Mockingbird's Song (Marvel/Kim Possible Crossover)
Earth-617
As the brilliant light bathed Bobbi Morse aka Mockingbird, the blonde West Coast Avenger vaguely heard her estranged husband, Clint Barton aka Hawkeye call out her name. Her lips turned up in a warm grin as she heard his final words of forgiveness to her, "I love you, Bobbi!"
"I love you too, Clint." Bobbi's lips moved, although no sound came out. Then, she was gone. Taken by Mephisto. Her life freely given in exchange for the life of her husband's.
Mephisto, while the master of a hell dimension, prided himself on honoring at least the letter of his agreements, if not necessarily the spirit. Yes, his toy's life on this Earth was now over, but, the demon lord was not finished with his fun. His lips turned up in an evil smirk, the devil king waved a gnarled hand, opening a portal. "You do not get to rest so easily, my lovely."
An alternate Earth—a point over the Pacific Ocean
"We can deactivate the stealth systems now." Shego smirked as she pressed a button turning off her the anti-detection systems of her superior's hover disk now gliding apparently unobserved through the air towards its destination. "Those Global Justice morons watching us were no challenge at all."
"Excellent, Shego." The blue-skinned man formerly known as Drew Lipsky before he turned mad and became known as the villain Dr. Drakken scowled as he fingered the scar below his eye. "Set course for the Nakasumi factory in Tokyo. We have a production line to steal."
As he uttered his orders, the hairs on the back of his lovely green-skinned companion's neck began to stand up. Sensing that she was being watched, Shego scanned the sky with an expert's eye, not relaxing until she was absolutely sure there was no one there. Then, carefully checking her radar and finding no sign of bogies, the supervillainess finally relaxed her guard.
"What is it, Shego?" Drakken, seeing his companion's consternation, inquired as he also rose to a heightened sense of alertness.
"It's nothing, Doctor." Shego answered back. "I just had a bad feeling that we were being watched, but I was mistaken—there's nothing there."
The mad scientist nodded his head approvingly at his henchwoman's awareness, "Paranoia is good."
"Yeah." Shego muttered under her breath as she once again scanned the skies, "It keeps me alive."
"This is Alert-One to SHIELD Base. We picked up on the package lost by the junior varsity. What are your orders?"
"Good job, Alert-One." Deputy Director Maria Hill of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division, better known as SHIELD, responded, "Maintain surveillance of the package until it reaches its destination. A reception team is being put together for it."
"This is your lucky day." The pilot of Alert-One said to the targets he was following, "I had a laser guided missile ready to go with your name on it."
Middleton High School, Colorado
"You're drooling, KP." Ron Stoppable grumbled as he watched while his best friend, Kim Possible, gaze intently on the retreating form of the object of her most recent crush, Josh Mankey.
"Huh? Wha…?" Kim stammered as she slowly and reluctantly regained control over her senses. "I can't even put two words together around him. How am I ever going to work up the nerve to ask Josh Mankey to the dance?" Kim lamented.
"Ummm…. Kim…." Ron stammered as he felt his heart once again beginning to break, "Don't you think it'd be kind of difficult for him to be there…with us?"
"What do you mean—us?" Kim replied.
Ron, not sure whether his friend was simply clueless or being deliberately oblivious as to his feelings towards her, replied, "Well…you know we always go together."
"Uhhhh…Ron…." Kim stammered, "I was thinking that this year…I know we always go as friends…" she said, emphasizing 'friends', "…but this year, I was thinking that I might want to line up a…uhhh…a date. With Josh Mankey."
His heart shattering, the blond teen put up a brave front as he spoke, "Oh…a date…yeah…" Ron exclaimed with false confidence, "I can do that…sure."
Once again unsure as to whether his friend was truly that ignorant as to his feelings or faking it, Ron heard her say, "Great! So…who are you going to ask out?"
"Rufus, I guess." Ron muttered under his breath as his friend's Kimmunicator beeped.
"What's the sitch, Wade?"
"Meet me at your locker." The image of an African-American boy appeared on the tiny screen of Kim's device.
"On our way." The young heroine responded as she made her way to her locker with her best friend close behind. Opening her locker to reveal a PC with monitor, along with pictures of Drakken and Shego, she blushed at Wade's praise.
"You wouldn't believe all the hits you're getting on your site from people asking for help!"
"No cats!" Kim declared as Ron joked about cat sitting for Mrs. Gilmore.
"Can't blame you for that." Wade responded as Ron pointed to another likely job.
"Hey…look…Tokyo!"
"This is an emergency." Wade announced, "Here…I'll stream it." He then admitted as his cheeks flushed, "I intercepted a Global Justice transmission."
