I don't own KP, but this is a not-for-profit fan-fiction, so hopefully Disney doesn't mind.
Authors Notes and stuff are in the Foreword, but more will appear here in later chapters, together with response to reviews, if any.
Reviews and comments are more than welcome!
The aerial panorama shows the Colorado Rockies spread out far below in a spectacular display of early morning beauty.
Eagles soar on the updrafts by the cliffs. Deer can be seen moving among the vegetation.
Descending slightly, a winding blacktop road can be seen, hugging the cliffs and skirting the ravines. It leads from the upland wilderness towards Golden, Co.
From a still lower vantage point, a bright red compact car becomes visible, being driven quickly but competently along the road.
Even closer to the ground, the car is shown entering a sharp curve over an unusually high drop into a narrow ravine.
Suddenly, one of the headlamps of the car explodes in a shower of shards and fragments. The outside front tire blows up. The radiator releases a sudden cloud of water vapour.
Coming in for a close-up, images of the car tumbling down the cliff fill the screen. Occasionally hitting and bouncing off the rocky sides, it ends up on its roof, resting on the gravel bed of a small stream.
A brief moment of silence and stillness, then the wreck bursts into a ball of flames.
//Fade to black//
==##((Θ))##==
The large redbrick mansion lay in darkness.
Except for the porch-light, only three high windows on the second floor showed a dim light through the drawn curtains.
From inside the large room, the heavy curtains hid the view of the dark and desolate woodlands around the mansion. They also dampened the noise of the rain being driven against the window panes by the gusting winds.
The room, thus sheltered, was in stark contrast to the outside conditions.
It was a large room, almost like a school classroom in size, and it was furnished as an old style study. The long wall facing the windows was almost entirely covered with floor-to-ceiling bookcases. One of the shorter walls featured a large open fireplace where a small fire was merrily burning. The opposite wall had tall double doors flanked by cabinets and oil paintings.
In the middle of the room, there was a conference table with six high-backed chairs placed on a lush carpet. A large desk stood before the fireplace.
A thick manila folder, a large computer screen and an old-fashioned brass desk lamp with a green glass shade were the only things on the desk. The computer itself was hidden inside, and the keyboard and the mouse rested on a smaller shelf just under the table-top.
The atmosphere in the room was comfortable and cosy.
There were two persons in the room. Neither of them, however, felt entirely comfortable, and they were far from cosy.
One sat behind the desk, working in silence at the computer. The other, a young woman with red hair, sat in front of the desk.
* * *
Many would have easily identified her as the teen-age, world-saving heroine Kim Possible.
They would have been wrong in many different ways.
The most trivial error would have been due to the simple passage of time. The female was, in fact, no longer a teenager but a 22 year old woman.
The second mistake was that the young woman no longer was a world-saving heroine. Actually, until just recently, she had still been fighting crime and saving people. She had, however, not been doing it as an individual heroine, but as a part-time member of an FBI team. Members of the feds do not get headlines and hero status. They are, partly for their own security, anonymous parts of a government organisation, and don't get much in the way of personal credit for apprehending criminals.
The third, and most surprising, reason that people would have been wrong was, however, that the young woman was soon no longer to be the person known as Kimberly Anne Possible. Kim Possible was, in fact, for all intents and purposes, dead.
A sniper's bullet, a horrible car crash, all that seemed to remain was burnt out wreckage and the unidentifiable remains of a young woman.
* * *
"So," the person behind the computer said, "are you sure you want to go ahead with this?"
The young woman who was, or was not, Kim Possible snorted. "Want to? What, Betty, are you out of mind? How could I ever wantto cause such a lot of pain and grief to everyone I know?"
Dr. Director wearily closed her one eye.
"Sorry, Kim, bad choice of words. What I meant was, this is the point of no return. Are you ready to do this?"
The redhead hesitated.
Dr. Director sighed, and went back over the arguments once more.
"Look," she said, "this last attempt at your life was this close to succeeding."
She held up her right hand, thumb and index finger almost touching.
