Chapter 2

Papers were the bane of every college student's existence. Every class demanded an essay on a semi-regular basis, and if it was not an essay, it was a lab report, or some other form of writing assignment that made Kim want to pull her hair out in frustration and stomp out of Middleton University vowing never to return in order to devote herself to a lifetime of globetrotting and heroism.

Unfortunately, Dr. Director had made it perfectly clear that if Kim wanted to become a Global Justice agent, she would have to graduate college, and so Kim resigned herself to the fact that her immediate future was going to be spent in a library instead of taking action in a world that needed her help. Unless, of course, someone were to contact her with a dire request for assistance, one which she could not reasonably turn down despite her workload.

Right on cue, her Kimmunicator vibrated. Either she was going to receive a perfectly valid excuse for procrastination, or the batteries were about to die. As she brought it out of her pocket, she saw that she was in luck; Wade's face graced the screen for the first time in two months.

"Talk to me Wade," Kim moaned. "I'm being worked to death here."

"I know the feeling," Wade nodded sympathetically. "I just submitted my second Ph.D thesis for review. Most stressful month of my life."

"And you're still too young to drive a car," Kim mused. "So what's the sitch, or are you just calling for old time's sake?"

"Well... you know I haven't heard from you since college started in... late August, was it? I'm a little concerned about how well you're adjusting. I mean, it's different from high school, isn't it? Can't really afford as much time for extracurriculars, interning with Global Justice, and saving the world all at once with your classes. I guess the whole thing with Ron didn't help either..."

Wade trailed off, unsure of whether Kim was in the mood to talk about that particular issue.

"I'm keeping up with the classes, and Ron is still my best friend, thank you very much." Kim's abrupt tone added a bit more to the sentence: And I'd appreciate it if you didn't pry.

"Alright, just thought I'd make sure my two favorite people in the world were doing alright," Wade laughed nervously. "Anyways, Kim, we just got a hit on your site from the Chinese government."

"Is this about the Shrine of the Monkey God incident with Monkey Fist last summer?" Kim asked. "Because if they still think it's Ron's fault that all the monkeys in the Beijing Zoo got possessed and started flinging -"

"No, no, don't remind me," Wade interrupted, as memories of that event flashed before his eyes. "They've dropped all the charges against him. This time, it's Shego."


Shego stood outside with Victor in the hot July sun, in the small park full of older men and women, all of whom were practicing Tai Chi. It was a little awkward being in the mist of a crowd of senior citizens, but she fit in surprisingly well for someone with green skin. Victor practiced next to her, since he was the only one who could speak English and instruct her.

"Not so fast," he corrected for the umpteenth time, slowly performing beside her. "Tai Chi is an soft martial art which stresses balance and internal strength as opposed to hard styles which emphasize external force. Instead of resisting an attack, you're supposed to follow through the motion and use the enemy's force against them, either exhausting the enemy's attack or redirecting it."

"I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for," Shego replied, as she mimicked the movements of everyone around her. "I don't do gentle."

"That's why you should learn some. It'll help give you a balanced perspective on the martial arts."

"And balance is the key," Shego added dryly.

"... maybe."

"Come on, you know you were going to say it," Shego grinned smugly. Victor responded by making a rude gesture at her with two of his fingers.


Kim leaned back into her seat, stretched her legs, and enjoyed the luxury of a Boeing 767 airliner. Unlike her usual method of getting around to missions, the Chinese government had offered to foot the bill for her trip. They were rather insistent on having her available as soon as possible - she was picked up less than an hour after accepting the offer - even though the exact reason why she was needed was never revealed in detail. They would only that it had something to do with Shego and that the Chinese government wanted to handle it discretely.

She must have done something really big this time, Kim thought to herself. Pity... she manage to clean for about five months, but I guess it was too much to hope for. Drakken went straight because all he ever wanted was some respect and recognition, but Shego... Shego just likes being bad. Probably gets off on the thrill of breaking the law.

