Chapter One
The usual boilerplate disclaimer. I do not own Kim Possible. Kim Possible is the intellectual property of the Walt Disney Corporation and the creation of Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle
The sun shone brightly in the clear sky and the smell of the ocean wafted over the beaches into the reception area of the La Perla Azul Resort. Everybody in the room were what the average person would expect from a high-end resort in Cancun, well-to-do American tourists who would only see the idyllic beaches and quaint venues. Everybody, that is, save for one raven haired woman in a green dress wearing a sunhat and sunglasses.
There was a confidence to her. A feeling that only came with being the most dangerous person in the room, since there was never any competition. Thankfully for the other patrons. But Shego wasn't there on assignment. For the next week, she could just lay about on the beach being pampered by cabana boys. And forget about working for Gemini and his Worldwide Empire of Evil.
The idiot didn't even seem to realize that his organization was abbreviated to WEE. Gemini paid well, but his methods were completely out there. He prided himself on being this serious threat to the world, but he was just so... silly. Between that neurotic little rat Pepe that he spoiled like a small child and how he kept "firing" anyone who so much as slighted him, it was no wonder that he wasn't making the news. Shego genuinely believed he only had his reputation due to him being the twin brother to Dr. Director, the leader of Global Justice.
But, a reputation was what Shego needed right now. So she toughed it out. But a change needed to happen soon. So for now, she took their money. And because she was smart enough to have a contract drawn up, she got vacation time, unlike all of those other brainless drones. So Shego was going to take some time off to think about her future.
"Hello, Miss. Welcome to La Perla Azul resort. How may I help you?" said the girl at the receptionist's desk.
"Yeah. I have a reservation. I'm Natasha Drago. I booked a room here a month ago."
"I see, Miss Drago. Let me just check our files... Yes, we have you booked in a deluxe room with a beach view."
"It's not too high up, is it? My line of work... requires me to be ready to be on the move in a moment's notice."
"Not at all, miss. It's only on the third floor, per your request. It's also a respectful distance from the elevator lobby and any ice machines."
"Perfect."
"Here's your room key, you have have the room for a week, extensions are available if your plans change and enjoy your stay at La Perla Azul."
As if on cue, a bellhop came to the front desk to help Shego with her bags. She didn't have much, just two suitcases and a duffel bag. Still, she was here to be pampered. He followed her with the suitcases in tow as she carried the duffel bag and the trip to the third floor was quiet. Until they actually arrived.
A young girl, possibly eight years old, came barrelling into the elevator, her mother running frantically to catch up with her. "Sweetie, you can't just barge into elevators like that! It's rude and more importantly, you could have gotten hurt!"
"I'm sorry, mommy. I just really want to get to the beach!"
"I'm so sorry, ma'am," The mother practically begged Shego.
"It's... it's okay," Shego brushed off the whole situation and did her best to not let her actual emotions show.
After a brief sojourn down the hallway, Shego and the bellhop arrived at her room. As Shego dropped her duffel onto her bed, she stepped over to the balcony to look out at the beach. The bellhop set aside her luggage beside the bed, and began to address her.
"So, you've got your minibar over here, fees apply for anything you take. Your phone is over here with the number for room service. And if you have any further questions about what our resort can provide for you, our front desk will be more than happy to answer your concerns."
He then stood at the doorway, silent, as though expecting something. The silence grew until he began to cough. With a disgusted grunt, Shego took out her wallet and practically threw a $20 bill his way.
"Thank you, ma'am! Enjoy your stay!" The bellhop cheered.
"Just leave," Shego said with her back turned to the doorway.
As the door closed behind him, Shego exited the room and headed out to the balcony. She sat down in a wicker chair in a corner. She had hoped to quickly change and hit the beach to soak up some sun, but she was no longer in the mood. Nothing the bellhop had done, though. It was that little girl and her mother from the elevator. They made her... remember. She hated having her mind wander back to that time.
"She would be about eight now herself... Huh. I wonder if she would have liked this sort of trip," Shego mused.
