The Possible Initiative [Kim Possible/W.I.T.C.H. crossover] (non-beta'd)

[moshonn]

Monday, June 11th, fifteen days until Graduation



"So, what am I supposed to find out anyway?" Will Du asked his commanding officer via the built-in hands-free kit, driving towards his latest assignment. "You just sent me here in a hurry with no further briefing." He was just a little miffed about that.

"Over the last fifteen months, our astrophysics department has picked up irregular energy discharges and weird distortions in space-time." The woman explained, voice business-like. "They couldn't pinpoint them to one particular location, but they all occurred within the city limits. We want you to find out what is happening."

"That's everything we've got?" he checked disbelievingly. Global Justice's science division was usually far better with details, to the point of obsessing over them.

"The events vary in scale, appear all over the city and don't seem to have any particular frequency. However, a distortion is often followed by or follows a discharge, so there seems to be some kind of connection. This is not consistent, as there has been one without the other occasionally."

"So, basically you have no idea if this is some kind of cosmic hiccup or the apocalypse and you're sending me in nearly blind. Great. What else is new?" He sighed. "My cover?"

"That..." his CO hesitated, considering. "is actually a fairly decent, if cynical, summary, yes." She cleared her throat before answering. "You're Ian Steward, college student, only just moved here, studying physics with a focus on electromagnetism along with a minor in algorithmic analysis."

"Close enough, but why not astrophysics proper?"

"Credibility: The local college doesn't offer that particular course of studies. You work free lance for the local branch of a software company, but you will only have to be present in person once or twice a week and only for short periods of time, as you will be 'working from home'." He could hear the air quotes and smirked. GJ's techies would be doing 'his' work. "The manager knows of your true occupation, but thinks your working for a national agency and has no details of your mission. None of the co-workers are in the know. Keep it that way! Another agent is already undercover at a local school, a third, your partner for this assignment, will arrive within the next few days. You will receive a separate briefing on her. Just one thing: While she is a newly recruited agent, she is not a rookie, and certainly not an amateur." She put special emphasis on that last word. "Director won't tolerate a repeat of the Possible-debacle."

Will winced. It seemed Chief was unlikely to ever let him live that one down. Even after almost two years, he was still reminded of that fuck-up on a regular basis. Sure, they had stopped Killigan, but his behavior had been thoroughly unprofessional and had soured GJ's relations to Possible for months. Not that he blamed her, he had been a major brat. But come on, two years of nothing but exemplary teamwork with whoever he was assigned with and she still felt the need to reprimand him every time? That just wasn't fair.

He sighed. "Understood. ETA: eighteen minutes. Why am I driving the last twenty miles, anyway?"

"Bringing you in at the local airport with a GJ vehicle would likely blow your cover. Besides, how else is an average college student supposed to move from one state to another and be mobile at the destination?"

He grunted an affirmative and nodded. 'Could have thought of that myself.' To be fair, he had never even been near average (not always above it however), not to speak of college student. "Alright, I'll get back in contact once I've arrived. Agent Du out." He cut the connection and looked ahead, a large billboard welcoming him to Heatherfield.

 

[moshonn]

Tuesday, June 12th, fourteen days until Graduation

Will Du was sitting in the office of his new alleged boss. And while this woman was exceptionally welcoming and friendly, he felt like a dear in the headlights. Because deep in his gut he knew with absolute certainty that Susan Vandom would unleash Hell, Hades and then some assorted Pandemonium upon anyone who dared threaten those she held dear. He had only ever met one other person that gave off a similar aura – though, admittedly, Betty Director had rarely offered him cookies in her office.

"Thank you" he said, taking one.

"You're welcome." Susan put the plate onto her desk and sat down behind it, facing him. "Mister Steward, I have reviewed the code you have submitted with your application and I have to say I'm questioning your judgment."

Will was caught off-guard by this. "Beg your pardon, Ma'am?" he asked in confusion.

"With your skills, you could easily have a very lucrative career in just about any software company on the planet. You must realize you'll never make even a fraction of that by going into research."

Will had to smirk. "Well, Ma'am, that's pretty easily explained. For me, it's not about money. It's about expanding our knowledge of the universe. To find out how we came to be and to advance our species." He borrowed this little speech from an actual astrophysicist, whose commitment and passion had made a permanent impression on him.

Susan gave him a long, thoughtful look. "Alright, I can respect that." She finally said. "If you ever change your mind though, give me a call. I'm sure I can find you a job with us."

"Thanks, Ma'am, I appreciate it." he replied with a smile, making a mental note to pass the offer on to the GJ-techie who had actually come up with the code. After several more minutes of polite small talk, he stood up. "I hate to cut this short, but I need to get some other stuff done today, finishing the move, college stuff, you know how it is. So, if you don't have anymore questions, I'd like to take my leave."

"Of course" Susan replied, looking a little awkward to let herself be carried away like this. "Please, don't let me keep you from your duties." She made to accompany him to the door, but Will simply made a gesture to stop her.

"I'll find my way out, Ma'am" he smiled before he left her office.

As he exited into the underground garage a few minutes later, his earpiece gave a chime, indicating his CO wanted to contact him. Raising his cellphone to his ear to give him a credible cover, he opened the comm link. "Yes?"

"Agent Du, Sit Rep." came the voice of the older woman.

"No, just coming from work." he replied, making it clear he was in public and couldn't talk freely.

"Acknowledged. Continue."

"Yeah, I just met my boss. Seems nice, though I've yet to actually get to know her." he replied in a casual tone. His CO knew to interpret this as 'Everything went well, though I didn't meet the guy who knows I'm a spy.'

"Good. I've got a new task for you: Your partner for this mission just arrived at your shared apartment. Please go meet her and give her a briefing on what you've learned so far."

"Just a moment, getting into the car." As he climbed into the driver's seat and closed the door, the link switched to the car's communications suite. His voice far more business-like, he continued: "Yes, Ma'am. However, my findings thus far are quickly summed up with 'jack squad': I have yet to scout out the city and set up instruments."

"Alright, then get to that as soon as you have met your partner. Headquarters out"

"Copy that. Agent Du out." he cut the link, steered the car out of the garage onto the streets and drove towards his apartment. There, he found the door ajar. Inside, he could hear metallic clinking. He frowned. This was most likely his newly assigned partner, but why would she leave the door open? And what the hell was she handling to make these noises? Knowing he could only answer that by entering, he pushed to door open and took a step inside – and nearly got smashed in the face again with it. Something behind the door had pushed it back again. He caught the door and peered inside. The thing that the door had bounced off of was a duffel bag. Another two lay beside it, one of them open. A young Japanese woman squatted before it, lifting a set of throwing knives from it. Western-style throwing knives, he noticed, not kunai like one might have assumed. She put them down on the coffee table, which was already half-way covered with a variety of weapons, half of which where Western-style as well. He was no expert on Medieval weaponry, European, Japanese or otherwise, but even he recognized a Roman-style gladius, a pair of small Viking-style throwing axes, a variety of Japanese knives and swords, ranging from kunai to tanto to katana and an actual warhammer. The others didn't ring a bell and some even looked pretty outlandish but even a cursory glance told him that each and every blade was sharp. These weren't museum pieces but actual weapons of war.

"How long do you plan to admire my collection without saying hello?" The young woman asked without turning to him.

He blushed a little and cleared this throat. "Apologies. My name is Will Du, pleased to meet you." He managed a smile and bowed a little as was usual in Japan.

She stood up straight and smiled back. He was pleased to notice that it was genuine. "Likewise. My name is Ishikawa Yori. It is an honor to work with you." She bowed as well.

"I see you're already sorting out your gear." He said, gesturing to the weapons. "Though your selection surprises me."

"You don't think I can bring melee weapons to bear in the age of guns?"

"I have seen Yamanuchi shinobi in action." He replied. "I know you can. I mean that there are so many European weapons in your arsenal."

"A personal interest" Yori replied, a little embarrassed. "Shall we get 'down to business' I think is the expression."

"Yes, let's." he agreed and sat down at the kitchen table, Yori taking a place opposite him. "Seeing that I only arrived yesterday myself, I wasn't able to find out much yet. I read the reports our colleague sent in, but they are inconclusive. He claims to have a trail, but it could be a wild goose chase."

"To sum it up, we have nothing." Yori concluded.

Will let out a sigh. "Exactly. I had planned to set up instruments to pick up the distortions and discharges today. Given enough data, we should be able to triangulate an exact location."

Yori nodded. "Alright, but what then?"

"Depends on who or what we find. This could be anything from a cosmic hiccup to an interdimensional invasion. Hostiles will be neutralized, of course, a neutral party might be convinced to back off or even ally with us. If it's a natural occurrence, our techies will take over."

"Not exactly a detailed plan, but given the best we can come up with given our limited data."

"I don't particularly like it either." Will admitted. "But yes, the best we can do at this time. Now, how about you explain to me some of the more exotic parts of your collection. I've never even seen half these items." He gestured towards the various weapons.

Yori practically bounced out of her seat, but then clamped down on her enthusiasm. "It would be an honor." She carefully picked up a curved, wicked looking short sword. "This is a weapon from Ancient Greece called a kopis..."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Undercover as a a school teacher?" Yori questioned as they approached Sheffield Institute. "Isn't that a little cliché, not to mention ineffective?"

"Don't ask me about cliché, I've lost any sense of proportionality in that regard." Du replied in a weary voice, then when back to professionalism. "It isn't, however, ineffective. If he was teaching a regular, it would be, but since he has the computer course, he only has a fraction of the workload of a normal teacher."

"And thus enough free time to investigate." Yori concluded. "Also, he has a reason to be near minors in case one of them is somehow connected to this."

"I love it when people know their trade." Du couldn't help but grin. "Yes, and he claims that five girls in one of his classes are the cause of this." Yori gave him a very skeptical look. "Sounds highly unlikely, but we both know that improbable scenarios have a habit of becoming uncomfortable realities." The young shinobi had to concede that as truth. She parked and they got out.

A bespectacled, blonde man greeted them. "Ah, Miss Steward, Miss Takashi! Welcome to Sheffield!" He called, too-enthusiastic, smiling too-widely.

"Professor Sylla, good to meet you, so glad you could make it on such short notice." Will Du replied, making a mental note of the other agents bad acting.

"Come on, let us go inside to talk." Sylla said with a gesture to follow him, turning his back at them.

Yori and Will exchanged a look, but did as they were bidden.

Inside his office, Sylla gestured for them to be silent before he gestured at the door, murmured something and a slight shudder ran through the room.

"Now, we can talk without disturbances or eavesdroppers."

"So, what do you have?" Will Du was quick to cut to the case. "You mentioned you have a lead."

"Yes, five students of mine. They seem to have some connection to the supernatural." He handed them a manila folder. "Here are their profiles."

Yori took it and browsed it for a moment. "These girls seem barely adolescent, how can they be responsible for our readings?"

"If I recall correctly, you and Mister Du have been in training even before you were these girls' age. The gifted can hardly chose when and how their gifts manifest, after all."

Again, Yori and Will exchanged a look. "Well, we'll analyze your data and report back to headquarters."

"Yes, of course," Sylla nodded. "I'm sure you have a lot of work ahead of you. I won't keep you." He escorted them back to the school's entrance. "It's been a delight, but now I must tend to other tasks."

"Don't let us keep you." Du replied before turning to go, Yori by his side. They were quiet until they sat down in the car and the doors were shut.

"This was... different from what I expected." Yori admitted, starting the car and backing out of the parking space. "Agent Sylla seemed... off."

"He was." Du confirmed. "In fact, there's hardly a rookie in all of GJ who'd make as many protocolary mistakes as Sylla just did. He's likely been compromised. This might not even be the original Sylla."

