Kim Possible Rides Again - Chapter 4 (part 2)

Hundreds of miles away a different sort of activity was taking place inside a secret, underground facility where Will Du and Akuma piloted their hovercraft onto a small landing pad located at the end of a long vertical tunnel which was built into the side of a mountain.  Upon coming to rest on the polished concrete floor, the craft was quickly met by a group of former Drakken’s henchmen, still wearing their red cowled uniforms, and Maddox, his former chief of research who had been responsible for the Synthodrone androids many years prior.

“Come on! Get away, get away you fools!” Maddox shouted at the henchmen, waving them off to disperse so his superior could exit the vehicle unabated. 

“How was the ‘errand’?” Maddox asked while helping Du exit the craft.

“It was...complicated,” he replied while rubbing an abrasion on his face he received from his fight with Ron. “However, we got what we needed and that’s all that matters.” 

“Excellent!”

Akuma next exited the hovercraft, tucked tightly under his arm was the round, yellow protective case which contained the mirrors.

“Take it easy with those Akuma! Those things are fragile!” Maddox scolded.

Akuma growled back at the scientist looking him square into his rose-colored glasses, objecting to the criticism.

“Now, now, Akuma, let’s not get carried away,” Du said calmly.  “How about you take those mirrors down to the assembly site and make sure they don’t do anything to damage them.”

“Fine,” Akuma nodded in compliance “I think I can handle carrying them 50 yards after they managed to survive a collapsed building and a hovercraft flight,” he jabbed at Maddox before heading out of the area with the henchmen in tow.

Once Akuma had left, Du and Maddox began walking out of the landing bay in the opposite direction.

“What is the status on the drill?” Du inquired while putting his hands behind his back.

“Ahead of schedule, with the mirrors in our possession we should have full assembly by the end of the week.”

“Excellent.”

“So, speaking of which, you never really explained to...well, any of us what exactly you’re going to do with it once it’s completed.”

“That’s because it’s none of your concern.” 

“I’m sorry, of course...it’s just some of the guys were curious and…”

“I pay you all to do a job, not ask questions to why you are doing the job,” Du injected.  
“Be grateful I gave you a place to work instead of leaving you panhandling outside the Guild of Calamitous Intent like I found you.”

“Yes sir, forgive me for bringing it up.”

“Just, get it built and operational,” he continued as the duo walked down a long corridor. “That’s all you need to worry about.”

“And speaking of things functioning properly, how is our guest doing?”

“We are making progress, her levels are elevated but she’s still not at the point for the desired reaction to take hold.”

“Yet,” Du added.

“We’re getting there.  We’ve run her through several stress tests ranging from waterboarding to low pressure chambers and she still hasn’t cracked, despite it being days since we started the process.”

“How about we go have a chat with her, I may have some news which might help that process along.”

“As you wish,” Maddox said while cleaning off his magenta-hued glasses. “We currently have her down in the Sector 4 tank soaking in an experimental chemical bath that we’ve hypothesized will speed up her molecular structure faster and more efficiently than the shock treatment we had originally tried on her.”

After a few short minutes, the duo had reached Sector 4 and were greeted by a large blast door flanked by a pair of henchmen guards.

They walked past, swiped a key card through a station and entered the room which contained the large glass tank Maddox had alluded to earlier.  

“This tank used to house Drakken’s pet killer octopus until it mysteriously died, I’m glad we were able to find a new use for it.”

“That’s nice,” Du replied with an obvious lack of caring. “Bring her up.”

Maddox pressed a few buttons on a nearby control panel which triggered a submerged

platform to rise up from out of the tank. On top of the platform the outline of a female figure began to show as the bright yellow liquid drained off.  After the solution had escaped the platform, it was then moved away from the tank, tilted vertically and then finally set on the floor in front of the two observers.  The female figure began to cough violently, as she tried to clear the chemical liquid from her lungs.  After several seconds, the coughing had subsided and normal breathing had begun.  Once she had gained her composure, the woman lifted her head, her long damp black hair stuck to her face, covering it from view before she shook slightly, exposing a bright green eye which gazed with raw intensity at her captors.”