"Target has evaded surveillance. I repeat, target has evaded surveillance. Last known vector—Tokyo, Japan. Request permission to scramble tactical squad."
"Request denied." A voice on the other end of the transmission replied with more than a touch of bitterness and frustration in his voice, "Bogie has been picked up by the senior circuit. We've been waved off."
"Fuck!"
"Language!" Ron laughed nervously as both Kim and Wade blushed at the utterance of the profanity.
"Sorry about that, Kim." Wade apologized.
"Nothing you could do about it." Kim replied with a nervous giggle, "It was a live transmission."
"Guess we're going to Tokyo." Ron surmised as his heartbeat raced in anticipation at going on a mission with his friend.
"Come on, Ron! Let's jet!"
Tokyo—the Nakasumi Building
"Sit-rep." Special Agent Garrett spoke into his radio as he crouched on the roof of the building next to the Nakasumi automatic factory.
"Sniper One…Got Blue in my sights."
"Sniper Two reporting…Cutie Pie's scoped and ready to be dropped."
"Hostages are locked in an utility room fifty meters down leftmost corridor."
Garrett took a deep breath, "All right people. This goes down quick and smooth. Snipers take your targets down when I give the word. Five…four…three…two…"
"Hold count!" The voice of one of the spotters came through the radio. "We have civilians in the facility."
"Say again." Garrett growled.
"We have civilians in the facility. Teenage girl with red hair wearing cargo pants and black tank-top with a backpack. Teenage boy wearing…boxer shorts! Boss…the kid's pantsless!"
Laughing in spite of himself, Garrett quipped, "Pantsless? Guess he couldn't wait to get some action from Red." Taking a deep breath, the SHIELD tactical commander instructed, "Okay team…this has gotten a lot more complicated. Instead of two hostages, we now have four. Do you still have clear shots on the targets."
"Negative on Blue. He's taken cover."
"Negative on Cutie Pie. She's mixing it up with Red. Can't risk the shot without possibly hitting the kid." A few moments later, the sniper reported, "Red's got some nice moves. Good kick there. Almost gave me a window on Cutie Pie, but she's got some smooth moves too. Good dodger. She's linked up with Blue. They've blown a hole through the roof and are extracting."
"Red and Pantsless have secured the hostages." The other sniper reported.
"All right, team." Garrett ordered through clenched teeth, "Regroup back at the safe house. I'll get statements from Nakasumi and the hostages and meet you back at the barn."
"We'll save a bottle for you." One of the members of the team joked.
"Better make it two." Garrett responded with a laugh, "Hill's going to love this!"
Secret Shield Facility—New Mexico Desert.
"Director Fury! A portal's opening!"
"Barton! I need you here with that bow of yours!" The dark-skinned one-eyed Director of SHIELD barked as a muscular blond haired man wearing a leather vest and pants and wielding a compound bow rushed up accompanied by a squad of black-suited SHIELD troopers armed with assault rifles.
"Take positions." Barton ordered as he knelt down in front of the portal approximately fifteen yards back. Notching an arrow and drawing back the bowstring, he nodded once at the Director.
"Don't shoot until I give the order." Fury commanded as he readied his pistol. A bright light bathed the room as the portal opened revealing the burned and scarred form of what looked like a woman. Staggering out of the portal, the woman dropped to the floor. "Medics!" The Director called out as a team rushed forward wheeling a cart with what looked at first glance to be a capsule or sarcophagus. Carefully placing her in the tube, the glass closed with a hiss, sealing the disfigured woman within the chamber. "Take her to TAHITI. I want our best people on this. I want to know who she is…where she's from…and what happened to her."
"It might take some time before we can interrogate her, Sir. She appears to be in a coma and looks like she has suffered severe plasma burns." A physician in the medical team reported, adding as a suggestion, "We can do a memory and genetic scan provided we are permitted to use the special technology."
"Do what you have to. You are authorized to use the special technology and the serum to tend to her injuries and carry out any necessary scans." Fury replied, deciding that the risk was worth it if he could gain insight into who this extradimensional visitor was..
"Understood, Director Fury."
Turning to Barton, Fury nodded his head once, wordlessly dismissing him and his team. Watching as the medics wheeled their cargo away, the one-eyed Director murmured to himself, "Who are you and why do I get the feeling that you're going to be important here?"
"Sir?"
Turning his attention to his right-hand woman, Maria Hill, Nick nodded his head, "What is it, Agent Hill?"