Shego sat back in her chair, but couldn't relax. Her thoughts kept going back to that night, five years ago. Five years. It had been five years ago this past November that Shego had left Go City. Left everything behind. Including her daughter.
...
"Agni..."
The image was burned into her memory. Some things, you will never forget. Things like seeing your 3-year-old daughter's broken body in a cast, hooked up to life-support machines. The dark hospital room softly lit up by the dull, flickering lights from the medical equipment.
"They say that her glow is what saved her. That the trauma caused it to manifest for the first time," A hoarse, throaty voice said behind Shego as she just stared at her child's hospital bed while sitting in one of those uncomfortable hospital chairs.
Shego couldn't even be bothered to turn her head to look her mother in the eye. All she could do was just look at her baby. The little girl she failed.
"I wasn't... I wasn't fast enough. I couldn't get there in time."
"You and I both know that this happened because of your own irresponsibility," Roza tersely stated. She gently placed some of her loose, graying hair back over her right ear, bringing it into like with the plait draped over her shoulder.
"Mother, not now!" Shego was not in the mood for her mother's brutal lectures.
"Yes, now. This is a consequence of your decisions. You chose to sleep around. To spite Viktor. To spite me. And because of your short-sighted youth, you wound up with child. You chose to keep her. You chose to continue your... activities with your brothers," Roza stepped forward to Agni's bed, placing her hand on the side rail before turning around to face Shego.
"Did it seriously never cross your mind that one of your enemies would decide that rather than going after you for revenge, they would instead go after those closest to you?" What little light there was in the room reflected off the monocle on her left eye. The effect, combined with her usually cold demeanour always made her seem even more robotic.
"Shut it!" Shego started to yell, before remembering where she was.
"No. Despite Viktor's claims, your little tower is not an impenetrable fortress. That much is obvious to everybody now. Except... maybe to Viktor himself. He always did choose to live in an isolated little bubble, completely divorced from how the world works around him. Choosing to convince himself that his life is like one of those childish superhero comics," Roza spoke coldly.
Shego couldn't argue with that. Hego always did act like he was the hero in some cheesy cartoon. And what he said when he found out what happened... he was lucky he could take a plasma blast as well as he could. Thankfully, the twins and even Mego had talked him out of his short-sightedness. One thing was clear. Agni couldn't stay in Go Tower anymore.
"I think... some arrangements need to be made. For Agni's safety. And her future," Shego said in a defeated tone.
"Oh? And what, pray tell, would that be?" Roza was always good at hiding her emotions. But for a moment, it seemed like her emotionally dead facade cracked a small bit.
"If people are going to take revenge against me by using Agni... well, I better not give them a reason to seek revenge in the first place."
"Natasha, what are you planning?" Shego honestly couldn't tell if her mother was concerned or curious at this point.
...
A seagull's cry snapped Shego out of her recollection. Sighing, she rubbed the bridge of her nose. This is not what she wanted to do on her vacation. Composing herself, she opened her suitcase and pulled out her bathing suit.
"Time to relax and lose myself in some sun," Shego's tone told the tale that nobody was around to hear. She was trying to fool herself.
...
"Dave, I blame you for this," said the black-haired teenage girl in a blue sweater and khaki pants while she ducked a massive stony fist that swung over her head.
"How is this lunatic summoning Grudgliks my fault, Jen?" Replied a young man with short, messy brown hair in a red superhero t-shirt. He also wore a brown leather jacket and blue jeans. He winced as he popped his head out from behind a pillar.
"Well, for one thing, I didn't have to battle demons before you came into my life."
Jen dodged to her left as the foul Grudglik pounded the floor with both of it's fists hard enough to crack the concrete. With its hands in the crater, Jen ran up the rocky beast's arms to get at its exposed brain. As the beast's porcine head squealed with fury, Jen sunk her combat knife into its grey matter.
"You might have figured out the Grudglik's weakness by dumb luck, Jen Credible, but even you cannot best their power!" Shouted the figure in a purple hood and cloak at the centre of the abandoned warehouse. What little of his face that could be seen was yellow and scaly with a black goatee on his chin. Glowing red eyes leered out from the shadows of the hood.
