Disclaimers: Kim Possible and all related characters and concepts belong to Disney until such time as someone works up the cash to buy the franchise from them (good luck with that). The plot, and all original characters belong to me, any copying or distribution of this story or versions of it for profit without the author's knowledge and consent is punishable by law.
Note: In the Kim Possible time-line this takes place after Gorilla Fist, but before the So the Drama movie.
Note #2: The selection of main characters for this story has nothing to do with romantic pairings, and everything to do with character development, so don't just throw this story away because of whom the main characters might be.
Middleton High School, Middleton, CO, 12:35 P.M., April 16, 2005
"Hey Wade, what's the 'sitch?" a young, red haired, green eyed, female about 20 years of age, and standing 5'9" tall said to a rotund dark-skinned boy about 13 years old whose image currently dominated the monitor of the computer in her locker.
"Kim I got a fix on where Dr. Drakken and Shego are held up" Wade said with an unusual amount of cheeriness.
"Wade" she drew out the pronunciation of his name in a questioning tone, "Why are you so excited?" she asked with a slight amount of worry. Whenever Wade was happy in situations like this, it was usually because he had some new gadget he wanted her or Ron to test.
"What, I can't just be happy to see my two best friends?" he said in a tone that clearly said he was hiding something.
"Wade the last time you used that voice was when you had us test that exploding chewing gum" a young male that was standing off to Kim's left said in a voice that sounded like a cross between Michael Shanks and Pete Parsons. He was the same age as Kim, 6'2" tall, and had blonde hair, light brown eyes, a slight muscular build, and some freckles that were barley visible on his face.
"Hey it only happened once, and the dentist was able to put everything back in place you know" he responded like he just apologized for the millionth time.
"Ron does have a point Wade, you do have a tendency to surprise us with stuff on missions" Kim said putting the books she was carrying in her locker.
"Alright, alright, you got me" he said putting his hands up, "I do have something for you to test, but luckily this one won't explode if you start chewing on it."
Oh, thank God Kim and Ron both thought simultaneously, a look of relief plastered on their faces.
"It's actually a new set of mission clothes."
"Uh, Wade?" Kim asked, "Not that I'm not grateful, but what's wrong with the mission clothes we have now?"
"Perhaps calling it a set of clothes was a tad inaccurate" he said pulling up a blueprint of a jumpsuit on the monitor,"Remember a few months back when I said that I was developing a set of Battle Suits for Team Possible?"
"Yeah, I remember. Wait are you saying they're done?!" Ron exclaimed.
"Well yours is at least, I was hoping this mission could be a test run to get the bugs out. Sorry Kim, but I'm still building yours."
"That's all right Wade" Kim said hiding her disappointment with one her signature 'no big' gestures. I wish he had built mine first, but Ron has stepped up quite a bit in the last few months, and physically he has filled out quite nicely since that rejuvinator incident a few days ago . . . NO, stop right there Kim. This is Ron, your best friend since Pre-K, you can't be thinking about him like that. Just focus now something else and ignore your body's hormones. "Wade Drakken and Shego wouldn't happen to have the rejuvinator with them, would they?"
"Indeed they would Kim, and they're also in possession of the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer. You know, what we were initially sent to retrieve?" Wade said gesticulating with his hand.
"Right, get the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer, gotcha" Kim said hurriedly. To be honest all she was thinking about getting was the rejuvinator, which three days prior, they had been hit by during a botched mission to retrieve the PDVI. The mission itself had been a trap engineered by Drakken for the purpose of 'taking Team Possible out of commission'. Evidently he planed to use the rejuvinator to turn Kim and Ron into toddlers, but instead of setting the machine to 2.0 he set it to 20. turning Kim, Ron, and Shego, who had been caught in the wideband beam, into 20 year olds.
Ron shot Kim a concerned glance, Hey I wanna be 17 again too Kim, but I'm not going to do anything rash, and neither should you . . . Maybe if she wasn't so concerned about the 'food chain' so much, she wouldn't be so gung-ho about this mission.
"So Wade who's our ride?" Kim asked effectively cutting off Ron's internal monologue.
"I've set you up with Santini Air (1), they should be arriving at the school any minute, and they will have your new suit with them Ron."
