Disclaimer: I don't own Kim Possible or related characters, they are property of Disney. They are used in this story without permission, without intent to sell or distribute for goods or services. Though I do ask for comments if you read this story as a courtesy. If you're reading this you are agreeing that you are old enough (and mature) enough to deal with adult situations, graphic situations, strong language and unauthorized use of sex between two characters owned by Disney despite them being fictional in nature. If any of this does not apply to you, please leave and let everyone else enjoy the story.
Thank you.
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Her brunette hair cascaded in the beams of sunlight that streamed through the leaves of the old oak tree as she swooped past her brother. Her young voice filled with excitement as she pumped her legs, trying to urge the old wood plank swing to go just a little higher, "Come on Henry, push me!"
The large boy waited a moment before stepping behind her and giving her a good strong push that sent her farther still, her small body going so high now that from where he was standing it looked like she was kicking the leaves with her feet. He wince as his mind nagged him with what could happen if she fell, and he prayed that she wouldn't, "That good Shannon?"
"Is it ever good enough for the little Princess? I swear one of these days she's going to just swing too high and get tangled up in the branches." The voice came from above Henry, who looked up at the pale face of his lanky and rather obnoxious brother who was looking down from the tree house their dad had built for them a few years ago.
But that was before Dad...
Henry pushed the thought from his mind and frowned, "Quit acting like a brat just because it's her turn and not yours. You know the world doesn't live to serve you Mike."
"That's what you think Jock." The pale boy pulled his head inside the tree house to read comic books again. Despite his brother's thoughts he couldn't care less about the swing, he just thought that too much time was spent doting on his little brother and sister. Wasn't he there before them? As soon as Shannon had been born it seemed like all the attention he used to get dried up. So what if she was a girl? Could she walk on her hands? Name all the planets? Recount all of the Fearless Ferret's enemies?
He glanced out of the window at his little brother playing in the sandbox with little plastic soldiers, at least William thought what he could do was cool. When the boy wasn't lost in his own private world at least. Shifting, Michael relaxed and let out a relaxed sigh as he opened up one of his favorite Fearless Ferret issues, looking to lose himself inside of the pages.
Shannon smiled as she kicked out with her feet and managed to kick one of the lower leaves with the toe of her sneaker. It wasn't much, but it was something she never did before, "Yes! It's a new record Henry!"
The older boy shook his head and smiled, "I don't know how you do it Shannon. I never got that high up before."
Her small feet dragged into the dirt beneath her, stirring up a small cloud of dust that lazily drifted from where she dismounted. A large smile spread on her face as she trotted over to her older brother and teasingly jabbed a single finger into his chest, "And that's why I'm the best Henry, and don't you forget it."
"I'm the best at something too you know sis," He leaned forward, his hands slipping out of his pockets before they attacked her exposed sides, his thick fingers gently assaulting her. It was too much for the younger girl who collapsed into a wiggling pile on the grass. "I'm the best at tickling you!"
Her slight form struggled to get away, "Stop! Please! I surrender!"
The larger boy grinned maniacally as he tried to keep up with the squirming mass that was his sister, "I take no prisoners!"
She gasped for air as she tried to pull herself free from his amazingly effective torture, "You madman! I will never..." Her voice trailed off as something caught her eye in the sky. At first it seemed to just be a faint sparkle against the pale blue sky. But the sparkle was quickly growing larger, reflecting dozens of colors as white tendrils streamed outwards from it. Her odd silence and unblinking stare made him turn to see what it was.
William saw it next, "Hey Michael! You need to see this!" His voice was a little high as he yelled up to his older brother. The reclusive boy looked out the tree house window to hopefully keep his younger brother from bothering him for more than a few minutes. His eyes followed the direction the younger boy's muddy fingers were pointing, "What? I don't see any...thing..." His annoyed tone lost itself in his throat as he saw what his brother was pointing at. "Oh."
The object shimmered and sparkled as bits of ice on the surface reflected the sunlight in a rainbow of colored bands, and was quickly seeming to get bigger than the station wagon that sat in their driveway. The trail of steam didn't stray in any direction, and that's when one of the children realized something.
"Doesn't it look like it's coming right at us?" Shannon didn't even realize she spoke until the sentence was all the way past her lips.
"Yeah...really fast at us..." Henry answered back slowly, his eyes not even blinking at first as he watched the thing grow larger rather quickly. His mind made the connection at the same time as Shannon's did. "It's coming right at us!"
But somehow the children knew that there was nowhere they could run to in time. The three of them of them quickly grouped together on the soft grass and each silently prayed that it would be enough to keep them safe. Michael started to climb down, but quickly changed his mind and let go of the ladder, dropping, letting out a cry in pain as his ankle twisted under the sudden weight of impact with an audible crack. Despite the pain he managed to limp over to where his brothers and sister huddled, his face red in embarrassment as tears escaped with every step.
