicked the door, gesturing for Kim to speak. “Hard disagree on that one, Drakken.” Kim quipped, earning a thumbs up from Danny.

    “How did you escape?” Vlad questioned angrily as black bars wrapped around his form, replacing Vlad Masters with Plasmius.

    “You really think Babypop hasn’t made enough friends that someone wouldn’t come to get him?” Ember teased as she flew in, grabbing Skulker and pulling him through the broken glass window. “I’ve got this dipstick!” She called out as she slammed him onto the roof outside of the command center.

    “Kim? I think you and I have some unfinished business with a certain man-stealer.” Sammy said, before Kim nodded alongside her, and the redheaded duo shot forward with a coordinated rush, slamming the artificial girl out of the control room and onto the roof below.

    “You know, new teams sound fun. Come on fuzzball, let’s take on the Wicked Witch of the West.” Clover called out, as she, Alex, and Stitch squared off against Shego.

    “Guess it’s us on Vlad then.” Danny said, shooting a grin over to Jake.

     “Team SpiritFire gonna knock him down!” Jake said, as the pair tackled Vlad out of the building as well.

    The rain came crashing down over the battlefield as the fights waged on, the blackened sky occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning and the cracks of thunder. A large antenna had emerged from the ground at some point between when the heroes entered and now, it’s massive shaft pointing to the sky, the orb-like tip flashing red, and the rings around the upper part of the shaft illuminated a gentle blue by the plasma arcs within. It was overdesigned and gaudy, but the same could be said for many things Drakken did. It looked like a death ray pointed to the sky, and that was likely what it symbolized. Death for the world would not come from a concentrated plasma beam, it would come from the millions of robots under Drakken’s control, all given their commands by the central beacon.

    Erica had some solid combat information implanted into her mind. As far as her body was concerned, she had years of training in multiple martial arts styles, and extensive history in reading her opponents, as well as almost encyclopedic knowledge of Kim Possible’s fighting style. She was designed to be her better in every conceivable metric, a fighting machine built to be stronger, faster, and more durable. What she wasn’t however, was adaptable.

    There wasn’t enough data on Sammy’s fighting style, WOOHP had some pretty tight information security on their agents training, and while Drakken had encountered the spies before, he hadn’t really had much of an opportunity to watch them fight. In that regard, Erica was fighting blind to Sammy’s style, the green-suited redhead utilizing her extensive training to dominate the synthetic girl.

    Knowledge of Kim’s fighting style also didn’t prove enough in countering her. Knowing how the teen hero fought didn’t give her every tool she needed to fight her, no amount of knowing her preference for certain kick types or frequent combinations was able to properly react to them. Erica was enhanced, literally superhuman, but Kim didn’t care. Her supervillain rival was a metahuman, and her most consistent sparring partner was one of the strongest people on the planet. When compared to Danny’s abilities to throw cars around like toys, Erica’s strength was unimpressive by comparison.

    Kim and Sammy pressed their offensive, a whirl of red, blue and green as their hair and bodysuits laid on onslaught onto the synthetic girl in front of them. “This is for making me cry myself to sleep the other night.” Kim said, slamming her fist into Erica’s gut, causing the synthodrone to spit up a little as the wind was knocked out of her.

    “This is for making me even question if he loved me!” Sammy said as well, whipping her leg around to deliver an axe-kick to Erica’s head, knocking her to the ground.

     “And this is for hurting our boyfriend!” The redheads called out together, slamming their heels into the synthetic girl’s chest. Sammy’s stiletto punctured the synthodrones outer layer, the green goop that filled them beginning to run out.

     “No!” Erica cried out as she tried to apply pressure to the wound, but her strength failed her even as she did so, her face becoming more and more gaunt as life literally drained out of her. “I’m supposed to be better… superior. Better for him…” She said, her voice getting deeper and more strained before eventually petering out. All that remained of the girl was a greasy puddle on the roof of the Bueno Nacho building.

     Shego truthfully had no idea how the two spy girls were capable of moving so solidly on the rain-slick roof while wearing their heels. She was having difficulty maintaining traction herself, and she had mostly flat shoes, with only enough of a heel to give support.