“Enjoying your accommodations, Shego?” Du asked tongue-in-cheek.

“Screw...you…asshole” she responded defiantly, her voice still raspy from the chemical bath.

“Still feisty I see.”

“Let me out of these bonds and I’ll show you feisty.”

“I uh, need to check her vitals and get some samples,” Maddox injected as he approached his former coworker with a hand held scanner and began to scan various parts of her body.

“Let’s see, heart rate is elevated, that’s good.  Body temperature is continuing to rise, excellent…”

“Get that thing away from me you backstabbing bastard!” she growled. “I can’t believe you’re actually working for this prick.”

“Yeah well, I am a villain Shego,” Maddox defended. “It’s what I do, and besides, we had a good thing until you and Drakken decided to go all Goody Two Shoes on us and laid us all off.  Villains have to eat too you know.”

“Yeah, but still...him? So much for old loyalty.”

“What can I say, he provides dental,” he said smiling an obvious artificially whitened smile.

“Good thing since you’re going to need it whenever I get free from this.” she said igniting her hands into raging green flames and tried to burn through her straps without success.

Du raised a slight eyebrow at the gesture, unimpressed.

“Oh right...high grade fireproof something or other straps right? Must’ve forgot on the account of all that simulated drowning you’ve been providing.  Silly me,” she sarcastically smirked before extinguishing her flames.

Maddox continued his examination, shining a light in her eyes and trying to look into her mouth. Shego had enough, and lunged sharply at the scientist, grabbing his index finger with her mouth and chomping down on it, resulting in Maddox screaming in pain while blood squirted in all directions.  After a brief, frantic struggle he managed to wriggle his finger free of her mouth and fell backwards on the floor.

“YOU ALMOST BIT MY FINGER OFF YOU BITCH!” he yelled, cradling his hand while attempting to stop the bleeding.

“Too bad I didn’t,” she said smirking with a line of blood running down her cheek before spitting a blood-laden wad of saliva in Maddox’s direction.

Through the commotion, Will Du continued to remain in a  stoic position, unfazed by the chaos occurring in front of him.  “Maddox, go down to the infirmary and get your finger fixed,” he calmly said standing over him while he continued to squirm on the floor.

After several seconds, Maddox struggled to make it to his feet before bolting for the exit. Giving Shego a parting glance of disapproval.

Du calmly waited for Maddox to leave the room before he put his arms behind his back and slowly began to approach his captor.

“Concealing your fingers...smart,” Shego commented loftily.

“Not putting your extremities within the proximity of a captive’s mouth is Common Sense 101,” he replied.  “This is just me being, casual.”

“Sure, whatever *cough*.   This is how I roll casual.  Tied up, submerged in a tank for hours on end...good times,” she said sarcastically.

“First off, my condolences to your partner.”

*Cough, cough* “Blow it out your ass.” 

“Now that’s not nice.”

“Neither is killing my partner...what do you want?” Shego quipped, still having issues breathing. 

Du pulled a stool away from a nearby desk and moved it in front of his captive.  He then casually sat down, folded his hands and leaned within inches of her face.

“Do you know what you are Miss Gorforth?” he asked, calling her by her real name.

“Yeah, I’m the person who’s going to to burn that stupid smirk off your face along with the rest of its features once I get out of this,” she snarled.

“Defiant even in the face of insurmountable odds. How appropriate...how you.”

Shego flashed a fake smile, her teeth still red with Maddox’s blood.

“Tell me, do you recall that time when your old foe Avairius created a staff which was able to steal your brothers’ powers?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Remember how empowered he felt when he was able to switch back and forth between abilities at will?”

She shrugged. “Wasn’t that ‘empowered’ after I took it from his feathered ass.”

“Exactly.  And then you discovered that not only could you control your brothers’ powers with the staff, but you could use them all at the same time. Something Avairius didn’t know until after the staff was no longer in his possession.”

“What’s your point?”

