Author's Forward
Hey there, everyone. First off, this is based off of a challenge on the KP Slash Haven site. Secondly, I have a few notes concerning potential inconsistencies between what'll be presented in the following vs. the "established canon" of the KPverse, and my interpretation thereof. First off, the timeframe of this fic, as far as Shego goes, starts off a couple weeks after the Kim Possible movie "So the Drama". It's my opinion that Shego would be going through some very trying times, what with almost dying under a massive, electrified concrete and steel radio tower, and not long too terribly long before that having been affected by the Moodulator.
I'm basing most of the first several chapters of this fic in 1984, but even so, it's obvious that the KPverse is quite advanced in many ways as compared to the real world. It's my personal opinion that the level of technology available in the timeframe of this story is roughly equivalent to our own current real life levels in a general sense, while the KPverse we all watched Kim dashing around saving the world in is several years - if not a couple decades - ahead of us now.
With that in mind, please, enjoy!
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction based on the "Kim Possible" universe, and is written for entertainment purposes only and is a strictly not for profit endeavor. "Kim Possible" and all characters thereof are owned by "The Walt Disney Company and Affiliated Companies"; any other name, individual with such, product or etc. are registered, trademarked, and/or copyrighted by their respective owners. Should any of the aforementioned or their affiliates request it, I shall change the name of any product, individual or etc. and/or remove this work of fan fiction from the Web.
Individuals, corporations and/or entities without registered, trademarked, and/or copyrighted names, but with a well known and/or public presence that may or may not appear within this work of fiction are considered fair use.
Any original characters, devices, products or etc. are mine, but may be used in "Kim Possible" or other fandom works of fiction, art or etc. so long as either a) permission sought from and given by me, or b) full disclosure of the source is given in said work. Thank you.
Now that all the boring stuff is out of the way, on with the fic!
AD AD AD AD
"You want me to what?" Shego exploded, grabbing the mad scientist she called an employer by the collar of his lab coat.
"You heard me, Shego!" Dr. Drakken declared firmly, seeming to ignore the threat an angry Shego represented, "I'm your employer, and you put nothing in your contract about using your looks to seduce women!"
"That's not the point, Dr. D.!" Shego growled, shoving him back and folding her arms stubbornly across her chest.
"It is the point, Shego!" Drakken almost begged, "And according to your pre-employment screening and the information HenchCo had on file, you're a pansexu-…"
"Shut! Up!" Shego interrupted with a deep blush crawling across her cheeks. She wanted to rage at the blue skinned mad scientist, but found herself unable to. Instead, she chose biting, if subdued from the norm, sarcasm to answer him, "This is just another hare-brained idea of yours, and it's doomed to fail when Princess busts in with her new suit and ruins everything! As usual!"
Despite her inability to vent her anger at Drakken about using her contract against her so smoothly, the alternate tack she took was just as effective. He stood in his spot, his mouth opening and closing like a gaffed fish looking for all the world as if she'd struck him physically. He pouted at her for several seconds as she paced, trying to calm her angry breathing and remain in control.
Not only was the expression wrenching at her heartstrings, but he was her employer. That had an especially strong effect on her, since Drakken seemed to have had so little need for her during his nearly successful Li'l Diablo plot. It wouldn't do to have him fire her for breaching contractual obligations, which would mean she would have to leave. And I couldn't take that now… She turned away from him, partially to block out the sight, and partially to hide her own misty eyes from him.
She pinched the bridge of her nose to hide the fact that she was wiping at her eyes from Drakken. A month ago, she'd have laughed at someone daring to say she would have to do anything like it, or thought herself crazy for thinking it possible. Unfortunately, due to events beyond her control she was lost, afloat in a sea of uncertainty. The Moodulator incident had forced her to look at herself and her reasons for staying at the man's side, despite failed plot after failed plot, and the ever mounting monetary offers from other villains such as Professor Dementor or Gemini.
Originally she had believed the Moodulator was forcing the feelings upon her. But after being told it only drew existing feelings out and intensified them, she had slowly admitted to herself what she felt. It had been painful, especially when she'd chosen to act upon the feelings.
She'd tried to subtly hint to him that she wanted more than a professional relationship; over the months that had passed after the Moodulator had worked its effects on her, however, he hadn't once picked up on it at all. Then Kim Possible had kicked her into the Li'l Diablo control tower. Suffering a near death experience after the failed Li'l Diablo incident had only reinforced that, perhaps, she should be more forthright with him about her feelings.