     Clover and Alex weren’t anywhere near the martial artists that Kim was, that was pretty clear to Shego’s perspective. They were good, of that there was no question, but where Kim was a once in a generation talent, the spies were simply very good. Shego was fairly certain she could have handled all three of them if they didn’t have any gadgets, so taking on just the two of them should have been a cakewalk.

     What that failed to account for, was the three foot tall four armed kaiju. Stitch was a force of nature, seemingly completely immune to her plasma fists, taking them on his skin like a mild inconvenience, and striking back with his full body-weight. She was lucky that even though he was incredibly dense, he was still fairly small, so it was more like getting hit by a professional boxer than getting hit by a truck, but it still wasn’t pleasant. That wasn’t to say that Stitch did all the work though. Where Stitch kept her plasma blasts focused on himself since they didn’t hurt him, Alex and Clover capitalized by delivering blows to Shego’s pressure points. Every second Shego was focused on Stitch, she could feel her endurance being sapped away as the Spies delivered blows in just the right places to make her blows even weaker. She couldn’t turn her focus to them for very long though, because every second her eyes were off of Stitch, the little bugger would find a new way to hit her. She’d been slashed with claws, stabbed with quills, and she was fairly certain the sticky substance that made it harder for her to move was the experiment’s saliva. 

     Stitch rolled in one final time, his four arms gripping Shego’s legs, as the pair of spies ran in and delivered a simultaneous punch to Shego’s face, knocking the henchwoman out cold.

    “And one green lady down. Thanks to this little cutie.” Clover said, leaning down and kissing Stitch on the top of his head, earning a slightly embarrassed, but toothy grin from the diminutive engine of destruction

     Skulker could feel his suit rattling as Ember slammed him with a construct fist from her guitar. The pounding rain did nothing to drown out the sounds of her finger dancing across the strings, the electrifying melody delivering a variety of sonic and physical attacks that kept the hunter ghost on the back foot the entire time. “How are you this strong?” Skulker managed to get out between blows he received. “You were never like this before!” 

     Ember could only smirk as she swung her hair around, catching the hunter in a gout of cerulean flames. “I got new purpose dipstick. Someone who’ll never forget me, and a reason to keep on. You couldn’t beat me on a good day, but with the love song pumping in my heart? You don’t stand a chance.” 

    Skulker attempted to empty his arsenal at her. Missiles, bolos, nets, anything he could manage to damage her, but her sonic attacks seemed to disrupt everything, the shockwaves she summoned from her instrument batting them away like dust in the wind. His systems were going haywire as her hair caught him in another plume of flames, warning him that she was quite literally melting the solder that let his suit function. In a last ditch effort, the suit tried to auto-eject him, launching the head containing the small blob that was Skulker high into the air. Ember snatched him out of the air though, pulling him from his helmet.

     “You’ll rue the day you did this McClain!” Skulker shouted in his high pitched voice. “Consider your neutrality agreement broken! I’ll hang your head on my wall just like Phantom’s!”

    “Like I care? You’re just a dipstick, my boytoy kicks your butt on the daily, and now I get to help him without worrying about the politics of it.” Ember smirked, before pulling a thermos off of her hip and sucking him up in it. “Huh… you know, that’s pretty satisfying… wonder if I can jam Spectra in one of these?”

    Claws. Fist. Fire. Ecto-ray, and then claws again. Vlad couldn’t help but notice every instance of damage he took as he was thoroughly dismantled by the pairing of half-ghost and dragon. He’d seen the dragon once before, watched him and Daniel fight the Fright Knight when Pariah Dark had tried to take over the world. They’d proven an effective pair, able to fight side by side with no verbal communication, each one seemingly knowing exactly what was needed to assist the other one. They’d not given him a moment, fighting aggressively, but without the blind anger Daniel had been working with earlier. Had Vlad not been on the receiving end of it, he would have been quite proud at how strong and effective his chosen heir was becoming, and how easily he seemed to find strong allies.

     Unfortunately, Vlad was on the receiving end of it, and cursed every moment.