"Seriously Pazuzu?! They don't have the top half of their skulls! It doesn't matter if the rest of their bodies are made of stone, that is a glaring weak point only the blind could miss!" Shouted Jen as she pulled her knife out of the dead Grudglik's head, jumping off its body as it faded away before it could hit the ground. "And that cheap latex mask isn't fooling anyone, you nutcase! You're just as human as the rest of us!"
"A mistake of nature I shall soon correct. All it will take are the right amount of tributes to my namesake and this mortal form shall be discarded like the trash it is! And I. Will. Not. LET YOU STOP ME! GRUDGLIKS! TURN HER INTO PASTE!"
The glyph on the floor glowed a dim purple. The illumination reached out like grasping tendrils and tethered itself to his hands. As he collected the magical energy from the rune painted on the floor of the abandoned warehouse, two more Grudgliks manifested into reality amid bright violet light. The stony demons towered over Jen at least double her height, their long, ape-like arms supported their bulky humanoid torsos with their cloven hooves firmly planted on the ground.
"You know, there is such a thing as 'buyer beware'," Jen quipped as she dove between the legs of the first Grudglik to position herself between the two demons.
"Just because something looks cool doesn't mean it's practical. I mean, seriously..." Jen darted sideways to let the second Grudglik smash the first in its right side and across the warehouse. "If I didn't know any better, I'd swear these things had rocks for brains."
"You think you can keep this up, Credible? Your luck can't hold out forever!" Pazuzu cried out venomously as once again he channelled the magical energy of the rune.
"Oh, I don't rely on just luck. Skill is a big part of it," Jen said as she circled around the Grudglik to get onto its back. Despite its thrashing, Jen was able to get up to its head and stab it in the brain. "Though, I have to admit, having friends help too."
"Friends?" Pazuzu puzzled over Jen's comment. Until he realized he had lost sight of Dave. Before he knew what happened, a sharp pain struck Pazuzu in the back of his left knee. Just as he began to turn his head backwards, he saw a chunk of loose concrete closing in on his head.
With a loud thwack, Pazuzu crumpled to the ground. Dave stood over his body with a confident smirk on his face. He dropped the chunk of concrete, knelt down and spoke to the summoner's unconscious face, "And just because the girl beating the tar out of your little pets seems like the immediate threat, doesn't mean she's the one you should focus on."
With its summoner unconscious, the remaining Grudglik vanished into thin air. The rune stopped glowing, and faded away as well. Jen immediately dropped to her knees with exhaustion now that there were no enemies around, her muscles aching all over her body, she dropped down to the ground, her face to the ceiling.
"I don't know if I'll ever get used to this," Jen moaned in a tired voice.
"You bluffed him pretty good, though. 'Skill is a big part of it'? Big talk for a rookie who's only a hobbyist kick-boxer," Dave said as he took out his cell phone.
Jen sighed. "You know the cops won't help us. Let alone believe us."
"Not calling them. Our friends at GJ."
"And they're any better?"
"They may deny the kinds of things we stumble across, but Dr. Director recognizes that our enemies are too dangerous to be left on the streets. Even if she insists that they use "unknown science" instead of magic."
"It'd be great if GJ would just lock them away somewhere instead of just putting pressure on the LDPD to imprison our rogues," Jen pondered.
"Yeah. It... would... be... JEN!" Dave shouted as he gripped the sides of his head.
Jen bolted up at Dave screaming her name. His visions were never pleasant. Either to watch, or for him to go through - but this... this was just WRONG. Dave was on all fours, coughing up what appeared to be tar, but just as soon as the sludge hit the ground, it seemed to dissolve into black smoke. Jen raced towards her friend, and placed herself right beside him.
"DAVE?! Oh, holy... What's wrong?! What's happening to you?!" Jen cried out.
As Jen cupped her hands around Dave's face to rise it up to get a good look at him, she jolted back in shock. His eyes were solid black. Splotches of darkness bubbled out of his tear ducts and rose up into the air, his skin turning a dull, ashen grey. When Jen worked up the courage to touch him again, she realized that he was as cold as stone.
"Oh, no..."
