I do not own any of the Disney characters named herein, and am only borrowing them for a tale told for entertainment purposes only.
Kim Possible: Devil's Child Redux
By LJ58
Part 3:
From: Emerald_Goddess-At-Flitmail/World-Com
Wow. You would not believe this week. I thought mom was going to explode at times.
I don't everything that is going on, but someone bad showed up, and I mean really, really bad. The kind of bad that gets you on the late news. I hope you never, ever have to meet anyone like this guy. Thankfully, mom finally had someone to unwind on. She can be pretty tough, but she's got this thing about picking on someone weaker than her. Which is, admittedly, pretty much everyone.
She was working out with Kim, you remember I told you we're staying with the Kim Possible now. I'm really glad I got permission to tell you, since that was hard to keep secret. Anyway, she was sparring with Kim, but lately Kim's been so busy she hasn't had time to even eat or sleep at times.
Mom is really worried about her, too. Sometimes, for an adult, she doesn't take very good care of herself for being so smart otherwise.
Anyway, we (me and mom) were having a private picnic in the yard when…
KP
"You're just going to run off again," Shego complained as she glared at Kim, dressed in full mission gear, and carrying even more new 'toys' from the look of her bulging pockets.
There had been no rain check. No night out. Nothing. Kim kept running off, when she came home at all, and Shego was getting sick of it. Sick of being left behind. Sick of having to sit and worry when she was not the kind of woman that sit anyway for anyone.
"Shego, I am sorry…."
"You keep saying that…."
Kim paused, her hand dropping from the door handle, and looked back at her.
"Shego, I'm not just doing this for the world. Or GJ. Or anyone else. I'm doing it for you and Angela."
"For us?"
"Especially for you. You know that Drakken is bound to come after you. Both of you. He's too obsessed to just let you go after the way you both helped kick his butt back in Italy."
"I doubt he's too happy about being blown to pieces again either," Shego murmured as she walked over, and just stood inches from her. "But you have to know he's going to be waiting on you. He's bound to have some bizarre, inexplicable plan waiting on you, too."
"I know. It's what he does. Only what I do is undo those plans. So trust me. I'll be fine. I just want to make sure you two stay fine, too."
"C'mon, Kimmie," Shego risked a smile after four days of silent treatment alternating with some very high tempers from the both of them. "Angel and I are probably the best ones to meet this freak on his own terms."
Kim just sighed as she stood there staring at her.
It didn't help that Drakken was running people in circles again, and so far as she knew, there was no headway in the anti-plant potion she and Wade were working on.
Shego actually blushed when Kim unexpectedly reached out and touched her cheek.
"Kim…..?"
"Shego, I still haven't worked this all out. What might be between us, I mean. But….I have started to feel that we are….family. You're part of my family now. I don't want to lose you. And I don't want to see either of you get hurt."
Shego couldn't help but smile now, and put a hand on Kim's cheek.
"You're not going to lose us unless you kick us out, you goof. And we aren't going to get hurt. Not that easily. You're the one that keeps coming home in bandages. And it makes me crazy that you don't trust me enough to help you. It makes me think…. You don't really trust me."
Kim sighed, and covered the hand yet to leave her cheek.
"Hey, I took you to Yamanouchi, didn't I?"
"Yeah. Believe it or not, the munchkin wants to go back. After watching us spar, she wants more lessons."
"That might make a nice break after this is over."
"School starts in another week. Remember?"
"Oh. Right. Okay, so, vacation, or something. Just….trust me to handle Drakken. I don't want to take a chance he's found another way to hurt you. All right?"
Shego's hand dropped.
"You couldn't just tell me that from the start?"
Kim gave a weak laughed, and shrugged. "Okay, so….I'm not exactly experienced with sharing these days. I'm used to going my own way, and doing my own thing."
"Wow, and you're still alive."
"Shego," she sputtered.
"I respect you. I do. I already told you I love you, Kimberly. But I worry, too. And I don't want to sit in this house waiting for that harpy to call me some day with the news you aren't coming back. I couldn't take that."
"I understand. Just….let me finish this my way, and we'll sit down and talk about things a bit more when I get back. All right?"