"If you had not been wearing the protective gear under your street clothes, you would be dead now. Whoever is doing this will not be stopping anytime soon. You know that, right?"
"Yes, I do know!"Kim answered in a tone of voice just as weary as betty Director's.
"And you know that the attempts will get more and more ruthless. Your family and your friends will not be safe."
Kim nodded. "Yes, I know. And the best way to find the perpetrator is to let him or her believe that I'm already dead. I get that! I just don't understand why we cannot let my parents and Ron know about it."
Betty Director sighed. "Look, Kim! Trust me! This is serious. We do this properly or we don't do it at all. Your family is just not good enough at acting to risk them knowing. And Ron is even worse! And – what they don't know, they can't be forced to tell. And we only have one chance at this – we can't pull this stunt a second time!"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. But I still don't like it."
The leader of Global Justice leaned forward and put her elbows on the desk.
"Listen, this way you have the chance of fixing the sitch. It may take a few weeks, but then you can be back with your loved ones again. The only other way for you to survive is to get you a new identity and let you start over somewhere far away. Then you might neversee your family again!"
Kim just looked at the older woman, sorrow and anguish evident in her expression.
"Well, Kim, it's your decision. Let me just remind you that you came to me. You didn't go to Captain Crowne at FBI headquarters. You came to me. So, please trust me now! I have the hospital journals, the coroner's report and the death certificate all ready to enter into the system. And I'll have your new identity ready for uploading with the day! Just say the word."
"Okay. I know. This is the best way to do this. So, go ahead."
Dr. Director placed the mouse over a dialogue box open on the screen. "It is for the best, Kim. With a new identity, you'll have nothing to lose. You will be free to act and we can remove the threat!"
"Yes. I know. Nothing to lose."
The head of the GJ clicked the button in the box labelled 'execute'. A number of activities appeared on the screen, horizontal bars tracking the progress of each one.
"Nothing to lose," Kim whispered. "'Cause if this doesn't work, I'll have given it all up myself..."
//Fade//
//Soundtrack: 'Nothing to Lose', (Jobson, Wetton), by 'UK', 1979//
//Opening Credits; large yellow text floating up over the screen//
'A FEUDOR di LAURENT Production'
//Red silhouette of young woman swings across the screen with rope and grapple against psychedelic CGI background//
'A Kim Possible Fanfiction'
//Silhouette woman does martial art moves against various silhouette opponents//
'NOTHING TO LOSE'
Lyrics:Now I can really break it
Now I don't have to fake it
Forget it then, I don't need it
If it ain't hot I'll leave it
//Silhouette woman climbs façade of tall building//
'Screenplay by Feudor'
'Beta by Rshiel at DeviantArt'
Lyrics:Nothing to show but no-one to stop me I'm going away
I'm kicking my heels, rolling the wheels and I'm leaving today yeah, yeah
Nothing to lose!
//Silhouette woman with champagne glass in hand does dance steps in front of stylized ballroom background//
'Word Processor by OpenOffice'
'Computers by FujitsuSiemens and Acer'
'Windows XP Home Edition OS by Microsoft'
Lyrics:I gotta run for my life
Shoot out and shine those search lights
I'm ready to cross that border line
I'm going to make it stick this time
//Silhouette woman drives vintage sports car in pursuit of opponents//
Lyrics:Nothing to show but no-one to stop me I'm going away
I'm kicking my heels, rolling the wheels and I'm leaving today yeah, yeah
Nothing to lose
'PART ONE'
//Silhouette woman walks to centre stage and assumes dramatic pose//
//Fade in//
Kim Possible walked through the almost empty halls of Global Justice HQ feeling ridiculous. She was wearing a much to big boiler suit with an integral hood. The hood was up to hide her hair and to shadow her face as much as possible. To top it off, she was also wearing dark glasses.
She understood that the plan hinged on nobody knowing she was still alive, but she was not used to being stealthy in this farcical cloak and dagger style.
Still, she was on the way to acquiring a more permanent, and hopefully more subtle, disguise.