Kim sighed. Part of her had hoped that Shego would have settled down, and maybe even resume the brief friendship they shared when she was Miss Go. It would have been fun, but ultimately some things just were not going to happen, and Shego reforming was one of them.


"Not again," Shego whined. "Please, please teach me something new? I've been doing the same thing for weeks."

She put on her best puppy dog pout, the one that she had used on Kim Possible to devastating effect when she was on the run from her brothers, and which had been improved after Kim had tried it on her during the Lowardian invasion. Surely no man alive could resist her sad look.

"No." Victor did not even bother to look away from the Jackie Chan movie he was watching. "Go back to work, I'm having fun."

"Come on, Victor, Kim knows 17 different kinds of kung fu. I'm behind as is and not getting any younger; if I want to catch up with her, I'm going to need to step it up."

"What makes you think learning 17 styles is better than learning one?" Victor paused the movie and turned to face her. "Success at fighting is not about how much you know, but about how well you know it. Ever hear Bruce Lee talking about how he feared the man who practiced one kick a thousand times more than he feared the man who practiced a thousand kicks one time?"

"Bruce Lee knew a lot more than just one style," Shego pointed out.

"Bruce Lee was an advocate of transcending styles, which is why he founded Jeet Kune Do, the 'style without a style'. The style you start off with is only the first step on the journey; eventually, you're going to move beyond styles which renders the need to learn 17 kinds of martial arts pointless as a means to improve your fighting ability."

"So the best fighters use no style at all?" Shego still did not quite believe what she was hearing.

"The best fight without actually fighting... but if you're going to have combat, then it's best to not get entrenched in a particular style." Victor unpaused the film and returned his gaze to the television.

"Wait, you're telling me that it's best to 'fight without fighting'? But then it's not... fighting."

"When you are in a conflict you engage the enemy on different levels, mentally and physically. He who can overcome the opponent mentally has won more thoroughly than if he had beaten the enemy physically. A victory achieved with the maximum thoroughness and minimum expense of resource is the best kind of victory, wouldn't you say?"

"I guess... I never thought about it that way. Talking your way out of a fight always seemed... soft."

"What's wrong with being soft? Water is soft, but can wear though stone; the tree that bends with the wind survives a storm more easily than the ones which do not."

Shego rolled her eyes. "Vic, I respect you as a person and as a teacher, but if you got any cheesier you'd be asking me to snatch a pebble out of your hand. You need to lay off the bad kung fu movies."

"Hey, Jackie Chan is awesome. You're just too much of a philistine to appreciate him." Victor feigned indignation as he shooed her away with the remote. "Now will you please do as you're told and go meditate? My project at work is almost ready, and I'll probably be too busy to teach you anything then."

"But that sounds so much cooler; can we please talk about that? Please? Pleeeease?"


"Miss Possible?" The man waiting for her at the gate was polite, courteous, and dressed in the uniform of a People's Liberation Army officer. "I'm Major Li Hong, PLA Internal Security."

"Yeah, I'm Kim." She smiled as he shook her hand and motioned for her to follow him.

"The People's Republic is honored that you could come on such short notice. I understand that you had to take a leave of absence from your classes to be here?"

"It was no big," Kim lied. Professor Philips would probably kill her when he heard that she was going to miss her freshman seminar again.

"The ambassador will let your school know that it is appreciated." Maybe there was still hope.

"So what is the sitch with Shego, exactly? I understand if you want to keep it wrapped up, but it's kinda been nagging at me for the entire flight."

"I'm afraid I can't tell you before you sign a confidentiality agreement." The major waved off several custom officials and lead Kim through a passage normally reserved for diplomats. "But rest assured, it will be worth your time."

Half an hour later, Kim found herself stepping into the lobby of a small, nondescript building overlooking Tian An Men square which advertised itself as an employment agency. Li flashed an ID badge at the security station in the lobby and strolled past a secretary to enter a busy office.