"What would he be instead? Doppelgaenger? Impostor?"

"Clone, cybernetic drone, hard light construct, any number of things, really." Du said. "Not that it matters. What matters is that a third party is investigating these incidents as well, and the fact that we don't know who the hell they could be speaks enough of how dangerous they are."

"So, what now?"

"Inform headquarters and wait for additional instructions. Other than that, continue as before. Finding the source of these disturbances stays our primary objective."

Yori nodded grimly.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Riddle allowed himself a small smile. So, this were the 'agents' Global Justice deemed to set on this case: Barely more than children. They wouldn't be more than a nuisance, not a real threat to his plans. Now, if he could only capture those girls, he'd surely find a way to harness their powers. However, men of his age bracket interacting with teenaged girls they had neither family relations with nor were their teachers tended to draw far more attention than he could ever want. However, Sylla would provide an opportunity in these matters eventually, it was only a matter of time and Riddle could be a very patient man if waiting was worth it. They were here for half a year already, what were a few weeks more or less at this point?

Riddle's smile widened a fraction. "Very soon, I will wield this magic for myself, and then they will have to acknowledge my findings. Only it will be too late!"

 

[moshonn]

Thursday, June 14th, twelve days until Graduation

"And that was the last." Yori informed her partner over comm. She had just finished setting up the last of a good two dozen instruments to pick up and measure the disturbances around the area. It had taken the better part of two days. "Are you receiving?"

"Wonderfully clear readings, Ishikawa-san." Will Du replied – in Japanese, as they had made it a habit of switching around languages easily. "Now, we only have to wait for enough data."

"Great." Yori replied flatly. She could be patient, if she needed to. After all, she was, among other things, a trained assassin, and waiting for hours for the perfect opportunity to strike was just as important as skill at arms and stealth and disguise in that profession. However, it didn't mean she had to like sitting on her butt without anything meaningful to do. She'd need to find something to occupy herself with. "I'm heading back now." She made her way from the roof of the office building she had installed the instrument on back onto the street. There, she stopped, grinning. "Say, Agent Du, it is common practice for university students to take small jobs at local businesses to supplement their finances, yes?"

Will Du was silent for a long moment, likely to disentangle the linguistic mess of the long sentence bouncing back and forth between two languages. "Um, yes, though that's not necessary, your cover should be good enough."

"Redundant safety measures, Agent Du." Yori replied before crossing the street. "The better our cover, the lesser our chance to be discovered."

Will Du had to concede that point, especially since it was one he himself liked to emphasize when building up a cover identity.

So, Yori entered the restaurant, only to find it apparently empty. "Um, hello?" she called out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Um, hello?" a young, female voice called out from the dining area of the Silver Dragon.

Mera Lin, auramere-turned-twinsister of Yan Lin, walked out to find a young woman. "Hello." Mera greeted. "I'm sorry, but we are closed. We'll open at six p.m. Would you like to make a reservation?"

"No, well, actually, I'm here for the 'Help wanted' sign." The young woman – barely more than a girl, Mera thought to herself. Which was in no way deprecating since she was fully aware what girls were capable of. And this girl here did give off the aura of someone like her dear grand daughter, but only very faintly. "I would have called ahead, but I literally just spotted it. My name is Yori, by the way." she added with a bow.

"Ah, well, Yori, do you have any experience as a waitress?" Mera asked.

"Yes, I waited for some months back home." Technically true, though that was in the elders' dining hall at Yamanuchi, not an actual restaurant, but close enough.

"I'll have to check back with my sister, but chances are you can start here." Mera said. "If I may ask, Yori: Where is 'back home'?" The elder woman asked curiously.

"Japan. Hokkaido, to be exact."

"Oh, an old friend of mine is from Hokkaido, as well. No matter, you probably don't know him anyway. Could you give me a telephone number so we can call you back?"

"Of course" the woman dictated a number Mera quickly noted down.

"Alright then." Mera said, folding the note. "I'll give you a call as soon as I've talked to my sister."

Yori bowed again. "Thank you. I'll be looking forward to your call."

The young woman took her leave while Mera headed back into the kitchen.

"Who was that?" Yan Lin asked, looking up from chopping vegetables. She needn't look at her work at this point.

"A young girl, she asked about the 'Help Wanted' sign." Mera replied, heading back to her own work, which was the previous day's tally.

"And?" Yan prompted. Her instinctive understanding with her 'twin' only went so far, and it distinctly excepted any information only one of them had received.

Mera looked around to make sure neither her nephew nor his wife were within earshot. "I said we'd get back to her. There was something off about her, though. I could sense magic on her. Not as if she was magical herself, but as if she had contact with it. A lot like Caleb, but far weaker."

"Hmmm. So, either the magic was very weak in the first place or it's been a while since the contact."

"You think she might be a new enemy?"

"Let's not be too hasty." Yan placated. "For all we know, she might have simply been close to something magical without even knowing. We will be wary and inform the Guardians but that will be all we do for now."

Mera nodded her agreement. "What about the job offer, though?"

"Call her, tell her she can come in for the evening crowd." Yan smirked. "Trial by fire."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She could handle the evening crowd. The way Yori weaved between tables, other waiters and patrons seemed almost supernatural if Yan and Mera didn't know for a fact that it wasn't. Patrons gave her glowing reviews – and generous tips, if Yan observed correctly. Chen and Joan were elated about her, as was Hay Lin, who had jokingly adopted her as her 'big ninja sister'. Yori had waved that aside, stating that some fancy foot work didn't make her a ninja.

Sometime during the evening, Will had tried if the Heart of Kandrakar would reveal anything, but only gotten a complete non-reaction. For now, Yori was free of suspicion, but the Guardians as well as Yan and Mera were curious about her.

"Tables are wiped, floor is swiped and the front door is locked." Yori reported as she entered the kitchen. "If there is nothing else, I'd like to go home now." She was still smiling, but she was visibly tired. Not physically, as she still stood perfectly straight like a trained soldier – a trait Yan secretly envied her about as she never could bring herself to that level of discipline. It was more of an emotional tiredness. More than four hours of impeccable politeness could be straining, too.

"Just a moment, Yori." Yan said "You did an outstanding job tonight. I can't reschedule for tomorrow, but if you can come by, I'll give you your hours for Friday, the weekend and next week. In short, you're hired."

Yori's smile brightened. She bowed in gratitude. "Thank you, Mrs. Lin, I won't let you down!" she said.

"Oh, stop calling me that! 'Mrs. Lin' is my daughter-in-law. I'm Yan."

"Alright, Sifu Yan."

The elder woman started, then smirked. "It seems you are full of surprises. Now get home! Even you young people need sleep."

"Good night!" Yori called out before the back door fell closed behind her.

Yan had to admit, Hay wasn't the only Lin who had quickly 'adopted' the young woman into the family.

 

[moshonn]

Wednesday, June 27th, Graduation day

Will Du and Yori had fallen into a comfortable routine. Making half-way regular showings at college, working out and sparring together, Will meeting with his 'boss' at Simultech twive more and Yori doing her shifts at the Silver Dragon. She was really enjoying that part. Hay Lin and her friends were around often, though Yori had noticed they were more tense and guarded than normal teenagers had any right to be. Maybe Sylla, compromised as he might have been, was onto something with them.

"So, what do the readings say?" Yori asked idly while she renewed the oil coat on her blades. A necessary procedure lest the weapons would rust.

"Half the incidents are spread out randomly around the city, but the other half occur here." He pointed on a map to a spot downtown.

Yori put the Franzisca throwing axe she'd been working on aside to take a closer look. She paused. "That's the Silver Dragon." she exclaimed.

Will blinked and took another look. "What the heck? How does that make sense? I agree that Mrs. Lin's cooking is great, but not to the point that it distorts timespace."

"Maybe it's famous across dimensions?" Yori joked. "And they have guests from parallel worlds."

Du chuckled at that. "Can you imagine? Albus Dumbledore and Gandalf arguing over who had the pork and who the duck?"

"Meanwhile, at the next table, Monkey D. Luffy, Satoshi and Son Goku have an eating contest."

"Oh no, they'd ruin the Lins!" They descended into a laughing fit for a moment before sobering again.

As they calmed down, Yori asked: "Jokes aside, what do we do with this information?"

"We'll talk to the Lins tomorrow. Today, act as if nothing is out of the ordinary. When you get back from your shift, we'll talk about how we'll confront them.

Yori nodded. She didn't like it, but from the looks of it, Will didn't like it either. They were still missing something.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Will Du's comm pinged while he was going over the day's readings. "I read you, head qu-"

"Code Goldsmith." his CO's voice cut him off. "Say again, Code Goldsmith. Hostiles inbound. Protection of civilians first priority. Break cover if need be."

"Understood." he replied grimly as he grabbed a small bundle before he stepped out of the apartment. Outside, the sky darkened.

"Good luck, Agent Du"

The the noise of a large, heavy object hitting the ground outside drowned out his reply. Du drew his gun and replaced his default rubber bullets with armor-piercing rounds. "C'mon, ET, let's dance." he growled before opening another comm-link. "Ishikawa, do you read? What's your position?" He asked, making his way down the stair case.

"I read you. I'm at the Silver Dragon, cover broken. We're taking all patrons and whoever else we can into the basement."

"Good. Do you have any visuals of the hostiles?"

"Negative, but we can hear large machinery not far away. Assume heavy armor."

Finally, he exited the building – and stopped dead in his tracks. "Confirmed" he said while staring up at the enormous contraption that constituted the 'inbound hostiles'. "Wells wants his script back." he muttered before holstering his gun again. He doubted anything below a Abrams tank's main gun could even scratch this thing. He took off at a sprint. "Ishikawa, visual on the hostiles. Think War of the Worlds. Do not directly engage, keep getting civilians to safety. I'm on my way over to you."

Will kept going, only occasionally stopping to get another stunned civilian to move to the relative safety of a building, with instructions to seek a basement and hunker down there.

Finally, he made it to the back door of the Dragon. "Ishikawa, I'm here, let me in." he half-yelled into his com.

"Window, by your right foot" was the answer. He looked down to find Yori looking up at him, surrounded by terrified civilians. She opened the window and he swung in. He recognized the Lins, of course, having had dinner in their restaurant a few times, but also Hay and her friends, the same five girls Sylla had his suspicions about. And another familiar face greeted him.

"Mister Steward?" the incredulous voice of his alleged boss, Susan Vandom drifted over to him.

"Mrs. Vandom. Good to see you safe." he replied. "Do we have any injuries?" he asked the gathered. A murmured response in the negative answered him. There were a few scrapes and scratches, but nothing that needed immediate medical attention. "Ishikawa, we need to get back out there, get people to safety."

"You're not a college student, are you, Mister Steward?" Susan asked again.

Will Du turned to her, an apologetic smile on his lips. He pulled out his badge, identifying him as a GJ agent. "No, ma'am, and my name isn't Ian Steward either. Will Du, Global Justice. I take it my colleague Miss Ishikawa here has already introduced herself. We're here to help. We'll keep you safe." He announced to the room at large, then dropped his voice to a hurried murmur as he talked to Susan. "Now, Mrs. Vandom, I know you're not a trained emergency responder of any form, but I know you can organize people and keep them in control. Please do that here. Recruit anyone you think can do the same to help you. Yori and I need to go out there again and get people off the streets and into shelter."

"So, the rumors are true?" Susan asked. "People say this is an alien invasion. That there are war machines out in the streets, though we haven't seen them."

