Disclaimer: Kim Possible and all IP as it is presented in the canon animated television series is Copyright and Trademark by the Disney Company, using characters originally created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. This is a transformative fan fiction work.
THE SHADOW OF INFINITY, REBOOT – CHAPTER 1
Story Copyright © Dale W. Robbins (crimsonhawk)
"And so, without further adieu, I now present to you… our newly inaugurated Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Betty Director!"
Betty Director, dressed sharply in a very expensive lady's business suit, crossed the stage that had been set up outside of the UN General Assembly Building. The man who had been speaking deferred the podium to Betty, smiling politely to her as he did so. Betty smiled in return and stepped up to the microphone. Flashbulbs from the attending press punctuated the thunderous applause as Betty patiently awaited the calm.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Nations of the World," Betty said into the microphone once that calm did arrive, "Please allow me to thank you for…"
Suddenly, a broad-shouldered man in the front of the attending crowd threw off his hat and sunglasses in one fluid motion, revealing a man with handsome features, dark brown hair with light brown highlights, a goatee, and an eyepatch over his left eye. He clenched his metallic right fist in front of him as he smiled maniacally.
"…for allowing you to give the world over to your older twin brother, Gemini!" the man declared loudly.
Betty rolled her eyes and sighed. "Sheldon, even if the UN Secretary-General had that kind of power… which, by the way, pro tip, bro, she doesn't… I wouldn't just hand the world over to you that way. Or any other way."
An Asian man standing nearby in a Global Justice dress uniform stepped up next to Betty and gazed unemotionally down on the villain. "Would you like your rights read to you before or after we handcuff you, Gemini?"
As the Global Justice leader spoke, the crowd around Gemini parted to reveal over a dozen more Global Justice officers surrounding the villain. The blaster rifles in their hands were already primed and aimed at Gemini.
Gemini grinned wickedly as he glanced around him. He then looked back up at Betty and the Global Justice leader. "Oh, Commander Will Du, do you honestly believe I would just show up like this, all alone and vulnerable to capture?"
With that, Gemini pointed a metallic finger towards the sky and fired a flare from his fingertip. The flare exploded into a fiery blaze that lit up even the midsummer daylight sky. Then the sky went dark.
Both Betty and Will Du glanced up and realized with horror that Gemini indeed had not come alone. A flying carrier had suddenly positioned itself over the UN General Assembly Building and was depositing dozens upon dozens of paratroopers into the crowd below. When Betty shot her gaze back at her brother, Gemini was suddenly flanked by two new individuals. One was a beautiful, young, scantily clad blonde woman holding twin blaster pistols. The other was a large man in medieval-style breastplate armor and ram's horns on his helmet. The man did not hold any blasters in his hands, but his did have two unconscious Global Justice officers in his arms.
Betty assessed the situation quickly and glared at Gemini. "Virgo? Aries? Taking the Zodiac motif a bit too far, Sheldon?"
"You will find, dear Betty, that the Worldwide Empire of Evil is far more capable of seizing this opportunity than you seem capable of understanding. FOR THE EMPIRE!"
"FOR THE EMPIRE!" all of the incoming paratroopers yelled as they landed and began to take hostages from the crowd and scuffle with the attending Global Justice officers.
"Because Disney and Lucasarts will never sue you for using that battle cry," Betty remarked sarcastically before she and Will Du ducked behind the podium to dodge incoming blaster fire.
Gemini sneered as he stepped towards the stage, firing blaster bolts from his metallic fingertips ceaselessly at the podium. Virgo kept her back to Gemini's, firing her twin blaster pistols at targets she felt were getting to close to her leader.
"I will kill all of these hostages if you do not surrender the Security Council allegiance to me!" Gemini yelled.
"That's not how the United Nations works, Sheldon!" Betty yelled back, still crouched behind the podium.
"Then make it work that way!" Gemini shouted, still firing at the podium. "Or everyone dies!"
"Um, Gemini?" Virgo suddenly muttered as she stopped firing her pistols and looked up.
"What is it, my dear?" Gemini asked, his baleful gaze still fixed on the podium.
"We've got trouble," Virgo replied.
Gemini turned his glance around to see what Virgo was looking at. His one good eye went wide when he saw it.
At the top of a nearby building, two women stood. One had short, tapered red hair and wore a white body suit with blue trim. The other had long, lustrous raven hair and wore a black body suit with green trim. Both suits had matching boots, gloves, belts, and short-sleeved jackets.