It was only as the sky began to darken over them that a new fact came to mind. Their mother was taking a nap inside before she would have to go to work.
Henry broke from the group, his legs pumping as he raced towards the house. He made it only halfway across the yard before the world exploded.
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With a light clatter she dropped her clipboard down on reception desk counter and stretched. The exhausted muscles in her legs and back cried out as she tried to work the knots out, a rapid series of her lower vertebrae letting out audible popping noises as the bones shifted. Her lips let out a frustrated sigh as she took a moment to attempt to bring some control to her short bob of red hair. Her hair was unkempt, there were bags under her bloodshot eyes and what had been a smile early that morning was now a frustrated grimace.
Sticking her hand towards the man sitting at the reception counter desk for another clipboard she focused her mind back on the task at hand, trying to get through the mountain of forms for people still waiting to be treated and looked at after "So Lontaine, who's next?"
The nurse at the desk looked up, his tired eyes just as blood shot as hers, as he passed her the clipboard off the top of the stack that was next to him, "That skinny guy with brown hair, on the cot by the door to treatment room seven. He's got a possible concussion and has says he has...gravel... embedded in his back."
Anne grabbed the clipboard with an exhausted groan as well as one of the basic treatment kits that some of the less experienced nursing staff had been tasked with putting together. She twisted and turned as she made her way around the maze of cots that were scattered over the waiting room-turned-emergency room. With some effort she navigated the maze skirting around several of the other resident physicians and nursing staff that were doing their best to keep working despite everyone there having been on their feet for the past nineteen hours thanks to the comet and it's fragments that had impacted Go City.
They were lucky enough to be the biggest hospital to avoid being damaged by the comet. Well lucky for the board of trustees who were looking to make a quick buck, but unlucky for the employees of the hospital who were bearing the brunt of the emergency.
She knelt next to the cot of her current responsibility, grimacing as her joints flared, and gently shook him. He, like many of the others that filled every open space in the building, had been waiting for hours to be seen many sitting or sleeping on the floor. The lucky ones were those who got to sleep on cots the National Guard had provided for them.
He slowly pushed his body to a sitting position and started to stretch, stopping with a pained look as his back reminded him that all was not fine and dandy. "My turn already?" It was a half-hearted joke that she'd heard a few times before from some of the more lighthearted patients, but this time she could feel herself smiling. Quickly looking back down at the clipboard in her hand she mentally chided her foolishness for letting herself flirt.
"I'm really sorry sir, with all of these patients we've been working as fast as we can, but unfortunately we don't have nearly enough staff to keep up with the sheer volume of people." She used her penlight to check his eyes for pupil contraction, and jotted the results down.
"No, no it's alright. Having such a lovely woman as you making sure I'm okay makes the wait worth it." His grin looked a little goofy but it was as sincere as the tone of his voice and she could feel her cheeks start to tinge a little.
"Any-um...Any headaches? Dizziness? Ringing in your ears? Nausea?"
"Actually I'm not feeling too bad. Some rest helped clear up the headache I had, and my back doesn't sting nearly as much."
She nodded and scribbled down her notes, "Alright, now I need you to lay on your stomach with your shirt pulled up as far as you can."
He lay down and shifted as he pulled the torn t-shirt up to just under his armpits, a pained hiss escaping his lips as it pulled off part of a rough looking scab that had formed over some scrapes in the pale skin of his back.
"So...um...you didn't tell me your name. I mean, usually a girl gives me that much before she asks me to take my shirt off."
She smirked as his statement, "Despite the lack of faith I have with what you said I will tell you my name. I'm Doctor Anne Credible and I'll be the one making you squirm today Mr. Possible."
He opened his mouth to say something but she cut him off, "Before you ask, I got your name from your paperwork." Setting the clipboard down next to her she opened the single use packet containing a pair of disposable gloves and slipped them on.
"That's not what I was say actually. I was going to ask if you would call me James. I'm not really big on the whole being called 'mister' thing, it makes me feel old."
She smiled as she gently used a small number of moist towelettes to remove some of the dirt from his back disposing of the used ones in the small bag the kit contained. "In that case call me Anne. It's only fair." She took the forceps from her coat pocket and cleaned them with an alcohol pad before gently probing the rocks that hadn't come loose when she had cleaned his back. There weren't many, but they looked like they were not coming out easily. "I'd like to apologize now for any pain I'm about to cause you."
"Hey, if it's you doing it I don't think I've got a right to complain. I'm pretty sure someone somewhere would pay for this sort of thing for fun. College taught me that much."
She let out a small laugh, "So I see I'm not the only one who had weird dorm mates." She furrowed her brow as she forced the forceps down on either side of one of the rocks as gently as she could, James not letting out a sound, but his body tightening up she pushed deeper. "So what do you do when your not getting rocks embedded in your back?"