"That's what it looks like, yeah." Will Du admitted. Susan took these news with decidedly less of a fuss than he had anticipated. She took a deep breath, then nodded. "All the more reason to keep people from panicking. I need you to take control here, keep people in line. Help is on the way, GJ is prepared for such a scenario. The elder Lins seem competent in their own right, maybe you find ex-military or the like to help you out."

"I'll help out, too." a man with reddish brown hair and a mustache approached.

"Sir?" Will Du turned to him.

"Dean Collins." he introduced himself. "I might only be a history teacher and the biggest emergency I was ever involved with was a minor fire at school, but I'll do what I can."

"Thank you, Sir." He turned to Yori. "We good to go, Ishikawa?"

"Affirmative. I don't suppose you grabbed my..." She was cut off as he passed her the bag he had grabbed before leaving their apartment. "Thank you." Within seconds, the bag was turned inside out into a belt, Yori's franzisca, kopis as well as her Japanese-style throwing knives on it, along with several pouches filled with other equipment.

"No time for the bec, sorry."

"It'll have to do." Yori replied with a shrug, then made to climb out the window.

"Hey, are you abandoning us here?" a man called from the other end of the room. Before Will or Yori could say anything, Susan was right up in his face. "They aren't abandoning us. They go back out there and risk their lives to get more people to safety. If you think you're better at that than them, I won't stop you. But if you throw around accusations without doing anything yourself, I won't hesitate to shut you up. Are we clear?"

The man, broad shouldered and at least half a head taller than Susan, was cowed and nodded silently. Susan turned to Will Du and gave him a crisp nod, which he returned. He was about to follow Yori out the window, when Joan Lin called out: "Wait, where's Hay? Hay Lin! She's gone." The GJ agent glanced to the spot where he had seen the girl only minutes before. Not only her, but her four friends were gone as well. "Will!" He heard Susan exclaim. Her searching gaze told him he wasn't who she meant.

"Ishikawa, we might have a problem." he said into his comm. "Hay Lin, Will Vandom and her friends..."

There was a flash of multi colored light outside as Yori replied in a slightly distracted voice: "...will be fine. C'mon, we have a mission." The decidedness in her voice convinced him. He climbed out to find Yori at the end of the alley. "Come on, no time to waste!" They took off toward the main street, as Will noticed something flying high up ahead. He pointed at the five objects.

"Told you, the girls will be fine." Yori replied, a smile forming on her lips for a second before she became serious again. Will Du nodded.

They made it to main street to find a road block of police cruisers. "Get the national guard, the army, anyone with bigger guns than us." One of the officers yelled into his radio. From the other end of the street, one of the alien machines approached.

"I fear they'll be distracted, Officer." Will called out as they came closer. Immediately, he found five guns trained at him.

"Who are you?" The officer barked.

"Agents Du and Ishikawa, Global Justice." He made to take out his badge, but realized that reaching behind him might be a bad move with a bunch of nervous cops.

"Do you have credentials?" the officer asked, just slightly less aggressively than before, though he gestured for his colleagues to stand down. Will took that as safe enough to take out his badge. The officer took a look at it and nodded, accepting it. "Officer George Peck, HFPD"

"Get your people off the road, Peck. This road block will do nothing." Will declared as he put his badge away again. "You might as well try to stop that thing with card board boxes and cotton balls."

"And what are we supposed to do then? We've all sworn to keep the people in this city safe." It was painfully obvious that the officer knew fully well that they were powerless against this threat and that even this roadblock was a product of the notion 'better to do anything than nothing'

"Get people off the streets." Will replied. "Get them into shelter, prevent any gun-toting wannabe-hero from engaging the things. I've seen one up close, as long as you don't have anti-tank weaponry, you can't do anything against them."

The officer growled, but nodded. He relayed this to his colleagues, who wasted no time in following the new instructions. Nobody had a particular wish to be squished beneath an alien doom machine.

Just as the officers were scattering, five figures shot by overhead, heading directly for the very same alien doom machine.

"Oh, Susan's gonna kill me." Will said, then started running towards the machine himself. He stopped, however, when an enormous fireball erupted from one of the figures, hitting the machine and making it stumble.

"Those belong to you?" Peck asked.

Yori answered him: "They're not affiliated with GJ, though in this case, go by the time-honored wisdom of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. Don't engage them, just keep evacuating.

"Like hell I'd engage a living flame thrower." The officer replied, turning to get back to his task.

Will turned back to watch. Just in time to see a massive bolt of lightning strike the machine and apparently overload it, since it seized up, rocked on the spot for a moment, then tipped over and crashed into an building. A still occupied building, as the panicked screams showed.

Yori and Will took off at a run, hearing the policemen and -women following behind them.

"Cornelia, can you prop it up?" they heard a voice call out as they came closer.

"Sure, just not for long." came the reply. "The whole thing's crumbling."

"There's a gas leak, I can smell it." Another voice reported.

"Taranee, Irma, you need to keep that under control if it ignites." the first voice ordered.

Yori hopped onto the downed machine and climbed into the building. "Du, it's full of civilians. And Hay Lin was right, it smells like gas in here."

"Understood." He replied. "Officers, keep back." he called to the approaching police. "There's a gas leak. Get fire fighters here if you can. Clear a perimeter. We'll get the civies out."

A loud knocking behind him made him turn. A group of people was knocking on the ground level show windows. Seconds later, something impacted with one of the window panes, shattering it. The people quickly made their way out, only to be directed into shelters by the police. Will once again though how much he loved it when people knew their jobs.

He made his own way inside, snatching up Yori's franzisca as he did so. Yori waited for him at the door to the staircase. "Here, thought you'd want that back." he said as he held out the axe to her. She put it back into her belt and started off upstairs.

"Any numbers?" he said, following

"Nothing, people are panicking, and the structural integrity of the building isn't just compromised, it's gone. If not for Miss Hale outside, it'd collapse. We need to hurry."

"How do you know these girls?" He asked, after kicking open a jammed door and instructing the couple behind it to get downstairs and out. On to the next apartment.

"They're Hay Lin's friends, spent a lot of time at the Dragon." she replied as she used her kopis to shatter bent-to-dysfunction hinges, freeing a family of three who quickly made their way out.

They heard a gun shot. They cursed. They heard the explosion and threw themselves down, avoiding the shock blast and fire wave that shot overhead.

"Irma, Taranee!" they heard a yell over the roar of the flames.

Getting up, Yori looked around. "The shot came from further up. Here!" She tossed him a device he recognized as a small respirator normally meant for underwater use. They ran back to the staircase and up, where they barreled into a middle-aged man with a large caliber pistol in hand and singed clothes. Yori disarmed him with one quick motion before he could even get back to his feet. "Hey, what do you think you're..."

"Shut up!" Will spat, slapping him over the face for good measure. "You set the building on fire with your shot! If anyone comes to harm from this, it'll be on your head. Get the fuck out!"

The man was cowed and went to go while both agents made their way further up. They broke open doors and lifted debris out of the way, freeing a dozen more people. About halfway through the hallway, two girls approached – flying, no less. "Miss Takashi! What are you doing here?" one of them, a dark skinned girl with glasses asked

"My name's Ishikawa, actually. I'm with Global Justice." Yori explained hurriedly, kicking in another door, only to find the apartment behind it empty. "This is my partner, Will Du."

"Pleased to meet you, ladies, though I'd rather focus on getting civilians out instead of small talk."

"You do that, we'll keep the fire down." the other girl said

"I'd question that, but we don't have time for skepticism right now." Will Du replied. "Just make sure you're save. The fire source ought to be higher up."

"Thanks." both girls made off, heading up through a hole in the ceiling.

"We should split up, we can cover more ground that way." Yori said.

"And have one of us get caught under something with no way out? No way" Will disagreed.

"Will, we don't have time to argue, we" she was cut off when the whole building rocked and tilted slightly.

"Hurry up already!" came a strained, desperate cry from outside.

"Get all the way up and work down from there, we'll meet in the middle." Will instructed and Yori nodded and handed him her franzisca before she took off at a run, jumping up the hole the girls had left through seconds before she made her way further up.

The next few minutes were hectic, with the heat becoming more and more intense as the fire spread. At least the escape routes remained relatively cool as well as free of smoke and debris. That wasn't the case in the apartments, however. More then once, Will had to leap through a wall of flame to get to civilians cut off from their way out by burning furniture. Luckily, with a few valiant kicks and hits with the axe, the drywall construction gave way to another route of escape.

"Yori, sit rep!" he bellowed into his comm as he made his way up another flight of stairs to find a completely charred hallway. The source of the fire had to be here.

"I'm one floor above you, getting the last ones here out. No fatalities, but a few cases of smoke poisoning. How about you?"

"Much the same. I had to employ your axe a fair bit, sorry for any jags." he replied. "Girls, are you here?" he called out ahead.

"Third on the right!" came the answer. "We've got it covered, just get the people out."

"Hurry about it, I can feel the building tilting!"

Will ran into the hallway, finding the first few apartments empty already. The next few weren't much of a problem, either. They only needed a kicked-in front door to get out, since the handles had grown too hot to touch. It was only when he came to the last door that he had problems. First, the front door wouldn't open, blocked by something large and heavy behind it. Hacking the door away with the actually inappropriate throwing axe, he made his way inside to find the obstructions was a large cabinet that had fallen over against the door. Next, he found the entire inner half of the entry corridor aflame. Thinking quick, he heaved at the cabinet to tilt it back over and let it drop lengthwise along the floor, giving him a temporary bridge through the inferno. Jamming the respirator into his mouth, he lunged through and into the living room, where he found a teenager and a middle-aged woman standing midst the flames. They were African-American, desperately banging on a door and calling out a name: "Adrian!" Mother and son, Will assumed.

The son was first to notice him. "Hey, who the hell are you?" He demanded. "You don't look like a fire fighter. You wanna plunder?"

"No, I want to help." Will responded. Next thing he knew, he had to haul both of them away from the door as another large cabinet tipped over and crashed down on were they had been standing, cutting off the way to the door. "NO!" the woman called out. "Adrian!"

"Your brother's in there?" Will asked the boy, who had to hold back his mother from leaping back to the door. He received a nod. "I'll get him out of there." The boy had managed to calm his mother somewhat and dared to let go of her. Will's eyes fell onto a fire axe that lay on the ground. It had to have been in the destroyed cabinet. "You know how to use that?" He asked, pointing.

"Yeah, dad showed me. It was his."

Will snatched it up and pressed it into the boy's hands. "It's yours now. Go into the kitchen, hack a way out. I'll get your brother."

"Alright. Get him out of here, keep my bro save." He stared Will in the eye for a long moment. Will nodded wordlessly. The boy nodded back before he lead the way into the kitchen, his mother right behind him. Seconds later, he could hear the axe impacting the wall.

Will turned to face the blocked door. He'd have to jump to even get there. Then he noticed something disheartening: The door opened into the room. No way he could simply break the hinges to get through. He took a deep breath. The doors in this building weren't all that tough, built-wise. He could feasibly burst thorough one. It wouldn't be a very pleasant experience, however. He took a few steps back until his back touched the wall. Then, he took a running start and jumped. Shifting in the air, his left shoulder made contact with the door and it gave. Bursting into the adjacent room with a could of splinters and shrapnel, he made it. Miraculously, this room was free of any signs of fire, safe for the mounting heat.

"Will!" he heard Yori cry out in shock. Looking up, he saw the ninja standing on the opposite end of the room, holding a young boy of maybe five years in her arms. The door to the balcony behind her was open.

"I'm fine. How's the boy?"

"He's okay." Yori replied, helping her partner up with one hand. "We were about to get out of here. I heard yelling from the other side of the door. Who is there?"

"His mother and brother."

"Mommy!" the boy exclaimed, straining against Yori's grip.