Unfortunately, after breaking the two of them out of prison, she hadn't had the chance to talk things out. She didn't want to corner him and scare him away, nor did she want to come across as someone willing to sleep her way up the ladder. Not that thoughts such as that would occur to the mad scientist; especially after he'd missed the sometimes blatant hints she'd been dropping over the last few weeks. He was, well and truly, a mad scientist, and a dorky and oblivious one at that.
Even so, he had a strange sort of charm, when he wanted to, and he was in surprisingly good shape under his bulky lab coat, especially considering his age. At least he's got some legs to go with the upper body, unlike Midas…
Shego dropped her hand listlessly from her eyes to her side, mentally berating at herself for such a comparison. All of this overthinking is not helping! she screamed at herself.
"Shego?" Drakken ventured with nervous concern, and she held a hand up, asking for a moment more of silence. Drakken, wisely, kept his tongue, waiting for his sidekick to finish whatever deliberations she was going through.
The worst part is that I know, not hope, but know, that I'll be back to my normal, snarky self with him in the next week or two and stop all of this idiocy! Now, however, she was lost. She hadn't felt this way in several years; the confusion as to when her feelings had changed, the wondering if he felt the same, the fear that he didn't. It was distracting her, horribly enough that she'd nearly been busted by a fifty something year old security guard when she'd stolen some quantum phase inducing something-or-another for Drakken's latest plot.
Another plot he came up with on his own, she mused with a tired grimace. A plot he had developed while they had been stuck in Global Justice's supermax prison near Pureblo, Colorado. "Sorry, Dr. D.," Shego muttered quietly, "I'm still kinda out of sorts from that radio tower falling on me."
Drakken nodded in understanding. He knew she was tough as nails, but even a nail could bend, or even break. He was still suffering from his own trauma after the Li'l Diablo failure, and he took a more conciliatory tone as he continued. "I understand, but please, Shego, hear me out. Going back in time to stop Kim Possible from being born? This is a far better plan than my Li'l Diablo plot… It would mean the world to me, to us… Literally!"
Shego turned towards Drakken, opening her mouth to shout her denial of his plan's potential for success, and she saw the pout forming once again. Why couldn't you have waited another week to pull this on me, Drew? she raged internally. She tried to fight the feelings that the pout engendered in her, the feeling of weakness, the desire to console him, to just say yes to make him happy. She almost succeeded.
Unfortunately, she found the expression too cute, and it broke down any remaining walls of resistance within her. As if pulling her own teeth without anesthesia, she relented, silently cursing herself and her newfound emotional attachment to the blue skinned goofball, "Fine, Dr. D.! But you owe me a huge raise for this! And we're going someplace other than Karaoke Night this Friday, and without the henchmen!"
"Fine, fine, Shego," Drakken declared contritely, his tone ruined by the surprisingly smug smile he wore. With a firm nod, he turned towards the laboratory, "But don't worry! When we succeed in this, by the time you're back, you'll be in charge of Iceland like you always wanted; perhaps I'll include all of Scandinavia and Western Europe, to boot!"
"Whatever!" Shego scowled at him, wondering once again how someone so brilliant could be so dense, "Just leave me alone unless you need me…"
AD AD AD AD
"Do you hear that, Blue?" the superheroine known as the Red Masque called over her wireless communicator. The small earpiece was a new addition to her team's arsenal, and was built into the rather ornate looking masks they wore, which could easily be mistaken for a feather and lace burlesque butterfly mask at a distance.
Up close, however, one would realize the masks were made of a strong yet light composite, designed to allow most of their faces to be covered, yet allow full peripheral vision and head movement. The masks also held the electronic brains of their communication and low-light, thermal and even ultra-violet vision modes. She was hoping that their tech contact would be able to install a telescopic and HUD system, as it would mean less equipment to carry; for the time being, however, she was ecstatic the masks worked as well as they did.
"The sound like frying bacon and fingernails on a chalkboard?" Blue Masque - the second member of the team known as The Masque Sisters - called over her own communicator, interrupting Red's ruminations. The woman known as the Red Masque grunted an affirmative to her partner, who continued in a rather excited voice, "Yeah, I did! It sounded like came from the east side of Hallway C!"
"About that, yeah."
There was the sound of tapping that Red knew belonged to the brand new touchpads affixed to both of their left forearms, "That'd make it about where Mrs. Lipsky said the possible temporal anomaly should be, which is Silo C-23!"