"Oh, did I forget to mention that I didn't come alone, either?" Betty asked whimsically from her position behind the podium.
Gemini snarled at the sight of the women. "Kim Possible," he growled to himself.
The red-haired woman glared back down at Gemini. Then, she raised her hand, as if to signal someone.
"Team Possible! GO!"
The battle was joined. As Kim Possible and the black haired woman leapt down from the building, they were followed by dozens of others. Most of them looked identical, men sporting red hair and a red uniform similar to Kim's. But there were others.
A tanned brunette woman wearing an immaculately tailored explorer's outfit began trading twin blaster shots with Virgo while an African-American woman bearing a longbow and arrows engaged several WEE soldiers at once and easily held her own. A brown-haired Caucasian man in a flying wheelchair jetted about the battlefield, scooping up hostages and bystanders while a tiny naked mole rat scurried underfoot the WEE soldiers, tripping them and making them blast at each other. A violet-haired man sped through the crowd, shrinking and growing in random patterns to uppercut unsuspecting foes while a brute of a blue-haired man barreled through the crowd and engaged Aries in hand-to-hand combat. All the while, the multitude of identical red-haired men mixed into melee with the majority of the WEE soldiers.
Several small fighter jets came screaming out of the flying carrier, but they were greeted by a large stealth fighter jet. The stealth jet deftly dodged a great amount of blaster fire from the small fighter jets and expertly began picking off those jets one by one.
Gemini screamed and began firing blaster bolts of his own at the two women running towards him. The raven-haired woman charged directly at the villain while the redhead suddenly blinked out of sight.
"I will not let you or your wife ruin this day, Shego!" Gemini yelled, still firing at the raven-haired woman as closed in on him. "Neither you nor Kim Possible will win this day!"
"Like we're giving you a choice in that matter," Shego growled as she clobbered Gemini squarely on the chin with a green flame enveloped fist.
The African-American woman spun to fire off more arrows and was greeted by a strange man dressed as a satyr and using a crossbow of his own. They exchanged arrows and bolts as the brunette and Virgo continued to blast at each other. Another man, with long hair not unlike that of a lion's mane, leapt from the crowd to tackle the man in the flying wheelchair. The violet-haired man attempted to intercept that melee, but was cut off by a Middle-Eastern woman lashing out with two dagger-tipped whips. A robot, shaped much like a humanoid fish, descended from the carrier and began systematically tracking and firing scalding water blasts at the naked mole rat. And the blue-haired man continued to trade epic blows with Aries.
Betty and Will Du held their position behind the podium as the intense blaster fire flew haphazardly about the battlefield. Betty drew a holdout blaster from a leg holster hidden under her skirt as Will Du cocked his own custom-built firearm. Before either of them could act, however, Kim Possible blinked into existance next to them straight out of thin air.
"Gyah!" Betty gasped before sighing loudly. "I'll never get used to how you incorporated your brothers' technology into your battlesuit."
"Well, Mego has the superspeed shtick pretty well covered and I'd like to think that I'm honoring Sidestep's memory with my choice," Kim replied. "Ready to bolt on out of here?"
"I'd rather make sure the situation is under control first," Betty replied honestly. She adjusted her own eyepatch, which covered her right eye as opposed to Gemini's left eye, as she spoke.
"You're the Secretary-General now, Dr. Director," Will Du reminded the older woman. "Not the Commander of Global Justice. Your safety needs to be paramount."
"I agree with Will, Betty," Kim added, extending a hand. "Let's get you out of here."
"But…," Betty started to protest.
"Big problem, Kim!" came a voice from Kim's left arm.
Kim held her left arm in front of her and activated her Kimmunicator bracer. "What's the sitch, Wade?"
The husky African-American man in the hologram being projected over Kim's bracer bit his lower lip. "I just detected explosives all around the Assembly building. Gemini must have planted them while everyone was busy setting up for the inaugural presentation."
"I'm on it, Wade," Kim replied resolutely. She then shut off her Kimmunicator and looked up. "Will, keep Betty in line until I get back."
With that, Kim blinked out of sight.
"That's going to go about as well as one can expect," Will sighed as Betty spun around to fire blaster shots from behind the cover of the podium.
"What do you hope to gain from all of this, Shego?" Gemini yelled as he blasted his fingertip blasters at Shego.