"Hey, hey!" Will caught his flailing arms. "Adrian, your mommy's fine. Your brother's with her and they're getting out and to safety. I'm Will and your brother sent me to get you out, too. I'll be in a lot of trouble with him if I mess this up, so I'll need your help." Adrian was staring at him with wide eyes at this point. "Will you help us, Adrian?" The little boy nodded. "Good, then I need you to hold onto me. I need you to hold onto me as strong as you can. We will climb out and I will need my arms free for that so I can't hold you. That's why you need to hold onto me. And when I tell you to, you will need to let go. Yori will be right there – Yori is the pretty girl who's holding you – she will be there to catch you, so it will be all fine, but I need you to do that. Can you do that?" Adrian nodded again. Will nodded back and turned to Yori. "You'll climb ahead, one story down. I follow, Adrian drops to you and then we get the heck out of here."

Yori agreed and started climbing out. It was a fairly easy climb, the only downside being the fact that it was several stories over the asphalt below. Luckily, the balcony provided enough hand- and footholds. "Alright, I made it." she called up. Not long after, Will hung above her, dangling like laundry out to dry, Adrian clinging to his chest for all he was worth. "Okay, Adrian, you did really good. Now, you'll need to let go. Yori's right there, don't worry, she'll catch you." Adrian looked at him once more before letting go, his panicked scream from the sudden feeling of free fall cut short as Yori snatching from the air and pressed him close for reassurance. Setting him down, she looked up and froze. Will swung down, only to spot what had made Yori stop in her tracks. The balcony door was locked and barred. Impossible to get in that way."Well, shhhh-" Will began, but with a glance at Adrian he corrected to "crud." The building gave another lurch, and started to slowly tip over completely.

"Jump!" a voice called up. It was the same who had coordinated the girls when they had arrived.

"You heard the lady!" Will said, snatched Adrian up, who instinctively clung to him again, and did indeed jump over the handrail. Yori didn't waste time to question and was right beside him when he pushed off the balcony.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Cornelia stopped trying to keep the building together and instead led it through a controlled collapse, keeping the surrounding buildings relatively undamaged. What remained of the once sparkling twelve story building was an enormous pile of rubble.

Will cut the power lines, so it was only mundane wires slapping down into the rubble instead of high voltage cables.

Taranee and Irma kept up their efforts against the flames from the outside until the fire fighters could take over, who did so with recommendable routine and discipline, especially since they were taking over from what essentially looked like fairy tale creatures.

And Hay Lin managed to catch the three people flinging themselves from a sixth story balcony, trusting blindly there would be someone to catch them. The strong updrafts gently lowered them to street level, where a little boy was snatched up by his mother and big brother. They hugged him close while he kept babbling something and pointed behind him, completely devoid of fear, but with an urgency that only small children can display quite like that. Finally, his family relented and turned their attention to the GJ agents.

Paramedics were looking them over, but couldn't find anything more serious than a few scrapes and bruises. Which were nonetheless disinfected with a solution that burned on the skin before getting bandaged. On the bright side, one of them informed them that the invasion had been stopped, by none other than Kim Possible, though with a lot of help from her boyfriend and Dr. Drakken and Shego of all people.

"I can't thank you enough for what you've done for us." The mother started, embracing them both.

"All part of the job, ma'am." Will replied, but was prevented from any other answer when the older brother pulled him into a bear hug.

"Man, I'm sorry for being a dick up there. It's just..."

"You're used to having to defend yourself?" Will ventured. The boy nodded. He was still clutching the fire axe. "Yeah, ever since Dad... Well, people think they can push us around just because he isn't around anymore."

"I see. He, uh, was a fire fighter?"

"He was." a nearby fire fighter said. "Ian was one of the best in the force. Died as he lived – a hero. And so is his son, if today is any measure."

"I'm no hero." replied the older brother. "I couldn't safe Addy. He had to do it." he pointed to Will.

"You can't safe everyone, Bobby, so you safe those you can." the fire fighter replied. "You couldn't safe Addy, so you let someone else who could do it. You could safe your mom, so you did. Trust in others is just as important in this job as all the training and the equipment." Bobby didn't seem fully convinced.

"Adrian was very brave." Yori chimed in. "He didn't complain or cry at all when we got him out."

"My two hero-sons" the mother embraced her two sons again, who hugged her back.

Will and Yori excused themselves and went over to where Officer Peck was in a discussion with the five girls who'd destroyed the alien machine and helped keep the fire under control until the building was evacuated.

"Sorry, girls, but these are the rules." Peck declared.

"We can't come with you." the redhead in the center replied. "It's not our decision to tell you anything about us. You have to believe us. Can't you just... gloss over the part were we helped out?"

"No, he can't." a brunette at her side replied. "They'll have to write an exact protocol."

"Your friend's right." Peck confirmed.

"Then the whole thing is classified as of now." Will Du interrupted. "Global Justice charter article 12 paragraph 3. Your entire investigation is classified so much nobody in this city has any right to even think about looking into the files. We'll take over from here. Please make sure your people 'forget' anything apart from the quadropod."

Peck grumbled to himself, but relented, largely because he was out of his predicament like that.

"Um, thanks." the redhead, obviously the leader of the group, said.

"Don't thank me yet." Will Du said, all-business. "The only difference so far is that you'll have to answer our questions in stead of the police's and I'm not sure you'll like them any better. Come."

The girls looked among themselves, but did follow him. He lead them through an abandoned back alley, Yori bringing up the rear and checking for any pursuers. "You might want to power down."

"Huh?" the redhead said intelligently.

"You're somehow transformed and powered up, aren't you?" Will Du said. "Power down, so you won't draw attention when we get back to areas where there's actually people around. The news should spread that the danger is over and people will get back out."

The leader held up a necklace with a pink gem and the 'fairies' vanished in a flash of light, replaced with five teenage girls.

Will Du nodded. "Now, let's get you back to the Dragon."

"You're just bringing us back?"

"No, you'll still have to answer our questions, but right now, there are five very worried mothers waiting for news of their daughters and I refuse to let any of them suffer uncertainty any longer than necessary."

The redhead gulped.

"Don't worry, Will, I'll come up with an excuse why you vanished in the middle of a crisis like that."

"You know my name?"

Will Du smirked. "Let's say your mother has a favorite topic of conversation." Will Vandom didn't reply to that.

Minutes later, they reentered the Silver Dragon, where many tears of joy and worry were shed at the sight of the lost daughters. Will Du did excuse their vanishing credibly, even though it wouldn't prevent Will Vandom from a month of being grounded without telephone or computer.

"Don't worry, we'll bail you out." Will Du promised as he and Yori took their leave sometime later.

"I'll hold you to that." Will Vandom replied grumpily.

 

[moshonn]

That's all for Witchhunt. Thanks for the likes so far. I'm already writing the next part, where it will be revealed what 'tPI' stands for (Hint: Who's Betty Director an expy of?), what Riddle is planning and how GJ discovering who the Guardians are will affect either side, along with how the aftermath of the Lorwardian Invasion will affect Earth.

If anyone wants to beta this mess (and/or the sequel(s)), you're very welcome to do so.

 

[Reymen]

I assume there is a Will character in both fandoms, I am only familiar with the WITCH one and find it a bit confusing to keep track of who is who.

I like that you write a WITCH story, there is far to few of them. Are you following the comic or the animated series?

 

[moshonn]

I assume there is a Will character in both fandoms, I am only familiar with the WITCH one and find it a bit confusing to keep track of who is who.

Click to shrink...

Will Du was a one-time character in the Kim Possible series that the fandom kind of latched onto, maybe disproportionately so, mostly because he is a foil to Kim.
I ran into the problem of two Wills around halfway through writing Witch hunt, but I like to think my solution is rather pragmatic.

Are you following the comic or the animated series?

Click to shrink...

Witch hunt starts around five to six months (I came up with a rough timeline for the cartoon, though it might be faulty) after the end of Season 2 of the W.I.T.C.H. cartoon. Everything what happened there will be 'canon' in the tPI-'verse, thought there might be elements taken from the comics later on.

On an unrelated note, should I post the next installment in this thread or open a new one? The former would make the thread title inexact - though I assume a mod could change it to make it fit again - while the latter might be taken for spam. The chances for that seem slim, but better safe than sorry.

 

[moshonn]

Thursday, June 28th

The council of the United Galatic Federation was in uproar. The Lorwardians had attacked a protected world and by doing so acted in direct disregard towards not one, but several treaties they had with the Federation. That alone was an act of war. However, while this would be enough to cause disorder, confused questions and contradicting demands, it was not sufficient for the present level of utter chaos.

No, the reason for this was the fact that the Lorwardians, the galaxy's most infamous and nearly undefeated conquerors, had been beaten and subsequently failed to take over Earth, a planet most galactic citizens didn't even realize harbored sentient life. How was it possible for the most fearsome, most ruthless war machine in the galaxy to lose to the population of a planet so primitive they regarded the invention of digital clocks and setting foot on their own moon as some of their greatest achievements?

The council demanded answers. Answers the Grand Councilwoman could not give them. She didn't have any further information yet, though scouting probes had been send to investigate. Consequentially, she had withdrawn from the meeting, declaring it adjourned. This had only served to allow her to leave, as everybody else was still shouting and arguing. Not her problem, and nobody else's, as long as no one started to get physical. Okay, scratch that, someone had just thrown the first punch. She was very glad not to belong to security today.

One thing, they knew. The Lowardians hadn't hit Hawaii, so it was out of the question that Experiment 626 alias 'Stitch' had taken care of them. So what else could it be? She glanced at the clock. The probes should be in position by now. She opened up a link and several holographic screens popped up, showing her news feeds from all over the planet covering the events of the invasion. The Grand Councilwoman was baffled. Nobody would believe this. She ordered that a connection with Cobra be established while part of her debated how to break this to the council and another part of her contemplated the merits of retirement.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Dr. Directlor, in a short respite from organizing the cleanup efforts of the Lorwardian invasion around the world, found a report from R&D on her desk. It was sealed and labeled 'urgent', with the subject matter 'Possible'

She broke the seal and skimmed the report. Then, she read it again, more closely this time. She opened a comm-link to the head of R&D. "Neer*, who else knows of this?"

There was a short silence in which Neer likely figured out what his boss meant. "Only a select few. You, me, my closest staff. Seven people, total."

"Keep it like that." Director ordered crispily. "If anyone blabs about this, they're reassigned to Antarctica."

"Understood. Does this information stop include her?"

"Affirmative. That will be all." Director cut the link and opened another. "Will, grab Ishikawa and get to headquarters! There's news for you."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

*not affiliated with Neer Automata or the like.

((A/N: as the threadmark says, this is a little teaser for the next installment: 'tPI - Lorwa's revenge'))

 

[Reymen]

I think you can post in the same thread.

 

[Enderverse87]

Sort of feels like you are making an MCU type setting out of your favorite childhood cartoons.

I like it so far.

 

[moshonn]

I think you can post in the same thread.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I'll ask a mod to change the title if possible.

Sort of feels like you are making an MCU type setting out of your favorite childhood cartoons.

Click to shrink...