"Okay," Red remarked, bringing up the same information on the small, hard cased, hand held screen that Mrs. Lipsky designed for them, "I'm at the intersection of Hallway B and F, race ya?"
"No fair! I'm at C and G, and SC-23's at the far end of the complex!" Red nonetheless heard her best friend's breathing increase as the other woman began running, "You're the cross country girl, you'll beat me for sure!"
"Yeah, sure," Red challenged, dashing off herself, "And you can sprint all out for a half mile before you have to slow down to a jog for a breather! That silo's only a little over two kilometers from either of our positions!"
"Whatever!" Blue chuckled between breaths, "You still have the advantage… At that distance!"
"Whining already… Blue?" Red teased, her breathing becoming labored as well.
"How's this:" Blue chuckled out, "First one there buys… The other one dinner and… A few drinks Friday night?"
"Smooth, Blue… Real smooth…" Red huffed out, blushing brightly. Blue started giggling between breaths, drawing a fond, if frustrated, smile from Red, "Fine! You're on!"
"Looks like… You'll owe me… A dinner date… Then!" Blue shot back in an innocent tone of voice. Red shook her head as her blush spread halfway down her neck, even as she performed some calculations in her head. She concluded that it was about dead even as to who would win. Although Red herself was indeed a cross country runner, and quite speedy for her chosen extracurricular, Blue was faster in sprints. The younger woman could also keep an eighty percent sprint for over two kilometers easily, and was physically stronger to boot.
And built like a brick shithouse despite all the weights she lifts. Red griped jealously to herself. No, the coach said the way we're lifting weights didn't add much bulk, so maybe it's because of the weights? Then she blushed a deeper hue as the image of her best friend in a sexy two piece at the Upperton Public Recreation Center flashed across her conscious mind.
Of course, that has to be it! I mean, she looked damn good in that bikini… Although it wasn't the first admission of interest in both men and women she'd ever had, her attraction to women had mostly been an intellectual one. That one event, however, had driven it home on every level, like a sledgehammer being used on a finishing nail.
Then again, their new suits weren't helping, either. While styled similarly to their old Lycra and Spectra blend, the suit was made from a new, flexible sheet style polymer that Mrs. Lipsky's son had invented. The suits were literally extruded into the shape and color design of choice, and sized slightly smaller than the wearer themselves. While somewhat inconvenient to literally wiggle into the slightly stretchy material, once donned it was much like a more comfortable version of a neoprene wetsuit, while being as impermeable to water as a neoprene dry suit.
That's where the similarities between the two materials ended. The suit was less bulky than neoprene, and slid on without the need for talcum powder, while being somewhat more flexible. The suit allowed the skin to breathe, thus being cooler than it should have been, yet gave better cold weather protection than a coat made using several kilograms of heat trapping material. It was also fire resistant to a similar extent to the Nomex used in firefighter and race car driver's suits.
The best thing, in Red's opinion, was the fact that it was bullet proof against any powder based pistol they'd tested against it, as well as most carbines and smaller rifle rounds. With anything above about a .308 caliber, non-armor piercing round or low velocity railguns or coilguns, however, it was merely resistant, but could blunt the force of the round enough to lessen the damage when penetrated. The material also offered incredible resistance to being pierced or cut by knives, but, like larger caliber bullets, it was not proof against such attacks.
The tightness of the suit wasn't really what was bothering Anne, however. Nor was the completely clear nature of the material over certain parts of her body. Blue's, however, revealed a rather enticing amount of her body. Red had chosen a simple design that faded from a deep, almost burnt crimson at her feet to a red almost as bright as the hair flying free from behind her mask. She had also chosen to go with almost ragged looking swatches of clear over her toned midriff and a small, triangular patch at the apex of her cleavage. The overall look was good, in her opinion, as if some of her more daring regular clothing had been painted on her.
The suit design Blue had requested, however, was far more daring, not to mention distracting, at least to Red. There was a double set of opposed chevrons designed into the chest area, leaving a translucent, but not clear, diamond in the middle of her chest.
The lower chevron was squatter and thicker than the upper, and started just above the bottom of her sternum. The thick design showed off the smooth inner and upper curves of her breasts, following the curves of her bosom enticingly to end a couple inches above where her nipples were. The lower chevron was continued again with a narrower one just above her navel, another, even narrower one across her navel, again just below, and the final, smallest one just above her mons pubis.