"Thanks, Wade" Ron said simply, "Kim, I know you wanna get us back to our original ages, but you can't do anything rash here. For all we know it could be another trap, and Drakken may very well succeed this time, so we can't take any chances until we know what's going on. OK?" he opined as she was closing her locker.
Kim stared at him for a few seconds, blinking several times, before saying in a questioning tone, "OK, first of all I'm not that hellbent on being 17 again, I can deal with Bonnie calling me an old hag for the rest of high school." Ron gave her a look that said that he wasn't convinced, "Second, of course I know it could be a trap, but whatever Drakken's planing to do with the PDVI we can't let him succeed at it. Third of all . . . "
Ron chose that time to cut in, "Kim I know that we can't let Drakken succeed, that's a given, but it doesn't mean that we can't be smart about it, and not go charging into a potentially deadly situation half-cocked."
For the second time that day Kim's eyes bulged out of their sockets as she stared at Ron. Realizing how sudden all of this might seem to her, Ron decided to try and find some way to stop her from checking him for mind-control chips. "I just don't want you to get hurt KP" he said with a slight apologetic tone. Oh yeah! Score one for the Ron-man, dodged a bullet there he thought to himself after seeing her expression soften.
Oh, that's so sweet. Even when I'm being a total ass he's thinking of my safety. I still don't know how he got so tactical, but I guess he could just be trying to improve himself, he has been doing a lot of that lately . . . Kim thought to herself, her heart starting to beat a little faster.
Kim opened her mouth to continue talking, when the sound of rotor blades cutting though the air broke the relative silence of the hall. "Guess our ride's here" Ron said with one of his trademark goofy grins, while starting to jog off to where the chopper was landing.
Right, save the world time Kim thought to herself as she started to sprint after Ron.
Drakken's lair, that same time
"Shego are you listening?" a blue-skinned man about 5'11" tall, with jet black hair styled in a ponytail, wearing a navy-blue lab coat and scrubs, with black lab gloves said to a raven haired, mint-green skinned woman who was wearing a harlequin patterned green and black jumpsuit, and currently laying across a black chair reading a copy of"The Fall of Reach."
"What?" she said in a surprised tone briefly putting the book down, "What's going on?"
"Nnnnnn" Drakken noised though gritted teeth, "You weren't listening at all were you?" he whined.
"Sure I was" she said in a slightly sarcastic tone.
"Then what was I saying?"
"You were, uhmmm" she stammered not wanting Drakken to start bloviating about his plan in one of his rants. "You were going to use the Pan-Dimensional Vortex Inducer that we stole to create an interdimensional teleporter so you could go to a universe where you conquered the world, and convince your AU self to give you the power to take over this one" she guessed putting on a fake smile.
"Hmm, I guess you were listening" he shrugged and walked back to his worktable.
Shego's mouth dropped slightly, and she blinked several times at his statement. She had not been listening at all, and had in fact gotten the idea from a fanfiction she had read on the internet. He's lost it, he's finally lost it she thought to herself has she marked her page, and got off the chair, standing to her full 5'10" height. "Whatever Dr. D" she said halfheartedly, "I'll be in my quarters, and I don't want to be disturbed" she yelled over her shoulder.
As Shego walked down the hall though the lair, she started reflecting on the things that had happened in her life. Why am I here? She asked herself for the millionth time I mean, I could work anybody I want Dementor, SSS, ExOps (2). Hell, even the IDF or Mossaad would be ecstatic to have me onboard, but instead I'm stuck working for Doctor frick'en Drakken. I can't believe I agreed to that stupid 3-year contract.
"What am I going to do?" she said leaning back against the wall, and letting her head slam back into the metal. "What are you looking at?" she yelled at one of the anonymous minions roaming the hall. As the red and black jumpsuited minion started to run away, not wanting to incur the green skinned woman's wrath, she hit him in the ass with one of her plasma blasts, causing him to clutch his bottom and run even faster.
"Idiot" she scuffed as she continued her walk back to her room.
"Aurora you can't continue to lash out at your family and friends like this" Pastor Jonathan Hampton said to younger Shego.