Most of my childhood cartoons are five to ten years older than most of my source material for this. These are more (some of) 'my favourite cartoons from my teenage years', but I'm being nitpicky.
The MCU isn't a bad comparison, actually.
To give you an impression of the scale I'm aiming at, I'm juggling a four-layered time line spanning several years with a total of twelve to fourteen - depending on whether or not you distinguish between some of them - theatres and five to six plot threads. It's supposed to eventually feature characters from six 'verses (plus a bunch of stuff I made up myself) and leave enough room to expand on and/or tie into another multicrossover fic by another author, who I still have to ask for permission for the latter.
This is not by any means a simple fic; it's heavily influenced by the fan fic Child of the Storm, which meshes at least four different and in two cases massive 'verses and makes it work. Its author has been described as an 'onion that writes fan fiction' because of how many layers their stories have. It weighs in at 800k+ words, with an unfinished sequel of 400k+ words.
That is the scale I'm aiming at. Not counting any spin-offs, side stories and omakes I might come up with in the meantime. Yes, it occured to me that I might be a little megalomanical.

I like it so far.

Click to shrink...

Thank you, I hope it stays like that.

 

[moshonn]

Friday, June 29th

The king was furious. It wasn't that he roared and raved and started smashing things to pieces. He was far too controlled for such petty temper tantrums. Instead, it was quite the opposite. His normally boisterous gestures and manner of speech became calm and clipped. Once more, he watched the pictures form the intercepted surveillance feed.

"This will not stand." he said quietly.

His Second-in-command perked up. His liege had been silent for a very long time, after all. "Your Majesty?"

"Issue a call to arms." the king ordered. "Every warlord is to bring all their assets to the capitol at once. We will hit these upstarts with all we have, make an example of them."

"Immediately, your majesty." his second-in-command departed, already issuing orders to comply to his king's wishes.

"This... Earth will soon be only dust." the king muttered. "King Lorwa will not be defied."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Standing on a catwalk above the loading area, Officer Nicolae Grigore Neer, head of Global Justice Research and Development, oversaw what would probably go down in history as the most important unloading ever. His subordinates were bringing in Lorwardian quatropods and the few parts of debris that could be recovered from the mothership. The technology they could study and hopefully reverse engineer from this would catapult the human race into the space-age, he was sure of it.

"Officer Neer." his assistant adressed him, hesitation clear in his voice. "The... um, individual you asked about is here."

"Thank you, Bayinika." He turned to the man in question. "Welcome to Global Justice, R&D, Doctor."

Drew Lipski, better known to the world as Dr. Drakken, smiled sheepishly. "You know, I'm not allowed to use the 'Dr.' anymore, seeing as I don't actually have the degree."

"Poppycock!" Neer replied dismissively. "To me, you're a Doctor, at the very least. You have proven time and again that you are a brilliant man, if a little too easily distracted and... let's say dubious motives. We only have to keep you focused on the task at hand." He slung his arm comradely around Drakken's shoulders. "However, with this task, I think we will hardly need worry about that." With his other hand, he gestured to the Lorwardian machines.

A grin came to Drakken's face, his mind already racing with possible applications.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Saturday, June 30th

Chinara Ghoniyeva, known to the world at large as Shego – mostly because the press never got her birth name right and a younger, still-heroing Shego had eventually made it clear that her late parents' name was either spelled correctly or not at all – and to a few other people as 'Miss Go', had waited patiently... no, 'patiently' wasn't really the right word, but she had waited without causing a scene for a long time in what she perceived as an unholy mixture of a doctor's waiting room and an interrogation room. Neither places she associated anything pleasant with. Finally, the door opened and Dr. Director entered. "Miss Go" she greeted and sat across from her.

"Please call me Shego" she replied exasperatedly before the chief of GJ could say anything more. "That stint in Middleton wasn't exactly my proudest moment."

"Shego it is then." Director continued. "I apologize for my tardiness, but the last days have been exceedingly busy." The woman seemed honestly embarrassed, so Shego decided to not be quite as standoffish as she had intended to be for having to wait this long.

"Alright, so what is this about?" She demanded. Straight-to-business was her MO after all. If she wasn't being standoffish, at least. Admittedly, she was standoffish a lot of the time. With her usual associates, it tended to be entertaining.

"Well, we both know a global pardon only goes so far." Director began. "It takes care of the past, but present and future are another matter. What do you plan to do now?"

Shego didn't reply for a moment. "To be honest, I have no idea." she said finally, leaning back in her chair. "Dr. D's joined up with your lot, any other supervillain who could affort to hire me is locked up and mercenary work would only revoke my pardon." She raised an eyebrow at Director. "I guess you already have an idea?"

"Indeed, I have." She placed a manila folder in front of Shego. The ex-villain opened it, read for a bit, then set it down. "Are you for real?" she questioned, astonished by what lay before her.

"I am." Director answered with a cheshire grin, leaning forward to rest her chin on her folded hands. "I take it you are interested."

"You know I'm not much of a team player, right?"

"I believe you only need the right team. The last ones obviously weren't."

Shego nodded silently, remembering Team GO and her 'partnership' with Drakken, both of which had more often than not felt like baby sitting. "Oh, whatever." Shego said after a moment's silence. "It's not like I have anything to lose by agreeing."

"Great, welcome to Global Justice." Director extended her hand.

"Woah, I haven't said yes yet!" Shego protested.

"But you will, so why beat around the bush?"

Shego paused and stared at Director for a moment. Then, she broke into a smirk. "You know, I think I will grow to like you." She stood and they shook on it. Shego noticed that Director's gaze wandered South of her collar for a little longer then what could be considered professional.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Will Du stormed into Dr. Director's office without knocking. Her secretary was about to say something, but one glare from him stopped any objection cold.

Director put down the datapad she was holding and looked at Will over the brim of her coffee mug. "Agent Du, what seems to be the issue?"

"Don't give me that!" he barked, slamming the door shut behind him. "You know damn well what's the issue." He slammed a bunch of papers down on her desk. "You're assigning me to Team Alpha? Are you nuts?"

"You are our best field operative, Agent Du." Director replied evenly. "Why wouldn't I assign you to that team?"

"C'mon, that's obvious!" Will retorted, gesturing wildly. "One's an honest to goodness ninja, another throws around plasma blasts like it's Halloween candy, the third has Mythical Monkey kung-fu and the team leader is a low-key reality warper." He was steadily growing louder. "I'm just a guy with a gun, how the hell am I supposed to keep up with that?"

Director was silent for a long moment, then she sighed. "Don't you trust me, Will?" she asked finally, looking into his eyes.

Will was about to answer but paused. Then, he dropped into a chair opposite her desk and let out a heavy breath. "Of course I trust you, more than anyone else on the planet. Or off it, for that matter."

Director allowed a small smile. "Then why do you think I would make you part of that team if I didn't think you had something important to contribute to it?"

"You're sure of that?" he asked, still looking at her doubtfully.

"Of course." She replied. She stood up and walked around her desk to put her hands on his shoulders. "Now you only need to convince your new team leader to put the same trust into you as I do."

"Pssh, piece of cake." he replied sarcastically, though it lacked a bit of an edge. "Since I endeared myself to her so much last time. She'll either throw me out anyway or, if you prevent that, just outright refuse to work with me."

"She'll come around." Director said returning to her seat. "You've grown a lot since then, and so has she. An honest apology on your part will go a long way to get you in her good graces."

"Yeah, that's been overdue, anyway " Will sighed deeply.

Director tilted her head. "Feeling better?"

"Yes, actually." he said. "Thanks, Bettie."

"Good, get back to work then." his boss replied, back to business. "I have to get to Middleton and get your team leader on board."

 

[moshonn]

Sunday, July 1st

Kim, Jim, Tim and James were dishing out stew to a group of the volunteers who had come from all over the country to help clean up and rebuilt the Tri-City-Area which had been most heavily hit in the invasion. Ron and his parents were behind her, cooking said stew in four eight-gallon-pots. They had to feed almost eighty people after all. The efforts were going well, even if it didn't look like that at first glance. The destruction was just that vast and they could barely use heavy machinery since there might still be survivors underneath the debris. Those were getting less and less each day, however, the official number of casualties in Middleton alone exceeding one thousand people as of yesterday.

Kim very much wanted to help in the direct rescue and cleanup efforts, but one instant when she had helped rescue a man who had somehow survived trapped under heavy rubble had put a quick end to that. The best she had managed to do at the sight of his completely crushed arm was suppressing her abrupt nausea until she was out of sight before parting with her lunch. So she had asked to be reassigned and was now one of the 'secondary helpers' – the people who made sure that the first line could keep going by getting them equipment and supplies, coordinating the numerous efforts and keeping everyone fed, rested and - most important with the heatwave the whole mid-west was aching under – hydrated. While they didn't get as much recognition by the media as the first line, everyone knew the whole operation would collapse within hours if it weren't for them.

Kim's mother came up next in line, wearing a plaintive expression. They didn't need to ask. Her team had found another almost-survivor, only to have them die on them despite their desperate efforts. The family shared a brief group hug. Ann had been in first line from second one and had seen far more death and desperation than the rest the Possibles. Consequently, she was the most emotionally drained, the dark rings under her eyes evidence of sleepless nights. James was trying to get her to start therapy to prevent PTSD or depression, but she refused, insisting that she could not do that while others needed her help far more. James had countered that she wouldn't be able to help anyone if she ran herself ragged, but she wouldn't budge.

Kim really wished she would, though. Seeing her mother like this tore her apart. With a long sigh, she got back to work, handing the next helper their plate and a bottle of water.

Her Kimmunicator beeped and she took it out, placing it on the table in front of her, glancing at the screen as she continued to hand out lunch. "What's the sitch, Wade?" she responded, her voice far flatter than the usual chipper tone she said her catchphrase in.

"Not quite, Miss Possible." It wasn't Wade, though Kim knew this person, too.

"Dr. Director?" she asked a little incredulous. The Chief of Global Justice rarely if ever contacted her directly on the Kimmunicator, Wade usually acted as a middle man in that regard.

"Indeed." The woman nodded. "I'd like to ask you and Mr. Stoppable to come to the Global Justice facility in Middleton a.s.a.p."

"I take it this isn't an emergency?" Kim asked with a raised brow. Director's tone of voice was formal as per the usual, but carried no sense of immediate urgency.

"No, it isn't." came the affirmation. "However, it is a serious matter that I would like to discuss with you sooner rather than later. It does have extensive consequences for both Global Justice and you personally."

"You can go, Kim, we'll take over." Tim piped up from beside her. The twins had been far less of a nuisance ever since the invasion. It was a very sobering experience to see your hometown and your own house demolished, after all. Kim was wary about how long this change of behavior would last, but was grateful for it all the same. What the two didn't mention was the sheer horror they had felt when they had thought their big sister might have been killed by the aliens.

"Thanks, boys." Kim smiled at her brothers and turned. "Ron, you coming?"

"Right there, KP!" he called, poured out another plate of stew and took his apron off. They excused themselves and made their way to the meeting.

A short while later, they entered the Global Justice facility. The entire building was a massive block of concrete, non-descript from the outside, but packed to the brim with security features just behind the entrance. Making their way through three separate checkpoints, they met Dr. Director in a small, utilitarian meeting room. She welcomed them and asked them to take a seat. After they were all seated, she put her elbows onto the table between them, folding her hands in front of her face. A moment of expectant silence passed before she spoke up.

"Miss Possible, Mr. Stoppable." she said, locking eyes with both of them in turn. "I have asked you to come here to talk about the Possible Initiative."

 

[moshonn]

Oh, of course I had to make that reference. Betty Director is a walking, talking shout-out to Nick Fury, this was way too good to pass up.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, might I humbly request of the mods that the thread title be changed to 'The Possible Initiative' instead of 'tPI - Witchhunt'? The stuff in the brackets remains, still accurate, after all.

EDIT: Decided to include a link to the SB thread, incase anyone would want to contribute to the discussion over there.