"There's been an incident in Tokyo. At Nakasumi's automated factory. It involves Dr. Drakken and a Possible sighting." The Deputy Director's lips turned down in a frown, "We had a strike team led by Agent Garrett ready to move, then her and her friend fouled it up. Drakken got away with the item."
"I thought we were going to let the farm team handle this." Fury replied with a touch of irritation in his voice, "Where was GJ?"
"Global Justice slipped up and both Drakken and Possible evaded their surveillance." Hill admitted, adding, "It appears Drakken has also brought on a somewhat competent assistant—a beta-level super named Shego. Here's her dossier." Hill handed her superior a tablet. "She could be potentially dangerous."
Perusing the information on the tablet, Fury nodded his head. "Interesting."
"Do you want me to alert the Widow, Barton, or Agent Ward to be ready to carry out a sanction on Shego and/or Drakken?" Hill asked in a flat tone of voice.
"No." Fury shook his head. "Not right now. This is Betty's baby. I'm betting that in about an hour or so there will be several GJ agents missing large hunks of their asses because in about ten minutes I'm going to take a big chunk out of her rear end. Let's give her another bite and see how she handles the situation. For now, we have bigger fish to fry than Drakken or Shego. If he or his assistant become real problems—then we'll sic Tasha on them."
"And Possible?" Hill inquired, adding, "She's only sixteen years old. She has no training and is frequently reckless. She's already gotten in the way of one of our operations. Sooner or later, she is going to get in over her head and as a result she and/or the people around her might well end up seriously injured or killed. Do we let her continue?"
"I'll let Betty make the call for now on that as well." Fury decided. "She's better informed as regards Possible and her capabilities. But…" The SHIELD Director conceded, "You do have a point regarding Possible's age and inexperience. We'll need to think about closer surveillance—if for no other reason than to protect her and those around her from herself."
Middleton, Colorado
"I'm sorry about messing things up in Tokyo." Ron Stoppable said, apologizing to his friend and teammate, Kim Possible as the pair made their way towards the front entrance of their school, Middleton High.
"You don't have anything to apologize for, Ron." Kim replied supportively. "We'll track Drakken down, get back Nakasumi-san's production line, stop whatever it is Drakken has planned, and make it back in time for the dance." Heaving a dejected sigh, she shook her head, "Now all I have to do is ask Josh Mankey to the dance.
"Still haven't worked up the guts to ask him out, huh, Possible?"
Turning in the direction of the smug voice, Kim gritted her teeth at the sight of her brown-haired rival, "I'll ask him out, Bonnie, when I'm good and ready."
"Yeah." The other cheerleader snorted, "Sure you will." She then smugly quipped, "Don't feel bad, Kimmie…he's already turned down girls higher up the food chain than you."
Gritting his teeth at the sight of his best friend seething as the barb sent by her rival hit home, Ron quipped back, "I guess he turned you down too."
"Loser!" Bonnie growled before stomping off.
A smile returning to her face, Kim said to the boy standing next to her, "Thanks, Ron."
"Any time, KP." Ron smiled back, "Best friends stick up for each other—right?" Not receiving a response, Ron repeated, "Right, KP?" Then, glancing at his friend, he saw that she was once again lost in a daze, her concentration solely focused on the boy of her dreams. Hiding his hurt and disappointment over his best friend's cluelessness behind a mask of goofiness and denseness of his own, Ron rushed up to Hope, one of the cheerleaders, who was walking down the hall with her fellow cheerleader, Marcella, "Hope? Would you…"
"Get lost, loser!" Hope sneered
"Marcell…"
"Not if you were the last boy on Earth, dweeb."
His hopes once again dashed, Ron turned around only to see Kim still longingly eyeing Josh Mankey who was at that moment talking with two other popular boys. "Come on, Rufus." Ron sighed as his naked mole-rat companion poked his head up out of his pocket, "Let's get to class. Face it Ron…" The blond teenager muttered to himself as he moped down the hallway to his homeroom class, "You've been friendzoned."
"Hey, Ron."
Looking up, Ron's lips turned up in a shy grin as he recognized Tara, the blonde-haired cheerleader. "Hey, Tara…" Stoppable replied and then, taking a deep breath, ventured, "Ummm…I was wondering if you would…you know…gotothedancewithme?"
Surprised by his request, Tara stammered back a reply, "Ummm…Ron…uhhhh…I thought you were going with Kim. I mean you two are always together—I thought you were going out. Uhhh…I wish you'd have asked me that yesterday. Jeff asked me out this morning. I'm sorry…but…if you want…" Her lips turned up in a shy smile, "You can walk me to class."