Global Justice had a special department for the changing of identities. It worked with aliases for agents going under cover as well as with people needing hidden identities and witness protection for their own safety.
Much of the work was related to documents, passports and the like, but there were also specialists who worked with anything from surgery and disguises to language lessons and back-story development.
The sign saying 'Franklin Stone, Head of Identities Dept.' showed Kim that she had reached her destination. She knocked and received a muffled 'come in' as an answer.
Dr. Stone turned out to be a stocky, middle-aged man of average height. He was nearly bald, but compensated the thinning summit with a close-cropped salt-and-pepper beard. His eyes seemed warm and friendly, and Kim relaxed a little. Not another typical mad scientist, at least …
"Oh, come in!" Dr. Stone said, looking up from his paperwork. "I've been expecting you, Miss … eh…"
"Patient. I'm your patient."
"Yes, of course, Miss Patient," he said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Please, have a seat."
Kim relaxed a bit more. A bit if humour was always a good sign in her books.
They sat down on opposite sides of the desk. Dr. Stone fumbled a bit with some files and documents, which he arranged before him.
"Don't worry," he said. "It is not as dramatic or as surgical as you might imagine."
Kim shrugged, inwardly relieved. "That's good. I don't fancy having to go through some kind of 'Frankenstein's monster' patch-up."
Dr. Stone winced slightly. "Well, that's precisely what we do not do in my department. Let me give you a run-down on what we propose. You'll see, some of it is quite normal. Like using professional hair care products to give you a new hair colour."
He put a couple of boxes of an ordinary, top-brand hair colouring product on the desk.
"Since your current colour is quite strong, it would be easiest to give you a new, very dark colour. I'd actually recommend this 'Intensive Shine Black'. Of course, you also need a new hair-cut, but that, I would leave in the hands of our professional stylist. You can chose something together you'd feel comfortable in. Okay?"
"Sure. That's fine"
"Good. Then – eye colour. Nothing strange, here, either. Just a set of coloured lenses. Same instructions and care as for any normal contact lenses."
He put a box of contact lenses and a bottle of disinfectant on the table.
"Now, your eyes are quite strikingly green. I understand your mother has blue eyes. We would suggest the new you should have eyes of a warm reddish brown. Would you be comfortable with that?"
"Sure. But – 'my mother has blue eyes'? You do know who I am, then?"
"Yes, of course. We do need to know as much as possible, no pun intended, about the subject in order to design a new identity that is really different. It's important, though, to get you into the habit of thinking of yourself as somebody else. Plus, we do need to keep your name out of the records as much as we can, now that you don't …er … exist anymore."
Kim only nodded. It bothered her more than she would have thought, this methodical stripping away of her whole identity.
"So – skin colour. You have quite fair and rosy skin, going well with your red hair, so we'd want to darken it a bit. This," he produced a plastic bottle, "is a semi-permanent skin colouring we have developed. By semi-permanent, I mean that it won't smear, and you can even take a bath or a shower with it, but if and when you do want it off, we just use this special detergent, and off it goes!"
He produced a second, smaller bottle.
"Fine. What colour?"
"We suggest just a slightly more pale tone, but with a bit more sun-burn to it. Together with the rest of the modifications, it will give you a slightly East Asian look that we think you can pull off quite nicely."
Kim made a 'go on' gesture.
"So, on an almost trivial note, we will be giving you a set of shoes with small risers in them. Not much, just an inch and a bit. Still, it will make some difference, not least to your posture. I take it you are not exactly used to high heels?"
"Eh, no. I have never felt comfortable in shoes like that."
"That's good. If you switch to using such shoes as much as you can, you will get 1) a different look, and 2) a pain in your back. But it's quite effective."
Kim smiled and rolled her eyes.
"Now, for the actual surgery, we are planning just two minor things. The first is, we will build up your cheekbones a little, using this special silicon compound."
He put a large tube of transparent gel on the table.
"We inject this here, under your skin and muscle tissues, right over what is known as the Zygomatic bones."