"Let me guess, they aren't talking about finding jobs for people, are they?" Kim could not understand Chinese, but she was fairly certain that office talk around here had to do with national security.

"Not bad," he grinned. "Though I can see you were a bit put off by the appearance. Were you expecting some sort of high-tech base? A trap door, secret tunnel, and an elevator taking you down 5 stories into a bunker of some sort?"

"It is par for the course at Global Justice," Kim replied, thinking of the institution's main base of operations. "But I guess hiding in plain sight has its advantages."

"Cheaper, too." Li lead her to an empty cubicle and offered her a seat. "Welcome to my humble abode. If you'll take a minute to fill out the confidentiality agreement and liability waiver on my desk, I can let you read this."

He pulled out a folder from beneath a pile of paperwork and held it in front of Kim. Shego's photo was sticking out of the mess inside of it; it was the exact same photograph Kim had taped to the inside of her locker. Kim felt a shiver of anticipation flow through her at the thought of fighting her old enemy again

"Where do I sign?"


Victor drummed his fingers on his laptop as he tried to concisely sum up his work.

"It's biosynthetic in nature. Do you know what that means?"

"I've hung around mad scientists enough to get a general idea," Shego answered. "It refers to something with both biological and artificial components."

"That about covers it," Victor nodded. "They are being designed as an alternative to nanomachines, since neurons can't be taken out with an EMP. It's a rather interesting field."

He turned the laptop around so Shego could take a look at it. The photo on the screen showed a dark green body suit, somewhat bulkier than Kim's battlesuit, which looked like it came with its own set of muscles under the skin.

"The suit provides a decent amount of protection from most of the dangers you'd expect in a modern warzone, contains artificial muscles, an active camouflage system built into the skin, and electric glands in the hands for combat. Most of the critical systems are housed in that small compartment on the back - oxygen scrubbers, electronics, the neural interface, etc."

"That's pretty impressive." Shego took in a large mouthful of tea as she contemplated the suit. "So, it's top of the line hardware?"

"Beyond top of the line. There's people who would kill for this kind of technology.


Kim scrawled her signature on the paperwork, barely reading the legal text in her haste to find out what was going on. Li handed her the folder as soon as she was done, and it opened to reveal photographs of a crime scene, with far too much blood on the ground.

"That was taken a two days ago from a civilian bioengineering research building. The PLA commissioned a Nuclear/Biological/Chemical battlesuit, with many special features, and the first working model was going to be unveiled today. Unfortunately, someone broke into the lab and stole it two days ago. Murdered the head researcher too; from what we could tell, he fought the thief and got kicked off a roof into heavy traffic for his troubles. Trust me, you don't want to see the photos of the body."

Li gave a momentary grimace before continuing. "The researcher's home was broken into some time after the murder, and a lot of his personal files were stolen, likely the ones having to do with how to make use of the suit."

"And you think Shego is behind it all?" Kim asked, leafing through the file. Most of it was in Chinese, but she could understand the pictures. Li was right; she did not want to see the victim's body.

"We have footage of her interacting with the researcher before his death. They were practicing martial arts together and living in the same house, though she disappeared a few days before his death. She's our best lead so far."

"Shego's never killed anyone before, though." Kim thought back to her encounters with Shego; the two never held back against each other, but Shego never crossed that particular line before. Although there was that one time she collapsed a building on Kim. And that time she detached Kim's jetpack while she was flying. And that time...

Shego could defiantly kill. Hell, Kim herself has nearly killed, on one occasion. How much easier would it be for someone who was used to breaking the law on a daily basis.

"But she's definitely ruthless enough for it to be a possibility. So, you think I'm be the best person for the job?" Kim asked, trying to focus on the task at hand.

"She's a dangerous woman, and you're the only one who's been able to consistently match her. We could take her down using lethal force, but then it would be impossible to interrogate her. We would much prefer that she be alive."

"Understood," Kim answered. "I'll see what I can do."