     He attempted to turn himself intangible to dodge one of the dragon’s claw swipes, hoping to create some distance to duplicate himself to split them up, but the claws tore right through him anyway, earning a groan of pain. “How? I was intangible.” Vlad managed to sputter out as he blocked a strike from Danny. 

    “Dragon claws don’t care, fruit loop.” Jake said, his draconic mouth pulled into a smirk as he let loose a gout of flame that Vlad was forced to block with his cape. 

    “I see you taught him your infernal nickname for me.” Vlad growled angrily before forming two construct sabers into his hand, attempting to press his own offense back as he swung the blades with practiced ease. “I don’t enjoy this Daniel, truly, I don’t. But you leave me no choice any longer.” 

    Danny created his own construct weapon, a bo staff, and caught the sword with the butt of it, letting Jake take the opening and bash Vlad with his tail. Danny followed that up with a twirling strike to Vlad’s head, ringing his bell and causing his vision to blur.

     “That is enough!” Came Drakken’s voice from inside the command room. “You pesky heroes will not win today. El Diablo Grande, online!” 

     Several hundred sounds of metal clicking against metal could be heard, as dozens upon dozens of the diablo robots came together, their forms molding into each other, and coalescing into a singular, massive whole. El Diablo Grande was enormous, nearly forty meters tall, with the same egg-like shape as the large Diablo robots. Its head had changed though, now sporting a full samurai kabuto, with the large V shaped eyebrows now ornamenting the front of the helmet. Its body was covered in layers of shingle-like armor that made it look even more like a samurai, and its arms ended in massive yellow claws that looked as though they could rip the very building they were standing on apart.

     “Big robot!” Alex called out, dumbfounded as she said simply the first thing that came to mind.

     “Bigger they are, the harder they fall. Come on, we’ve got to take it out.” Danny said, earning a nod from Jake as they flew up and tried to slam their fists into the mammoth machine. Their hits connected, leaving small dents, but they filled themselves back in almost immediately, the sheer amount of the nanobot material making the damage they could do nearly non-existent.

    “Let’s see how it likes this!” Ember said as she hit a power chord on her guitar, trying to disrupt the massive robot with a sonic attack. It simply shrugged it off though, thrusting its arm at her in an attempt to knock her out of the air. She was thankfully faster, and managed to fly out of the way to dodge it.

    “We need something to shock it!” Kim called out, glancing around. “Electricity can disable the small ones, we just need enough of it to hit the big one!” 

     “We can try, but I’m not sure about how effective that’s going to be!” Sammy said as her eyes locked onto a nearby powerline. “The smaller ones could get taken out by mains voltage, but square cubed says this thing has way too much mass for anything short of a reactor to zap it!” 

     “We’ve got to try anyway! Come on!” Clover said as she dashed towards the line that connected Bueno Nacho headquarters to the electrical grid. “Phantom! Dragon! Ember! Pull its attention this way, we’ve got to see if we can get it to shock itself.”

    The trio of aerial combatants nodded, each getting into formation to try and position it. Ember played distraction, keeping its attention focused on her as she peppered it with everything she had, sonic, concussive, and fire attacks glanced harmlessly off of the robot’s form, but it was still forced to focus on her as its targeting programming considered her the biggest threat at the moment. 

     Every time the robot shot its arm forward to swat at Ember, Danny and Jake would slam themselves into its back, trying to knock it off balance and push it in the direction of the power lines. Swing by swing, inch by inch, they guided the towering automaton toward the power lines. The trio flew in front of the lines for a moment, catching its attention enough that it shot both arms forward, before dodging out of the way, letting the metal of the machine’s arms contact the high voltage lines, causing the nearby buildings to go dark as every watt of power was sent coursing through the robot’s body. The transformer of the power line sparked and hissed for a moment before going silent, as the massive robot stood rooted for a second, its normally bright yellow eyes briefly dimmed. A moment later though, the eyes lit back up, before wheeling around and shooting a clawed hand out at Danny forcing him to dodge. “Damn it! Not enough power.” Kim swore, something Danny hadn’t ever heard her do before. “Anyone else got any ideas?”

