AN: This is a redo of my first KP fic after getting some feedback. If you've read this chapter before please reread it now, I think you will like it. Also, anyone who can tell me where I borrowed the idea for this story from wins a grandee sized naco on me.
KIM POSSIBLE: THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE MIDDLETON
I.
The moon shone bright and high in the cloudless sky and provided plenty of illumination on to the calm, flat water below. Any one who was trained in the art of infiltration knew that this was probably the worst time to attempt an undetected landing on to an island. Even the small amount of training possessed by the two people who were currently attempting that feat told them this.
"Ah Kim, do we have to swim so far? Can't just have the boat bring us in closer to the beach?" Ron whined.
"Ron, you know the answer to that, if the boat had brought us in closer we could be detected. Now did you bring the extra food like you were supposed to?"
"Yeah I got it in my pack."
"You didn't try to bring Bueno Nacho did you?"
"Uh huh, Naco." Rufus added.
"Kim, do you really think I would do that?" Ron asked before a withering glare from Kim stopped him. "He-he, umm… yeah, no Bueno Nacho." He laughed nervously.
"Quiet Ron, we're approaching the beach. Let's find this scientist and get out of here as soon as possible." Kim instructed.
The two swam in silence and carefully made their way off of the exposed beach and sought concealment in the nearby jungle. Finding a suitable place to hide their gear, Kim referenced the map of the island she had on her Kimmunicator.
"Remember Ron, we need to find this Dr. Vanover and get him back to the beach so that Global Justice can extract us."
"Yeah, I know Kim. I was there with you when Dr. Director gave us the mission brief."
"I know Ron, but that means we may have to split up on this mission, who ever finds the doctor first, forgets everything else and heads to the beach." Kim said grimly.
II.
An hour later, Team Possible was only about half way to what they believed was Drakken's newest lair. Normally Wade would have provided Kim and Ron with all the information they needed, but in this case even he couldn't be sure. There was the usual spike in energy usage that was associated with Drakken's MO, but this island wasn't on any of the villain's time share listings, instead it was owned by some multinational conglomerate. Add to that the unusual number of tanker ships that seemed to visit the island and no one was sure who or what they would find there. But one thing was sure, a brilliant scientist had been kidnapped and he needed to be rescued, and Team Possible was just the team for that job.
"Ready Ron?" Kim asked.
"Ready K... opffff." Ron said as he tripped on something and landed fast first.
"Ron."
"Not my fault KP, something tripped me." Looking towards his feet to see what had tripped him, Ron noticed a human hand holding on to this leg. "Aggghhhh! Dismembered hand on my leg! Dism….." The rest of Ron's statement was cut off as Kim clamped her hand over his mouth.
"All right, who ever you are, come out so we can see you." Kim hissed.
Rufus ran down to the bush that the hand was coming out of and pulled it back. Slowly a head appeared out of the vegetation, it was soon followed by a disheveled looking man with a wild grey bread and hair and sunken eyes that had dark bags under them. He was also quite thin looking, as if he hadn't eaten in quite a while.
"Dr. Vanover, I'm Kim Possible. Global Justice sent me to rescue you." Kim said to the dirty, hungry, tired, and very nervous looking man.
"Yes, yes, I-am-fine-we… we-must-keep-moving… keep-moving… they not find me that way… for three days I haven't eaten or slept… that way they can't find me." Dr. Vanover said in a jumble.
"You're safe now doctor. Here sit and rest. My partner here will make sure you get something to eat." Kim said while indicating towards Ron.
"I don't know KP, its going to take more than some candy cars and a cup of instant noodles to make this guy right."
Twenty minutes later, a fuller and some what calmer Dr. Vanover continued to tell his story to the two teen heroes.
"Yes. Dr. Drakken kidnapped me, threatened me…. forced me to work on things for him… experiments. I, I-didn't-want-to-but-he-made-me…. threatened me, scared me… green woman very scary, very evil. Very dangerous my work is."
"Um, Dr. could you tell us what it is you worked on?" Kim asked.
"I am a chemist, I usually work with unstable chemicals, very unstable, explosively unstable…. that's why Drakken wanted me, wanted me to make explosives, powerful explosives."
"Kaboom." Rufus chuckled.
"Oh that's just great! Just what we need, Drakken with some new type of explosive in some darn take over the world scheme." Ron grumbled.
"Ron, be quiet." Kim chided him, but not before mentally noting that Ron had been a lot more sarcastic lately. He seemed annoyed by the missions. As if he didn't want to do them, or he was fed up by them. She made a mental note to talk to him when they got back to Middleton, and returned her attention to the doctor as he continued to speak.
"But I fooled them, fooled them I did. I made the explosive, I wrote it down, made it, tested it. But I fooled them."
"Wait, what do you mean you fooled them? You just said you made the explosive." Kim asked.
"Oh yes, I made the explosive, we had to test it. But they only have half of the formula, you see I made it a binary compound high thermal kinetic ignition, and I didn't write it down, no, no, its all up in my head, safe, safe, in my head, that's why they want me back."