Shego continued to lob balls of green flame at Gemini, dancing around the blaster fire, as she responded. "Seriously, Sheldumb? I've been married to Kimmie for over five years now and dated her for almost a year before that. You're just now asking me what I'm getting out of all this?"
"Not out of being in the hero business in general," Gemini replied as he held his ground. "Rather, out of opposing me in particular. Unlike the chaotic morass of henchmen most of my so-called peers employ, my Worldwide Empire of Evil is the mark of efficiency and competency. We will win. You cannot stop us."
Shego backflipped to dodge a particularly accurate volley of blaster bolts and landed in a cat's crouch. "Let's just say I'm a sucker for sexy, freckled faces and leave it at that."
"If that is the way you wish it…," Gemini snarled.
Gemini suddenly stopped firing his blaster fingertips and snapped the fingers on his left hand.
Shego was suddenly broadsided by two large men. One was a Native American wearing a longhorn bull's skin like a helmet and cape while the other was a rotund Asian man wearing crab-like pincers like boxing gloves. Shego immediately fell on the defensive as the two men overwhelmed her.
Gemini grinned at the sight. He then turned and pulled a smartphone from his pocket.
"I believe it is time to initiate Operation UN Sky High," he declared to no one in particular. "If I cannot control the United Nations, no one can!"
"What a terribly cliché supervillain thing to do," Kim drawled as she suddenly blinked into existance on top of Gemini, sitting on his shoulders in a cat's crouch.
"Even you with that delightfully efficient teleportation technology in your battle suit cannot stop this, Kim Possible!" Gemini declared as he punched the large red button icon on his smartphone.
But, instead of being greeted by the demolition of the United Nations General Assembly Building, Gemini was greeted by his flying carrier exploding in haphazard sections. Just as quickly, the carrier blew up completely… filling the entire sky with a fiery ball of destruction. Large chunks of debris flew in all directions.
"NO!" Gemini screamed, horrified. "PEPE!"
"He's right here," Kim said, giggling as she dropped a jittery chihuahua into Gemini's arms. "Oh, by the way… Global Justice."
The chihuahua went absolutely berserk as soon as Kim uttered the words, throwing Gemini off guard. Kim kicked off of his shoulders and backflipped onto the ground behind them.
"Worldwide Empire of Evil!" Gemini screamed as he began to run away, the ballistic Pepe still in his arms. "Retreat! Retr…!"
Gemini stopped cold at the sight of a holdout blaster being held in his face.
Betty stared down the villain she held at gunpoint. "Commander Du, if you will?"
"With pleasure, Security-General Director," Will Du replied as he stepped up behind Gemini and began to handcuff him. "Sheldon Director, under the authority of the United Nations Division of Global Justice and Law Enforcement, I now place you under arrest. As a prisoner of Global Justice, you possess certain unalienable human rights which I will now outline for you…."
Kim stepped up to Betty and smiled warmly at the older woman as Betty hiked her skirt up and holstered her holdout blaster. Betty smiled warmly back at Kim.
"Stuart's going to kill me for not going with you to safety," Betty admitted to Kim.
"Not just your fiance," Kim agreed. "Shego and I aren't exactly thrilled about it, either."
Shego walked up to Kim and Betty at that point, dragging the two men she was fighting, now unconscious, by the hair with her. "The Princess is right, Cyclops. You should have let Kimmie and Will take you to the emergency bunker like we'd planned."
"True," Betty sighed. "I'm just not going to get used to no longer being the Commander of Global Justice. Fortunately, you guys were here when it counted."
"We always will be, Betty," Kim said, placing a reassuring hand on Betty's shoulder. "Shego and I… Monique and the Weegs… Felix and Zita… Bonnie and Rufus… even Hego and Mego… we'll all be here when it matters."
"Thank you, Kim," Betty replied, smiling. "That means the world to me."
"So not the drama," Kim smiled back.
"Welcome home, Team Possible," Wade's voice came over the intercom as the stealth fighter jet, the Firebird, landed in the top floor hangar of the underground lair the team called home. "Congratulations on a job well done."
The Firebird settled into place and a hatch ramp lowered from under its tail end. The various members of Team Possible filed off of the stealth jet, each uniquely glad to be home.
Kim turned to the rest of the team as they walked and smiled. "Guys, I think we deserve a special treat tonight. Guardians of the Galaxy is premiering tonight, so I say we make it a movie night."