 

[moshonn]

Here's another teaser, this time the last scene from Chap 1:

Spoiler: Teaser

Back at Global Justice headquarters, Dr. Director was about to call it a day when she received a message from the North-Eastern Pacific sub-division:

<Unable to contact Agent Sylla. Based on Agents Ishikawa's and Du's previous report, we assume he has gone rogue or might have been captured. Recommend immediate action to take him into custody and interrogate him.>

'Thank you, Captain Obvious. Of course we take immediate action.' Director thought to herself as she contacted Kim. She noticed she still had to get used to video call as opposed to the voice comm GJ used normally when Kim's face popped up on her screen. ["What's the sitch, Dr. Director?"]

"Change of plans, Agent Possible. Team Alpha stays in Heatherfield until further notice. We have reason to assume a rogue agent is planning an attack of some kind on the girls. You are to protect them and if possible apprehend the agent. Tell Agent Du I expect his report on my desk by noon tomorrow."

["Understood, ma'am."] she heard Du's voice from off-screen. Right, she was on speaker. ["I can give you the cliff notes version within the hour."]

"That will not be necessary." Director said. "Just send in the complete thing. And, if you get to celebrate it, have a nice Independence Day tomorrow." She had almost forgotten the holiday. She barely celebrated any holiday anymore, her duties as head of Global Justice more often than not interfered with any plans she would make for them. She shrugged at the thought. She had her own holidays, and celebrated them in her own way. The nice thing about that was that she could also choose when to celebrate them. The tenth of July was more important to her, had been for a decade now, then Independence Day, anyway. Maybe, they could celebrate right on the date, this year? The last two years, they had to shift it a bit. Not that they minded that much, spending time together was more important than an arbitrary set of numbers.

"Here's hoping you'll get back here soon." she muttered, leaving her office and heading to her quarters.

I'd like to mention again, if anyone feels up to beta-read this mess, please do tell me so.

 

[moshonn]

Monday, July 2nd

Kim and Ron stepped out of the elevator that had brought them down to the Global Justice head quarters level three, better known as the 'food and shoot', since the most frequented parts here where the mess hall and the shooting range. Seeing that Global Justice was a globally operating organization and agents where constantly departing and arriving, there were no regular eating hours and always some people in the mess hall.

After Dr. Director had explained what the 'Possible Initiative' was about – basically, forming a team of the best individuals GJ could find to take on missions nobody else could – the both of them had asked for twenty four hours respite, which had been easily granted. The decision was made before they had left the building, however. This was what they were made for, after all. The fact they'd get a free college education tailored to their personalities, interests and talents as well as their undoubtedly busy schedules was just icing on the cake. So it came to no surprise they were here today to meet their new team.

As the pair crossed the large room, some people greeted them, most of them being agents who had worked with them before. Most others, however, stared open-mouthed at them.

"Uhm, why are they looking at us like that?" Ron asked.

"You saved the planet by beating up a couple of eight foot tall aliens just the other day, Ron." Kim replied. "And me, I'm, well, me." she added sheepishly, a light blush gracing her cheeks. "We're basically both superstars now."

Ron's face went through a sequence of emotions before he settled at careful optimism. "Wow, I never would've thought I would become that one day. Don't let it go to my head like with the naco money, okay?"

"Sure thing" she replied with a smile, placing a soft kiss on his cheek. He grinned brightly, once again thanking the cosmic higher-ups for blessing him with this absolutely perfect girlfriend.

"Agent Possible, Agent Stoppable, good to see you." Zere Mulu Mebrete, Dr. Director's personal assistant and a former member of the Ethiopian secret service, greeted them as he quickly walked up to them. "We've been waiting for you. Please, follow me!" He led them to another elevator that took them down to Level 9, which one of the nerdier techies – which was telling, really – had dubbed 'the Geofront'. It had been a magma chamber eons ago, but the corresponding volcano was dead for millennia. The chamber had since been expanded with a walkway circling its largest circumference, which in turn led to several labs built into the surrounding rock. The chamber itself was a testing ground for some of the larger scaled GJ projects, though as there were no tests currently going on, most of the lights were off and the edges of the chamber were only faintly discernible in the darkness.

"Hey, aren't these those Lorwardian tripod-things?" asked an astonished Ron.

"Technically, they're quatropods, as they have four legs, but yes, they are." Zere supplied as he walked ahead, leading the way. "We keep them stored here since there's no facility on the surface that's both secure enough to meet our requirements and big enough to house them in the first place. R&D isn't exactly happy about that, since they can't do some of their more... volatile tests."

"They're not setting off nukes in here, are they?" Ron asked, slightly concerned.

"Ron, there's a treaty strictly forbidding that." Kim reprimanded.

"No, we don't test nuclear weapons here." Zere added with an unseen eye-roll, seemingly undeterred. He stopped at a door. "Here we are. Director's already waiting for you. If you'll excuse me." With this, he left for his next task, while the two teenage heroes entered the indicated room. It was relatively small, with a hexagonal table in the center.

"Ah, there you are." sounded the familiar voice of Dr. Director.

"Freaking finally" another voice piped up, just as familiar, if not more so, but associated with far less pleasant memories.

"What the heck?" Kim blurted out. "What's she doing here?" she demanded from Dr. Director.

"Same as you, Pumpkin." Shego replied, who sat, or more lounged, in a chair next to Director. "Meeting my new team."

"You can not be serious." Kim glared at Director. "Shego's on the team?"

"Agent Possible, please don't act rashly." Director replied, voice perfectly level. "Your reaction is to be expected, given your previous history with Miss Ghoniyeva, but my decision to include her in the Possible Initiative was a well though-out one."

"Wait, who now?" Ron asked.

"She means me, Stoppable." Shego answered, somewhat annoyed. "Ghoniyeva is my legal surname, though I haven't used it in years. Nor has anyone else, for that matter." She turned to glare at Director, but she couldn't quite put any real ill will into it. "If it helps, though, I'm supposed to follow your orders, Princess. Just don't expect me to lick your boots or jump off a ledge for you."

"Let us be honest here, Miss Possible," Director cut in before Kim could respond to that. "There are very few people in the world who play in the same league as you, skill-wise. Even Mr. Stoppable has only recently risen to the point where he can do more than keep up with you. Miss Gho-" she paused at another pointed glare from Shego and cleared her throat. "Shego is the closest any individual has ever come to be your equal before."

Kim didn't look convinced, and neither did Ron, but she pressed on. "I doubt Shego is the only new Team member?"

"Indeed, she is not, Possible-san." another familiar voice greeted.

Both Kim's and Ron's faces lit up. "Yori!" they exclaimed, beaming at her.

"It's a great pleasure to see both of you again." she smiled. "And a great honor to be chosen for this illustrious team." she added while facing Dr. Director.

"Glad to have you, Ishikawa-san." the older woman returned. "As for your last team member..." She paused, seemingly at a loss of how to break it to Kim.

"Oh, just tell her already!" an almost forgotten voice said from behind a turned chair.

"Who...?" Kim began as she remembered the person the voice belonged to. Her mood turned even sourer than when she spotted Shego. "Oh, you have to be kidding me." she groaned even as her latest new team mate stood at attention and saluted. "Agent Will Du, reporting for duty."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Kim stared at Will. She almost hadn't recognized him. He had grown out his hair and wore it in a short ponytail, instead of short and slicked back like when she had last seen him. If he'd worn it open, it would likely reach his shoulders. More importantly, the arrogant and stick-up-his-butt air had left him. Still, she was furious about this turn of events. She turned to glare at Dr. Director. "Have you completely lost your mind?" she yelled. "You're putting that arrogant, self-righteous, holier-than-thou brat on my team? The one GJ-agent I have explicitly told you to keep the heck away from me? And you expect me to just condone that?"

Before Director could respond, Du stepped up. "Agent Possible, Dr. Director has good reasons to put me on this team. Besides, I like to believe that I have grown as a person over the last two years. As such, there is something I wanted to do for a while now, and that is to apologize for my behavior during the Killigan mission. I did act, as you put it, like an 'arrogant, self-righteous, holier-than-thou brat'. It was wholly unprofessional and made all of Global Justice look bad. I hope you accept my apology and you will find our renewed cooperation more satisfactory."

This threw Kim for a loop. Was this truly the same agent she had met two years ago? She stared wide-eyed at him, at a loss for words for a moment. Then, she shook herself and put on a smile that to her own surprise was only half-faked. "I do like to think of myself as a forgiving person. Welcome to the team!" She extended her hand, which Du took and shook once.

"Glad you will have me..." he hesitated for only a second before adding: "Boss"

Kim's eyes widened. "Wait, 'Boss'? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that within GJ hierarchy, you are the team's commanding officer." Dr. Director supplied. "You are the team leader, after all, and as such superior to the other team members in terms of authority. In fact, you technically hold the rank of Colonel, though as a member of the PI, you don't have authority over GJ agents nor any military personnel outside of immediate emergencies." She turned to Du. "Which means as the second-in-command, you, Agent Stoppable, hold the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and you three" she addressed Shego, Yori and Ron "are Majors. Yes, with the corresponding pay checks. Plus above-normal Imminent Danger Pay."

Kim's and Shego's eyes widened, while Yori was better able to hide her surprise. Will already knew about this – and cared little, for that matter – while Ron was pretty clueless. "Um, what does that mean, exactly?" he asked carefully. Kim whispered the corresponding pay in his ear. His jaw dropped. "Okay, really need you to keep me from making any stupid decisions with that, KP."

"Consider it done." she responded, less spirited than she might have been if she hadn't been running the numbers in her head. If she remembered correctly, she and Ron now had a salary of around twelve grand per month. She didn't even know what to do with half of that.

"And here I thought we'd be stuck with grunt pay." Shego commented, trying to regain her usual self-assurance. "Come payday, I'll be out shopping. Wanna join, Princess?"

Kim only mumbled something non-committal.

Dr. Director cleared her throat to get their attention. "You will also be provided with a base of operations at a location of your choosing and to your specifications, bar a few conditions and limitations."

"Not in large cities and no bristling gilded castles, I take it?" Shego guessed.

"Basically, yes." Director nodded. "You can read up on the exact extends while you plan it out. For now, you will be operating from here. We've arranged for quarters already, feel free to move into them. Welcome in active service, Team Alpha."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

"That went better than expected." Dr. Director said as she entered her office a few minutes later, Will Du right behind her. She had wanted a short conversation with her top agent. "I wasn't sure Possible and Shego wouldn't start duking it out right then and there."

"Oh please." Du said, dropping into a chair opposite her desk. "Shego knows better than to start throwing punches while on parole and Possible respects your decisions, even if she isn't necessarily happy with them. I had rather expected Possible to quit once she knew I was on the team. Looked damn close to it, too."

"She wouldn't give up on this chance." Director replied. "I had rather expected her to demand you be taken off the team. Which would've put me in quite a dilemma, to be honest."

"Why? Just assign me to other missions like before."

"I can't do that, Will. Global Justice can't afford it." Director stated. "How would it look if we only have agents on the Initiative that we didn't train ourselves? You are the best we have, Will. You'd need to be on the Initiative, at least, even if you're not on Alpha. I'd have had to assign you to Bravo."

"Bravo's far from mission ready." Will observed. "I'd be the only member, for starters."

"Hence my dilemma." Director nodded. "Do I put you on a team that de facto doesn't exist or on a team whose leader hates your guts? Luckily, things played out differently. Besides, we do have one candidate for Bravo, now."

"Really? Who?" Will Du asked. Director handed him a file which he skimmed. "Impressive, though maybe we should broaden our areas of recruitment. I mean, another Yamanouchi shinobi?"

"He is on the Initiative." Director affirmed. "However, you're right. We can't rely on one academy to supply us with agents. We already have our eyes and ears out. Talent scouts, if you will."

