Summary: A Drakken weapon discharge during a save the world sitch has a very unexpected result, and a supposedly uncompromising teenager appears ready to try mending some burned bridges with an archenemy. But what's really the sitch, and are things even worse than they appear? Rated K+ (sorry, so not a KIGO sitch!). R&R or PM. Please and thank you!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination; all characters belong to their actual creators and/or the current copyright holders. The following work of fiction was done for fun only, and not for any monetary or other financial considerations.
Kim Possible and her friends/enemies/fellow characters © Disney (created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle)
Possible Perfection?
A week after yet another big battle in yet another time-share lair that marked the apparent defeat of yet another Drakken take over the world scheme, Shego found herself window shopping. She was wearing dark glasses and a hat to make sure no one recognized her; after all, it had only been three days since she and Drakken escaped from jail and had gone into hiding. And she was wearing regular street clothing to further hide her identity, as well as using some cosmetics to cover up her unusual skin color.
Shego smiled as she saw an interesting dress in the display window of a still open store. She was giving additional thought to it when a familiar voice interrupted her.
"That is a pretty nice dress, and the color does go well with your skin eyes and hair; you want to at least check it out, Shego."
The super villainess spun around, ready to do battle even without her trademark cat suit.
"Kimmie, what are you doing here? Are you and your boyfriend here to try and take me back in? Where is monkey boy anyway? I don't see him or the hairless rodent anywhere."
Kim, who was also not in her usual mission clothing but wearing fairly standard street clothes herself, put both her hands up, showing both open palms to Shego. She did not seem to be preparing for a fight, and that in itself was unusual.
"So not the drama, Shego, I'm just here to apologize. Ron and Rufus are back in Middleton playing with Felix in one of those video games that they all like so much."
Shego wasn't sure she trusted Kim, but somehow the teenage hero sounded a little different from her usual self, and she decided to let her Princess say at least a few more words about her presence.
"Okay Pumpkin, what are you here to apologize for? Your hairstyle? Your boyfriend? Your choice of hobbies? Your annoying ability to keep on defeating Dr. Drakken without even breaking a sweat?" Shego could not help herself; whenever she saw the redheaded teenager, she felt an uncontrollable urge to become an insult comic.
Normally Kim would instantly respond in kind, insult for insult, and verbal sting for verbal sting. But not today. Today Shego's arch nemesis simply answered the question.
"Well, Shego, I believe I said a lot of hurtful words in our last fight together, and I'm now sorry for having said them. I hope that someday you may forgive me for those insults. And I promise you that I will try my best to not repeat such bad behavior in the future."
Now Shego was even more confused. "What?" she asked, clearly not believing her ears. "What's wrong with you, Princess? You actually sounded like you meant that! What's happened to the bratty teenager that I've grown to really hate and despise, the irritating heroine that I simply cannot stand?"
"Well, Shego, I think the teenager may have grown up a little bit in the past week. I realize now how irritating to you and others I've been, and I'm going to do my best to put that behind me and be more civil in the future. After all, I have been doing a lot of thinking about such things ever since Drakken shot at me with that new ray gun of his during our last fight, and I-"
Shego interrupted Kimmie before she could finish her sentence. "That's it!" she cried, with a sense of triumph. "Now I know why you're different; one of Dr. D's inventions finally worked. I knew if he kept fooling around in his lab, he would eventually get something right!"
"What are you talking about Shego?" Asked a mildly interested, but apparently otherwise unconcerned Kim. "What was that ray gun supposed to do to me? I thought it simply was one more of his non-successes when he shot at me and I felt nothing."
Shego smiled, as she prepared to deliver the bad news to the apparently clueless cheerleader. This was going be so much fun!
"Well, the way he told me, Kimmie, it would permanently remove your will to fight, and take away the edge you always have over me or him in each of our battles. I personally didn't think that it had a chance of working the way he talked about it so much, but it looks like I was really wrong."
Shego then did something she would never have dared one week earlier. Reaching forward, she gently cupped the teenager's face between her two hands, and then gently rocked her face to left and right.
"You'd never let me do this if you are still the old Kimmie, right, Princess?"
"No, I guess not, Shego. Does this make you happy?" The redheaded girl with the green eyes asked, apparently somewhat interested in the answer to her question.
"Oh yes, Kimmie it does indeed. And Dr. D will be very happy too as soon as I tell him about this. He's finally succeeded in taking you out of the game. No more cheerleader problems? He will be overjoyed!"
But Shego was still uncertain about something. Her defeated opponent was smiling, not frowning at the revelation that she had been defeated. Why was she still smiling?
"Kimmie, aren't you unhappy that you can't defeat me, or even fight me, anymore?"
"No, of course not, Shego. If I don't fight you anymore, I'll have more time with Ron, and Rufus, in my family. I'll have more time to do cheerleading at school and study for college entrance exams. I'll enjoy having more time for myself with others. In fact, I'll even have enough time for you if you decide to come visit me in Middleton, or if you call me on the phone or send a message to my e-mail address if you ever decide to chat." As Kim finished talking, she handed Shego one of her business cards, which contained both phone and e-mail information as well as her special web site address.
