AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Two! I'm so glad to see most of those who reviewed Chapter One again, along with a few new readers! Thank you so much: CajunBear73, Kwebs, screaming phoenix, Donteatacowman, MrDrP, Michael Howard & CaptProd! I'm really flattered by all the compliments I received from you. Now, since MrDrP has mentioned it in his review, yes, I do intend this piece of fanfiction to be like a classic KP episode, and I'm glad to hear I'm doing a good job on this so far. I must remind you, though, that this story will contain a few scenes that aren't all that typical for a classic KP episode (near the end of this chapter, for instance) – well, and there already was one of these in the first chapter, I guess. Or could you imagine Kim and Ron making out (or trying to) at Ron's place in a real KP episode? I don't think they'd ever show such a scene. Anyways, I'm still trying to keep the original KP feeling in this story, nevertheless. Now, on to Chapter Three (nominated for lamest chapter title ever)! ;)
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Chapter Three: There's Something in the Air…
The huge sign in front of the snow-covered ridge reading "Secret Lair" was just way too conspicuous. Shego could not help but curse about it every time she returned to said lair. If Dr. Drakken asked her – but of course, he never did –, they would have searched for a new and real secret lair without conspicuous signposts a long time ago. She would certainly change a lot – and for the better –, also concerning the plans for world domination. But she was "only" the sidekick after all and was not allowed to speak her mind. Though there were certain ways for her to give him a piece of her mind. But for now, like always, she would wait for the self-proclaimed super genius and super villain to explain his most recent scheme to her first, before criticizing it right away.
A few minutes later, Shego entered the laboratory of Dr. Drakken, the biggest room in the whole lair. Drakken was standing in front of a blackboard, which he had filled up with his indecipherable scribbles that were supposed to portray some brilliant plan. When he noticed Shego, he turned around to face her, kept his hands folded behind his back and grinned: "Ah, Shego, so you're back… And I hope you've brought me something…"
Shego approached him and said in a sarcastic manner: "Yes, Dr. D, here's the toy you wanted."
"Toy?" Drakken shouted indignantly. "Toy?! This is a high tech device that will enable me to finally take over the world!"
"Oh, so, how come it looks like a water pistol?" Shego grinned and held the stolen object out in front of him. Indeed, it did have a certain resemblance to a water pump-gun, something kids would love to use in order to spray each other wet.
Drakken stared at the device in a dumbfounded way shortly, then grabbed it and said: "Well, you know, Shego: Never judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, a weapon by its design."
"Yeah, well, okay. Then why don't you just tell me what this thing can do…" Naturally, Drakken had once again never even bothered to tell her what exactly she was supposed to steal for him in advance.
In the same sure of victory, triumphing voice he always used in moments like this, Drakken explained: "With this ability transferator, I can improve my physical and mental abilities by far! I will acquire all the superpowers, fighting techniques and ways of thinking I need to once and for all defeat Kim Possible and force the world into submission!"
Interrupting his evil laughter that followed his rant, Shego uttered a bored: "Oh yeah, you don't say…"
Drakken went silent and started grinning in a diabolical way: "You don't believe this will actually work, Shego, do you…? He, he, I'll gladly give you a brief demonstration…" He aimed the ability transferator at Shego and pulled the trigger.
"What the…?" At that moment, a yellowish orange ray emerged from the ability transferator and hit Shego with full force. She was sent flying onto the floor and surrounded by a ray of light for several seconds. Then, the ray disappeared, and some sort of a pump on the device started flashing in a yellow light. After that, a valve on the rear end of the pump opened, and the ray of light was now surrounding Drakken.
Shego uttered a painful sound and lifted her dazed head to watch what was happening. Drakken let off another evil laughter and shouted in triumph: "Yes! It works! Just watch this, Shego!"
He made some sort of a throwing movement in the direction of the blank wall, sending a green plasma ray out of his hand, which tore a big hole into the wall. Shego was shocked: "This… wait, that's… THOSE ARE MY POWERS!!"