Shego stood there, staring at the redhead who tried to smile at her, and finally nodded.
"Swear we'll talk?"
"You have my word," Kim told her. "And you know I never break my word."
"I know. Just….be careful. I think we both know from Italy that Dr. D has gone way past the bend. Don't try to reason with him. Just….take him down."
"Count on it," she smiled, and impulsively hugged her. "Just….be careful. It's not too hard to believe that he might have realized you're here with me by now."
Shego didn't have time to react as Kim released her, and left her standing there as she left the house. Leaving her feeling alone. Bereft.
A moment later, the turbines of the Kimminator were heard as she departed, but Shego was still smiling as she still felt the strong, wiry arms of the woman around her body.
"Mommmmmmm," came a familiar shout that shattered her reverie.
"What is it, squirt," she turned to see her daughter in a snug bikini.
"Let's go outside and picnic today," she grinned. "Like we used to do on our beach."
"Sounds like a plan. Get the towels, and I'll make us something to eat," she smiled.
Angela's whoop was enough to keep her smiling as she headed for the kitchen.
Then she thought of her wardrobe, and realized she really needed to take her shopping for school clothes this week, too. The school year was fast approaching, and Angela was really looking forward to attending a real school.
She just hoped it didn't break her spirit like it had almost done her own back when she first turned green. Kids, she knew, could be really cruel.
KP
"Anything on your end, south side," Kim asked quietly over the link.
"Nothing at this end," the Global Justice agent reported.
"Nothing here," Janus' familiar clipped tone replied from his northern post. He had come down from the lunar lab just to help with this mission because he was the one 'man' that wouldn't question Kim's orders. Or hesitate to carry them out.
He also had an onboard power supply to keep his own stealth cloak operation for extended periods. Unlike GJ's camo-suits that tended to fail, and couldn't mask the user from IFR scans. That, however, was just what she wanted.
She wanted a few obvious observers on the field so that anyone that might show up might not take notice of the less obvious ones. Like her and Janus. Everything now hinged on how well she had been able to anticipate Drakken's next move.
"East side, report," she called.
There was no reply.
"Hanson, are you there?"
No reply.
"Janus, sweep Hanson's position. What do you see?"
"Checking. IFR scans show a body, Kimberly. It's not moving. In fact, ambient temperature suggests it is cooling despite the heat."
"Drakken. Everyone stay sharp. He could be anywhere. Janus do you have anything on your scans?"
"Nothing, Kimberly. He's either very well cloaked, or…"
"Or he's what," the agent on the south side of the target asked in confusion.
"Oh, no," Kim spat, and surged to her feet. "Move in. Janus, Graves. Move now!"
KP
"This is kind of fun," Angela told her mother as they toasted each other with canned soda while setting in the spacious back yard behind the old house that Kim was still refurbishing.
"Yeah, it is, isn't it," Shego smiled at her child."
"We'll have to get Kim to join us next time. I'll bet she'd like a backyard picnic, too."
"Something tells me Kim doesn't take much time off even when she's got time," Shego told her.
"Well, she has to relax sometime," Angela remarked as she picked up another sandwich.
"You'd think, wouldn't you," Shego grumbled, and started to reach for another sandwich herself as her smile faltered.
"Angel…. Move," she shouted even as she somersaulted backwards, and just evaded the thick, writhing vines that exploded out of the ground beneath their towels.
Angel shrieked, just managing to evade the tentacles sent her way, and firing a pair of plasma balls at the ground at the same time.
The inhuman howl was almost nostalgically familiar to Shego's ears as she grabbed the nearest tentacle, and pulled.
"Dr. D," she growled, seeing the dark head jerked up out of the ground like a cartoon mole. "You've really reached a new low," she seethed as the man climbed out of the hole while he glared at her.
"I've come to give you your old job back, Shego," he smirked, holding out a small box. "See? I even got you your old uniform," he said, opening the box to show off the tightly compressed green and black fabric inside.
"Forget it. I retired. Remember?"
"Too bad. It wasn't a request," the man spat with glittering eyes. "In fact, I have an opening for a junior assistant, too," he said, glancing at Angela as new tentacle shot out to replace the ones she had burned away. "And you'll both accept, or join that useless lackey Possible left to guard you."
