Okay, KP and related characters aren't mine. This scenario, Walter Baron, Rick Owens, Roy, Matthew, Shift, Derrick, Nathan Vellick, Karen Beckwit, Danielle Bridger, Onyx Bedra, the Darkut, and the Wilgut all beling to me.
WARNING: THIS STORY IS A SEQUEL TO MY PREVIOUS FANFIC, TO SAVE THE WORLD WITH A SECRET! THIS STORY WILL REFERENCE EVENTS FROM TO SAVE THE WORLD WITH A SECRET, SO IF YOU WANT THE DOWN-LOW ON WHAT'S GOING ON, I SUGGEST READING THAT ONE FIRST!
ENJOY! :D
A Gathering of Heroes
CHAPTER 1: Losing Our Touch?
Kim and Ron lay concealed in a ventilation shaft, shivering with cold as the subzero air from outside made its way into the tiny enclosure; Drakken's new Himalayan mountain base was more than cold enough for the two of them, but they were monitoring the villain's progress on his new "evil masterpiece" and didn't want to move inside until they were sure they were ready and that they wouldn't be spotted.
Drakken hadn't attempted anything evil or "take-over-the-world-oriented" since six months before the Walter Baron incident; that made it a year and a half since his most recent attempt at global conquest, and common sense dictated that, since it had been so long, he would be planning something big.
Kim scanned the main chamber again. Shego, like Drakken, was nowhere to be seen at the moment, but that didn't mean she wasn't around; Kim knew that the super-powered villainess was probably monitoring the room from a place where she couldn't be visibly detected. She pulled the Kimmunicator out of her pocket and pressed the call button; the almost-silent click sounded incredibly loud in the air duct.
As Wade's face came into view, Kim pressed a finger to her lips in the universal "quiet" gesture, then began to speak in a barely audible whisper.
"Any idea what that is?" She asked, turning the Kimmunicator so that Wade could see the enormous chamber below. As was typical of the blue villain's lair, stacks of crates were piled around the room in pyramids and towers. In the center of it all was a large open space wherein rested an enormous machine. Kim turned the Kimmunicator back toward her face.
"Not yet." the young genius replied. "I can scan it, though."
Wade typed a few strokes on his keyboard, then reached for something next to his computer monitor. His gaming joystick.
"Wade?" Kim asked, raising her eyebrow disapprovingly.
"Just watch." Wade hit the Enter button on his keyboard and waited a moment.
Kim jumped with surprise as a small, inch-long bug-like object emerged from a compartment in the top of the Kimmunicator. It turned to look up at her, then opened a pair of wings on its back and flew out of the air duct.
"Fancy!" Kim whispered.
"You like it?" Wade asked.
"A lot."
Ron watched the entire ordeal in silence, keeping one eye on Kim and Wade and the other on the machine in the center of the room. Ever since waking up in Middleton Hospital a year previous, he had become more and more withdrawn, but during his months of recovery from his gunshot wounds, he had trained harder than ever. Even when he relapsed (his chest wound had begun to bleed again, internally, and he was once again forced to undergo surgery to repair it), he spent his days in bed working logic puzzles and strengthening his mind. The ordeal hadn't been an enjoyable one, and even his eyes had changed. They had become harder, more focused and calculating. And that wasn't all. His smile wasn't the same any more, either. Ron's goofy-ness virtually disappeared, leaving him an empty shell of his former self.
Kim, too, had undergone some changes during her recovery. As soon as her back had healed enough to allow it, she had begun to train again. She started revamping her fighting style, combining the sixteen different types of Kung Fu that she knew into newer and deadlier methods of combat. She still maintained a mostly positive outlook on things, as she had before, but as she witnessed Ron's transformation, her usual fiery enthusiasm dimmed into something closer to a glowing bed of coals.
And yet the two of them still made an incredibly effective team. Ron's focus and speed gave him a greater advantage over enemies like Monkey Fist and Dr. Dementor's henchmen, and as Kim observed his new behaviors, she began to understand exactly how he operated, meaning that she could do her job without worrying about his condition or his whereabouts. The result was that their need for verbal communication had greatly decreased, leaving them with less time wasted talking, and more time to fight without distraction. (It reminded Kim of a brother and sister she had met once; the two of them were so attuned to each other that they could have been twins if the sister weren't two years older. She had seen the two of them playing a cooperative video game together and marveled at how they could successfully batter their opponents without so much as a word.)
