This is my effort to put off having to write chapter 4 of 'In Her Absence'. I love everything about that story…except for Kim. I'm gonna have to swallow a lot of bile to get through that part of it, so I'm going to start on a different story. Unlike 'In Her Absence', I only have a general idea of what I want to do, so most of this is going to be by the seat of my pants. It's set before 'So the Drama'. Hopefully, I won't butcher it too much. Now, gentlemen, BEHOLD! CORN!! …no, that's not a good title. Hmm…how about 'A Second Chance'? I dunno.

I give my thanks to my beta, Supreme Distraction, for going through this story and making sure it was presentable.

Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible the show or the character, or any other character or product or whatever on that show. If I did, then Kim wouldn't've had it so easy.

I. Memory Collapse

"Behold, Shego! This is my greatest plan yet!" a harsh, low-pitched voice boomed throughout a cavernous room. The arms of the person to whom the voice belonged lifted into the air, the hands bunched into fists as he began to laugh. "Hahahahaha! I'll be able to take over the world for certain this time." The blue man in the dark blue labcoat lowered his arms and flipped his black, spiky, ponytailed hair back over his shoulder. He then pointed both his arms toward his new invention. If anyone else had been watching besides the minty green, black haired woman decked out in a green and black harlequin-style jumpsuit, there would almost certainly had been the expectation of a bright light coming from the machine and a 'Ta-da!' noise emitting from the speakers positioned in the room. Instead, the woman sat in a chair, looking utterly bored and a little annoyed as she twisted a strand of hair in one hand and held a magazine in the other.

"Le gasp, like I haven't heard THAT one before," the lighter, feminine voice replied, every word dripping with sarcasm. "It really doesn't take much to top your past efforts, now does it, Dr. D? This is what, your third plan this week? You said the same thing about all of them. I'm missing valuable beach time for this…this…what IS this pile of junk, anyway?" A black glove gestured toward what appeared to be a dentist's chair with a strainer attached to the top instead of a light. There were random wires sticking out everywhere and it looked like it could fall apart at any second. The blue face of her partner-in-crime fell and he crossed his arms in frustration.

"Sheeegooooo, do you ALWAYS have to harsh my mellow?" he whined a bit, walking over to his device. His face immediately perked up as he put his hand on one of the shoulder pads of the chair. "It's my Memory Nullification Pod! With this device, I will be able to erase the memories of whoever sits in it. Afterward, I'll condition them to respond to me as their one true ruler. I'll be able to mold an army of loyal minions out of the weak-minded buffoons that populate this town! Bwahahahaha!" the man laughed maniacally.

"Oooookay then. So what, are you gonna have them line up for a good ol' ride in the memor-erase-whatever-"

"MEMORY NULLIFICATION POD!"

"-machine?" Shego continued to talk as if the interruption from the blue scientist hadn't occurred. "Granted, some people are that stupid, but I think that after the second person gets off and asks what's goin' on, people are going to get what's going on."

"Er…well, you see… Hmm…" Drakken began to get lost in thought trying to find a way around what he considered to be a minor problem with his scheme.

"Whatever. All I care about is the fact that I was supposed to be on vacation TWO DAYS AGO," Shego emphasized the last three words. She got out of her seat and dropped her magazine on the floor. She began talking slowly and taking small steps toward her employer, hands and fingers in a claw-like position at her sides. "You said that it was urgent that I steal the notes from that what-cha-ma-call-it institute. I waited to go on my vacation, thinking you actually managed to think of something clever. And now, after all of the waiting that I had to do, you present THIS?!" Her hands then erupted into flames as she moved within striking distance of the doctor. Drakken noticed this and began to back off, hands raised in a placating manner, and began to try to calm his partner.

"Well, Shego, I needed the research from the Middleton Medical Center on memory because I wasn't certain how much longer that guy was going to be able to research that stuff. He's been at it for nearly four years. The grant money has to be running out eventually. And don't worry. I'll fix it so that it will be able to wipe the memory of everyone in Middleton. Then, no one will be able to stop me!" Shego's eyes narrowed and her flames burned even brighter at that statement. "Er…us. No one will be able to stop us. Hehehe…"

"Wrong, Drakken!" a loud, heroic voice echoed through the room.

"Yeah, dude, you are going DOWN!" a second voice chimed in.

"Yeah!" a third, squeaky voice added.

"Kim Possible!?" Drakken yelled, looking up at his red haired arch-foe in anger and confusion. "How did you get here so fast?"

"It's simple, Drakken. You left your window open," Kim said, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. "We heard you scheming on our way back from school, so we quick changed clothes and climbed up to the ledge."

"We live a couple of blocks that-a-way," Ron, her blonde sidekick, said as he pointed toward his left. "Isn't it a bad idea to live and scheme right down the street from your foe?" Rufus, his pet naked mole rat, popped his head out of Ron's pants pocket and gave a little shrug.

"GrrrrRRRRR!" Drakken grunted while grinding his teeth together. "It makes it easier for me! Most of the good research is done in this small town, U.S.A., and I don't like to have to go long distances to get what I want. I get sick over long trips and it's not like fuel for my machines is cheap."