"Good to hear." Du said. "Though, for the record, I'm not opposed to have him on Bravo. Any potential recruits yet?"

"We have eight tentative candidates, but that's very far off." Director said. "They all have yet to start high school, for one."

"I started my training around that age."

"You were home-schooled and practically raised to be a GJ top-agent." Director reminded him. "These are just regular kids with regular lives. It's unlikely they'd be ready to devote their free time to highly demanding training like that, not to speak of a career in GJ. There are better paid jobs out there, after all. Less dangerous ones, too."

"There's years time for them to decide." Du said. "No need to rush them, but we can provide them with the option. What kid would refuse the chance for genuine super-spy training?"

"I'll think about that." Director replied. "In the meantime, get back to Heatherfield. These girls still owe us answers and I don't like any of the circumstances of this."

Du got up, saluted and made to leave, but Director called him back. "Take the entire team. Brief them on the way. I want to see how Alpha clicks."

"Will do." he replied and left for level 3, Director's exasperated groan making him smirk just a little.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

He found his team – which was still an odd notion – in the cafeteria, where Shego and Ron were having something that at a distance resembled a cross between a food fight and an eating contest. Kim and Yori looked on, their own plates already empty.

"Sit rep, Ishikawa-san." he said automatically.

"I thought I'm team leader." Kim said pointedly.

"You are." he replied, allowing a slight smirk. "Doesn't mean I can't ask for a sit rep."

"Basically, we were all hungry – 'ravenous', to quote Shego-san – so we decided to have an early lunch. Shego-san and Ron-san went for seconds; and thirds."

"This is their fifth plate now and I have no idea where they're putting it." Kim said, watching with a mixture of distaste and fascination.

"Yeah, headquarter mac'n'cheese can have that effect." Du said. "That's why there's a personal monthly quota for it. Which both of them have already reached."

"So, no more when they're done with this?"

"Nope, not until August."

A burp announced that Ron was done with his plate.

"Lovely." Du quipped. "When you are done, we have a mission. Basically, it's a follow-up of Agent Ishikawa's and my last assignment. I'll brief you on the way."

The team got up and Du led them to the main elevator. "So, what's this mission about?"

"Agent Ishikawa and I were assigned to Heatherfield, a small city in Oregon, to investigate a series of incidents nobody could make proper sense of."

"We found five individuals who are at least partially responsible for these incidents, but given that we found them in the middle of the invasion, there were more pressing matters at the time." Yori took over as Du called ahead to the hangar to get a transport ready. "As such, we have yet to properly interrogate them. There seems to be a larger context, however, of which we have no understanding yet."

"We are to interrogate these five girls." Du continued as they entered the elevator. "They are under no suspicion and in fact, GJ likely has designs for a future cooperation, but we need answers first."

"Why does it take five elite agents to interrogate a bunch of girls?" Shego questioned.

"It's a test." Kim supplied. "Dr. Director wants to see how we work together as a team. Interpersonal relations or whatever you want to call it. Better find out about any grinding gears in a low stakes mission than something involving the latest death ray or something." Du gave her an odd look. "C'mon, it's not exactly hard to figure out. I'll admit, I'm... apprehensive about it. Ron and I have been working together for years, of course, and the one time we were on a mission with Yori went smoothly too, but..."

"...but you're worried about me throwing a spanner in your works." Shego finished for her.

"No, actually." Kim replied. "You have no motive for that, short of sheer spite, and I don't think you're that petty. I'm more worried about Will."

"Me?" Du stopped to stare at her. "Agent Possible, I thought I made it clear enough that I intend to follow your lead from now on."

"Forgive me if I don't believe that until I see it." Kim retorted, but let the topic drop.

The elevator opened to a rather small hallway, with dozens or earmuffs lining the walls, but not a plane in sight. Du took the lead again and handed all of them hearing protectors with an integrated intercom system. "You'll need these, it's about to get loud." They went through the door on the opposite end of the hallway – and what had sounded like far distant thunder before became an infernal roar that would have deafened them if not for the ear protection. Right ahead of them, an F-22 fighter jet shot up and out into the open air. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the aerie." Du called out over intercom. The hangar was huge, filled with various aircraft, ranging from VTOL transports to fighter jets to helicopters. Several openings in the mountain front allowed the aircraft to leave, though only two were open at the moment. The others were closed off with enormous movable blast shields. Du lead them towards a VTOL that was being prepped to leave. "That's our ride." Du continued. "We'll actually get a small fleet of all kinds of vehicles at our permanent BO, but this will be our go-to for the time being. I'd tell you what it is and what it can do, but I'd wager that'd bore most of you. GJ personnel mostly just call them taxi, though." They boarded the comparatively small craft that gave the impression of a down scaled V-22 Osprey with jet engines instead of propellers.

"What kind of vehicles will we get, Will?" Ron asked, perhaps a little too loudly as he underestimated the microphone's ability to pick up his voice over the omnipresent noise in the hangar.

Du shut the door behind them while they strapped in. "Regular cars, armored vehicles, aircraft, one or two watercraft as well, though the specifics are part of what we can request. The only things I know for sure we'll get is one of these things here and its bigger brother, which is capable of hyper sonic flight. Now, I'd like to start the briefing."

Du's briefing sounded outlandish, to say the least, but after mythical monkey kung fu, evil golfers and alien invasions, arbitrary skepticism seemed, well, arbitrary. "We've called ahead so the girls will meet us on 'neutral ground'." Yori explained. "I've met them a few times during our investigation. They're just regular girls as far as I can tell, so they'll likely be nervous about meeting us."

"Approaching our destination." The pilot informed them. "ETA, six minutes."
___________________________________

A/N:
Team Alpha is formed and they're on the way to meet W.I.T.C.H. Anyone want to dare guess how that will turn out?
The second part should come sometime during the weekend. I'll have to rewrite the meeting and move the rest of what I had planned for the second of July to the next day/chapter. There's a bunch of things I don't like about the current version, including the fact that it's missing a few short but vital scenes without which some of what happens later will make little to no sense.

I also had a few ideas for scenes irrelevant to the plot but which I think are fun, funny or just WAFF-inducing. Should I put those in omakes or the like?

 

[00Zy99]

Put the extra scenes wherever you think they will make sense. If you think that they can pad out chapters and help the story flow that way, go ahead. If you want to put them in omakes, go ahead. All I care about is getting more of this delicious story.

 

[Enderverse87]

You can put them under sidestory for now, and then rearrange them into the main body of the story when you have a better idea of how you want pacing to go.


Threadmarks are convenient that way.

 

[moshonn]

Twenty minutes later, a GJ van deposited them outside the Heatherfield Convention Center hotel, a luxury complex atop a small hill.

"This is 'neutral ground'?" Kim questioned.

"Yes, it's not affiliated with either GJ nor with any of the girls." Du replied.

"It's also one of the most expensive hotels in town." Shego stated. "Not to mention huge. From what you've told us, none of these girls are likely to have ever even seen something like this from inside. They'll be hella intimidated."

"It's not like I picked it." Du felt compelled to point out. They made their way inside and were pointed to one of the meeting rooms further back. It was comparatively small, made to accommodate around twenty people.

"Nice view." Shego remarked. Kim had to agree: The large windows made for a panorama that encompassed most of the city, from the area of the convention center below to the skyline of the city center to the Pacific Ocean gleaming far in the distance. The five of them, save Shego took seats along the window side of the long table. Only minutes later, just as the silence started to change from awkward to oppressive, the door opened again and five girls entered. Kim estimated them around fourteen.

"Um, hello." One of them, a redhead who gave of an air of leadership, greeted. "We're supposed to meet..." Kim could pinpoint the exact split second recognition damned on her. "Ohholycowyou'reKimPossible!" she exclaimed.

Kim smiled at her awkwardly. She really disliked being famous right then. "Yes, I am." she replied. "Though we'd like to know who you are." Du had dropped the names during the briefing, but there were no faces connected to them.

"Um, yes, sure, I'm Will and these are Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin."

Kim had to suppress a snicker as she noticed how their initials aligned.

"Please do sit down, girls." Du instructed. "That is, if you want to. You're welcome to remain standing if you want." They didn't want to as they rather hurriedly took their seats opposite them.

"Um, I hate to point out the elephant in the room, but why is there an internationally wanted criminal here?" Taranee asked with an apprehensive look behind Kim. She didn't appear to be overly afraid, just mildly confused.

"Oh, here we go." Shego muttered. "Try not to shatter my rep too badly, Du."

"Agent Shego has received a global pardon as an act of gratitude for her role in repelling the invasion on the twenty seventh." Du explained. "She has since decided to sign up with Global Justice, where her unique talents are much appreciated. She is, of course, just as formidable and dangerous as before. Was that satisfactory, Shego?" He asked with a glance over his shoulder.

"What satisfies me is none of your business, Du." Shego said with a ambiguous smirk.

The girls let out a variety of snickers and giggles, with Irma commenting: "Oh, I like her."

"If we could come to the reason for this meeting." Du said in a slightly strained voice.

Before anyone could answer, the room was filled with a bright light coming from what looked like a split in the air. A blond woman who looked to be in her fifties stepped out. Du was about to confront her and he noticed his teammates ready to do the same. However, they stopped when they heard Taranee confusedly exclaim: "Halinor?"

The woman smiled, the split behind her fading out. "Hello girls." She turned to the GJ agents and inclined her head slightly. "Hello to you as well. The Council of Kandrakar extends their most well-meant greetings."

Yori was the first to shake off the surprise. "We gratefully accept your greetings and extend our own. However, we would like to know, who and what this Council is."

"I believe the girls were about to reveal that to you – without getting approval of the Oracle first." She shot the girls a reprimanding look, who had the decency to look very sheepish. "Relax, he agreed that it is for the best but come to us with these things next time before doing anything."

Will nodded, then turned to Du, forcing a serious expression on her face. "Alright, what do you want to know?"

"Everything." Du stated, glad that he could take his mind off the apparent violation of most physical laws he was aware of. "We only know what we've witnessed last week. Which doesn't really answer anything."

"You're not in any trouble." Yori assured them. "But in the interest of international safety, we need to know what you can do, how you came into possession of these powers and how you intend to use them."

Will let out a deep sigh. "Well, I hope you brought time." she replied before the five girls began to tell them, well, everything. About the Heart, the Guardians and the Council of Kandrakar, about their fights against Phobos and Nerissa, about how they were charged with protecting the Infinite Dimensions, about their friend Elyon essentially being an alien fugitive before she could return to her birth world, about Cornelia's little sister being the heart of Earth and how a teenaged boy, a cat and a dormouse were to act as her regents until she was old enough to understand her inherit powers and the responsibility that came with them properly.

Kim had seen a lot of profoundly weird things in her adventures, but this instantly made it into the top five.

"That was... comprehensive." Du managed to say, trying very hard to keep his composure while fighting down a headache that had been building from the point the girls had entered. "I do have one question, though."

"Well, ask." Will replied.

"From what I understand, you kept all this secret from your families?" Five nods answered him. "Why?"

"Are you nuts?" Will jumped up from her chair. "Do you have any idea in how much trouble we'd be?"

"As I see it, you are in trouble pretty frequently as it is." Du retorted evenly. "And I can only imagine how worried your parents must be when you literally vanish form the face of the planet for hours on end with no way to find or contact you. Take a look from their perspective: Your grades are suffering, you always seem tired or distracted, you have injuries which you can't tell where they come from. If I hadn't had the readings from our instruments, I would have suspected you're in a gang or at the least taking drugs." This was met with stunned silence. He turned to give Irma a pointed look. "You said your father's a police officer? He'll know these patterns as well and he doesn't have the data to dissuade him from drawing the same conclusions."