She picked herself up off the floor – which seemed improbably hard to her – and ran towards Drakken in sheer anger: "Those are MY powers!! Give me back my powers at once, Dr. D, or I… I… I will… I…" Shego let her lifted fists sink again and appeared totally insecure – a more than unusual sight.
Drakken triumphed again: "Ooh, that's magnificent! That thing not only copies abilities, it steals them!" Then, he grinned at his helpless sidekick in an amused way: "What, Shego? What are you going to do now?"
"I… I… I have no idea!" Shego stuttered. And suddenly, her voice sounded totally desperate: "What do I normally do in such situations?! I don't know! There's nothing I can do! I can't even think straight!"
"Oh, but I know exactly what I'm going to do now! Yes, that's it! First of all, I'll search for a new secret lair – a real secret lair! And then, nothing can stop me – MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Huh, it all works even better than I thought!"
-xXOXx-
On the next day in Middleton, where no one suspected any of the events happening in Drakken's lair, Ron was sitting at a table at Bueno Nacho and poked about his grande-sized Naco menu unenthusiastically, while Rufus greedily jumped onto – or rather plunged into – the meal. Ron had a day off, while Kim worked at "Club Banana" that Saturday morning. Actually, they had arranged to meet for lunch at the mall, but Ron had left his house one hour earlier already, as he could not take being alone with his thoughts any longer. First, he had just been driving around aimlessly on his scooter. Then he thought that a grande-sized Naco menu might help distract him or even cheer him up, but he was wrong.
Still, Ron could only think about the past evening. After he and Kim had returned from the mission and he had successfully convinced her to stay with him for a little longer, they had cuddled up on the couch together to watch a movie – but Kim had fallen asleep after about ten minutes. He had not thought she could actually be that tired after the mission. Or maybe it was just because he had picked one of those Bricks of Fury action movies…
Anyways, Kim had not woken up until the movie was over and Ron's parents returned. After that, Ron had spent at least five minutes justifying himself to his parents, even though they did not freak at all. And why should they – after all, nothing had happened. But that was exactly what was troubling Ron.
"Aw man, everything could've been just perfect…" Ron wailed, though he was actually talking to himself more than anyone else, as Rufus did not listen anyway. "My parents weren't home, I didn't have to babysit, and Kim… Kim was in that mood… and me, too. But naturally, Wade had to beep her – and we couldn't even accomplish anything!"
He sighed and supported his head with his hands. "I mean, Kim and I have been dating for a pretty long time now – but we've never been really alone yet," he went on. "We've actually never talked about that yet… And I don't mean to push her, either. But yesterday, to me, it seemed like the perfect time to…" Only in his thoughts did he complete that sentence, smiling to himself dreamily.
But soon, he hung his head even lower in disappointment, until he borrowed his face in his arms on the table and sighed: "But probably, we'll never even get this far, because we're never ever gonna be undisturbed…"
Several minutes later, someone suddenly poked his shoulder. Ron's head shot up, and he looked all around him. Beside his table, Ned, the Assistant Manager of the Bueno Nacho restaurant, was standing and asked his regular customer in an almost concerned way: "Hey, Ron, what's up with you?"
"Uh, …what's up? Nothing… What… should be up with me?" Ron stuttered and brought himself back into a somewhat upright sitting position.
"Well, you've been sitting around here for, like half an hour, depressed, lamenting to yourself, and you hardly touched your Naco menu," Ned described the observations he had made from behind the counter.
"Um, you know… it's… well, it's about Kim… I… Wait – What did you say, how long have I been sitting around here already?" He glanced at his watch and gasped: "Oh man, Kim and I wanted to meet at the mall, like now!" He stood up, grabbed Rufus and raced out of the door with a: "Gotta go!" Ned looked after him in a confused way at first, then shrugged and returned to the counter.