"Ok, let's pretend I have no idea what you're talking about." Ron said.
"He means both of the chemicals have to be combined before it becomes explosive, and even then it requires an extremely energetic heat source to detonate." Kim said.
"Yes, yes, the lady is right, the lady is very smart, very smart, she will do nicely, she will make sure things work out, my plan will work, all will work out."
With that the doctor pulled out a small device, not much bigger than cell phone and swiftly planted it against Kim's forehead before it discharged a small electrical current which caused her to pass out.
Leaping to Kim's side Ron removed the device and gently laid her on the ground before he grabbed the doctor by the scruff of his neck.
"What did you do to her?"
"Do not worry, your friend is fine… see, she is coming to already."
Ron turned to face Kim and could see that she was already starting to sit up again and that Rufus was checking her out to make sure she was ok.
"Ow, what happened?" Kim asked holding her hand against her forehead.
"Yeah doctor, what did you do?" Ron added sternly.
"Your friend is ok; I simply gave her the formula, the formula for the other half of the compound." Dr. Vanover said with a small smile.
"They why don't I remember it?" Kim asked.
"Because it is in your subconscious, but it is there…. only a special codeword will release it, and this is the codeword."
Leaning over to Ron, Dr. Vanover proceeded to whisper the password in to his ear. Just as he finished and leaned back there was a thunderous crash as the tree next to Ron exploded and showered him with splinters as he dove to protect the doctor.
"Henchmen!" Kim yelled, "Ron quick get the doctor out of here!"
"You got it KP! Come on doc, time to go." Ron said while grabbing Dr. Vanover by the sleeve and practically dragging him towards the beach.
"But your friend, we must help her, get her back with the information."
"Don't worry doc, Kim can handle herself."
Even as Ron and the doctor were making a bee line for the beach, Kim was busy taking out her fifth henchman that evening. Looking around at all the unconscious bodies around her Kim realized that something was wrong, something was missing, this fight had been too easy. And it had been quite, in fact too quite. There wasn't any of the usual banter, the witty or snide comments, the trading of barbs with Shego. Shego? Suddenly it dawned on her what was wrong, Shego wasn't there. But if she wasn't fighting Kim then that could only mean one thing. Racing in the same direction that Ron and Dr. Vanover had taken, Kim only hoped that she could get there in time.
III.
Racing toward the beach as fast as he could with Dr. Vanover in tow, Ron was brought to a very short stop by the sudden appearance of a body in front of him. There were a lot of ways different people could identify the person in front of Ron. Some by her long raven hair, some by her smooth pale skin, some by her green and black outfit, while most people would identify her by her glowing green hands. But for Ron Stoppable, and much to Kim's disappointment at the way guys sometimes thought, he was able to identify that person in the dim light of the jungle solely by the great curves that she had.
"Shego." Ron cried out.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the buffoon. Trying to be the hero this time and take away our beloved little scientist?"
"Shego... bad woman, evil woman, scary woman." Dr. Vanover whimpered as he cowered behind Ron.
"You don't know the half of it." Shego said as her hands lit up with plasma and cast an eerie glow on her face.
"Um can we talk about this?" Ron asked as he slowly backed away.
"I think not." Shego answered as she hurled a plasma burst towards Ron's feet. The blast was small and only left little more than a divot sized hole in the ground, but this was enough to cause Ron to fall backwards and land on his rump and that's when the Ron factor kicked in. The red star cluster that Ron had stuffed in his back pocket suddenly ignited and launched sky ward alerting all nearby GJ units that Team Possible needed extraction and to expect the pick up zone to be hot.
"Oh no, why does this always happen?" Shego sighed in defeat as she fully understood what a red star cluster meant.
"He-he, sorry about that." Ron chuckled as he grabbed Dr. Vanover's arm and took off through the jungle back the way he had just came.
"KP!" Ron shouted upon seeing his partner
"Ron, you're going the wrong way!" Kim shouted as she took out another henchman.
"Not when Shego is right behind me."
"Scary woman, bad woman." Dr. Vanover added.
"All right then, Ron signal for GJ back up, I'll handle Shego."
There is an old saying, "speak of the devil and he will appear", well no sooner had Kim uttered her last statement then Shego appeared.
"Oh goodie, I found all three of you at once." Shego said.
"You can barely handle me Shego, why take on more?" Kim taunted.
"Oh I would love nothing more than to mop the floor with you princess, but I've got orders to get the mad scientist back."
"What's the matter, Drakken not enough mad scientist for you?"
"Maybe she wants a ménage a tres." Ron offered while mangling the saying.
"Its ménage a trios you idiot, and that's just sick and wrong!" Shego yelled in frustration as she lunged towards Ron.
"Time to go Doc." Ron yelped as he grabbed Dr. Vanover and began to drag him back towards the beach.
"I, I hope we don't have to come back, all this, this, running is tiring."
This time the two did make it to the beach and could see GJ boats and helicopters coming their way. "Booyah, the cavalry is here." Ron shouted.
"But it won't do you any good." Shego shouted as she prepared to hurl plasma toward the two.