"Lackey? What lackey?"
"The dead one, of course," Drakken laughed. "Now, just stop wasting time, and….."
"Mom! Look out," Angela shouted, and sent a burst of plasma at the seemingly empty hand that had been about to fire a small, silver pistol at Shego.
"You ungrateful brat," he turned on her, more of his vines surging forward to encompass her before she could burn them away. "Do you know how long it took to build that induction primer. Now I'll have to do this the old fashioned way."
"Meh," he muttered as someone tapped on his shoulder.
"Don't touch my kid," Shego spat, and slammed a plasma-laced fist into his face on full burn.
Drakken howled in rage and pain as his vines instinctively released the smaller girl to attack Shego. Only as many wrapped around her, he had to replace just as fast as she kept burning them off as he realized Shego was starting to advance on him, and she had green death in those eyes as she reached for him again.
"Back off," he howled, another vine flashing out to wrap around Angela's throat. "One move from either of you, and I snap her neck like a twig! Now, back off," he ordered.
Shego hissed, her fury visible as she lowered her hands, and waited for what was to come.
"That's better. It's a good thing I brought a few of the old neural-compliance chips," Drakken smirked, reaching into his familiar coat's voluminous pocket. "You just never know," he told her with a snide grin. "You know?"
"I know," someone drawled from behind him, and he yelped loudly as something stabbed him in both sides, making him stagger back from both females.
"Now, Graves," Kim's voice came from out of nowhere, and a yellow beam bathed Drakken in an eerie glow.
Even before the glow faded, the vines were stiffening, and drooping as they cracked under Angela's weight, and those waving before Shego suddenly dropped, and snapped off his body under their own weight.
"Feeling less than photosensitive," Kim asked as her stealth cloak faded, and she stood right in front of him, "Drakken?"
"You? What did you….?"
He turned, feeling another tap on his shoulder, and cringed as a stern, unsmiling man in a gray jumpsuit stared at him.
"Drew Lipski, you are under arrest."
"Janus, stand down," Kim told him. "He needs the chance to resist arrest."
"But, Kimberly."
"Kim," Shego frowned, then stared at the GJ agent who also appeared as if from nowhere now stood not far away with a small, blunt tipped rifle she knew Kim had been working on all week.
"You suckered him," Angela grinned, and ran over to her mom's side. "Just like last time."
"Well, he is rather two-dimensional in his thinking, even if he was 'amped' by that Lorwardian brain-ray. That obviously hasn't changed. Still, I think we just neutralized his mutagen. Probably for good."
"Shouldn't we test that," Shego asked coolly as she reached out, grabbing the hand with the mind control chips still held in it, and squeezed. "Just to be sure," she added as she her hand shimmered with green flame.
Drakken howled as he pulled free, flung down his smoldering glove, and the charred mind-control chips dropped from his grasp, and shook his hand as he delicately blew on the seared flesh. Flesh that was not healing the way it once did.
"Uhm…. I give up," the man whimpered as he found himself surrounded on all sides.
"Not yet you don't," Shego growled, and raised a glowing fist.
"I give up! I give up," he shouted, flinging himself at Kim. "Mammmmmmmaaaaaaa!"
"Jeez," Shego grumbled.
"Yeah," Angela agreed as she shook her head. "You actually worked for this loser?"
"Listen, Drew Lipski," Samuel Graves spoke up after Kim nodded at him. "I'll arrest you, and take you into custody, if you tell us what you were planning this past week. As well as what preparations you made to carry out that plan."
"Huh?"
"Otherwise, I'll be forced to explain that you slipped away, and leave you to other….supervision," the agent informed him coolly as he glanced pointedly at Shego.
Shego gave the man points for daring as Drakken gave a faint yip, and rose to his feet, dusting off his coat with his uninjured hand as he did. "That's easy. I've just been planning on getting this ungrateful turncoat and her bra…. Child," he amended as Angela's eyes narrowed in exact fashion Shego's did, and her own smaller hands curled into glowing fists. "To work for me. That was as far as I had planned. So far."