The upper chevron was thinner and taller, and looked as if it had been drawn from just above the ending of the lower chevron and up to the hollow of her throat, then skipped a solid section of color to continue around her throat to her back. Her back was almost completely clear, save for a few cut ins of color to accentuate the lines of her powerfully built, but nonetheless feminine, musculature. Where the color became solid again, it was styled to look like the very top of a thong peeking out above a pair of low riding jeans.
Red found herself thinking again how she'd felt earlier when she'd seen Blue's completed suit for the first time. Her internal reaction had been almost identical to when she'd seen her friend in the sexy two piece at the rec center, and she had been ever so thankful that she'd been wearing her mask the second time. Even so, she couldn't help but laugh softly as her mind played over her now certain attraction to both sexes, Of course it'd be my best friend in the world that drew that reaction out of me for the first time! Wouldn't mom just kill to have that li'l piece of information to embarrass me with?
"What's so… Funny, babe?" Blue asked, the teasing nickname she'd used for years drawing a further flush of embarrassment from Red.
"Just… Thinking…" Red drawled as she rounded the corner into Hallway C, surprised to find herself only two or three steps behind Blue. She tapped the standby button on her communicator and raised her voice slightly, "That my… Mom would've loved… To be at the… Rec center the… Other day!"
"I would've… Loved her… To be there!" Blue called, glancing back. Seeing the way Red bowed her head slightly, she chuckled despite the run, knowing her friend was blushing madly under her mask. "Hey… She's the hottest… Lesbian I've… Ever met!"
"Damn you!" The powerful scream echoing down the corridor startled both women, stopping their five minutes of nearly all out sprinting as if they'd run into a wall, "Damn you, I hate you!"
"That was… A woman's scream…" Blue gasped out. Being in the corridor that led to SC-23, she and Red whipped out a monocular, changing the focal length for maximum zoom. They both saw the brilliant green flash on the wall where the hallway curved into the silo, shadows cast by the brief, fire-like glow in the room. Lowering their monoculars to their sides, they turned to face each other briefly. "Trouble?" Blue asked, as if to confirm her own thoughts with Red.
"Let's go!" Red barked as they both slipped their monoculars back into their carrying cases. Red got the jump on Blue as they dashed ahead, Blue merely a half step behind, all thoughts of their competition temporarily forgotten.
AD AD AD AD
"Dr. D., I'm still really not sure about this…" Shego muttered as she stepped away from the Time and Space Disjointer and Matter and Energy Translocator. "Are you sure this is going to work? I mean, you could have at least, I dunno, warned me that it could collapse within ninety seconds before sending me through to set up the stabilizer for the portal on this side!" To emphasize her point, she flicked her finger against the solid titanium support beam on the right hand side of the portal maintenance device.
"Shego, I knew you could get it set up within sixty, so there were no problems!" Drakken declared while holding up a finger.
"And if I hadn't had to bodily force that support brace back into the proper alignment, it would have collapsed before the device was up!" Shego muttered darkly, "And then you wouldn't have had to worry about any of the Possibles in the future nor here in the past!"
"Um, perhaps?" Drakken hedged, rubbing his hands together in a nervous fashion.
"No perhaps to it!" Shego griped, "I know enough physics and math, combined with all of your ranting, to know if it had collapsed, you, me, Possible and all your MIST buddies would have been atomized!" She raised a hand and began ticking off points with more and more agitation, "Along with most of northern and central Colorado, southern Wyoming and most of the western Dakotas and northwest Nebra-…"
"A minor detail…" Drakken interrupted dismissively, turning to make sure the readings on the past side of the device were staying constant.
"A 'minor detail' that would be well over twelve hundred gigatons! That's one teraton plus, Dr. D.!" Shego growled back at him. When the blue-skinned mad scientist gave a silent, helpless shrug, she continued in an acerbic tone even as her voice's volume rose dangerously, "I don't know, Dr. D… If I remember science class right, the comet strike in the Yucatan that killed the dinosaurs was about a teraton… And you're seriously going to stand there and call a multi-teraton explosion minor?"
"Since it didn't happen?" Drakken said with a good natured smile, "Yes! And see, the portal could stay open for a week, no problem! As long as it's fed power from the other side of the portal, anyway."
"Blah, blah, blah…" Shego grimaced, "Anyway, Dr. Self Assurance, back to my original question: are you really sure this will work?"