"I'm game, girlfriend," said the African-American woman. "I'm sure my husbands will agree."
"Of course we agree, Monique!" said one of the two red-haired men standing next to Monique.
"It's Marvel! Why wouldn't we agree?" added the other red-haired man.
"Felix and I are down, too." said the pretty Hispanic girl holding the hand of the man in the wheelchair.
"You know we both love to geek out," Felix said as he brought the Hispanic girl's hand to his lips and kissed it.
"Thanks, Zita," Kim smiled. "Too bad we already dropped Bonnie back off to her husband and father-in-law at Senior Island. Hank? Myron? What about you two?"
The blue-haired and violet-haired men stopped in mid-stride to turn to Kim.
"I can't, Kim," the violet-haired man admitted. "I promised Kris that I'd spend time with her and J.J. tonight."
"I understand, Mego. And you, Hego?" Kim asked. "Oh, wait…."
"Exactly," the blue-haired man smiled patiently. "The terms of my service with Team Possible during my sentence require me to remain on the premises of the lair when not on a mission. But thank you for thinking of me."
"It would have been spoilerific fun with my big brothers with us anyway," Shego smirked.
"Sheila, be nice," Kim sighed, folding her arms and glaring playfully at her wife.
"I am being nice!" Shego responded innocently. "You know how I am when I'm naughty."
Kim smirked knowingly. "You bet I do."
"We all better start getting ready then," Monique pointed out as the rest of the team began filing out of the hangar.
"Let's do the thing, then," Shego declared, taking Kim's hand and leading her out of the hangar.
"Maybe later, sweetheart, after we get home from the movies," Kim joked, winking at Shego.
Shego gasped in mock shock. "Not that thing, you goofball!"
Kim stopped and pulled Shego to a halt. As Shego turned to ask Kim about the holdup, Kim grabbed Shego's face and kissed the raven-haired woman deeply. Both women broke the kiss with breathless smiles.
"After the movies, love," Kim cooed.
"I'm holding you to that, Pumpkin," Shego smirked.
"Possible! Shego!" a man's voice called from down the hall.
Kim and Shego glanced up to see a blue-skinned man in a mullet and a dark blue double-breasted coat walking briskly up to them. Right behind the blue-skinned man was a taller, far more attractive man with dark hair and dark eyes. The second man's smile was captivating.
"Helloooo, nurse," Kim drawled quietly, earning her a swift stomp on the foot from her wife.
"Yes, Doctor Drakken," Shego said, emphasizing the name more to Kim than to the men in front of her. "How can we help you when we're both already really busy? And who's the newbie?"
"Actually," Drakken answered with a confidence that seemed to throw Shego off, "the newbie, as you so eloquently refer to him, is the reason I needed to speak to the two of you."
"Hello, sir," Kim smiled, extending a hand to the taller man. "I'm Kim Possible… although you, um, you probably already knew that. And this, is, uh…."
"I'm Shego, Kim Possible's wife," Shego growled at the man as she folded her arms in front of her. She then glanced back at Drakken. "This better be good, Drewbie."
"It's a pleasure to meet the both of you," the man smiled as he accepted Kim's handshake. "My name is Dr. Flynn Feasible. I was an understudy of Dr. Amy Hall… before her untimely death."
"That's good and all," Shego said, shaking her head. "We all have our losses to deal with. It's terrible. I sympathize. Now, if you'll excuse us, my wife and I have a date…."
"As it so happens, future plans you and your wife might be considering is exactly why I wished to speak to you," Feasible pointed out. Kim couldn't help but notice how unshaken Feasible was by Shego's attitude. "You see, as a former understudy of Dr. Amy Hall, I am uniquely qualified to assist you in such matters."
"You enjoy speaking in riddles, don't you?" Shego sighed.
"I think I understand," Kim said, taking Shego's hand and squeezing it affectionately. "Think about it, Angel. Dr. Amy Hall was DNAmy. Dr. Feasible here is a geneticist."
Shego's eyes went wide with comprehension. "Wait… you mean you want to help Kimmie and I have children?"
"That is certainly the possibility that I'd hoped you'd allow me to explore," Feasible replied.
"There's more than enough lab space here in the lair," Drakken added in. "And I can design the finest equipment he's ever had the pleasure of working with. Spectacular feats of science are in the making, ladies."
"And we can finally have children," Kim breathed, turning to look at Shego.