"I don't believe him," Shego told them. "Trust me, I know this momma's boy, and he can't lie for spit. He's lying now."
"I'm not! Trust me," the blue-skinned man whimpered pleadingly as the circle around him narrowed.
"Let me tell you something now," Kim told him with a tight smile. "The injections Janus gave you, combined with the special genetic resequencing acceleration ray that Agent Graves used on you? It just eliminated all traces of your mutagen from your system. In fact, the serum I developed will keep you from ever trying to use that pollinator potion ever again. You are now completely, and irrevocably, normal."
"Normal," Drakken spat in genuine disdain. "If there is one thing I know, it is that I am not, and have never been normal!"
He took note of several raised brows, and swore less than potently.
"You know what I mean! I am destined for greatness! I, Dr. Drakken, am…..!"
"What," Shego frowned when Kim eyed her after she knocked him out with a single punch. "Don't tell me you wanted to hear him rant?"
"He does give away a lot when he does," Kim reminded her.
"Oh. That. You think he was up to more than just….grabbing us?"
"I wouldn't underestimate his ability for convoluted planning in spite of his incompetence. Still, I suppose we can leave the debriefing to GJ this time," Kim sighed.
"With pleasure," Samuel Graves nodded, and moved to put cuffs on the unconscious man.
"I'll send for a clean-up team," Janus said quietly, gently touching his left temple as he purposely looked toward the east side of the forest surrounding the secluded house Kim had bought just outside of the usual suburbs.
"Did he really kill someone out there," Angela asked quietly as she stared at the unconscious man.
"He's killed a lot of people since he returned," Kim told her, feeling she deserved the truth.
"And he would have used us to do worse. Wouldn't he," the girl asked her mother.
"Much worse," Shego nodded, her expression grim. "It's what he does. Use people."
"Why don't we just…..?"
"It's not our call," Kim stopped her. "He's not an immediate threat any longer. That means we give him to the law, and let a jury judge him. It's not a perfect system, but it's the right thing to do here."
"But….we blew him up last time."
"Because he wouldn't listen. Because he wouldn't stop," Shego told her. "You've still got a lot to learn, kiddo. But the big one is, sometimes the world doesn't make a bit of sense. And doing the right thing can be a lot harder than doing…..the easy thing."
"I'll let you know if we learn anything, Comman…. Er. Miss Possible," the agent nodded as a sleek, dark hover-jet appeared just then with the GJ logo on the tail.
"So," Shego murmured as the men quickly bundled up Drakken, and carried him on board before a team headed to the forest led by Janus. "Looks like we need a landscaper," she murmured, eyeing the torn up yard where Drakken had tunneled up under them.
"Want me to go get a shovel," Angela asked.
"Why don't you," she smiled, and roughed the dark head.
"Smart. She shouldn't see….."
"She's already seen worse. What I don't want her to hear is this."
"This?"
"Were you out here all this time? Watching us every time you pretended to leave?"
Kim sighed.
"Yes. It didn't take much thought to guess he was going to come after you first. I hoped if he was watching the house, or having others watch, that he would think I was leaving you alone, and would act precipitously without considering traps."
"So, we were bait," Shego growled.
"Only by necessity," Kim admitted. "Even when I really wasn't here, or I was working on the serums and genetic ray, I had Janus watching over the place just in case."
"The robot?"
"The android. We're upgraded him quite a bit since he left GJ's employee."
"You make him sound…."
"He's comparable to Annie by now. His AI is evolving, and he might even become a genuinely sentient being himself if he continues as he is."
"Great. So now you're creating a new race, too. You know what? I don't care."
"Shego….."
Shego suddenly hugged her even as the men brought back a covered body, and carried it on board after shooting the women a guarded look.
"Shego?"
"I'm actually proud of you," the woman sniggered, and gave her a firm squeeze. "I didn't realize you could be so sneaky. There may just be some hope for you after all."
Kim frowned at her as the GJ jet rose into the air, leaving Janus behind, and Angela walked around to stare at the blushing redhead.
"What'd I miss," the girl demanded.
No one answered her.
To Be Continued…..