"Why shouldn't I lash out?! Why shouldn't I be angry?! They wouldn't believe me! They're supposed to keep this city safe!" she screamed at the brown haired middle-aged man.
"Aurora you can't just attack people on-site, you have to wait until the law takes its course. I implore you to just have patience" he said his expression getting more and more worried.
Shego's face dropped, "You're on his side. You're all on his side!" she screamed as she turned and blotted out of the office.
"Aurora. Aurora!" the Pastor yelled down the hall at Shego's retreating form.
Shego winced at the memory. The words of her old Pastor were coming back hard these days, and know matter how hard she tried she couldn't shake the feeling that it was all for a reason. "Probably just nerves" she said shaking her head as she opened the door to her quarters, closing it behind her as she entered.
It was a small room about 10' by 10' with one twin bed, one closet with one jumpsuit and two sets of casual cloths in it, one bathroom with a sink, a toilet, and a small 3' by 3' shower. The rest of the room was just as Spartan, except for the medium-sized SDTV, an X-Box that sat on the same small table at the far end of the room, a few folding gamer chairs, and a desk that she used for paperwork. Shego always kept most of her adult belongings in her 'off-base' home in Colorado Springs (3). Most of her possessions from childhood were still in her family's home in Texas. "I wonder if she cleared out my old room" Shego mused silently to herself as she sat down on the bed. She hadn't exactly left on good terms with her family, and the fact that she became a villain afterwards probably didn't help things much either. "Ugh. Why can't I think normally for once?" she said, her head dropping back onto the bed. Shego suddenly blotted upright as an evil grin spread across her face. "Lookout boys, 'cause the Jadefirecat (4) has come to play" she said leaping from her bed, turning on the X-Box, picking up the controller, putting on the headset, and jumping onto one of the gaming chairs, all in one fluid movement. These n00bs should keep me occupied for a while she thought her predatory grin growing bigger as she did.
An hour later in the skies above Northern Colorado
"Thanks for the ride Mister Santini" Kim said from the back seat of the red, white, and blue Jet Ranger.
"It's the least I could do Miss Possible after you helped us take down that wacko who was terrorizing those refugees" Dominic Santini said from the pilot's seat.
"It was no big. That guy sooo had it coming" she said with a wave of her hand.
"You too, Ronald" Dominic said as Ron was finishing up loading supplies into his backpack and the various pockets on his suit, "If you hadn't taken out that SA-2 battery we'd never had gotten off the ground. This ride may be for Kimberly, but we still owe you a favor, feel free to call it in anytime, anywhere, for anything" he said with a smile.
Both Kim and Ron's jaws dropped slightly at what Dominic had said. Kim had received tons of favors from various people over the course of her lifetime, but never had anyone offered to do a favor for Ron, and certainly not one with such broad reaching implications.
"Uh, thank you" was the only thing Ron could say.
"Don't mention it Ronald"
No one ever gave me a 'blank check' before Kim pouted to herself before her face resumed its normal state, but if anyone deserves it, it's Ron.
"Hey Kim" Ron said turning his head to her, "I really don't think I'm going to be using this. I mean . . . "
Kim chose that moment to cut him off, "Ron stop it. I know you don't like taking credit for the stuff you do on missions, but this is big. You deserve this, and I won't let you just throw it away because you're too humble for your own good. So just shut up, and keep the damn favor. All right?" Ron nodded. "All right good" she said taking a deep breath, and relaxing herself, her face becoming the picture of serenity.
You know there's not a creature on this planet more beautiful then you right now Kim. Too bad I can't ever tell you that he thought as he gazed longingly at her for a few seconds before going back to packing his backpack.
Ah, to be young and in love again Dominic Santini thought to himself.
30 minutes later in Drakken's lair
That wasn't so hard Ron thought to himself as he hid the unconscious form of the last of Drakken's goons. Ron had been sulking around in Drakken's lair for the better of part of 20 minutes. He and Kim had decided to split up and meet in the control room to foil Drakken's plans, Kim because she was sneaking though the HVAC system, Ron mostly because he was carrying about 90 lbs. of gear, Thank you God for strength enhancing nano-motors Ron thought to himself as continued on with the last 50 feet of corridor.