"I'm a...intern with a company...that is being looked at to create the newest generation of space craft that we're...designing to replace the space shuttle. In a few more months my internship will finally be up and I'll be a full fledged rocket scientist!" He grimaced as she twisted the rock and then managed to pull it free, dropping it into the refuse bag. "Alright...how many more?"
She stopped, the forceps hovering over one of the remaining rocks, "Counting the one I'm about to take out, just two more to go. After that and some bandages to keep the bleeding down and dirt out of the wounds and we'll be done."
He nodded, "So, what do you do when comets aren't hitting the city?"
"Honestly? Brain surgery."
He chuckled at her answer as she clamped down on her next target, "So...is there anything that is like it?"
"I don't know? Anything like rocket science?" She grinned back, this rock coming free with less of a struggle than the one before.
"Touché. Ever go out with any rocket scientists before?" He twisted partially around to look towards her, a hopeful look in his eyes.
"None yet, but I'm willing to consider it. Now turn back around so I can finish getting that last one out. Unless you want me to leave that rock in there so it can get infected." She gave him a curious look and he sheepishly turned back to staring forward. "Thank you."
They didn't say anything for a little bit, Anne focusing the last piece of embedded rock while James seemed to be pondering something. She wasn't slow with this one when she noticed it didn't want to come free, but rather gave it a hard pull. It came free with a pained moan from her patient as he twisted in response to the jolt of pain that seized him.
It wasn't until she was almost done taping down the last piece of gauze over cuts and scrapes on his back that he spoke. "Anne...I don't suppose we could get together sometime when you're not working and do something, could we?"
Her hands froze for a moment before she shook her surprise, her lips curled in a playful smile, "I suppose so. I mean someone has to make sure you don't get an infection after all."
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The world seemed frozen, the thick gray cloud of dust halted in midair, partway between her and where the house was only moments ago. The thick tendrils didn't seem to move though, and almost looked like they were holding the splintered wooden boards of what had been their tree house, and the fragments of what had been the tree it'd been in, in midair. She didn't know what had happened to Henry, the dust had swallowed him a moment before. She turned to check on her brothers and found herself to be the only one standing there. She wasn't sure where they were, but she hoped they were alright.
Flickering tube shapes of blue, red, violet and green made their way through the dust, first one end of the color moving forward then the back moving forward, the middle bent up like a small flickering arch in the dust. It was the green light that came out of the frozen dust first. It's writhing mass of tentacles reached out in front of it as it continued to move forward, steadily moving in the same deliberate way. The body itself was nearly hidden under the flickering flame-like glow that danced over it's segmented form.
She gaped at how large it was, as tall as a the neighbor's German Shepard, and more than twice as long! The twin black stripes down its sides seemed to wiggle up and down slightly as it moved, almost dancing over the creature's sides as it steadily drew closer to her. She wasn't sure if she should run, or if she could.
The creature's writhing mass traced over the ground and in the air as it moved, like someone walking through a room when the lights go out. It paused as it came close, slowly extending itself towards her, her green eyes growing wider as the constantly shifting tentacles reached towards her face. Her body leaning backwards, away from the creature and the heat that was rolling off of it's form.
One of them brushed lightly over her cheek, the tip barely making contact. Her skin tingling where it went before more of them started to trace over her face and then her neck. It only took moments before the tendrils were running down her small form, tracing her body's outline, making her shift and giggle as they encountered her ticklish sides, her body tingling even when there tendrils were touching fabric and not her skin.
Its body seemed to shift, and the tendrils were wrapped around her, touching her back now, the heat becoming too much as it drew closer. Shannon wanted to push it away but she was afraid of what the heat would do to her hands if she did. The center of the mass of tendrils touched against her chest and kept pressing forwards into her. Her lungs burned, screaming for air as she gasped and tried to breathe, the burning becoming stronger the more it pressed into her. The tendrils disappeared inside of her as more of it pressed into her, spreading the burning out from her chest to her back and then as farther still with each inch that made its way inside.
As the last bit of it's back end entered her she felt something in her head. It was a feeling of something that was there, that wasn't there before. Something that was older than she could ever imagine, and more powerful than anything she'd ever seen. Something that was thankful that it was allowed in, and felt bad for the pain and confusion that it caused her.
Something that hoped that someday she would understand why it did what it did.
None of the silent conversation was said in words, or pictures but in pure emotion that carried more explanation than words could ever hope to achieve. And it was with that emotion in her mind her little girl body collapsed to her knees. She pitched forward towards the grass and darkness.
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Her small frame trembled in the dark, beads of sweat rolling down her face and landing on the thin sheet that covered her thin legs. Around her ran tubes and wires monitoring her every breath and every heartbeat, lines shifting with every slight change. Her eyes looked around at the glowing monitors and the room around her and she sighed. She remembered her father hooked to such machines after the accident. The memory brought up a strange sensation in her mind, a feeling of curiosity and sympathy that seemed foreign, almost as if it was someone else sharing her memory. She forced it away.