Coming out of the jungle in time to see Shego bring her arm back, Kim jumped on Shego and knocked her to the ground. However, the sudden backwards movement caused Shego to launch her plasma skyward, and straight toward an approaching GJ helicopter, with predictable results.
As the flight leader watched the two parachutes appear from his wingman's craft he decided that this met the criteria of hostile action and that he was now able to go weapons free, with predictable results. Using his Forward Looking Infrared targeting system, the pilot locked on to the brightest heat source, undoubtedly Shego, and fired a barrage of missiles. Unfortunately, what he didn't know, because he couldn't know was that Shego's thermal footprint completely covered Kim's. The pilot never knew she was there.
"Kim!" Ron screamed, "INCOMING!"
Looking up towards the sky Kim had just enough time to register that she should be leaping to cover, and then it all went black.
IV.
Kim slowly opened her eyes. Her head hurt and she didn't want to, but something told her that she should, that she needed to see what was happening around her. Her pupils slowly contracted as they adjusted to the sun light that streamed in through a window and fell across her bed. Bed? Kim didn't remember being in bed. Lifting her head up to get a better view, Kim saw that she was in a room, in fact it looked like a typical hospital room. There was her bed in the center of the room, a device next to her bed for calling the nurse, a small monitoring machine, a TV on the wall, a roll able table next to her bed, and a visitors chair in the corner with someone in it.
Someone in it? Who was in her room with her? Her parents, her brothers, Ron? She needed to find out.
"Ron, is that you?" Kim asked weakly, her throat feeling dry. But the noise was enough to awaken the person in the chair.
"Kim, you're awake. How are you feeling?" The young man asked as he stepped in to the sunlight that fell across Kim's bed.
"Josh?" Kim asked in surprise. "What happened, why are you here? Where's Ron?"
"Ron's not here." Josh answered tentatively.
Kim smiled softly. "Oh I get it, he was watching over me and you finally convinced him to go home and get some rest, right?" That was one thing Kim loved about Ron, he would always go the extra mile for her, even if it was only watching over her while she slept. She would owe him a naco for that later.
Unfortunately, Josh didn't have couldn't tell Kim what she wanted to hear.
"Umm Kim, this may sound a little strange, but I need you to answer a question I'm going to ask you. Ok?"
Kim looked Josh straight in the face and saw something different than she expected. Instead of the youthful, joyful face that she was used to, she saw an older, concerned face. His hair was the same, but now he sported a small goatee, which along with the unshaven stubble, seemed to rob his face of the boyish good looks she remembered. Finally moving to his eyes, Kim could see they were the same color, but they looked different somehow, a little older, and worried looking. Josh was very worried about something.
Slowly Kim nodded her head and indicated for Josh to continue.
"Kim, what's the last thing that you remember?"
"I was on a mission, with Ron. We were on an island; it had one of Drakken's lairs on it. We were supposed to rescue some scientist. I remember we found him and we were getting ready to leave when Drakken's henchmen attacked us. I remember fighting them, and trying to help Ron and Dr. Vanover to escape, then there was an explosion, and, and…"
"And then you woke up here." Josh finished for her.
"That's right. Why do you ask?" After a few seconds Kim asked again. "Josh what's going on? Where's Ron? Where are my parents?"
If Kim was concerned before, Josh's continued silence really began to worry her.
Taking a deep breath, Josh mentally prepared himself for the task ahead of him. What he had to say next would be hard, potentially devastating, and had to be done very delicately. And it all died on his tongue as Doctor Huxtable walked in to the room.
"Well Mrs. Mankey, its good to see that you're awake and…." The rest of the doctor's sentence trailed off as he saw the look of utter surprise on Kim's face.
"Mrs. Mankey?" Kim asked slowly as if in shock.
"Doctor, we have a problem. I think Kim has amnesia." Josh said as he slowly stepped toward his wife and rested his hand on top of hers.
"Mrs. Mankey?" Kim repeated.
"That's right Kim, we're married." Josh said soothingly.
"Mrs. Mankey?" Kim repeated, again.
"Err, yes I see." Dr. Huxtable said. "Did she do anything to make you think that?"
Eyes narrowing in frustration, Josh knew what the doctor was getting at, what did a layman like him know to make medical diagnoses of amnesia.
"Doctor, she seems to have no memory of the past six years. When she first awoke she asked for Ron Stoppable."
This brought the doctor up short. "Oh I see." He said softly.
"What about Ron?" Kim asked, brought out of her earlier shock by the way the two men were talking about Ron. "What about Ron? Is he ok? Tell me doctor, what's the matter with Ron?"
Doctor Huxtable could only slowly shake his head before responding. "I'm sorry Mrs. Mankey, but that's something I think your husband should explain to you."
Her eyes becoming wider with fear, Kim turned toward Josh. He may or may not be her husband, she really didn't know, but she trusted him. And right now she needed to hear the truth.
"I'm sorry Kim." Josh stopped for a second and swallowed before speaking again. "I'm afraid Ron is dead, he died on your last mission."
"No, no, NO!" Kim screamed before breaking down and crying.
