Kim Possible belongs to Disney. This is a work for fun not profit.
Heart of the Wyrm
A fan fiction by Six-string Samurai
It was on their fourth go around that they finally found it, a patch of wall that was slightly recessed less than a quarter of an inch from the rest and easily missed in the pitch blackness that filled the crescent ruin.
The two explorers had stopped speaking to one another nearly an hour ago, and the silence had grown thick, almost a third, if unwelcome, companion, one that fled momentarily at the discovery.
"Please, please, please let this be it," the red head spoke, almost giddy with anticipation after all the tiresome inch by inch searching they'd been doing for the better part of the day. The last glance she'd taken at the glowing face of her watch had read a quarter past eleven. A little mental math and it worked out to just under five hours since they'd first come through the hatch at the entrance. Even so, they were ahead of schedule, and that was enough in her book. "What's the verdict?"
The blond ran his hands along the indented segment, little bigger than a three foot by seven foot rectangle, and dwarfed in comparison to the ceiling which disappeared high above where the beam of their flashlight could penetrate. "I can do it. No sweat." He managed a grin that seemed to wipe away the weariness that had long settled on his face. So saying, he rubbed his hands together for a moment, then closed his eyes, brow furrowing in fierce concentration. It was the same expression he'd worn countless times before, and precluded feats that even his longtime partner still found amazing.
For a moment, nothing happened, but his partner knew that the time varied, and she didn't have long to wait.
It was here, enveloped by the natural dark that the blonde's power became most evident. At first, the glow was so faint it might have been a trick of dust crossing the flashlight's beam, but with each passing breath, the light blue nimbus that sprang up from his skin became brighter and larger, eventually coalescing into a visible aura that crackled with power.
While it was hardly the first time she'd witnessed the phenomenon, it was one of the few times in recent memory that the halo of light that her partner exuded was so highly visible. In daylight, there was merely a faint shimmer around him, much like a heat mirage flowing across a dune in the desert. Here, within the earth and rock, it flickered and raged, an azure testament to the power that lay buried in her friend's heart. A primal force that by its very nature was wild and raw.
It was also incredibly unpredictable.
The young man's eyes snapped open, shining with a fierce light. One of his arms flashed out, tapping a seemingly random point on the recessed space, and then suddenly the aura fled, winking out like a snuffed candle, allowing the dark to return.
For a handful of seconds, nothing visible happened, and the blond could feel his friend's frown questioning him. "Think it's broken?"
"You tell me, you're the king of the chimps."
"Monkey Master, c'mon, it's not that hard to remember."
"Primate Prodigy, you mean?"
"Now I know you're just making fun of me," it was the blonde's turn to frown. "I get enough of the joking from dad; you don't have to keep rubbing it in."
"I'm your best friend; I'm supposed to make fun of you."
"That's harsh. Isn't that kind of backwards?"
"Somebody's got to keep your feet on the ground."
"Hey, I'm pretty down to earth."
The red head rolled her eyes. "So you're not the greatest thing since sliced bread?"
"I never said I was."
There was a snort of amusement, followed by a short chuckle. "Good one. Guess that mean's you're not the Man, huh?"
"No, I mean, wait, uh--"
A loud click and several snaps then a quick whoosh of displaced air brought the jesting to a halt, and the two turned as one to find a gaping space had replaced the segment of wall. The secret door was open.
"Yes! See, I knew--"
The blonde's gloating was cut prematurely short as his friend nudged his arm with the flashlight. "Just go, before your head starts to swell any bigger. I don't want to have to pop it to get you to fit through the door. I'd hate to be covered in yuck for the rest of the time I'm in here.
The blond clamped his jaw shut, not wanting to risk getting walloped in the head with the metal light. He knew she'd do it too.
The area beyond the wall wasn't at all like the corridor they'd left. Instead it gradually fluted out until the walls to the side fell away, lost to the shadows. The space felt more like a cavern than anything else. Like the rest of the ruin, it was mostly composed of empty space, though they did find a cluster of metal tables covered with decrepit and pitted out computer equipment. Strangely, there were scorch marks and carbon deposits dotting the ground, and a few of the far walls the explorers eventually reached.
"What do you think this place was used for?"
The young woman shook her head, sending her pony tail flopping. "Experiments, maybe. That or target practice. I don't know." She eyed a few scrape marks on the floor that caught the light. "A lot of stuff was moved around, but everything's gone now. The crap in the corner doesn't tell me much either."
"Think the thing was here?"
"No, I don't see any kind of power conduit connectors on the walls, or the floor. It's gotta be somewhere else. Let's keep looking."
The blond nodded, staying near the light that swept back and forth across the cavernous room.