     Danny glanced over at the massive antenna. “I’ve got one, but it’s going to take me out of this.” He said, as he started to fly up. “Keep it busy, I’ve only got one shot at doing this.”

    Kim looked at him with concern, before nodding. “Alright guys, we need to keep its attention.”

    Ember and Jake took to the roles with gusto, the flying pair peppering the robot with fire attacks from all angles, keeping its attention scattered and unable to lock on any one spot for very long.

    Danny flew up the length of the antenna, holding himself above it as he could feel the sheer power radiating off of it. The command signal was barely audible, but from his spot above it, Danny could feel it deep within his very bones. He looked down towards the ground, where Ember and Jake were distracting the robot, and braced himself. He pulled everything into himself, every ounce of power he could muster, and screamed.

     Initially, there was no sound at all, before the world itself seemed to shake as an ear-splitting wail filled the space. Everyone nearby was forced to cover their ears as the sheer volume and magnitude of the scream threatened to overwhelm them. The lights on the antenna began to flicker in an out as cracks propagated through the glass tubes that surrounded them, the metal shrieking as it was forced to bend and buckle under the ecto-enhanced sonic onslaught. The world itself seemed to shake as Danny pushed everything into his scream, his power, his anguish, his hopes for a brighter future, everything he could muster to drive his strength higher and higher was focused through the ghostly wail, and as it finally ended, the antenna could take no more, falling to the ground in thousands of shattered, useless pieces that would never be whole again.

     El Diablo Grande jolted and shuddered for a moment, before collapsing into a massive pile of the small Diablo toys, and around the world, millions of others returned to their small, marketable states as the central command signal was taken out. 

    Danny let a small smile come across his face as he saw his success, before the exhaustion caught up with him. Unbidden, the white bars of his transformation appeared around his body and he began to plummet to the earth.

     Two sets of arms caught him on his way down, dragon scales and icy-hot skin gripping his arms, as the sight of his battle buddy and his ghostly girlfriend filled his eyes. “We got you man… although that was one hell of an attack. You couldn’t do that earlier and save us some trouble?” Jake teased, a smile on his draconic muzzle.

    “Didn’t want to be useless afterwards… the wail isn’t something I can let loose all the time.” Danny said weakly.

    “Well, you’ve got to get your strength back up, you owe me, babypop.” Ember said, as she leaned in and kissed his cheek. “Thanks for saving the world, though.”

     Jake and Ember sat Danny down on the roof, his back leaning up against the edge as he tried to hold himself up. He briefly chuckled as he looked down and saw that he was still in his fancy dinner attire from his date with Erica.

     “Shego’s cuffed up.” Clover called over from her spot, dragging the unconscious green woman over towards where they were all gathering up.

     “Skulker’s soup.” Ember said, shaking the thermos lightly.

     “Looks like Vlad got away while we were distracted by the robot.” Sammy noticed, frowning. “He’s too slick for his own good.”

      “We’ll get him. He doesn’t have many places to run anymore.” Danny rasped, his voice still hoarse from the ghostly wail.

      “Anyone see Drakken?” Kim asked, before the door to the command center burst open, Ron coming out with a hogtied Drakken.

      “Finally got him to say my name.” Ron beamed with pride. “Monkey power’s gone for now though… I guess that probably means we won?”

      “Seems like it… let’s get a call out to Global Justice and WOOHP.” Sammy said, everyone nodding in agreement.

—-

     Global Justice was incredibly prompt with their arrival, and wasted no time getting the situation well in hand. Drakken, Shego, and their henchmen were quickly taken away to be processed for their crimes, and medics rushed the heroes to make sure that any injuries they sustained were taken care of.

     “Know that I do not say this lightly, I am once more in awe of your effectiveness.” Dr. Director said from her place in the middle of the group as they were examined by the medical staff. “Over the course of five hours, you noticed a massive threat to the planet, located the source, and disabled it with no casualties. You have my thanks.”

     “Just doing our jobs, Director. If we didn’t save the world, who would?” Alex said, waving off the stern woman.