He pointed to his own face, just under the outside corners under his eyes, and Kim nodded in understanding. Her mother was a brain surgeon, after all, and medical terms were nothing new to her.
"The gel will set and harden, but will still be soft enough to feel like muscle over bone. We shape it with a kind of mould while the process is completed. And, voila: a different and sharper shape to your face, going well with the overall image. At the same time, we will also broaden the bridge of your nose a bit. It's just an optical illusion, really, but this will also give the impression of a slightly shorter nose."
"I see. And will these alterations be … permanent?"
"No, not at all. The gel is actually organic in nature, and with a second injection of this special catabolic agent, it will start to decompose. The process takes about a fortnight, but the alterations will disappear completely."
"Good."
"Now, the final measure we propose is actual cosmetic surgery, but very minor. We would just like to place small cuts here, at the outside corners of your eyes, and give them a bit more of a slant. It's a very simple operation, and with our precision instruments and micro stitching, the wounds will heal in less than a week. This will actually need remedial surgery to get your own appearance back, but that, too, will be a very simple procedure."
Kim nodded slowly, trying to take it all in.
"Okay, that's the whole of it, except that you will get sessions with our coaches to help you change your manner and your speech pattern. What do you think?"
"I don't know. Eh … It doesn't seem to add up to very much, does it?"
"Oh, we can do more drastic things, if you really want to, but in our experience, this sort of programme really is very effective. Just look here!"
He put two sets of pictures before her. One set showed herself in different poses and situations. The other was the same, except that the alterations Dr. Stone had just proposed had been edited in using Photoshop or some other digital wizardry. Just like the Head of Identities had claimed, the difference was surprisingly noticeable.
Kim had secretly feared that she would come out looking like some weird, synthetic being. Or, at best, like some over-age, botox-injected starlet wannabe. This, however, did not look freaky at all.
"Wow," Kim said after a while. "I look just like disciple of Yamanouchi. I could be a cousin to Yori!"
"Can I assume that looking like a cousin to this Yori is a good thing?"
"Dr. Stone, it's perfect."
"Good. I'll have all the cosmetic products sent to your room, while we get started on the surgery. You'll just have to wait for, say, half an hour until the operating theatre is prepped. Meanwhile, you can study this file we have put together on your new identity. Of course, it's still missing things like passport and photo ID, but the facts are all there. Your will soon become Miss Courtney Patricia Judge."
"Courtney Judge, eh? Sounds good. When will it all be ready?"
"Well, if you pardon my blunt language, the birth of Miss Judge will coincide nicely with your funeral."
==##((Θ))##==
Mr. and Mrs. Possible had wanted Kim's funeral to be a small affair.
Of course, it did not turn out that way. There were just too many people who had known her and wanted to say farewell.
The Possible family was naturally well represented. Uncle Slim and cousin Joss were there, as were Nana Possible, cousin Larry and his family. The Stoppables of course also attended, as did Wade Load and his mother.
The entire high school cheer squad turned up, as well as other friends from Middleton High like Monique Walters, Josh Mankey and Big Mike.
There were also new friends from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden (which despite the name offers much more than courses in geology and mining) as well as teachers from all her schools from pre-K to university.
A number of people that Kim and Ron had helped during their all to short career as world-saving heroes also showed up. Celebrities like Britina, MC Honey and the Oh Boyz sat together with business men like Nakasumi-san, the toymaker, Pop Pop Porter and Martin Smarty. The Sensei of Yamanouchi attended together with Yori and Hirotaka.
There was one very surprising addition to the guest list as well as one conspicuous absence. Señor Senior, Sr., had made a one-day deal with the GJ and the local police in order to be able to represent the villain community. The dignified figure of the elderly gentleman was oddly enough accepted without any ill feelings, despite the history of conflict between him and his colleagues and Kim Possible.