Eventually, they crossed the length of the room and reached the far side, where they found another much larger double door waiting. It was half propped open, luckily for them.
The entryway opened into a smaller series of rooms, most just as empty as the rest, though a few had overturned tables and unidentifiable gutted equipment. The two made quick work of the rest of the hidden wing, eventually reaching another impasse in the form of twin doors that mirrored the one leading out from the cavernous room.
Unfortunately, unlike before, these were not left open. As it turned out, neither were they locked.
Working together, they managed to pry the doors open wide enough to wedge the handle of the flashlight in and use it to lever them open. Squeezing through the gap one at a time, the red head went in first, as her partner had an easier time of keeping the door from sliding shut.
The red head in turn, planted her foot on one door and her shoulder on the other so the blonde would be able to slip through. "Okay, on three, two, one--"
Almost tripping over his own feet, her friend scooted through, making sure to snag the flashlight on his way. "Gah," he fumbled the light as the doors clicked shut behind them.
That's when they noticed something different about the place, setting it apart from the rest of the ruin that they'd been tramping around since early morning. There was a very faint radiance in the air, a bluish cast that emanated from the depths of the far wall.
The red head was first to notice it, but nearly put it off as an effect of wandering around half-blind for so long. That was until the blonde made a remark.
"Is it colder in here, or is it just me? I think I can see my breath."
"Kill the light."
"W-what?" The blonde shot a look down at the metal cylinder in his hands. Was something wrong with it?
"Just shut it off. I want to check something."
"Um, okay," he conceded hesitantly and they were plunged into complete darkness for the few seconds it took their eyes to adjust. "Hey, it's glowing over there." The blonde pointed a shadowy arm toward the furthest wall from the door, where indeed a hint of azure was pulsing at a slow interval.
It wasn't much light, and still far less than what the bulb of the flashlight put out, but they could still make out the faintest details of the room, as well as each other.
"That's enough; turn it back on so we don't trip over anything."
"Right, no problem."
Indeed, there was a high chance of that happening, as cables and tubes crisscrossed a good quarter of the floor about halfway into the room, and the walls were lined with huge cylinders, metal devices and other electronic equipment. It hadn't been evident before, but now that the door was closed, they could hear a dull throbbing hum resonate in the air. It seemed the blue light wasn't the only thing that betrayed the active state of the machines.
Unable to suppress the smile that tugged at the corners of her mouth, the red head grinned, "This has gotta be it."
The blonde was skeptical, "I don't know. That's a lot of stuff over there. It didn't look so big on the blueprints."
"Not that crap," the red head dismissed one corner of the room, and indicated the series of large cylinders from which the glow was coming. "The rest of it's probably generators, the Weapon is over there."
Mindful of the cords, they crossed the room together and came to a stop in front of the middle of four tall metallic cylinders that took up one corner.
The giant tubes were each only slightly taller than the two youths, and about a foot wider than either of them. Unlike the cylinders that flanked it, the middle one was clearly active, as the front of it, an opaque plastic composite, radiated the ethereal blue glow from within. The tube itself bore no telltale instrument panels or visible markings, though a good half-dozen conduits sprouted from the top, trailing down in a bundle to disappear behind the row of machines.
The red head placed her palm against the thick plastic, wiping at the faint sheen that was gathered there. The chill from within the tube was sharp enough to be felt even through her glove. Taking her hand away, she flicked it to the side, scattering the bits of frost that had adhered to the leather. "No wonder it's cold in here," she regarded her partner. "What do you think? There's no way we can drag this out by ourselves."
"No way, we're not opening it. We don't even know what's inside…it could be some killer alien virus! Or, what if it's a bomb that activates when it reaches room temperature? What then?"
"Calm down," she was smirking again. "You barely even glanced at those plans. There were little notes scribbled all over it, and nothing about any explosives. But, there was a ton of references to a 'Living Weapon,' and that doesn't bring to mind a virus. Besides, take a good look at these things," she swept her arm to encompass the four units. "They're obviously person sized, and a total waste of space if this D guy just wanted to contain a killer virus or two."
"That's even worse! We're at a disadvantage in the dark against cybernetic killing machines!" The blonde's face twisted in fear as his imagination conjured up images of his grisly demise at the hands of a thawed death machine. His feet took him one step backward, followed by another, and another. "The money's no use if we're too dead to spend it!"
"What the hell are you talking about? Stop spouting that crap and, hey," the blonde's partner shot out her hand to make a grab for his arm as his sneaker caught on one of the cables snaking along the ground. "Watch it, you're--"
Wind milling his arms, he fought to stay up, but gravity was a little too insistent and the red head was a little too far. Crashing to the ground in a tangle of cords, he fought to get back up. "Aw, man, that wasn't cool. Stupid cyborg."