     “Technically, that is supposed to be our job.” Dr. Director said with a light sigh. “It is both parts humiliating and reassuring that it seems we must constantly leave the protection of the world to mere teenagers, but given your track record, I can’t deny how effective that strategy is becoming.”

     “Just don’t overdo us!” Clover complained audibly. “We’re happy to help save the world, but don’t put it all on us all the time! That’s a lot of pressure for someone who has a math test the next morning.” 

     “Know that I have no intentions to. Global Justice hopes that we can solve all world crises internally without relying on your assistance. We are, however, infinitely grateful that we can count on you when needs be.” Dr. Director said with a stern nod. “As for you, Ms. McClain. You are not a Global Justice asset, you had no obligation to assist in this endeavor, but you stepped up and were critical in this matter. For that, you have our most sincere gratitude.”

     Ember waved the woman off non-chalantly. “No big. I wasn’t going to let my Babypop get hurt if I could help it. Besides, I got something REAL special outta this deal.” Ember said with a teasing grin as she looked over to Danny, who flushed crimson at that.

     “You’ve gotta talk to Kim and Sammy about that first. I know you and Star already have, but it has to be a unanimous thing.” Danny said seriously, even as his face was still tomato red.

     “If it’s what I’m thinking it is, this is neither the time nor the place.” Kim said, her own face flushing. “But… I’m okay for later. After prom maybe?”

     “After prom. Which, by the way, we need to get home for! It’s… 3AM now. Prom starts at 7PM. It’s going to take me two hours to do my hair and make-up, and probably two hours for all of our parents to get pictures. That means we need to leave soon so we can get some sleep that I’m sure we all DESPERATELY need.” Sammy said looking at her phone.

    “You’re right! Ugh… I didn’t even find a date!” Clover groaned, rolling frustratedly on the small stretcher they’d brought out as an exam table.

    “I believe Agent Du might be available.” Jerry said as he entered the picture, smirking a bit to himself. “I’m sure Betty could loan him out for a night.”

     “I wouldn’t subject Clover to that.” Dr. Director said with a shaken head, an unserious smile on her face unlike they’d seen before. “Agent Du is a fantastic agent, but he doesn’t know how to turn work off.”

    “How quaint, Clover doesn’t know how to turn work on.” Jerry said with a chuckle, earning a heatless glare from the red-clad spy. 

     “Uh… Dr. Director, Jerry… there is one thing I need to ask about.” Danny said, looking at who was effectively their superhero handlers. “Drakken and Shego, as well as their henchmen, all know my identity now. That’s… well that’s a big deal. What are we going to do about that?” 

    “Ah, yes, I did recognize that problem.” Jerry said, letting a small smirk come across his face. “Thankfully, WOOHP specializes in memory erasure. Useful for when spies identities are leaked. Never you worry, they’ll all forget all about it.” 

    “I feel like that crosses a lot of ethical boundaries G.” Jake said, looking over at the balding man.

    “Perhaps, but we ARE dealing with the safety of the world, and a man who did just try to take it over through military force. I believe we’re slightly outside of operating parameters. I believe I’ll have to remove his memories of you as well, Mr. Long.” Jerry said, smirking. “After all, a normal human would have just learned of the magical world, and not one who would have a vested interest in keeping it a secret.”

    “Aww man… You’re right.” Jake said, hanging his head. “Fine, you win dawg.”

    “I tend to. You should see the poker games.” Jerry said with a chuckle. Dr. Director just grumbled.

     “You all should return home. I take it those of you in Amity Park will be taking the Speeder. Stitch, Jake, I’m happy to make arrangements for your return as well.” Dr. Director said, nodding at the two.

    “Can Stitch drive?” Stitch asked looking excitedly at the jet they’d flown in on.

—-

     Danny guided Kim underneath the balloon arch into the gymnasium, Star and Sammy waving at them as they separated off to give the couple a couple songs together before they’d switch off. Kim HAD won the rock-paper-scissors match for “primary date” tonight, and they were happy to let her have it. Especially since they were excited for what would happen after the prom finished.
    The superhero pair made their way to the dance floor, Kim hooking her hands over Danny’s shoulders, and Danny wrapping his arms around her waist. She smiled as she looked up at him, leaning in and planting a quick kiss on his lips. “I’m glad we got to make it.” She said softly, as they rocked to the slow, steady rhythm of the love ballad playing over the loudspeakers. “Would have definitely sucked to miss our Junior Prom because we were fighting robots.” 