"Sure." Ron replied with a shy grin as he saw Kim still swooning over Josh. "I'd like that." As the pair walked down the hall together, the teenage boy thought to himself, If I'd have been here instead of in Tokyo with Kim yesterday…I could be going to the dance with Tara instead of watching KP pine for Mankey. Squaring his shoulders as the pair reached their classroom, Ron banished his doubts to the back of his mind, Kim's my best friend no matter what she does or how badly she hurts me. I'll always be there for her.
Drakken's Hidden Lair
"I tell you, Shego…" Dr. Drakken boasted as he tinkered with his machines, "This plan cannot fail. With Nakasumi's production line now in my hands, I have everything I need to rule the world."
"You do realize…" Shego grumbled, "…that right now, SHIELD and the other heavy hitters aren't taking us seriously, don't you? We've just been dealing with Possible and those Global Justice dorks. We haven't had to take on any real threats. Although Possible has the potential of becoming a real problem." She added with equal parts admiration and concern.
"They will soon." Drakken replied menacingly. "They all will."
Shaking her head, the green-skinned supervillain rolled her eyes, "The moment Fury decides we're a problem, he's going to sic one or more of his troubleshooters on us. Are you sure that you're ready for that, Doctor? The Black Widow, the Cavalry, Grant Ward, and Hawkeye don't play by GJ or Possible rules. They're grown-ups. They play for keeps."
"That's why I hired you, Shego." Drakken huffed. "If they come, then you'll deal with them."
"Yeah." Shego responded in a soft voice. While part of her looked forward to the opportunity of matching her strength and skills against an assassin of the caliber and reputation of Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Grant Ward, or Melinda May—it would be the ultimate test of her talent and abilities, another part of her very much dreaded the likely outcome of that encounter—her bloody and mangled corpse lying on the floor with a bullet in the head, an arrow through the throat, her carotid artery severed by a knife, or a broken neck. If she had competent backup, Shego thought to herself, then yeah, she'd risk that confrontation. She then glanced at one of the henchmen Drakken had hired standing by the door picking his nose and, rolling her eyes, exhaled as she forced herself to face the reality of the situation—that she would not walk away from a fight with those hardened killers. She decided then and there that she was going to do everything she could to avoid ending up dead on the floor—even if it meant throwing the occasional bout with Possible and taking a dive. Better the humiliation of losing to a teenage girl than lying dead at the Widow's or some other SHIELD assassin's feet. The green-skinned villainess decided as she returned to reading her magazine.
Global Justice Headquarters
"Agent Du? Get your ass in my office—NOW!" A seething Dr. Betty Director ordered. Moments later, Agent Will Du, trying his best to maintain a stoic exterior while inside he was quivering as he got a good look at the angry expression on his superior's face, entered the Director of Global Justice's office.
"Doctor Director?" The agent reported in punctiliously.
"I want you and everyone involved in the Drakken and Possible surveillance operations in Conference Room One in ten minutes!" Doctor Director ordered, "And tell everyone to bring plenty of ice—you're all going to need it to apply to a certain part of your bodies after you hear what I have to say!"
Entering the conference room exactly on time, Dr. Director nodded her head in satisfaction as she saw that Du had carried out his task promptly—everyone involved in the recent fiasco was present standing at attention in front of their seats around the table. Striding to her place at the head of the table. Betty stood silently and glared at the targets of her ire for several moments before finally giving them permission to take their seats. Remaining on her feet as her agents sat down, the GJ head cleared her throat. "This morning, before I left for the office I weighed myself at 135 pounds. About twenty minutes ago, I again weighed myself. This time, my weight was 115 pounds. Would you like to know where those twenty missing pounds went? I'll tell you. I've just completed a video conference call with SHIELD Director Nicholas Fury. During that call, he chewed the missing weight from my ass. Now, it's your turn. The Drakken and Possible surveillances were both total clusterfucks. You call yourselves skilled and trained agents. You went through a rigorous training and education program designed to hone your instincts and abilities. All of you are supposed to be potential candidates to move up to SHIELD or SWORD one day. And you let a third-rate villain, his second-rate henchwoman, and an untrained sixteen-year old girl with her inept associate and a naked mole rat slip by you! And you wonder why SHIELD considers us the 'farm team'! I want surveillance tightened on Drakken and Possible. Find me Drakken's hidden lair and do it yesterday!. I want to know when Kim Possible goes to the bathroom to take a crap! Now—get your asses out there and do your damn jobs or I'll get people who will and you can go back to scratching your asses and guarding doors! Dismissed!"
TAHITI—A Secret SHIELD Facility in an Undisclosed Location
"Director Fury!" The physician in charge of treating the facility's newest patient called out as the SHIELD director approached him, "Come…I think you'll find what we've achieved with Subject Alpha most intriguing."