"Of course it will, Shego! Like I keep saying, it's utter simplicity!" Dr. Drakken crowed, then sighed, turning a surprisingly understanding gaze upon Shego, "Look, Shego, if this is about your sexuality, it's all in the union details! You didn't specify that women were not off the list in the 'Seduction Opt Out' of your contract, only that men were ou-…"
"Blah-blah-blah, double negatives aren't part of English, Professor!" Shego interrupted, smirking as Drakken scowled at her use of Dementor's title, "And I know that, Dr. Obvious! I just think this is low, even for us, and I have other reasons for not wanting to do this!"
"Shego, words hurt," Drakken muttered with a pout. However, before he could fall into full rant mode, a deep, confused grimace crossed his face, "Wait a minute, Shego… What do you mean 'other reasons'?"
"For one," she began, ticking off points on her fingers and wondering how she hadn't developed calluses over the years from doing it, "I don't even know if I can fit in this time period… Two? Do we even know if she'll be interested?"
"Shego," Drakken began as he rummaged through one of the duffle bags that Shego had set down on the floor, making sure all of the contents were inside, "You're a very attractive woman! If anyone could seduce a straight woman, it'd be you." Drakken didn't see the slow, deep blush spreading from the top of Shego's head to well under her catsuit, and for that, Shego was thankful. "And that's honestly beside the point! I have some… Inside information, you might say… That Anne wasn't nearly as innocent as she always let on! She loved partying… Or would that be loves? We are in the past, after all…"
"Huh?" Shego's face slackened in confusion, her question briefly forgotten at Drakken's non-sequitur.
Drakken's face screwed up as he pondered the potential quandary. "I mean, if we're in the past, technically, we're talking about the present…" Shego bit her lip, an eye twitching in annoyance. As he continued in a seemingly nonsensical rant, she took a deep breath, slowly counting as the mad scientist continued to ramble. "Therefore, I should use present tense, right? But at the same time, we're from the future, and using the present tense in a situation in which we're both from the future and residing in the present which is our past, I'm not sure which tense I should be usin-…"
"Just get on with it, Drakken!" Shego exploded, her hands flaring warningly with plasma.
"I'm sorry, Shego… Where was I?" Drakken asked contritely, rubbing the back of his neck self consciously.
"She loves partying?" Shego supplied helpfully, dousing her plasma, much to Drakken's relief.
"Ah, yes," Drakken continued as if nothing had happened, "She loved… Erm, loves to party, and she was very close… Very close… To her best female friend before James somehow managed to sweep her off her feet! But like I said, you're a very attractive woma-…"
"You think I'm attractive?" Shego said aloud, not realizing she had spoken until Drakken spoke up.
"Of course you are!" he almost yelled, "Despite being 'somewhat of a shut in' as my mother would say, I am not only a genius, but a straight man, and I do I notice these things!" He tilted his head contemplatively, "Does it really matter whether I find you attractive or not, Shego?"
"Of course it doesn't matter!" Shego growled sarcastically.
"Oh, good, I was beginning to worry." Drakken sighed in relief, slowly turning about as he checked to make sure everything they'd determined she'd need was there.
Shego, despite being annoyed at the barely contained desire to call out affirmations at his innocently asked question, was even more perturbed to see him miss the sarcasm entirely. Of course he'd take my comment at face value! she growled to herself. She opened her mouth to voice her protests, but saw he was almost facing her. Realizing by the contemplative look on his face that he'd want further explanation, she dredged up yet another of her reasons for avoiding this job and tossed it at him, "I just think it's low to break up a family… With my past, it makes me uncomfortab-…"
"And that's beside the point, too, Shego!" Drakken interrupted fervently, "I'm sorry if this is bringing up your past, but we are, first and foremost, evil, an evil family, and this is for the best!"
"It's best to break up a family before it even forms?" Shego asked, grimacing at the bitter tone coloring her own voice, "It's best to essentially kill Princess without even being face to face with her?"
"Shego," Drakken took a step forward, his hands held up and gesturing desperately between them, "I need to level with you, here… You're like the niece I'll never have, and if we don't get rid of that pesky cheerleader, don't you think that eventually our evil family will be broken up? Do you want that?" Shego shook her head in mute hurt, her idea, her hope if she were honest with herself, of being an evil family together so different than the one Drakken seemed to envision. "Besides, with Kim Possible out of the way, I'll be able to bring you back to our time, and we'll take over in no tim-…"
"Uh-buh-buh-buh-buh-buh!" Shego shouted, the hurt from Drakken missing all the hints she'd been dropping, and now his seeming disregard for her finally cracking the shell that her rage had been hidden behind, "What do you mean '…bring me back…', huh? Are you just going to leave me back here until I succeed with no way to get ahold of you?"