     Danny leaned in and gave her a quick peck in return. “It would have… but it wouldn’t exactly be us if we weren’t off saving the world, would it?” He teased, earning a chuckle from her as she leaned her head in to rest on his chest.

    “I guess it wouldn’t be.” She said as she listened to his heartbeat, the strong, steady rhythm grounding her in the moment. “Do you like the dress? I’m admittedly a little disappointed you didn’t get to help me pick it out. I wanted to make sure I got something you liked, you have to see me in it more than I do, after all.” She said, letting a small chuckle out at that.

    “It’s lovely.” Danny said, leaning in and resting his cheek on  the top of her head, but making sure not to disrupt her hair too much. She’d taken some extra effort, her hair was done up in a ponytail, with the tail part having been blown out to give it some volume and waviness, and from the hairspray smell, he could tell some genuine work had been going into making sure it looked just right. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there. I really need to make it up to all of you.”

    “Well, you’re making a start tonight.” Kim said teasingly as she buried herself further into his chest. “And… well I still kind of owed you one for that Walker thing in Freshman year, so we’re probably even now.”

    “You were being overshadowed, I hardly think that counts.” Danny said with a small chuckle, happy that the hurt from that was distant enough he could laugh about it now.

    “You were being blackmailed, so I think they’re equivalent.” Kim countered, causing both of them to let out a laugh. A comfortable silence fell over them after that, the pair simply basking in each other's presence for a few moments. Kim broke the silence with a soft “I love you, Danny.”

    “I love you too, Kim.” Danny said, pulling back his head and making her look up at him. He leaned in and placed another kiss on her lips, holding it for a moment as the song finished. They separated, a pair of lovingly contented smiles on their faces, as the tempo of the music picked up. The slow love ballad had been replaced by some dance number, other couples on the floor moving to a more exciting and erratic dance. “Should we get something to drink? I don’t think either of us are feeling like something that intense right now. I’m still sore.”

    “Don’t I know it. Yeah, let’s go.” Kim said as she threaded her fingers with his. The pair walked over to the punch bowl, where they saw Clover getting a cup for herself. She was chatting with Alex about something, the pair of them laughing and giggling, when Dash came up to Clover.

    “Hey babe! Glad to see you here. How about we head out on the dance floor?” Dash asked, as he raised his hands above his head and wiggled his hips as he ‘danced’ up to Clover.

    “Not your babe, and SO not interested.” Clover said in annoyance as she sipped at her punch, not wanting to interact with the jock at all.

    “Ah, come on, no need to play hard to get.” Dash said, as he got closer. He moved his hand down to Clover’s shoulder, and she reacted in an instant, flipping him over her and onto the floor.

     “Get a clue, jerkwad.” Clover said, before pouring her punch over his face. She turned over and saw Danny and Kim, happily walking over to them. “Man, that felt so good.”

     “I’ll bet.” Danny said with a chuckle as he watched Dash get up. He knew the only thing wounded on the jock was his pride, so he wasn’t too concerned. “I’ve been wanting to do something like that for years.”

     “Glad I got to live your dream then.” Clover said with a smirk. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone. I think I’ll go bug Tucker and Valerie for a minute. Those two are dancing way too far apart!” She said, shooting the pair a smile before walking off in the direction of their friends. True to her word, Tucker and Valerie were dancing like they were at a church-sponsored event, and Clover was not going to take that lying down. Alex followed along after her, letting Danny and Kim see her give an exaggerated eye roll, before smiling and waving them off.