"All right." Fury nodded his head, "Let's see what you have."
The pair approached a tube containing the nude body of a blonde-haired young teenage girl. "Subject Alpha." The physician proudly proclaimed.
"I thought she was a fully grown woman." Fury exclaimed, "This girl's a teenager."
"Subject Alpha—based on the memory engrams we took off her scans and the genetic scans we took of her, is a human female, approximately twenty-six years old."
"Twenty-six years old." Fury snorted, "She looks like she's about sixteen."
"Physically…" The doctor nodded his head, "She is sixteen. She also possesses the hormones and other physical and possibly emotional aspects of an adolescent. But, going by our scans, mentally and experientially, she is a grown woman."
"So…she's still not conscious?"
"Not yet, but she's ready to awaken now."
"Good." The director nodded his head. "But first, I want to go over those memory engrams and other data."
"Of course, Director." The physician nodded his head, "I've taken the liberty of forwarding them to your office. You'll find them most interesting."
"I'm sure I will." Fury replied as he gestured for the doctor to accompany him. Walking down the corridor towards his office, the SHIELD director inquired, "So…what caused her rejuvenation?"
"We think it was a combination of the experimental serum and the alien technology used to heal her." The doctor replied. "We'll need to wait until she is conscious before we can run further tests though."
Reaching this office, Fury nodded his head, "Very good, doctor. Keep me posted and alert me when you're ready to revive her." Nodding his head at the physician's acknowledgement of his orders, Nicholas entered his office and sat down behind his desk. Slipping the disk containing the data into a slot, the director sat back and watched in fascination the scenes appearing on his monitor screen. Costumed figures engaged in battle…one of the fighters a dead ringer for Clint Barton. A woman wearing a blue and white one piece costume that showed plenty of leg—he assumed that was the young woman currently lying in the tube—kissing the Barton double. Then her pleading with what appeared to be a demon or monster to take her as a sacrifice in exchange for the life of the Barton double. And finally, a flash of light. After several moments, more memories appeared on the screen. Many of them involving interactions—some very intimate—with her universe's version of Clint Barton. It soon became obvious to the director that those two were very close to each other in the other universe. Other memories of her belonging to a team of superheroes very similar to the Avengers Initiative that he was considering also played on the monitor. He even saw her performing missions as an agent of that other universe's version of SHIELD, his lips turning up in a fond grin as he looked on at the craggy faced Caucasian male with what appeared to be permanent five o'clock stubble, salt and pepper hair, and an eye patch just like his who appeared on the screen giving orders to the blonde woman. "Must be my counterpart in her universe." He remarked to himself as he found himself nodding his head in approval at how professionally she conducted herself during her missions.
"Damn." Fury muttered as he poured whiskey from a bottle he had retrieved from a desk drawer into a glass. As he sipped the drink and played through what he had just seen, he recalled his earlier conversation with Maria Hill regarding the need to keep a closer watch on Kim Possible. "We'll have to see how things go when she regains consciousness. But…if she's half as good as what I'm seeing now…then I think I might have an idea."
"Director?"
"Yes?" Fury replied, speaking into the intercom on his desk.
"Subject Alpha is regaining consciousness."
"Excellent!" Fury replied. "I'm on my way!"
A/N: This is my first foray into writing Kim Possible. While I will be doing my best to keep to the spirit of canon as much as possible, this is very much an AU and there will be divergences—there are going to have to be to make the story work. One of my goals here is to add some complexity to Ron and Kim's relationship. Ron is feeling more than a little frustrated by Kim and really isn't sure if she's just clueless or deliberately trying to avoid dealing with the issue of his growing attraction towards her. This is going to cause some tensions between the two as Kim will have rivals for Ron's affections (Tara, for example) just as Ron will have competition from other boys. Both are capable of being more than a little selfish at times and needy—but then they are teenagers. At heart, both are good people and they do both care about each other very much—it's just that as often as not, they mess it all up one way or another.
As regards Shego and Drakken: Drakken really doesn't grasp just how dangerous his situation could be if he ever does land on SHIELD's radar—something Shego is VERY aware of. Shego understands full well that her odds of survival should she ever end up confronting one of Fury's heavy hitters is somewhere between slim and nil and she will do everything she can to avoid that outcome. She's not a coward—but she is smart and she knows that the odds do not favor her in such a confrontation.
I've given this story a T rating in that, while I do try to keep it to a minimum, there are situations where it makes sense for a character to drop the f- or s-bomb—but I do try to keep those occurrences as limited as possible.
I hope you all enjoy this story and please let me know what you think.