Slowly she started unhooking the wires from her body, her sweaty fingertips slipping a couple of times on the IV tube before she managed to pull it out of the plug that was connected to her hand. Several of the machines started to let out a droning cry but she ignored them as she finished freeing herself from the things that were tying her down. It was hot in her room and her head felt funny. She just needed to slip away for a little while and clear her head and she'd be fine. Lowering herself to the floor she looked at her surroundings and noticed everything seemed a little shorter than it seemed it should be.
She could think about why later. Padding quietly on her bare feet, her body cloaked in a light hospital gown she slowly poked her head out of her door and slipped out into the empty hallway. With any luck she could find someplace to get some air before anyone made her go back to bed.
She didn't know her way around the hospital, but she was sure there was a way to get up onto the roof. Avoiding the roaming nurses and men with mops wasn't easy and she felt herself holding her breath as she hid behind bins for dirty sheets and inside of drinking alcoves or behind the soda machines as she followed the signs that led to the stairs. She was almost there when she rounded a corner and was busted by a redheaded woman in green hospital scrubs. She turned to run, but a hand gently rested on her shoulder and her body froze. "It's okay Shannon. You don't have to hide from me."
She turned towards the woman who was resting on a knee, a gentle smile on her lips, "How did you know my name?"
"Because I've been checking on you almost everyday to see how you were doing. You see I'm a doctor who works on people's brain, and they asked me to make sure yours was working. We were worried because you hadn't woken up for a long time but we couldn't find any injuries that could tell us why."
"Oh...so if it wasn't...you'd have to unplug all those machines...like they did with Dad." Shannon looked down at her feet and for the first time since her escape noticed that her skin was very pale. At first it seemed okay until she realized what color her skin was now. "Why is my skin green?" She looked up at the woman who smiled.
"I don't know, but I think you look beautiful, green, pink, or any color. Now, thinking of things I don't know, where you sneaking off to? I think it'd be better if I take you so you don't have to worry about getting into trouble."
The girl shifted slightly, staring in amazement at her feet again, experimentally wiggling her toes, still not sure how to feel about the change, "The roof. I feel so warm that I just need a little time outside to cool down."
Anne gently scooped the girl up with a slight grunt as she adjusted to her weight, surprised at how warm she felt. The night air would probably do her some good to bring her body temperature back down a little. "Alright, but you can't leave my side when we're up there. I don't want you getting hurt."
With a nod in agreement the pair left for the stairs. It took Anne a little longer than she remembered to climb the stairs, and she silently scolded herself for forsaking the gym for so long. With her back she pushed open the door and the cool night air whipped around them, making Shannon's hair twist and turn around them, getting in their eyes for a moment. The pair settled down on the calm side of the rooftop access door and looked up at the night sky.
"Do you know where my brothers are?" The girl's voice was tiny and seemed on the edge of tears, "Are they okay?"
"They're doing fine over at Go City Community General. When the comet hit town we didn't have a lot of room to work with and the rescue workers had found you first, so you came here, but when they found your brothers we didn't have anymore room so they had to go there."
"Oh. Are they awake yet? Can I see them?"
"No, I don't think they're awake yet. We're not sure when they will, I mean you were a surprise so I'm sure anything can happen. What's important is that they're doing fine, just like you were. The oldest-"
"Henry."
"Right. Henry. Sorry. Henry has actually gotten taller since he's been admitted if you believe it, and his hair has turned an interesting shade of blue."
"And Michael?" Shannon leaned against the woman, her body feeling a little heavy, and her mind a little filled with an urge to nod off now that she was feeling cooler.
"He's fine...rather purple though."
"You're joking. Michael is purple?"
Anne didn't even notice her arm snaking around the girl, holding her close, "Nope. Just like you've turned green he's turned purple. And the twins-"
"I don't have twin brothers." Shannon looked up at Anne sternly as if she should have known that.
"Well, there are two boys that look identical to each other and both look a lot like Michael and Henry. I'll see if I can get you some pictures from a friend of mine who works there, okay?" Anne hugged the girl gently who slowly slipped her pale green arms around the woman and hugged her back.
There was a long silence as they sat there before Shannon spoke, her voice muffled as she buried it in Anne's top, "And...Mom?"
The redhead stiffened and hugged the girl tighter, "I'm sorry Shannon. The rescuers didn't find her."
The girl's fingertips dug into the older woman's sides as she pulled herself closer, trying to hide the tears that streamed from her eyes soaked the woman's scrubs. Neither said anything for a long time, as the faint steamers of the rising sun began to paint sky in gentle shades of pink. Shannon gently slipped off into a deep sleep, her arms refusing to let the older woman go.