“My points is, you’re like the staff.  You think that what you emit from your hands are impressive and the limit to your powers, but what you don’t understand is that you’re so much more than green flaming hands.  So much more.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think about your brothers; superhuman strength, the ability to grow and shrink at will, to multiply--while I’m thinking about it, tell me, how awkward was it when your kid brother created that copy of himself and it never went away?”

Shego managed a weak eyeroll as Du recounted her family’s life history.

“Fine, then there is you,” he continued, seeing Shego wasn’t going to play along.  “The girl with the glowing green hands. What kind of superpower is that exactly?  You don’t see something like that in the comic books.”

“Comic books aren’t exactly ‘Origin of the Species’ there pal.  I can’t really help what powers were given to me by that stupid comet.”

“True.  However, I’ve followed your family for years, Studied the five of you throughout your hero and no-so-much hero times. And I noticed something, different with you over those years.”

“I’m the only girl?  Egads, Holmes, you’ve done it again,” she snarked.

“Oh, give me some credit, I’m not a moron,” he said standing up from the stool and walking away from her with his hands still behind his back.  “It’s the glowing of your hands.  All of you do it, but only when you are enacting your powers.  When Hego is lifting a tanker truck, glowing hands, when Mego is crawling through a keyhole,  glowing hands, when Mego is creating his very own basketball team, glowing hands.  But you...your hands just glow. I’ve watched reel after reel of footage between your fights with your siblings and Global Justice and Kim Possible and all you do is basic hand-to-hand combat.”

“So, after noticing this, I came to a pair of conclusions.”

“Oh, do tell. Always a sucker for lousy monologues.” 

“The first one is that you never truly use your powers, because either you don’t know how to or you are doing it wrong.  Like you’re driving a car with its parking brake on.”

“Now, thanks to the dedicated, and quite possibly unethical, research methods my scientists performed this idea has merit.  Your powers aren’t emitted through your hands but through your body as a whole.  Your insides work like a reactor, continuously creating condensed cosmic energy which you merely release through piddly blasts that barely leave burn marks on walls.  You do more damage with your claws and reckless behavior than you have ever managed to do with your powers.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I’m bad enough as it is that I don’t need any powers.”

“So you admit you don’t know what you’re doing?”

“Hey, I came to the realization a long time ago that I was the ‘Jubilee’ of Team Go.  It didn’t hold me back, I was bad enough to handle my own both during and after that time of my life.”

“Yes, you and Drakken were a regular Bonnie and Clyde,” he scoffed.  “Which brings me to the second part of my theory.”

“And what’s that?” she sneered.

“That being, frankly you’re not evil. Never were, are or will be.”

“Ha! That’s rich” Shego laughed before hacking on some more fluid.  “Wait’ll I get out of these straps. I”ll show you evil!”

”Oh will you?” he questioned, “I was a top ranking agent for Global Justice for over fifteen years.  During that span of time I witnessed firsthand the mass graves of the Rwandan genocide, the ethnic cleansing in Bosnia, labor camps in North Korea and militants indiscriminately blowing up schools filled with children in Pakistan.  I have seen evil, and what I see in front of me isn’t remotely of the sort.”

“TRY ME!” she seethed, increasingly getting angrier, her hands and eyes beginning to glow.

“Don’t flatter yourself dear, I know an act when I see one.”

“Wanna test that theory?” she replied, her eye beginning to twitch.

“Remind me again, how many people have you killed?”

“Huh?” she said perplexed.

“It’s a simple question, how many people have. You. Killed?”

Shego pursed her lips and looked down at the floor. “I-I don’t kill people.”

“Oh you don’t?  Miss I’m-going-to-burn-your-face-off doesn’t have a body count?”

She answered with an awkward shrug of her shoulders.

“Okay, how about how many people have you shot?”

Shego gave no response.

“Stabbed?”

Again, no response other than a slight fading of the glow in her eyes.

“How many people have you beaten within an inch of their lives?”

The glow faded more and her eyes relaxed from the scowl.

“How many people did you hospitalize with something other than a case of the common cold? I have a feeling that number is enough to count on one hand.”