"Of course not, Shego, because you'll have this!" Drakken said soothingly, withdrawing a small, gunmetal grey device from his lab coat's inner pocket, gingerly holding it to her "It's a beacon, just press this button to turn the device, then press and hold the button below it until it beeps three times, then press it three times quickly afterwards. I'll get your beacon signal, and open a portal back to our time from wherever you may be at or in the past!"
"So," Shego finally grunted, stepping forward to grab the device from his hands. She stared up at him, tempted to strike him viciously despite the long standing loyalty and feelings she had only recently admitted harboring for the blue goof. Instead she paced around, pinching the bridge of her nose as she spoke, "I just have to seduce Princess' mom, make sure she and her husband never get together, and eliminate Kim Possible from the timestream, then head back home as if nothing's happened?"
"Exactly!" Drakken crowed, "I knew you understa-…"
"Won't that mess with the timestream, Dr. D.?" Shego asked, surprising the doctor with the simple, but rather important question.
"It won't change much, Shego; it will just eliminate that cheerleader!" Drakken smiled confidently, hoping that Shego would buy the shockingly smooth lie. And that she didn't notice the sweat trickling down the back of his neck. Or the way he tensed his legs, ready to bolt at a moment's notice. Or the fact that his knees were almost knocking togeth-…
The inner ruminations were cut off as the green hued thief sighed, her voice a soft growl, "I'm going to play with a woman's emotions, tricking her into thinking I'm in love with her so she falls in love with me…" Shego stomped towards Drakken, her free hand clenching and unclenching as she advanced on him.
"Shego?" Drakken gasped.
"I don't suppose," Shego snapped, "That you remember the last time I played with a Possible woman's emotions, do you?"
"Um…" Drakken gulped, backing up, sweat breaking out on his brow as he backed away from the advancing woman, "Now, Shego, no need to get cross! I've thought this plan out completely, and Anne wasn't a Possible at this point!"
"Oh, really?" Shego asked with a raised eyebrow, "And just who, exactly, was she?"
"Like I said before, Shego, James and Anne are not dating!" Drakken hedged, edging around the circular chamber towards the portal. When Shego raised an eyebrow at him, he gulped nervously, continuing in a rush, "She's Anne Credible, she won't start dating James for about two and a half months…"
"And since you're only now telling me all this," Shego muttered in annoyance, ignoring the subtle pang of familiarity Anne Possible's maiden name set off within her. Instead, she followed Drakken as he went back the way he came, trying to get more space between himself and the angry sidekick, "Perhaps you figured wouldn't matter? Huh?"
"Well," Drakken stammered, "Yes, I didn't think it would be pertinent! Besides, it's all in the information I sent back with you!"
"Oh?" she spat at him, "Does that information of yours also tell me how, exactly, I'm going to accomplish making myself 'fit in' in this time period? After all, I picked out the clothing, and know techniques that can make my green skintone go away to the point that light makeup can hide it, but I'll be left with no facts beyond what I've dug up, and a borrowed personae draw from for at least a month, if not two if I have to go around, sneaking my way into every place you suggested with the paperwork!"
Drakken was beginning to sweat, especially with the vehement way Shego stabbed a clawed finger at the attaché case with all of the documents she'd just mentioned. He drew a quiet, long breath, trying to center himself. After all, he knew he'd thought things through, taken everything into consideration, but his panic addled mind was having trouble dredging up the information.
He circled around, looking frantically, before his eyes finally once again alighted back on the large, steel sided attaché case Shego had pointed out where it sat next to the buzzing time portal. "Ah-ha, that's right!" he crowed, pointing, "The modified communication device of Possible's will allow you to access the internet from any unsecured wireless signal with enough free bandwidth. Don't forget, Shego, I grew up in this time, and I know wireless was starting to get fairly widespread."
"It looks like some old smartphone, Doc," Shego interrupted, screwing her face up in confusion, "Not Prince-…"
"I designed it to fit in, Shego!" Drakken interrupted right back, "It'll even act like a phone from back then! Back now! Nnghh, this time period! But it has the advantage of bein-…"
"And if I can't find a signal with enough bandwidth?" Shego cut in with a raised eyebrow.