-xXOXx-
When Ron finally arrived at the mall with his lame scooter and rushed inside to "Club Banana", Kim was standing outside of the store, waiting with her arms folded. Next to her, her friend Monique was standing, who seemed to say something soothing to her at that moment.
"Ron, finally!" Kim exclaimed when she saw him. "I've been waiting for fifteen minutes now!"
"I'm sorry, KP," Ron said when he was standing in front of her. "I… I guess I overlooked the time. You know, I just went to Bueno Nacho, and…"
"So, you have already eaten?" Kim asked in a confused way. "But we were going to have lunch, remember?"
"Uh, no, I… I wanted to go to Bueno Nacho, that means… I…"
"It's okay, Ron. Actually, I… wanted to tell you that Monique got the afternoon off, too, and we wanted to go shop around…"
"I... Oh…" Ron uttered in disappointment.
"Well, you can join us, if you want…"
"Nah… that's okay. Just go ahead… I mean, I don't wanna push you – uh, I mean… I don't wanna be pushy…"
Kim lifted one eyebrow in a questioning way. "You okay, Ron?"
"Yeah, sure… I'm great, he, he… I mean, I don't like to go shopping anyway. You know, shopping is a girl thing, he, he…"
"O-kaaaay… See you later then, huh?"
"Yeah…"
Kim gave him a peck on the cheek and added: "See ya."
Monique also said: "Bye, Ron."
As the girls went ahead, still looking back at him for a little while, he waved at them and shouted with a forced smile: "Yeah, bye, Monique. Later, KP…"
-xXOXx-
After their little shopping tour, Kim and Monique were sitting at a snack bar in the mall and allowed themselves some refreshments. When Kim had been looking down at the floor and poking about her salad for a whole while already, Monique stopped eating and asked: "Okay, girl, what's eatin' ya?"
That totally disrupted Kim's thoughts: "Huh, what?"
"Well, back at work you said you were gonna talk to me later. So, why don't ya?"
"Oh, right. Well, it's… about Ron."
"Just what I thought. That boy's train has totally jumped its tracks again…"
Kim sighed: "And I think I know why… You know, Monique, last night, Ron and I were at his place… alone."
Monique's eyes went wide, and she gasped: "Did you…?"
"No – Wade beeped me."
"Oh."
"And Ron was trying so hard… He even put up candles."
"Ron? Your Ron?"
"Yeah, I never would've expected that, either… But well, Ron's full of surprises," Kim said in a dreamy voice. Soon, however, she went back to normal and continued: "But as I said, Wade beeped me. So, we got going right away, trying to stop a break-in into a secret lab – without success, unfortunately. Then, we went back to his place, and Ron asked me if I wanted to come in again for little…"
"And then?"
Kim pulled a face: "Then, Ron inserted Bricks of Fury I-don't-know-which-part into the VCR."
"Oh gosh – no way!"
"Oh, yes way! I mean, first, when he convinced me to just watch a movie or something, that was so cute… Actually, after that mission tanked, I just wanted to head home, take a shower and relax. But then, somehow I just thought, maybe there's a chance we'd get into that mood again…"
"Not a chance, with those bricks!"
"And besides, Wade could've beeped me again. Still hasn't, though. Anyways, Monique, the point is: When there's a sitch, I, well, I switch – but I think Ron can't do that. And that's probably the reason why he's still so disappointed."
"Gotta be straight with ya, Kim…" Monique said in a serious voice. "This ain't the prob here. The prob is, there could be a sitch anytime. Wade often beeped you in your sleep, and countless times when you were at school. Did it ever cross your mind that he could just as well beep you, when you and Ron…"
"Oh gosh… now that you mention it… No, that never even crossed my mind before," Kim confessed. After a short pause, she sighed: "Guess it's about time I talked to Ron about it…"
"You guys never even talked about it yet?!"