Rrraaaagghh, I wish this chip wasn't being so difficult Drakken thought to himself as he continued to work on a computer chip with his nano-spot welder. "I mean it shouldn't be that difficult to . . . to . . . to" the words died on his lips as he looked at the highly reflective surface of a nearby toaster (5). "SHEGO WE HAVE INTRUDERS!" he screamed has he hit the nearby intruder alarm button.
Damn! Well no point in sneaking around now Ron thought to himself has he barged out into the light.
"What? Who? Where?" Shego said angrily as she came plowing though a side-door into the main lab. At that point in time Shego didn't think that she could get any angrier, not only did she have to put her favorite game on pause just as she was about to kill Tartarus for the 3rd time on Legendary, but now she had to deal with Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable. She didn't have anything personal against Stoppable, his pet, or Nerdlinger, fighting them was part of the job, but the Princess was a different story. Shego wasn't sure what it was, but just the mere thought of Possible set her heart racing. There were an extremely few number of people who Shego had genuinely wanted to kill, and Possible was one of those people. Her perkiness, her 'I can do anything' attitude, everything about the red headed cheerleader seemed to set the green woman off. Shego knew that in many ways she was just projecting from earlier experiences, but that still didn't help anything. Her thoughts about hurting the Princess died the moment she laid eyes on who was in the middle of the Room.
Stoppable, Ron Stoppable. So it's Ronnie who's here first. Good, I've been waiting to fight you Ronald Dean Stoppable, lets see if you really are the 'killer app' I've been waiting for Shego thought as she leapt toward him, I hope all that gear your wearing doesn't slow you down, though I seriously don't think it will with that powered armor you're wearing. A few short months ago she would have scoffed at the idea of 'the Buffoon' being a serious challenge for her, but after the lair was blown up for the 97th time she began to wonder how that kept happing when she had the Princess all tied up in combat. Eventually after wadding through hours of security tapes that survived the destruction of Drakken's lairs thanks to her convincing him that he should arrange the self-destruct charges so that they didn't lose the only way they had of finding out what they did wrong, she found out why their plans kept failing. Every time they were distracted by Possible and her fancy moves, they completely ignored Stoppable and his pet mole rat sabotaging their doomsday weapons, soundly defeating minions, and generally just racking up millions in damages. At first she couldn't believe it, his movements were so random, everything he was doing must have just been by accident, no not random accidents, controlled chaos. After the 3rd hour of watching Stoppable fight she changed her appraisal of him again, He's playing the fool, but why? He one of the best fighters I've ever seen, yet he still hangs around with an a-hole like Possible, why? Shego asked herself. After the 4th hour she found her answer, He loves her. That's the only explanation for him doing what he does. Damn, and she doesn't realize any of this, how dense is she? At that point, she vowed that she would never underestimate Ronald Dean Stoppable ever again.
Her introspection was cut short however by Drakken's voice, "Oh never mind Shego it's just the buffoon, but keep a lookout Kim Possible she's bound to be around somewhere if the buffoon's here."
As if on cue one of the vents on the side of the room burst open revealing the form of none other then Kimberly Anne Possible, "Like in your wall Drakken" she said not even bothering to hide the amusement in her voice.
"Kim Possible!?" Drakken said in a surprised tone, "Shego get her!"
"Sorry Dr. D, not falling for that again" Shego said simply.
"What?!" Ron, Kim, and Drakken all said at the same time.
"You heard me, I ain't falling for it anymore" Shego said before lighting her hands and launching herself at Ron.
Kim was stunned to say the least, not only did someone consider Ron a greater threat then her, but that someone was Shego, her greatest rival, she always went after her, always! No time for self-pity Kim, while Shego's distracted you can take down Drakken the irony of the situation didn't even occur to her at that point, so engrossed was she in her task.
Meanwhile Ron was having a devil of a time fending of Shego, "So I'm honestly curious, why did you decide to go after me?" he said blocking another one of her kicks.