"Okay." Wade said, knocking the two of them out of their thoughts. "I've got the scan." The tiny, robotic insect-camera returned to the air duct and crawled into its compartment inside the Kimmunicator. Soon after, a three-dimensional x-ray image of Drakken's invention popped up on the device's screen.
The machine wasn't as large as it appeared to be; it was only twenty-two feet long with a width of ten feet and a height of fifteen feet. Most of it consisted of an outer skeleton covered with reinforced titanium-aluminum plating, for both strength and lightness. However, the interior was the most interesting part. Vials of various liquids and other substances lined the inside of the machine on either side of a conveyor belt, which itself was very short and ran straight through the big device. At the end of the belt, just inside the exit of the machine, there were two hydraulic arms designed to attach microchips to whatever came out.
"It's an assembly line of some sort." Remarked Kim. "But there's nothing to it; what could he possibly be building with it?"
"Clones." Wade replied.
"Hasn't he already tried that?" Kim asked incredulously.
"Yeah, he has, but this is different. He's got all the DNA from last time: the poodle, the elephant, and the cobra, but he also has a chemical compound designed to stabilize the molecular structure of the clones. They can't be destroyed with soda this time."
Kim groaned.
"That's not all." Wade continued. "Those microchips you see inside the machine give Drakken's clones the intelligence of a human being, plus full control over whatever comes out. All he has to do is implant one on the brain stem of each of his clones."
"Well, that settles it." Ron said, almost silently. "We'd better destroy that thing before he can get a chance to use it."
"Right." Wade answered. He typed a few commands into his computer, then frowned. "There's something wrong though. My scan indicates that the machine is ready, fully functional. If that's the case, it should be in operation. Drakken hasn't started cloning yet, which means he's waiting for something."
"If we've had any experience with things like this," Kim said, "it's the two of us he's waiting for. Wade, can your bug drone do surveillance?"
"Of course. Why?"
"Let's use it to find out where Drakken is."
"You got it."
The tiny robot emerged from the Kimmunicator and flew away once more, searching for the blue-skinned villain. It had traversed halfway across the room when a green energy blast flew up from the floor and reduced it to metallic ash. Kim looked down to see Shego standing next to the cloning device.
"Well, if it isn't Kimmie come to play." Sneered the green-skinned woman. "Why don't we have a little fun?"
"I thought you'd never show." Kim smiled as she turned off the Kimmunicator; she placed it inside her knapsack and kicked the grate out of the wall. She grabbed the edge of the air duct with her left hand to slow her descent and, allowing gravity to do the work, she slipped off the edge. She landed in a tiger-like crouch next to the wall. Ron mimicked the action, landing next to Kim in a like manner.
Without a word, the blonde produced the Lotus Blade, shifting it into a medium-length sword as he recalled something from his stay in the hospital. Master Sensei had visited Ron there, in the hospital (in his spirit form, of course), and informed him that the Lotus Blade was now his. 'A willingness to give one's own life for another, is a virtue far more valuable than any physical possession.' Sensei had said with a grin, 'However, if you should want to keep your life, a reliable physical weapon is necessary.'
With that, the old man had disappeared, leaving Ron with the legendary Lotus Blade. Since that day, young Stoppable had gone nowhere without it; when he wasn't using it in battle, he left it in the form of a pocket knife, which he carried in his right pants pocket.
"Ready, Ron?" Kim asked.
"When you are." He replied, readying the Blade.
Kim darted forward, lashing out at Shego while Ron made for the cloning machine. If he could destroy it now, before Drakken showed up with his henchmen, the work would be done and over with, and he and Kim could go home, where it was warm this time of year.
Ron approached the entrance to the cloning device; he was about to climb inside and hack away at its inner workings when he heard a familiar voice.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
Ron spun around, watching Kim and Shego through his peripherals as he focused on Drakken. The blue-faced villain stood casually at the other end of the central clearing, leaning leisurely against a stack of crates. His arms were folded lazily over his chest. Drakken seemed unfazed by the fact that his arch nemesis had entered his lair and was attempting to foil his plans.