"Can't you make them more efficient? Save a few trees or something like that?" Ron asked. "I mean, that would help to save a few bucks, make things easier on the ozone-"

"Can it, sidekick!" Shego yelled, her eyes focused on Kim. "So, Kimmie, you think you can take me? I'm in a bad mood thanks to the resident 'genius'. This'll be fun."

"Please, Shego. The day you take me down is the day you have a better fashion sense than me. Considering your clothes have never been in, I'm sure that I'm going to win."

"Arrgh!" Shego cried as she charged at the teen hero with her outstretched, razor-tipped gloves covered in green flames. As she swiped at Kim, Kim ducked and threw a punch at the green villainess's midsection. Shego managed to roll out of the way and jumped back on her feet. While the two women did their deadly dance, Ron and Rufus went to try to destroy Drakken's machine.

"There's a lot of wires here. Which one should we cut first?" Ron asked Rufus. "What about this green one? It looks evil, doesn't it?" Rufus jumped on the machine and began to run from wire to wire, also having trouble deciding which one to cut first.

"Get off of my Memory Nullification Pod, you little pink rat!" Drakken yelled as he lunged at Rufus. Rufus dodged under the madman while Ron tried to run to the side of the machine. His pants, however, decided to stay where they were as they caught on the armrest of the chair. Ron's legs swung up and hit Drakken in his left side, causing his body to twist as his momentum made him fall into the chair. The force caused the strainer-like helmet to fall on the mad scientist's head as Ron's flailing arms hit several buttons on the side of the machine.

"Uh-oh," Ron uttered as the machine came to life, quickly going from a quiet buzz to an ear-splitting shriek.

"Oh, snap," Drakken said with wide eyes right before his entire body went stiff. Ron backed away, eyes wide and mouth dropped in horror. Drakken's pupils became pinpricks as electricity began to surge through the machine and sparking off of his body. The light show caught the attention of the two warring athletes. Shego stopped in the middle of a downward kick to stare at her boss, who was beginning to convulse, his hands holding the armrests as if his life depended on it. Kim had her arms up to block the kick, but her eyes had also become locked on the sight of the shaking blue man. A few seconds later, Kim had recovered her wits. She ran over and pulled out numerous wires on the machine. The Memory Nullification Pod's loud wail slowed to a soft whir and the electricity leaking out of the machine stopped. The blue doctor's body went limp, his eyes shut and his breathing slow. His hair was standing up and there were small burn marks all over his face. Kim quickly but gently removed the unconscious man from the machine, lifting the helmet off of his head and laying him on the floor. She checked his pulse and made certain that he was breathing.

Meanwhile, Shego had slowly walked toward the heroic teen and her fallen employer. She shifted her eyes onto the clearly shaken Ron for a second before returning to the odd sight of her archenemy trying to revive her boss. A few minutes passed, during which time Kim had called for help and Ron had gotten his ability to talk back. He was still missing the ability to be coherent, however, as he uttered absolute nonsense such as, "Meh.", "Nyaaa.", and "Waaahh.". However, once Shego lit up her hands, Ron was once again silent.

Kim was just starting to get worried that there was serious damage done to the mad scientist when he started to moan and move around. She stood back up and took a few steps back to give him some space. Shego went over to his feet and gave them a hard kick.

She walked over to his head, bent forward so that her mouth was near his ear, and shouted, "Yo! Wake up, Dr. D! We have ta get going if we don't want to end up in prison!" He slowly opened one eye and looked at the green supervillainess.

"Huh?" he said groggily, his eye struggling to focus on Shego. Shego straightened up and held her hand between herself and her boss.

"How many fingers, genius?" she said. The blue man opened his other eye and looked at her hand.

"Depends. Are we counting the thumb as a finger?" he muttered slowly.

"Yup. He's just fine," Shego said in a slightly disappointed tone. Ron let out a sigh of relief and Kim relaxed—until she heard Shego say, "C'mon, Dr. D, let's go. I'd prefer not to end up wearing a tacky orange outfit at the end of the day."

"Oh no you don't, Shego! You two are going to jail for stealing those research notes from the medical center," Kim said as she jumped in front of Shego and struck a kung-fu pose.

"Move it, Princess!" Shego growled, striking a pose of her own. "You saved the day, did the hero thing, blah blah blah. Now it's time to say bye-bye."

"Not a chance!"

The scientist got to his feet as Kim and Shego began to fight again. Ron walked over to him slowly with a guilty frown on his face. "Uh, dude, are you okay? You got a bit of a shock from that machine thingy."

"Who are you? And why are those two women fighting?" the older man asked while scratching his head.

"Is my name really that forgettable? It's Ron Stoppable. Say it with me: Rrooonn Sstoooppppabllle. I'm Kim's sidekick, remember? And they're fighting because you two are trying to escape. Like always."

"Escape what?"

"Going to jail. I know that your morals are a bit off, Drakken, but I don't think that the guy that did that research on the memory stuff wanted you to steal them."

Then the blue man said something so incredibly weird and unexpected that everyone once again stopped what they were doing to resume staring at him.

"What in the world is a drakken and why in the world would I steal anything?"