"You mean Dad thinks we're..." Irma broke off.

"He might." Du said. "I don't know him, but it's likely he suspects something. Same for all your parents, though not quite to the same degree. Denial might make them chalk it up to puberty, but not all of it and not forever."

"Look, your parents will be worried about you whether you tell them or not." Kim interjected, giving Du a chastising look for unsettling the girls. He had the decency to look mildly embarrassed about his ill-advised rant. "They might as well be worried for the right reasons. If they think you run with the wrong crowd and get up to stupid crap, they be worried and disappointed. When your extra-curriculars include 'saving the world', they'll be just as worried, but also proud of you."

"Trust her on that, she's speaking from experience." Ron remarked.

"And your parents weren't worried about you when we started out?" Kim asked.

"No. I was with you, you'd save my butt if need be." he answered with a shrug. Kim stared at him. The Stoppable's hands-off approach to parenting never ceased to amaze her.

The girls had taken this to process what had been said. "You know," Taranee finally said. "when you phrase it like that, the whole secrecy thing seems really stupid."

"Actually, the Oracle's insistence on secrecy is understandable." Yori said. "You could have put yourselves in great danger."

"Agent Ishikawa is right." Du agreed. "Four hundred years ago, you'd be burned at the stake for sorcery. Forty years ago, you would've been locked up in an asylum. Heck, two weeks ago, nobody would've believed you."

"But now, an alien invasion was just foiled by a guy with mythical monkey powers." Kim shot Ron a smirk, who looked torn between pride and embarrassment for a moment. "People are far more likely to believe the improbable than before."

"So, we should just drop all this into our parents' laps?" Cornelia asked. "We'll be grounded for life a few times over."

"We'll be with you, it might help placate your parents." Kim said.

"Don't you have more important things to do?" Taranee asked with a quirked eyebrow. "I mean, don't you have a doomsday device to stop or a crime syndicate to bust?"

Du allowed himself a smirk. "Right now, you are our mission. Besides, this" he pointed at the Heart of Kandrakar Will wore around her neck. "is powerful and dangerous to count as a 'doomsday device', even if you'd never use it as such."

The girls looked at each other and the five agents had the eerie feeling they were missing something vital. Du rubbed his temple as his headache flared.

"Alright, we'll arrange a meeting." Will declared. "After talking to the Oracle." she added at Halinor's warning look.

"When do you suppose that meeting will take place?" Kim asked.

"As soon as possible." Halinor said. "I think the Oracle will understand how things on Earth are changing and that we will need to react."

"You have our contact, call ahead." Du said.

"Will do." Irma replied to a chorus of groans.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~​

Convincing the Guardians' parents of a meeting was a bit of a hassle. The Lin's were quick to agree, as was Susan Vandom, though she did wonder why her daughter insisted on bringing Dean along. The only answer she got was "This is kind of his business, too. Or it will be at any rate. We'll explain everything tomorrow, promise."

The Hale's and the Lair's, after being assured that Cornelia and Irma weren't in any kind of trouble, were mainly concerned about their younger children as it would be pretty difficult to find a sitter on such short notice. Du offered to keep an eye on them, but Kim insisted on having him present for the meeting. In the end, Du called in some agents with experience in dealing with kids. Not an ideal solution, but since it would be only for a short time, it would do.

Theresa Cook however, didn't go along so easily, thinking the whole thing an elaborate prank call and starting to get angry that her daughter would be 'misled to such childish antics'. In the end, Du decided to make an appearance in person, as it was decidedly harder to dismiss a genuine agent with a genuine badge than a stranger on the phone. The judge was a little shaken but after being assured that a) yes, this was an actual agent of the biggest law enforcement organization on the planet and b) no, her daughter had done nothing wrong, agreed to come to the meeting as well.

The Guardians anticipated the coming day nervously. There would be no going back from this.
_______________________________________________

A/N: Welp, that happened. Not much to say since not much actually happens. I think I missed a few thing, so feel free to point them out to me.

 

[moshonn]

June 22nd

Will was on her way home from the Dragon when she spotted someone familiar in a thoroughly unexpected place.

"Professor Collins?" she called out.

Her history teacher looked up and turned around to give her a warm smile. "Hello Will." He greeted "I thought I told you to call me Dean outside of school."

"Sorry, still getting used to that, Prof- I mean Dean."

He chuckled at that. Will peered around him to the display window he had been looking at. "Rings?" she blurted.

Dean seamed to suddenly remember where he was: In front of a jewelry store, specifically browsing matching pairs of rings. He was at a loss for words for a moment.

Will for her part was taken aback with the implications. "So, unless you're a two-timing jerk, and I don't think you are, you're really serious about Mom?"

Dean found his voice again: "Well, yes, I am. Serious about Susan an me, that is. I know this has to sound mushy to you, but there's no woman who ever made me feel like your mother and I like to think she feels the same about me."

Will made a bit of a face at that. "Yeah, mushy sounds right. Anyway, you make Mom happy, and I'd feel terrible if I stood in the way of that." She looked closer to the rings Dean had been eyeing. "You're not planning to give her those, are you?" She pointed to the rings that had a pair of dolphins 'balancing' a diamond on their snouts.

Dean was relieved to have Will's 'blessing', though he was startled at her comment about the rings. "What? Why not? She told me they're her favorite animals."

"They are, but that ring would snag on just about everything. If you want to give her something with dolphins, get her a pendant she can wear under her shirt." Will explained and looked over the offered jewelry. "Those are way better." she pointed to a simple silvery pair with a small light blue gem. "Platinum with an aquamarine. Mom will love it."

"Well, since I have an expert's opinion now." Dean said and entered the store.

Ten minutes and a handsome amount of money later, he exited again to find Will slightly stunned still staring at the spot were the rings had been before. "I didn't see the price tag, sorry!"

Dean chuckled. "Don't worry about it, it's money well spent. Besides, without you, I would've spent even more." He pointed to the dolphin rings, which had an even higher prize.

"Glad I could help." Will said, shaking her head to get back on track. "When will you ask her?"

"We have a dinner date on Wednesday." Dean answered. "She still thinks it's nothing special, but you and me know better, huh?" He asked with a wink that made him look about fifteen years younger.

"I might just have to spy on you." Will replied, laughing. "Just to see the look on her face."
______________________________________

The first of those extra scenes I mentioned before. Not sure if it's any good, I have little experience writing WAFF - or what's supposed to be WAFF. Either way, I want to show more of Dean and Will interacting. In the cartoon we only ever got to see her and Susan fighting over the topic, save for that one reconciliation scene after Dean saves Susan. I think Dean is an interesting character and a pretty cool guy. Anyone dating Susan has to be

 

[Enderverse87]

Spelled price, not prize.

Nice little side snippet.

 

[moshonn]

Friday, June 29th
Heatherfield

>Will?<

The odd yet familiar sensation of someone else's thoughts in her mind made the Keeper sit up on her bed. >Cornelia?< She got up and looked out her window. >Where are you?<

>Just underneath your window< Taranee answered. >You probably can't see us from your angle.<

>Corny dragged us here.< Irma remarked

>I did not! Taranee did. And don't call me Corny!<

>I had to. You know my telepathy only goes so far.<

>Girls!< Will 'shouted', clearly annoyed. >Is there a deeper point to this?<

>Yes< Cornelia replied decidedly. >What do we do about those GJ-agents? We can't just tell them about us being Guardians.<

>What do you suppose we should do? They will be back to interrogate us.<

>What about the two that were searching for Elyon? We got rid of those without them being any wiser.<

>They never saw us in Guardian form and we managed to keep them away from any other incriminating evidence.< Taranee pointed out >We have the complete opposite situation here.<

>Yori is cool though. I think we can trust her at least.< Hay Lin >Besides, aren't Global Justice supposed to be the good guys?<

>Everybody tries to sell themselves as the good guys, Hay.<

>What about that Du-guy? He said he knows your mom, Will<

>She said he was here undercover, though she has no idea why. Well, duh, with him being a spy.< The others could feel her roll her eyes. >I have no idea what to make of him.<

>He did let us go just like that. Don't you think that's worth something?<

>That could have been just him playing nice.<

>Or it's him genuinely being nice. Why do you always think everybody's out to get us?<

>Because ever since we became Guardians, they usually are.<

>She's got a point there.<

>Why would they even try? I mean, if they were out to get us, what would they get out of it?<

>Have you seen the news? These alien machines are incredibly tough. Apart from the one we took down, there's only a handful the military managed to destroy. What if they want that? Our fire power?<

>Since they've seen what we can do, you'd think they don't want to be on our bad side.<

>Tara! You know we'd never...<

>Yes, I know that, you know that, but Agent Du and Global Justice don't know that.<

>She's right, if they're afraid we might react... badly, they'll think twice about doing anything that might piss us off.<

>So, you think we should just trust them with our biggest secret based on the fact that they're supposed to be the "good guys" and/or they're afraid that we might go ballistic on them if they make us angry?<

>What good reason do we have not to?<

>How about the fact that my little sister is the Heart of Earth? What do you think they'll do with Lilian if we tell them what that means?<

>Nothing. They can't take her away or do anything to her without looking like the bad guys, not to mention that they'll have five very angry guardians all up in their grill and I can't imagine they'd want either.<

>Irma's right. If they even try anything fishy with Lilian, though I don't think they would, we'll tear them a new one. Hell, I'll call in Elyon and Ironwood, too. The Oracle, if we have to.<

A tense silence followed. Will was talking of nothing less than open war. Finally, Cornelia found her voice again: ">Thank you, Will<" she thought as well as said out loud.

>Anyone who messes with one of us messes with all of us.< Will stated

Another, shorter silence followed.

>So, what do we tell them?<

>What they want to know. If they start acting weird or something, we'll set them straight. Okay?<

>Okay<

>Good. Now go, before I have to explain to Mom why I'm still up.<

>It's not even past ten and tomorrow's Saturday.<

>And I'm still grounded and have to be in bed by ten. Du better keeps his promise to bail me out or I'll... I'll... I don't know what I'll do but it will hurt!<

Taranee cut the connection at that point so their esteemed leader couldn't hear the four of them laughing at her impotent anger over her undeserved fate.
_________________________________

Someone over at SB very correctly pointed out that W.I.T.C.H. seem to trust GJ too easily with all their secrets. While I maintain that the girls have good reasons to believe GJ would neither abuse the knowledge they receive nor make a hostile move agaisnt them, there's always that nagging 'What if' thought and mistrust can be a very healthy trait in the dimension protecting business.

Also, this is a bit of an experiment in terms of layout. Since there will be some different means of communication throughout the story, I want to distinguish between them.
On the risk of looking like a fifteen-year-old writing their first fanfic, here's which is what:
"Speech" is direct mouth-to-ear speech
["Radio"] is anything coming from audio devices, be it radio messages or hifi speakers
>Thoughts< is telepathy as seen above
Italic Text is written messages of any form.

The colors likely won't become standard, they're just in this scene to distinguish between speakers without me writing 'x said, y said, z said' behind every statement.
If they do become standard, it will only be for W.I.T.C.H. since I'm not picking consistent, contrasting colors for a dozen different characters.

Spelled price, not prize.

Click to shrink...

Fixed

 

[MondoMage]

The dark blue text is very difficult to read. Everything else was clear tho.

 

[00Zy99]

The dark blue text is very difficult to read. Everything else was clear tho.

Click to shrink...

I had a hard time seeing the purple and the red too.

 

[moshonn]

The dark blue text is very difficult to read. Everything else was clear tho.

Click to shrink...

I had a hard time seeing the purple and the red too.

Click to shrink...

Changed those colors. Any better?