Her glow was almost completely gone and the anger written across her face a moment ago was morphing, changing to something different.

“And better yet, let’s look at your longstanding feud with the amateur crime fighting cheerleader  Kim Possible herself.  How many times did you have her dead to rights? Her life hanging within your green glowing hands and you failed to end it?  For someone so evil, you seem to lack the basic conviction to smite a foe at every opportunity that’s presented to you. Most of which ultimately resulted in either your own humiliation or incarceration. No less at the hands of an individual who had to rely on a licensed adult to drive her to the bulk of her missions.”

“That’s not the modus operandi of an evil supervillain...that’s not even the handiwork of a small time villain.  No, that’s what you would expect from a fraud.  Because in the end, that’s all you’ve ever been. A fraud who pretended to be some high-caliber villain when in reality she’s a rebellious Gen-Xer with family issues.  And to further play on the charade, you hooked up with the only villain more benign than you as a partner.  Evil and you don’t even belong in the same sentence.”

The glow in her eyes had completely faded away and she slumped over in a big sigh. A smirk came across Du’s face as he saw that his words were having an effect on her.  He then walked over to her and began to caress the hairs on top of her head.

“Call me a liar,” he stated.

“Kiss my green hued ass,” she sighed in response.

“It’s alright my dear, I know that we can’t always end up being what we want to be.   But, in your case, I’m quite certain you’re the exception to the rules.”

“Huh?”

“We will unleash your full potential.  It will take some time but the stress tests which have been administered to you are beginning to show progress and your true powers are beginning to rise to the surface.  And when we get you to where we want you to be, we’ll use you to help usher in a new age of man.  You will go from Jubilee to The Dark Phoenix by the time I am done with you.”

There was a pause in the conversation while Shego tried to recollect herself from the verbal onslaught Du had unleashed on her.

“So, why do all this?” she finally muttered.

Du stood back up and paced away from the tank.

“Why indeed.”

“Oh quit being cryptic.  You killed my best friend, kidnapped me, you stuck me in a tank for hours on end, shocking the hell out of me for what seems like weeks.  The least you could do is give me an explanation for the whole Clockwork Orange treatment.”

“I don’t owe you anything,” he replied as he approached the control panel and entered in commands that began to tilt the gurney back and raise it back into the tank. “My plan isn’t in motion yet on the account of you not being where you need to be yet, so instead of sitting here and monologuing like a comic book villain we’re putting you back in the tank to get this process moving along.  Trust me though, when it’s all said and done, people will remember the contributions you made to society. And its renewal.”

“Y-you won’t get away with this,” she muttered in a shaky tone.

Du stopped the lift. “Wait, what did you say?” with a slight chuckle.

Shego’s pride was eroding faster than sand in a flood, and a look of defeat beginning to show on her face while her eyes began to water.

“I said...you won’t get away with this.”

“Oh, that is great coming from you!” Du laughed.  “The big bad villainess Shego has now been diminished to a mere damsel in distress!  Lemme guess what your next line is going to be.  Something about Kim Possible right?”

“Eat me,” she said in defiance.

“Oh no, please. Do say it.  I want to hear it come directly from the horse’s mouth.”

Her eyes began to tear up more, the humiliation of being in a no-win situation started to overcome her.  And she uttered words to which she hoped to never say despite her face turn years ago.

“Kim Possible...you know that with me missing and what you did to Drew. You know she’s on the case. Somehow...and she’ll stop you.”

“Yes!” Du mockingly clapped again in schadenfreude enjoyment.  “I so hoped that you would lower yourself to saying that.  And know what? You’re right, that amateur and her boyfriend were sent to find you and to disrupt my plans. They even have Global Justice backing their efforts.” 

Shego’s face flashed a slight glimmer of hope. 

“In fact, I actually met the two of them, along with their *cough* replacement a few hours ago.”

Her face then blanked as she noticed the lack of concern her captor had on his face at the acknowledgement.

“You know, her coming out of retirement was such a big deal, I bet you they’re still talking about it on the news.  How about, before we stick you back in the tank, we pop in and see what the media’s talking about, shall we?”