Ron was surprised at the utter lack of anger and panic that Drakken usually exuded during one of Team Possible's visits. It was somewhat unnerving; he knew that if the evil mastermind wasn't worried, then he had something planned, which meant that both Ron and Kim were missing some vital piece of information. Exactly what information he was missing revealed itself rather soon.
A sound came from the giant machine behind Ron. It was a small noise, but he heard it all the same, even over the chaos of Kim and Shego battling nearby, and turned to discover the source. He hardly got a glimpse of a green-and-black bodysuit before something knocked him unconscious.
Kim had just launched herself into a spinning kick that sent Shego staggering backwards a few steps. As the redhead spun, she caught a glance of Ron falling unconscious to the floor and something green-colored stepping out of the cloning machine. Only after she completed the spin and regained her footing did she realize that it was Shego.
Yes, Shego.
Drakken's plan hadn't simply been to wait for her and Ron. It had been to show off his new toy before the rest of the world got a chance to see it. The machine could clone anything Drakken desired, and he'd finally wised up to the fact that Shego was the most powerful weapon in his arsenal. And it was Shego he had cloned.
Not just once, but twice. Another duplicate of the woman stepped out of Drakken's cloning machine and stood next to the first. One lifted Ron off of the floor and carried him toward a cage on the other side of the room; the other retrieved the Lotus Blade, which reverted to its original katana form in the hands of the Shego duplicate.
The real Shego approached Kim from behind. "You shouldn't get distracted, Pumpkin!" Before the redhead could shrug off her stupor and react, the villainess grabbed a handful of Kim's hair and jerked her head back. "If you don't focus on your opponent, he'll gain the upper hand." Kim's face contorted in pain as the green woman shook her head back and forth.
Shego giggled at the teen's obvious distress; it was too delicious. With two quick, synchronized movements, she first released Kim's hair and grabbed the back of her neck, then lifted her knee and drove it into Kim's stomach. The girl let out a pained 'Ack!' and fell to the floor, coughing.
Shego laughed again.
Her clones soon returned from the other side of the room and she allowed them to take Kim, watching with amusement as the teen fought feebly against their combined might; Drakken had given them each the strength of an African bull elephant, after all, and no one could overcome that sort of power easily.
Kim struggled to free herself from Shego's duplicates, but she knew it was pointless; Drakken had the ability to isolate and utilize any genetic trait he could find, and he had chosen some very useful ones for his clones: the speed and agility of a cobra, the strength of an African bull elephant, and the disposition of a small poodle with a big-dog complex. Not to mention the body of Shego; no doubt her superpowers would make a potent addition to his collection of high-tech weaponry.
As the two Shego imitations led her toward the cage at the back of the room, Kim searched for a possible escape. She couldn't reach the Kimmunicator at the moment, and even if she could, Drakken would confiscate it. Not that it mattered. As long as these imitations were holding on to her, she wasn't going anywhere.
With Drakken and Shego in tow, the trio consisting of Kim and the clones made their way toward the cage at the rear of the room. Drakken produced a remote from the inside of his dark blue lab coat and pressed a button. The cage door unlocked and swung open. Ron lay inside, still unconscious.
Before the clones could push Kim into the enclosure, Drakken halted them. "Wait a minute."
The clones stopped.
"Take her bag, and search her pockets. We can't afford any setbacks this time."
The clones did as they were told, removing Kim's knapsack ('There goes the Kimmunicator.' She thought.) and taking all of her belongings from her cargo pants, including her laser lipstick and her shoes. They even took her history notes.
"Hey! I need those for class tomorrow!"
"Sorry, Kimmie." Shego replied. "Nothing for you. I don't feel like babysitting tonight."
Kim sighed with resignation as she was shoved into the cell, with the door clanging shut behind her.
"Besides," Drakken commented, "I have a surprise for you later and I wouldn't want you to miss it!"
He left, chuckling to himself with amusement as Shego and her two doubles followed him away.
Kim glanced around the cage, noticing with dismay that, among the things that were missing, Ron's shoes, the Lotus Blade, and Rufus were included. Shego clone number one was carrying a small kennel containing the small hairless rodent, while number two carried the sword and the shoes, along with Kim's possessions.
As she watched Drakken and his cohorts walk away, Kim wondered, 'Are we losing our touch?'