...
The screams of little children floated by in the wind. I want my mommy... Where's my family?!... It's so cold... No more pain! NO MORE PAIN! The images that flashed before Dave's mind were no better. A ruined, filthy school. Little girls, lost in the dark hallways. Monsters of all kinds stalking the grounds. Zombies. Walking masses of tumorous flesh. Vermin skittering around the desolation. So much fear in the air. And at the end of the halls, a dim green light. The darkness seemed to shoot past Dave as if he were being catapulted towards the illumination.
As he got closer, the green light swelled up into a raging emerald inferno. And past the blaze, was a hideous inhuman eye. Violet sclera surrounded a golden iris. But the pupils were what confirmed the alien nature of the eye. A black, inverted Y in the centre of the iris. But in each third of the iris was an additional circular pupil. When it noticed Dave, it looked right at him and it was almost like it was speaking to his very soul.
"This is your invitation. Do not dawdle. Oh. And do bring young Jennifer with you. The more the merrier."
As Dave drew closer, the inverted Y opened up like the maw of a great leech. As Dave fell into the toothy abyss, his eyes adjusted. He was floating above a frozen city in ruins, somewhere on the coast. The whole thing was grey, as if all the colour had somehow been drained out of the surroundings. As if the world was in grey-scale. It took him a while to realize where he was, but when Dave looked out into the inky black sea, he saw a collapsed tower on a small island. Broken vertically in half was Go Tower. Then, like as if he was on a bungee cord, he was ripped out of the ruined city. Back out of the "mouth" of the eye, past the green fire, through the desolate school and the sobbing wind.
...
"DAVE!" Jen's voice could be heard as Dave started to see light again. As warmth began to return to his body, Dave could feel the crud left over in his lungs.
"Huek! Hack!" Dave coughed up what little tar was left in his system. "Ooh... That was bad... Like, horrifically bad."
"Yeah, well it wasn't exactly fun and games on this end! What WAS that?!" Jen asked with concern. "You've never done... THAT before!"
"I'd like to see you handle an Outsider turning your brain into a video conference," Dave said sardonically.
"Huh?"
"This time something actually spoke to me. And if that thing is any indication of what gives me my visions... guh." Dave shuddered at the implications.
Jen fidgeted, hesitant to ask the important questions. "So... where are we going now? What's the monster of week this time?"
"Ugh... I don't know. All I saw was... darkness. Ruin. And all I could feel was dread."
"Oh. How... wonderful." Jen sighed dejectedly.
"But I do know where we're going. Go City. Thankfully, we won't have to leave California for this one," Dave stood up as he stretched his muscles.
"Well, thank heaven for small miracles. It's not like I have school this week. Or homework due tomorrow!" Jen snarked.
"You'd think teachers would cut you some slack for saving the world from being consumed by darkness."
"Yeah, right. What kind of teacher would be that understanding?"
The half-mumbling of 'The Great Pazuzu' snapped both Jen and Dave's attention to the unconscious summoner as he babbled in his dreams. Sighing, Jen said "Well, what are we supposed to do with him? Can't leave him here, he'll escape."
"This is why I started keeping rope in my car," Dave started to walk to the entrance. "Lord knows it wasn't seeing any use in my bedroom."
"Shut up," Jen half-laughed as she chucked some pebbles at Dave. Who dodged them as he walked outdoors.
Author's Notes
So this is the start of a new story. Multiple chapters this time. And with the added benefit that it's all planned out to boot! So I'm hoping the updates will be regular. We'll be seeing more of Jen Credible and Dave Seer here, as well as Agni and an old foe. Many thanks to both Blackbird and Trackula/Festum for giving me their permission to use their characters Jen Credible, Dave Seer, Pazuzu, the Grudgliks, Agni and Roza Drago for this story. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. This is the start of a combined continuity featuring characters from both Small Surprises, Big Consequences and Maternal Instinct.
This whole project is something I'm doing as a practice run to write original fiction some day. Get a hang of planning out stories, writing them, editing them, and ultimately publishing them. Many thanks to my editor, "Diana" for all her work on this chapter.