"Don't freak, Monique. Remember, it took us a long time to talk about our feelings for each other, too. I always think… when the moment is there, we'll notice…"
"…that neither of you is prepared."
"I am prepared, Monique!" Kim protested, and in a considerably lower voice, she added: "Well, if that's what you mean: I've… been on the Pill for a few weeks now."
"Well, that's a start. Does Ron know?"
"No. I'm gonna tell him about that, too. Best thing to do, I'm gonna talk to him right away, as soon as I see him – no matter what…" Suddenly, Kim's kimmunicator wristband beeped, and as if on reflex, she immediately connected: "What's the sitch, Wade?"
Monique folded her arms and mumbled to herself: "Somehow, I get Ron's point. That's gotta be one major turn-off…" Of course, neither Kim, nor Wade overheard that.
Wade spoke through the kimmunicator: "Kim, I've got some good news and some bad news."
"Okay, good news first."
"I've got the infos about the stolen ability transferator prototype."
"You rock, Wade! And the bad news?"
"Well, I haven't been able to track down Drakken yet."
"What?!"
"Yeah, I know, it's just weird. Normally, tracking him down is a pushover. And I had almost managed to locate the signal – it seemed like it was coming from his lair in the mountains."
"The one with the huge sign that reads 'Secret Lair'?"
"Exactly. But suddenly, I had lost the signal! And when I tried again, all I got was static! I could never even hack into the security system of Drakken's lair any more!"
"You mean, he made an all-over security upgrade? That's just so not like Drakken!"
"I tried to avoid the static and get into his system all night long – not a chance!"
"Huh, then I guess, Ron and I better go check that out…"
"Okay, Kim. I'll keep trying to locate him."
"Thanks, Wade. And on our way, you can fill us in about the prototype."
"Sure. Talk to you later."
At that, Kim disconnected and looked up at Monique – who was still sitting there with her arms folded, giving her a strange look. Kim ignored that and said: "Well, you heard it, Monique. I gotta go and tell Ron."
"Well then, I'm not gonna stop ya," Monique replied in a slightly bored tone.
Kim got up and added: "And thanks for listening, Monique. See ya!"
As Kim got going, Monique turned around in her chair and shouted after her: "And don't forget what else you were gonna tell him, Kim!" But she was not sure if she still heard that.
End of Chapter Three
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AUTHOR'S NOTE – See, I promised the chapters would be getting longer. (I didn't plan that for the Author's notes, though…) Hope you liked it. Now, when I first wrote this chapter for the German KP forum, I did get one or two reviews with some criticism about the girls' talk. So, I'm prepared for any kind of flaming. ;) No, seriously, I "warned" you about a few not entirely "Disney-ish" or "KP-like" scenes, and I do think the rating is chosen correctly. Apart from that, I tried my best to kind of "defuse" this chapter in the first place. But what troubled me even more was "Moniquespeak". I don't know if I'm even close to mastering it in English… So, sorry if she sounds way off. (Thanks for the little help there, Michael! ;))
Oh, about the "'splainin'" or "Dad time" CajunBear73 mentioned, I guess I kinda forgot about that when I first wrote this story… or I didn't know how to include it. And I kinda thought, Mrs. Dr. P. soothing her husband in the end of the first chapter might imply she'd be able to "reduce the damage". Well, let's just say I'll leave that to your imagination.
As for the "Secret Lair": It's supposed to be the one we see in "So the Drama". I have no idea where it really is supposed to be, but in my story, I placed it not too far away from Middleton, I can tell you that already. I know, Drakken does have a lair in the Alps that looks pretty similar (but doesn't have a sign, as far as I remember). But seeing as in StD, Kim and Ron didn't seem to have any trouble reaching said lair and getting Kim's Dad back home, I'd say it would make sense if it wasn't that far away. Okay, enough babbling for now. I'm trying to get Chapter Four up ASAP. Please be patient! Take care and see you around! :)