"Why Ronnie? All right I'll tell you" she said narrowly dodging one of his punches. Her eyes grew wide as his fist smashed a crater in the wall, "A certain part of it was that I honestly was getting bored fighting Princess. I mean how many times can you fight the same person, with the same moves, all the time, before you get bored of it. Trust me on this, fighting Pumpkin all the time gets really old, really quick. Don't get me wrong I still have that lingering desire to knock her into a transmission tower." Ron's eyes narrowed and she paused briefly to duck under one of Ron's roundhouse kicks that went sailing over her and into one of the pillars in the room, the powerful muscle enhanced kick easily blasting away a good foot of the flimsily fabricated concrete. Shego took this opportunity to deliver her own roundhouse kick that swept him off his feet, and sent him into the air, but before he hit the ground his eyes briefly flashed blue, and his hands shot out to the ground, he then used his momentum to go into a backhand spring launching himself back into the air, flipping several times before finally sticking the landing 12ft away.
At this point everyone in the room was staring at Ron with their mouths on the floor. "Besides" Shego continued, "Look at you! Look at what you just did! You're probably one of the best fighters on the planet, yet you hang around with some cocky buffoon like Possible, what's with that?"
Kim's jaw went slack, not only was Shego passing her up to fight Ron, not only was Ron winning against Shego, not only had her best friend suddenly turned into a super soldier, not only was she starting to get attracted to said best friend, and not only did someone give Ron a 'blank check' favor, but now she was being called a buffoon, this was just too much, there was only so much she could take in the span of a few hours. "I mean, is your love for her that great, that you're willing to sacrifice your future for her?" Kim's mind went blank as Shego continued, "I mean you're no saint, but the stuff she does to you sometimes is just unacceptable. You could be one of the greatest military minds of our generation, yet you hang around with a brick like Kimme just so you can keep her on the straight and narrow. You're a real paragon. You know that?" Kim's mind started to start back up again Love . . . military . . . unacceptable . . . Ron?
Now if Ron had taken the time to study his English the previous night he'd have known what a paragon was, but at the moment he just assumed it was an insult, "SHUT UP YOU BITCH!" he screamed at the top of his longs before leaping into the air and bringing his fist down like a hammer on the spot where Shego was standing just a few seconds ago.
My God Ron, what's going on here? Kim thought to herself before she turned her head to her right, "Hey you! Stop!" she yelled at Drakken's retreating form. In her haste to run after him however, she inadvertently activated one of Drakken's devices. As she was running into the hallways she thought to herself, Ron stay safe right before turning her head around and seeing a sight that caused her to stop dead in her tracks
Back in the lab Shego had finally begun to throw plasma bolts at Ron. Instead of dodging though he used the suit's nano-tech to form his hand into something akin to the end of a lacrosse stick (6). He then used his hand to catch one her plasma shots, amplify it, and then throw it back at her. Shego dodged at the last second. However, the plasma continued on to hit the wall, the resulting explosion caused a premature detonation of several of the self-destruct charges in the room.
Kim watched in horror as debris from the top of the lab started to fall. Several large chunks of concrete fell onto the spot where Ron and Shego were fighting, but before they did Kim saw Ron and Shego be enveloped by a bright field of blue-white light (7) and disappear.
Kim stared at the ruined lab, the explosions had blown huge holes in the roof, and sunlight was pouring though the openings and the dust onto the massive scene of destruction beneath them. Kim continued to stare at the lab before her with wide eyes for several more minutes only stopping to cough, Ron . . . where did you go? If what Shego said was true . . . oh god Ron!
Kim's morning however was cut short by the voice coming from a round hovercraft above her, "Kim Possible, you think you're all that, but you're not!" Drakken whined before flying off into the distance.
Kim stared at where the hovercraft had been just a few seconds before, when a four-tone sound emanated from the device in her pant's pocket. "Go Wade" she said, tears flowing from her eyes.
"Kim what's wrong? I lost my connection with Ron's tracking chip, and . . . what happened to Ron? Where is he?" Wade said starting to panic.
"I don't know Wade. Ron was fighting Shego, and there were explosions, and the lab was coming down, and then this big flash of light, and . . . Ron's gone! Just gone!" Kim said as her voice trailed off into sobs.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up. Now slowly and clearly tell what happened" Kim quickly told him the events that had transpired, "Alright it doesn't seem like they're dead, and I'll go right to work on what happened. I also had a GJ hoverjet inbound. They'll be there any second to pick you up, just stay calm, all right?" Kim nodded, "All right, good. I'll check in on you in an hour, stay safe"
"You too, Wade" Kim said before pocketing the Kimmunicator. Sure enough by the time Kim had run out to the entrance a GJ hoverjet was landing, and out came the pompous figure of William Du. Figures he'd be the one to pick me up with the day I've been having Kim thought to herself as she approached him.