The person surprisingly absent was Dr. Director. Mrs. Dr. Possible had early on made it crystal clear that the one-eyed leader of the global crime-fighting organisation would not be welcome at the ceremony. Mrs. Possible blamed GJ for her daughter's choice of profession, and, perhaps unfairly, held Dr. Director personally accountable for the death of her eldest child.
Granted, Kim had chosen the package deal the FBI had offered her, combining university studies, training and active service with a guaranteed lack of inter-continental missions. Her experiences with the GJ were still what had made her consider a career in crime prevention.
The end result was that no government representatives, members of international organisations, or members of police or military forces were present. The only exceptions were a young woman from the International Red Cross, and an elderly gentleman from the UNHCR.
Hopefully, nobody noticed the hidden CCTV cameras that were relaying everything that occurred to an anonymous van outside the cemetery gates.
==##((Θ))##==
Later, the weather outside turned out to be unstable. Over the cemetery itself, the sun was shining, but an ominous wind stirred the leaves and branches. Black clouds were massing at the horizon, and the muted sound of distant thunder was just audible.
GJ operatives were unobtrusively posted around the grave site, equipped with both video and ordinary digital cameras. The telephoto lenses captured everything that could be seen, although audio pick-up was a bit patchy. However, nothing but a subdued but ordinary graveside ceremony was in evidence.
As the parish priest finished the service, a strong gust of wind carried a smell of rain through the trees and the crowd. A flash of lightning was quickly followed by the thunderclap, indicating that the storm was about to hit.
The crowd quickly dispersed under the onslaught of the first, heavy drops of rain.
The GJ cameramen panned out to follow their assigned subjects.
In the white van command centre, Dr. Director could follow the live feeds from all the cameras with the aid of a wall filled with monitor screens.
As the photographers drew back from the graveside scene, the softly undulating landscape came slowly into view. The large old oaks spread their heavy boughs across many of the screens. Small groves of cypresses and decorative evergreens floated into view. The white chapel appeared on a few of the feeds, while others showed the artificial lake at the southern edge of the grounds.
One screen showed the hill marking the centre of the cemetery. Under the huge tree on the apex of the hill, a figure suddenly emerged, playing the bagpipes. Dr. Director could faintly hear the plaintive tune through the earphones. Despite knowing that the Kim Possible was, in fact, not dead, a tear trickled down her cheek.
Another flash of lightning outlined the piper in searing light as the cars started leaving the grounds and a curtain of rain obscured the views of all the cameras.
//FX: Thunderclap, lightning flashes leading over to black screen//
//Soundtrack: 'Arkangel', (Wetton, Young), from 'Live in Osaka' CD, 2003//
//End Credits; yellow text floating up over the screen//
"NOTHING TO LOSE"
'A Kim Possible Fanfiction'
'End of Part One'
//Fade in of aerial view of cemetery, gently turning underneath//
Lyrics: You're with me always
You hold my very soul
You never know uncertainty
Without you I am not whole
You are my Arkangel, my heart and my right hand
When in the face of danger we stand
'by Feudor'
'Beta by Rshiel'
Lyrics: You are my courage
You are my ecstasy
You give me hope, when there is none
And sinners just like me
Your wings will enfold me, hold me through the night
You are my Arkangel, my light
//View gradually panning out and opening up towards the horizon//
Soundtrack: UK song Nothing to Lose can be found at YouTube.
Search for "UK Nothing to lose 1979"
Lyrics: Forever faithful
Throughout my frailty
The times you had to carry me
The times you let me see
A candle in the darkness, oil upon the sea
The star that was guiding me
Soundtrack: Arkangel can be found at justmusicstore dot com (replace ' dot ' with actual . )
Search for John Wetton, chose 'Live at Osaka disc 1', and the track 'Arkangel' and click on 'Prelisten track'
Lyrics: I feel your presence
Your voice I know so well
You caught me when I stumbled down
The steepest steps of Hell
The trials of my childhood, will be the death of me
Stay with me, Arkangel, with me
//View shows panoramic view of stormy weather over the Colorado Rockies//
Coming soon to a Computer Screen near you:
Nothing to Lose, part 2