Upon saying that, Du pushed a few more buttons on the control panel, which activated a large monitor on the adjacent wall.

“Let’s see.” He smirked while flipping through channels. “Soap Opera, weather, drama, drama, Flippies, The Ocho, ah! Here we go!  I love it when you time a channel change just right so that the story comes one right as you turn to it.”

“...so far we can confirm no casualties at the Middleton Space Center, although officials are saying that the facility is a total loss.  As for the rumors that former teen crime fighter and local heroine Kim Possible was involved in the incident at the Space Center...”

“Shego pulled her head up from the gurney and glanced down towards the monitor.”

“...we can confirm that she was inside the facility when the control tower collapsed and was transported to the Middleton Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries.  We have not been told what those injuries are but we have heard reports that she was being treated for a possible gunshot wound and a broken leg.  We’ll have more information wh-”

“They have it wrong, she doesn’t have a broken leg,” Du said muting the broadcast and pacing back towards Shego with a grin. “It’s more like severe head trauma.  Real nasty, ‘head went right through a control panel.  And those old composites aren’t exactly weak.”

“Oh, plus she was shot by one of her own people,” he said while pacing around the tank nonchalantly. “Either way, I wouldn’t be looking for that spry redhead to come barging in here anytime soon, even if she knew where to look for us in our underground facility, she wouldn’t be able to stand on her own two feet much less fight off an entire squadron of henchmen. So, as you can see, nobody is coming for you.  So we should get you back to getting those powers realised.”

Shego flopped back on the gurney, defeated and upset at the news of pure hopelessness which she had just witnessed.

“Screw you, Du,” she defiantly whimpered before she disappeared beneath the surface of the tank and the lid was secured.

Du then proceeded to initiate the stress inducing sequence on the control panels and watched contently as various flashes of light emitted from the tank’s opaque walls.  Once the sequence was back in operation, he left the room and headed towards the infirmary.

Maddox was getting the eighth suture sewn into his finger by the time his superior entered the medical bay.

“How’s the finger?”

“She broke the skin, but I’ll live.” 

“So that means you can get back to your work immediately, yes?”

The scientist nodded.

“Good.  In that case, when you are finished reattaching your finger I want you to get back to Sector 4 and increase the intensity of the stress tests four fold.”

“I’m sorry but what?” Maddox replied surprised.

“Shego’s willpower is starting to break down.  I saw it in her eyes after giving her a little bit of news from back home.”

“Okay but, four fold?”  That’s a lot of voltage running through her body!  Factor in the chemical bath and...”

“And the desired critical mass will have been achieved ahead of schedule,” Du interrupted. “She’s on the cusp of total break down, we just need to give her a nudge over the finish line.”

Maddox acted unsure of his boss’ proposal but he reluctantly agreed to it. “Consider it done.”

“Good, and while you’re at it, contact Engineering and tell them that they need to begin working around the clock on assembling the Deep Venture.  We’re moving up the timeline and I want both Shego and that drill operational at the earliest possible time!”

“I will inform them as soon as the stress test is increased.”

“Good,” Du said contently. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have a manifesto to draft.”

---

Back inside the hospital, Tara had stepped into the break room to grab a breakfast burrito from the famed “wheel of death” vending machine.  Once she purchased one, she unwrapped it and put it into the microwave, and was somewhat entranced while she watched the pasty white cylinder slowly turn in circles with “cheese” beginning to bubble out of it.  As she watched, she caught the movement of a large object lumbering down the hallway, struggling to hold onto the railing which ran down the length of it.

She turned more to see what it was and noticed it was Ron, his face was a slight shade of blue and he was gasping for breath.

“Oh my god!” she shouted while running over to her friend, “What happened?”

“Bonnie, *gasp* balls…*gasp* can’t...find...one*gasp*  The pain…” Ron left off with a whimper.

“Oh, you poor thing, let me get you back to Kim’s room so you can sit down.” Tara draped his arm over her shoulder and helped him limp down the hall.