     Star and Sammy join Danny and Kim at the punch bowl, the quartet clinking their glasses together in a quick toast before taking a sip, their eyes scanning the dance floor to see what everyone else was up to. Ron and Sam were easy to find, the goth girl having apparently sequestered the blonde boy off into a corner for a make-out session. It seems like the previous day's events had emboldened her a little bit in regards to their relationship, and it didn’t look like Ron was complaining at all. They chuckled a bit as they saw the completely miserable look on Bonnie’s face as she ‘danced’ with Kwan. The jock didn’t have much of a sense of rhythm, and it genuinely seemed like neither of them were having a good time. They seemed to be having a better time than Paulina was though, as her date Dale appeared to have ditched her to go hang out with a couple of the other jocks as they took balloons from several of the tables and huffed the helium, laughing at their high voices.

    All in all, prom wasn’t perfect. The heroes were sore, and for Danny, there was still a lingering guilt for having ignored his girls for the entirety of the week; but they still enjoyed their time together.

—--

     Danny loosened his tie as he entered his bedroom, pulling it off as he looked over his guests. Kim, Star, Sammy, and Ember were all present, looks of nervous excitement on their faces. “So… you’re all on the same page that this is what we want? It’s not too soon or anything?” Danny asked with a raised eyebrow, looking over the quartet. It was a big step, one of the biggest they would ever take in their relationships, and he didn’t want there to be any doubts when they took it.

     “I’ve been waiting for two years, babypop.” Ember said, smirking. “I asked for this, don’t think I’m backing out now.”

     “You know I’ve wanted this, Danny.” Star said, giving him that warm, soft smile she always did. “I love you, I know I’d never regret it.”

     “I’ve been ready for a while too, just didn’t know how to approach it.” Kim said, flushing a bit. “Miss I can do anything, couldn't figure that out.” 

     “I’ve been ready for a while too.” Sammy said simply, shooting him a beaming smile. “I wasn’t sure if you were, since you’d been more hesitant about it. I’m here for the long haul, so I could wait, although I’m glad it won’t be for much longer.”

     Danny took the responses in, before letting out a sigh. “I’ll admit I’m nervous… but I love you girls, more than words could ever express, so if we want to take this step, we can.” He shot them a smile, a big, genuine one full of love and affection. “I do have something for you all.” He stood up, walking over to his desk and opening a drawer, pulled out a long velvet box. “Dad told me about this tradition in the family. When you love a girl, and want to let her know that you’re serious beyond any doubt, you’re supposed to give her a ring. Not an engagement ring, that’s separate, but a promise. A promise that the intention is for there to be an engagement ring someday, that there’s going to be a future.” He smiled a bit, looking at their slightly tearful eyes as he spoke. “Normally, you give your father’s class ring, but I have four girls I have to give it to, so one just wasn’t going to cut it… so I had these made.” Danny opened the box, revealing the four rings. “I hope you’ll accept these, and know that from the very bottom of my heart, I love you, and hope that we spend the rest of our lives together, even if this doesn’t come with a certain question quite yet.”

     Kim teared up, the mascara on her eyes starting to run a little bit as wonderful, joyous tears flooded from her eyes. “Of course I’ll accept it, Danny.” Kim said, as she held out her hand. Danny smiled, pulling her ring from the box and sliding it onto her finger. Leaning down and kissing her hand.

     Star and Sammy both smiled, holding out their hands as well, tears running down their faces. They knew this was coming, but it didn’t make the moment any less special. He slid the rings onto their fingers, before leaning in and whispering in their ears. “Thanks for not telling the others.” He said, just loud enough for them to hear. Their eyes opened in shock, but he simply touched his index finger to his lips, before moving onto the last one.

    Ember didn’t hold out her hand. Instead, she tackled him to the ground, peppering his face with kisses and she pulled the ring from the box herself, shoving it into his hand. “Put it on me, babypop.” She got out between her amorous assault, and Danny could only laugh as he finally managed to catch her hand and slide the ring onto it.

    Ember let him up after another moment, and Danny stood brushing himself off. “Well… I guess that means we… get started?” He said, unsure, but determined.

    “I think so.” Star said, smiling.

    “Then, I think there’s someone who has been waiting a very long time for this.” Danny said, as he stepped up to Star, pulling her in for a deep kiss, as his hand found the zipper on the back of her orange dress, and pulled it down.