"Miss Possible have you apprehended Doctor Drakken?" he asked in a condescending tone.
"No, I don't have Drakken, he escaped" Kim was getting very annoyed with the Asian male.
"If you don't have Dr. Drakken then I must be leaving for my next assignment" Will said turning back to the jet.
"Wait where are you going? I need GJ's help" Kim said suddenly realizing that Du was only there to pick up Drakken.
"Elaborate Possible" Du said in a condescending tone. Kim quickly related the story of what happened in the lab starting with her chasing after Drakken, "Hmm, so you allowed your personal feelings for the late Mr. Stoppable to interfere with your mission, and the process let a dangerous criminal escape. You also seem to have developed a sort of psychosis causing you to imagine Stoppable and Shego 'disappearing' moments before they were crushed. The only bright side to all this is that the 'buffoon' and Shego are well and truly dead."
Kim stared at him with disbelieving eyes, not only was criticizing her handling of a mission, not only did he attribute what she saw to her being crazy, not only did call Ron a buffoon, but now he was calling Ron's assumed death a 'good thing'! There's no way he's that much of an ass, there's no way she thought to herself, "Why would Ron's death be a 'good thing'?"
"As hard as it is for an amateur like you to comprehend Miss Possible, Stoppable was a threat to global security, his buffoonery could have eventually killed us all, and the only time he was even remotely competent was when he was evil, supposedly turned that way by a device known as the 'attidudinator'" he said making air quote signs with his hands, "Besides GJ as been looking to take 'the Ron factor' out of the equation for some time, but we were hindered by American national security agencies. Shego was just a blight upon humanity, and she will be mourned by no-one" Du said his 'holier then God' tone permeating every word.
At that point Kim said the only thing she could say after that, "YOU MONSTER!" she screamed before attempting to drop kick him, Du however fired his 'stopwatch' first, and Kim was sent into unconsciousness as soon as the suction cups from the watch hit her.
"Dr. Director" Du said into his earpiece in a nondescript tone, "My attempt to pick up Dr. Drakken was unsuccessful" he listened to his earpiece for a few seconds before continuing, "When I arrived on the scene Miss Possible made several illogical statements evident of some from of psychosis before attempting to attack me" he listened for a few more seconds before saying simply, "Yes Ma'am" before turning and getting in the jet.
(1) Santini Air is part of the Airwolf franchise, and thus belongs to Donald P. Bellisario (I don't own it). I originally wasn't going to include the Wolfpack in this story, but then I decided to put them in, but only as a cameo. Eventually it snowballed into them having major roles in the story, I won't give everything away right now (since I'm basically making this up as I go along), but suffice to say we'll be seeing a lot more of the Wolfpack.
(2) ExOps part of the Mercenaries franchise and is the sole property of Pandemic Studios and Bioware (or whatever the hell they're calling themselves now).
(3) This is a reference to most of the characters in Stargate SG-1 living in, or having a home in Colorado Springs.
(4) Props have to go to Gray Cardinal for thinking up Shego's gamertag in his fantastic Sitch in Slash series, if for whatever reason he doesn't want me to use this 'tag for Shego then I will gladly change it.
(5) This is a reference to a very cool scene in Battlestar Galactica season one.
(6) Note: I know there's a more accurate term to describe this, but I don't remember the name, and lacrosse was what first came to mind when I saw it.
(7) This is not only a reference to the Chronosphere from Red Alert, but also to the effect I use to describe Neo American teleporters in my Nexus Wars stories.
A/N: Well this chapter was a lot longer then expected, but it needed to be done in order to set up the scenario in which our heros will be thrown into the Haloverse. I will try to get the next chapter out soon, but it does take me awhile to make these, so no promises. Please review since I get a lot of my ideas from the reviews of the consumer (that's you). Well until next time . . .
Sic Semper Tyrannus
Ita Dicimus Onmes
Carry on.