"There's no cyborg, quit it already. Here, let me help you up before you get all tangled and," a snap and hiss of released coolant cut her off. "--break something."
They turned as one, looking toward the source of the hissing. Two of the cables snaked loose in from the top of the active tube, spraying jets of white mist freely into the air.
"I knew this was going to happen, the Death Machine is waking up!"
"Didn't you just say it was a cyborg?"
"Yeah, hello…cyborg Death Machine. No one can stop it. Not you, not me," the blonde gibbered, lost in whatever fantasy he'd dreamt up.
It was times like this when she wondered why she continued hanging around him. The whole Monkey Magic thing just didn't even it out. Not when he got carried off on tangents so easily, and far too often for her liking, or comfort. Sure he was good for a laugh once in a while, and he could solve damn near any puzzle, or unlock nearly any door. But, having her personal skeleton key was often outweighed by having her own personal self-delusional barrel of monkeys.
As the jetting coolant sputtered to a halt, likely due to some override valve, to top it all off, the glow in the tube started to flicker, then dim.
"Damn, you better not have just killed our chances at hitting the jackpot."
"That's fine by me if it means we get to live…"
"Just, just shut up for a second."
He did, and there was a moment of silence as the tiny hum in the air died along with the remains of the light.
Eventually, the glow's absence left the pair again nearly sightless save for the single illuminating beam that the blond wielded almost like a weapon. He trained the white spot on the now defunct container, keeping a wary eye even as he lay sprawled amid power cables and thick coolant lines. Beside him, his partner too waited, watching for any further sign that her friend's clumsiness had triggered an irreversible event.
"Nothing's happening. Does that mean it's dead?"
The red head shifted her weight from one foot to the other, shooting a sharp glance his way. "Give it a few seconds, and then if it stays like that, we'll go check it out. It's not like I wasn't going to get you to open it up anyway." Jutting her chin in the direction of the tiny waves of coolant that were starting to escape through the edges of the thick plastic casing, she continued, "The front looks like it probably swings open, and obviously when it shut down, the seal broke. Look at all that mist spilling out. Whatever is in there isn't going to remain frozen forever. The question is, how long 'til it warms up? Ten minutes, an hour?"
"You're serious about staying here and waiting aren't you."
"Why wouldn't I be? I'm not about to leave and risk this thing running around loose. This place isn't exactly small, and there's no guarantee that it wouldn't somehow slip past the two of us in the dark and escape outside."
"But, we're on a mountain, where's it going to go?"
"You tell me. The only plans we had were for this machinery, not the weapon. It might be able to fly for all we know. Besides, it trying to escape is the best case scenario. If we're not here to keep an eye on it, the thing would have every opportunity to get out and ambush us in the dark. There's only one flashlight, if we're running and get separated, do you want to be chased and hunted while you're running scared and blind?"
The blond shook his head. "I don't want to be hunted period! This was all your idea anyway. Sell the thing and retire early, you said. Well, I missed the fine print when I agreed to this, you know, the part where it pointed out that I'd be fleeing for my life from cyborg Death Machines."
She slapped her forehead. Why did he always have to get melodramatic in times of stress? God, it irked her to no end. "Fine, give me the light and you can go back to base camp. You're going to have to climb back down though, because I'll still need to use Paul to get down with the weapon."
"And go back through the darkness? Hah, no way, no how."
"It's not my fault you didn't bring your own flashlight."
"Hey, I forgot it all right. Happy now? Can't even make a mistake around you without you biting my head off," the last part came out as a barely audible series of mumbles.
She heard it anyway. "I'm surprised the Monkey Magician can admit he made a mistake."
"Why can't you ever get it right? Between you and my dad, the two of you won't quiet with the mockery."
The red head shrugged. "Parents just do that kind of thing. It's his job to embarrass you."
"You're saying you're like my mom?" The look on the blonde's face was comical in its confusion.
"Please, I don't do it to embarrass you."
"Then--"
"I just feel like it. That's all."
"What? What kind of reason is that?"
"All the reason I need. I'm a girl, in case you forgot. You're not supposed to be able to figure me out."
"Okay…you could still just tell me."
"I did."
"But," the blonde waved the light as he tried to figure out where the conversation had changed around on him. "Uh. I can't win this can I?"
"I didn't realize there was something to win." The red head folded her arms under her chest. "This is the way things are, have been, and probably always will be. I wouldn't worry about it too much if I were you. Just sit there, relax and wait for the cash to come to us."
He didn't respond this time, and just did as she suggested, but that didn't mean he had to like it. For the mean time, he turned his attention back to watching the container like a hawk, or a really wary monkey.
--
A/N: A little nod to The Humbug in this part.