They reached Kim’s room and quietly made their way over to the chair Ron had been sitting in earlier. As he sat he slouched over so low that his shoulders were touching his thighs.

“Hang tight for a sec, I’ll be right back,” Tara said while quickly exiting the room, only to return a few minutes later with an ice bag and kneeled next to her friend.

“Here, this should help.”

Ron forced himself to slowly sit up. *Ugh* “Thanks...Tara…” he said sticking the bag between his legs and then proceeding to put his hand down his pants. “I can’t...find..one of *gasp* my boys.”

Tara awkwardly drew her bottom lip between her teeth, “Yeah, I’m not helping you there, Ron. When it comes to friends, I draw the line at handing out ice packs until I get my LPN license.”

“No need *AWW* found it…” he said in obvious pain before pulling his hand out and readjusting the ice pack.               

“So, do I want to know why Bonnie kicked you in the pills?”

“Apparently,” he started, adjusting himself higher into the chair. “I’m just an amateur who would be in their way as we regrouped and planned our next move.  So, to ensure I didn’t hop on the helicopter ride back to headquarters, *ugh* Bonnie roshamboed me and then sent me back down in the elevator. Said I was needed more back here at KP’s bedside than actually doing something productive.”

“Wow, that’s a real bitch move. Even for Bonnie,” Tara replied.  

“Tell me about it.  It’s not like I wasn’t doing her job years before she decided to do it or anything.”

“This is true.”

“Her and that Trepid guy *ugh* couple of arrogant jerks,” he seethed painfully.

“Um, do you want me to go grab a nurse or PA to check you out?” she asked. “If she’s now a trained spy she could have really injured you.”

“No, Tara, that...won’t be...necessary.” He sighed and adjusted the ice bag.  “This too shall *ugh* pass.”

“Alright, then,” the blonde said standing back up. “I’m going to go grab my burrito and head back to my station.  If you need anything just give a yell or hit that little red button on the side of Kim’s bed.  If there isn’t anything else I’ll come back in about an hour and check on you two.  I’ll even bring another ice pack.” She winked while closing the door behind her.

Ron replied with a grimaced look on his face and a thumb up in acknowledgment before slouching back down into his seat, still filled with various levels of pain coursing through his body.

Several minutes of trying to subdue the pain and swelling, Ron began to feel a little better and reached for the television remote which was located on Kim’s bed.

“Let’s see what they’re saying about us, KP,” he mumbled to his unconscious partner while turning the television on to the local news channel which was currently broadcasting a news conference being conducted by the Middleton Fire Chief.”

“...as we said at the onset of this news conference, there appears to have been no loss of life at the at the site of the Middleton Space Center...according to the program director, the facility was experiencing some sort of malfunction which had forced a full evacuation of the site earlier. However, the cause of the explosions and collapse of the control tower are still being investigated.”

“So they’re still towing that angle huh?”

“...Our crews have just begun to inspect the remains of the collapsed control tower, but we don’t anticipate finding anything to lead us to the contrary.  We’ll let you know of any updates at 5 pm later today, thank you.”

“Pfft, your crews didn’t happen to come across an engagement ring by chance did you?” Ron mumbled at the tv.

“Continuing with our main story, whatever occurred at the Middleton Space Center early this morning which left the entire facility in ruins, also may have contributed to the hospitalization of local hero and former teen sensation Kim Possible who is rumored to have been admitted to the Middleton Medical Center arou-”

“Not a rumor. Let’s see what else is on.” Ron continued flipping through the channels.

“Fishing, no.  Infomercial, no.  Telenovela, no. Goof Troop, nope. It’s too early for anything good, I guess.”

“Ron?” a weak and crackly voice spoke from the bed next to him.

Ron’s eyes widened and he quickly turned to where he was met with the bloodshot, emerald colored eyes of Kim staring back at him.

“W-what’s the ‘sitch?” she asked while trying to sit up before quickly slouching back in 
pain.

Ron stared dumbfounded at the fact that his girlfriend had regained consciousness, and after a few seconds of silence, he swung his head back towards the door.

“TARA!”

• END -