Drakken paused and pulled himself back full rant mode, trying his best to calm the pale thief and make her see the logic of the situation that was so obvious to him. "Easily: if you don't have the wireless bandwidth, the device can be used from any wireless Internet computer, just like the wireless phone network! You could also plug it into a USB or serial port!"
"But not an Ethernet port?" Shego pressed pointedly, raising a hand as Drakken drew himself up indignantly, "I know, I know, doc, they don't put Ethernet ports on phones! But what if I can't find a good enough signal anywhere? Or if I can't find a free computer to plug it into in time to make this work?"
"If, for some reason, you can't get it close to a computer for long enough to plug into it directly, or access the back, the disks I have with it contain a wireless access point that can interface with any CD-ROM or three point five inch floppy drive while wirelessly communicating with the device, allowing it to use the computer's wired internet access to do the same thing!" He paused and brought his hand to his chin, scratching it thoughtfully, "Honestly, you should probably use all three versions of the technique, come to think of it… Just to be sure, of course!"
"What about places that don't have electronic records?" Shego asked sarcastically despite being impressed with his last thoughtful addition. She glanced at her hand as she realized she held something. Seeing the beacon, she bent over to place the beacon safely inside her catsuit's leg pouch.
"You do what you do best?" Drakken asked nervously, drawing Shego's attention from her unopened leg pouch to his hopeful face. Her face twisted in confusion as she stood, staring icy daggers at the blue man.
"Dr. D…" Shego sighed, crossing her arms over her chest, "I mentioned a little earlier the time we're in now? You do realize that I'll probably need to steal vehicles, gas money and etcetera. Granted, I'm one of the best thieves there is, but that much petty theft tends to get noticed! Just to make the person I chose to use a missing person as opposed to dead? It won't wor-…"
"I know, Shego," Drakken interrupted gently as he raised his hands, "But hear me out. All you'd have to do is use your thieving skills, like you said, to get the hardcopy in place. And you won't have to steal anything, since I'm leaving you the new hovercraft with a clear hardtop I received from HenchCo!"
Author's Notes
First note, my section breaks have a meaning within the context of the fic… And I won't tell ya what it is, but you're more than welcome to guess. ;) Secondly, I had originally written this chapter out to one "'Neb unit", and I shrank it, afraid it might be a bit too much for one chapter. A 'Neb Unit, for those that don't know, is ten thousand words, the name of course coming from the late, great Cpneb's tendency to write ten thousand words per chapter. :)
Anyway, before I go further, I have to thank Neo the Saiyan Angel and Fuzen Ninja for looking this over and making it readable. That aside, this fic was started as a cookie, then became something to bull my way through and around a pretty heavy duty writer's block. Now that It's a fic in and of itself… I hope I've succeeded with an intriguing, fun piece! It's obviously not complete, and I'll be working on it in the time I'm not writing the last few chapters of the Fannies and doin' beta work for Noobfish and helping Neo the Saiyan Angel with plot bunnehs and minor beta work (by the way: go read their stuff, it's awesomesauce!).
As to why I chose some things to be the way they are in the fic… As mentioned in the Author's Forward, I wanted to present at least a plausible thought as to the greater world than has been presented in the KP series. The tech of the KPverse is obviously far in advance of ours, so when I took the challenge, I decided to let my mind wander… Fortunately - or perhaps unfortunately, in some respects? – I came up with a world with technological advancements much like ours, with a few extra goodies thrown in thanks to "super-science" and the like… That still has 80s music… And lots of 80's style when it comes to certain things… Hopefully everyone enjoys it as much as I am writing it!
I took some liberties with character's thought processes in this (and, as many fanfiction authors do, with their past…), especially Shego's thoughts concerning events directly post-So the Drama and Emotion Sickness (I'm quite worried that she's too OOC, even considering what's going through emotionally, so…). Even considering that, however, most of the rest characters presented in the fic are, of course, only a little older than the main characters in the Kim Possible TV series - or looked at another way, nearly twenty years younger than they were in the show - and I'm trying to take that into account with their characterization. Hopefully I've stayed true enough to their general outlook, but do let me know if I've fallen flat on my face. Anyway, my thoughts are pretty much done, and I hope I didn't bore ya too much…
Thanks for reading, everyone!