"That's both scary and exciting at the same time," Shego admitted.
"I make no guarantees yet, ladies," Feasible pointed out. "But the possibilities are strong. Of course, in addition to the equipment Dr. Drakken can provide, I would need genetic samples from the both of you…."
"Um…," Shego started to open her mouth.
"I'll have Wade run a background check on you," Kim stated before Shego could say anything more. "But my gut feelings tell me everything is on the level. Welcome aboard, Dr. Feasible!"
Feasible accepted Kim's handshake again. "Thanks. You can call me Flynn, by the way… if you'd like."
"Okay, Fly…," Kim started to gush.
"I think Dr. Feasible will work just fine, thank you," Shego growled, putting an arm in front of Kim. "Welcome to Team Possible. Dr. Drakken can help get you set up. Now."
"Um, uh, right!" Drakken stammered as he took Feasible's arm. "Right this way, young man."
"I hope to speak to both of you again soon, ladies," Feasible said as he was led away.
"Me, too," Kim said dreamily as she watch the two scientists walk down the hallway.
The two men disappeared around a corner and Shego scoffed loudly. "I better get a mop to clean up all of that drool on the floor, Mrs. Possible."
Kim subconsciously wiped her sleeve across her lips. "Jealous, much?"
"You don't know the half of it, lover o' mine," Shego stated sweetly.
"Oh, I'll let you mark your territory again later tonight, Sheila, dear," Kim promised, snaking her arms around Shego's waist and brought her lips close to Shego's. "Maybe even during the movie if it…."
Whatever Kim was about to say was interrupted by a beep from her Kimmunicator bracer.
Shego muttered a colorful cacophony of vulgarities under her breath as Kim released her hold on Shego and answered her Kimmunicator. "What's the sitch, Wade?"
"We just got another problem crop up, Kim," Wade's holographic projection said. "A small group of Bebe robots just broke into Astral Labs down in South Vancouver. You know, the company that's researching tachyon propulsion systems for your father at the Middleton Space Center?"
"I don't even want to know what Bebe robots could do with tachyon technology," Kim muttered. She then turned to Shego. "Sheila, go ahead and take the others to see Guardians of the Galaxy. Rufus and I are…."
"...not going alone," Shego snapped. She then placed a gentle hand on Kim's cheek. "Cupcake, I'm going with you. I know you're being nice, but I'm your wife. You're my wife. We're a team. Let Monique take care of the others. We'll take care of this."
Kim blinked for a moment before smiling softly. "Yes, we will. You and I. Together." She then bowed her head and sighed before glancing back up at Shego. "I love you, darling."
"I love you, too, babe," Shego responded. "Now, let's go kick some robotic ass."
With that, both Kim and Shego turned and ran back towards the Firebird.
[END CHAPTER ONE]
AUTHOR'S NOTES
Where to begin….
Some of you may be wondering why I chose to reboot The Shadow of Infinity, especially after having already written 23 chapters the first time around. And that version has already received quite a few positive reviews and has either been favorited or bookmarked by at least 200 readers.
Well, the last time I updated the old version of the story was back in 2014 as of this writing, almost three years ago. That update occurred nearly a year and a half after the first chapter's publication. And, to be honest, even at that point, I knew it needed to be restarted.
I was warned against it by other FFN authors, but I'd pushed myself too hard. Between The Shadow of Infinity, Storms Over Colorado, Chrono Sitch, and What's Kickin', I'd spread myself out too thin. Add into that mix the fact that I was trying to work on original work (like my superhero RPG setting, Meriquai Falls) and the fact that I'd just been kicked out of one home to be taken into another home where I had almost no control over my personal environment.
I'd crashed and burned. Hard. I'd lost all of my focus and my desire to write.
And it's taken nearly three years to straighten myself back out.
And I'm still working on it. My life, that is.
As I mentioned before, even back in 2014, I knew I needed to reboot TSOI. The plot had gotten out of control. The pacing was horrifically off, even for my writing. And things were happening that made little to no sense to even me.
I mean, seriously, Kim just laid there in bed and took it while Shego lost control of her emotions and burned her to a crisp… just because they were looking at photos of Ron?
And that happened in Chapter 22!
I needed to restart the story.
I needed to start fresh and hopefully regain control of the plot. Do a little bit of retconning and change the pacing of the story somewhat.
I want to do it right this time.
-Dale W. Robbins, aka Crimson-Hawk