"Yeah Princess, like that's ever going to happen. Maybe after Dr. D and I conquer the world." Shego said continuing to rock Kim's face back and forth gently by continuing to alternately press Kim's left and right cheeks with the bare palms of her own hands.
Strangely, Kim did not complain at all about Shego's handling of her face, but continued to smile as if she did not have a care in the world. She seemed almost truly happy that her crime fighting career was over, and that she was now at the mercy of Shego's whims.
Eventually Shego tired of her fun with her former adversary and released Kim's captive face, stepping back for a final look. "Well, Kimmie, I think I will go buy the dress, and wear it at a victory party for me and Dr. D. What do you think of that Kimmie?"
"Spankin', Shego" replied the teenager, still wearing that strange and almost pitiful smile. If Shego had any real feeling for the young girl, she would have felt very sorry for the now totally powerless former crime fighter. Oh, well, she could still rescue cats from trees and baby sit. At least as long as they didn't fight back.
Shego turned away from Kim and walked into the clothing store, and was soon talking with the sales clerk.
Kim watched for a few more seconds, still smiling faintly, then turned around herself, and started to walk down the street away from the clothing store. When she was far enough away, she pulled out her Kimmunicator, and started talking to her computer genius friend Wade.
"Well Wade, did you get all that? What you think?"
"Kim, talk about an epic fail! Dr. Drakken's record is unbroken! Either his devices don't work at all, or they have just the opposite effect that he intends. By the way, Kim, how long were Shego's hands in contact with your cheeks?"
"At least 1 minute, Wade, far longer than I was in contact with you or Mom or Dad or the tweebs. I'm sure she got a very good dose of Dr. D's nanites from me. So I am pretty sure that three days from now, Shego will begin to suspect how I'm really feeling right now."
Kim paused for a moment, and then continued with a reminder.
"If she does call my website, make sure you put her through right away so I can talk with her about the changes she's going through. Just put her through any time of day or night. Please and thank you!"
"Sure thing Kim. And I guess we should both be very thankful that Drakken never told her how you going to be changed by his ray gun. If she had known that the yellow beam stream was actually a stream of special nanites being shot through the air at you, she would never have touched you and become infected by the same nanites that Drakken infected you with!"
"You're certainly right about that, Wade. And we're also fortunate that Shego totally misunderstood my smile and my agreement about me being unwilling to fight. She still thinks it's because the nanites weakened my resolve and increased my character flaws. And she doesn't realize that they are actually working in the opposite way: the nanites are decreasing my character flaws and strengthening my resolve in all of my activities and endeavors, including my efforts to help others."
"You know, Wade, back before that last fight, Shego always kept on taunting me about how nearly perfect I was already trying to act, and even occasionally called me "Little Miss Perfect". And back then, I was really quite far from perfect and did not really deserve that title at all, either as an insult or a compliment. I was sometimes braggy, a bit stuck up, and enjoyed my "all that" persona way too much! But now thanks to those unintentional improvement nanites I was hit with a week ago, I'm now actually getting very close to perfect in reality."
Then Kim's faint smile became really large as she added joyfully: "And it really feels spankin', Wade! I just feel so much better than before!"
Kim paused again for a moment, and then changed the subject, smiling even more broadly.
"Say, Wade, could you set up a ride back to Middleton for me as soon as possible? I know I had to come here to give Shego her gift, but I didn't really want to bail out on Ron and Felix and their video game marathon today. I really want to get back and join them in mashing mummies, especially since I now realize how shallow I was being before when I was always bailing out on them!"
"Sure thing, Kim! I'm on it!" responded her young friend, his fingers already flying over his keyboard.
Waiting for her ride home didn't really displease the teenage heroine like it often had before she had been hit by Drakken's beam of nanites, and her mood improved even more when she heard that Will Du and Dr. Director would be on the GJ hypersonic transport. She really looked forward to giving them both their gifts, especially after the way she had been always treating poor Agent Du. She would be very sure to sincerely apologize to them both for all of her past improper attitudes and assure them that she would do her best to be better behaved in the future.
Her best in the past had been pretty good, despite her many flaws. Now her best would be much, much better…possibly perfect.
And, as the hovering GJ jet lowered a rope ladder for her to climb up, Kim reminded herself that she had to make sure that she apologized to Bonnie first thing on Monday. It was well past time that she worked out all her school based issues as well as her "save the world" ones.
After all, she was still the one and only Kim Possible. She had always claimed that she could do anything, even when she was held back by her many shortcomings. How much more could she now do with those shortcomings finally removed?
Kim really looked forward to finding the answer to that question…
****The End****
(A/N: Well, this is my shortest one shot to date, but I just hope that you still found it a good read. In any case, please let me know what you think of it by posting a review or sending me a PM. And now, I'd best get back to that work of mine in progress, "Multiversing with Kim", and see if I can finally get Chapter Nine up without much further delay.)