SPOILER ALERT! This chapter involves events from Poetheather1's Summertime Blues. I advise only reading if you've read that work as well so as not to ruin it if you read it in the future.
Hunch or no, Comet had officially reached the point in which Joss would need to start sleeping in the barn if the horse should go into labor early. She had to be ready to respond to absolutely anything! But when word got out of what she was going to do, a certain twelve year old and her naked mole rat wouldn't take "no" for an answer. So on the night of her third day on the ranch, Gracie began setting up a cot next to Joss, getting ready for a night spent in the barn.
"This is gonna be so spankin!" Gracie unzipped a sleeping bag and draped it over her cot.
This was just too weird! Was THIS what Joss had been like when she was Gracie's age? Back then, Kim always said she followed her around like a little puppy. Admittedly, even Kim's most minor of sitches would leave Joss completely awestruck and seeing stars. Lots of kids had heroes but…okay, she'd gone a LITTLE overboard with Kim's pictures in her room. But Gracie…oh heck, she loved the little squirt! If she was a role model, she'd be the best she could.
"Yeah, I used to sleep in the barn a lot when I was your age, especially when there were newborns."
"Was that what made you want to be a vet?"
"Partly," Joss smiled at the memories she was reliving. "Mostly it was your Mom. When I was your age, I wanted to be just like her. But she encouraged me to be myself, to find what made ME happy and go out there and do exactly that. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made."
"Well I AM gonna save the world like Mom and Momma," Gracie assured, rolling over towards Joss. "Momma promised me that I can take flying lessons when I turn 14. But…"
"Yeah?" Gracie was starting to open up.
"Well…I really wanna sing too."
Now THAT was interesting. Gracie had a beautiful and melodious soprano voice. She was a member of the school choir and Joss had received recordings of every one of Gracie's shows. Granted she was still very young, but based on what Kim had told her over the years, if Gracie kept it up, she'd stand a great chance. The younger Possible began laying out her and her friends plans for the future. Thanks to her friend Mary, Gracie was mad about Celtic and Irish music. She and her friends were going to start their own band, Gracie and Mary would sing and dance, their friend Jimmy would play the drum, and Billy would play the guitar.
"Well I better get an autograph NOW then," Joss leaned over and grabbed the younger girl's hand. "Then I can say I knew you before you were famous."
The pair stifled a series of yawns and thought that it was about time to turn in for the night. Joss reached down and dimmed the lantern, bathing the barn in shadow.
KPKPKPKPKPKPKPKPKP
BATHROOM!
The twelve year old shot out of her sleeping bag and instantly looked for a bathroom. It was obviously late and the rumble of sleeping animals was echoing through the barn. Gracie swung her legs out and lumbered towards the bathroom back in the office section of the clinic. She was awake enough but to an outside observer, the lumbering walk and matted mess of auburn hair would make them feell distinctly like they'd been transplanted into the zombie apocalypse. The ambient light was sufficient for the pre-teen to make it to her destination unencumbered.
The young lady was on the verge of falling asleep right there on the toilet when a great crash jerked her out of her doze and to full awareness. What the heck was that? Gracie cleaned herself up and ran out. Upon opening the door to the barn, the pre-teen choked on a cloud of dust. The animals were baying and voicing their disapproval. Something was wrong; Gracie could feel it. She had to find Joss.
"Grab the bitch too. That'll give us insurance."
Was that…? Gracie burst around a corner and spotted Joss, on the ground and bleeding from a head wound. Four figures clad all in black were standing around her while two more led Comet out of her stall and into the trailer that had burst through the wall and thrown up all of the dust and debris in the air. Was that…oh snap, they had guns! She needed Momma. Her plasma was the only thing that could help. The pre-teen Possible turned to run but caught her foot on a chunk of cement, drawing the attention of the attackers.
"Grab the girl before she gets away!" One of the men shouted.
Thank you for her training! After the first stumble, Gracie took off like a shot bobbing and darting in and out of rooms. The best route was likely through the office and out towards the front door. She had no idea what time it was so getting Mom, Momma, and Abby up might be a problem. That only left her beacon, only to be used in an extreme emergency. Gracie Possible, at 13 years old, was already more than capable of defending herself in hand to hand combat. But if she was ever in a situation where she felt herself in real danger, she was to push the button on the charm she wore around her neck. Designed by her Uncle Wade Load, the Beacon sent an ultrasonic signal to the Kimmunicator, Shegophone, and Abby's personal communication devices, activating a siren on each of the said devices loud enough to pull even Momma out of the deepest sleep. Without missing a step, she pulled her charm out from underneath her PJs and mashed the button.
Even outside and over the shouts of the men back in the clinic, Gracie could hear the sirens blaring from the house, hopefully jerking the older women out of their sleep. She chanced a look back at her pursuers and saw that neither of them were carrying guns but nightsticks of some kind. She needed to buy time! Her best option…aha…the bushes in front of the house! If she were the pursuers, the logical assumption was for Gracie to head into the house. She'd crouch underneath and let loose as they pass by. There was a slight breeze so once the teen reached the porch, she slammed the screen door and dove over the edge and into the bushes. With any luck, the wind would pick up the door and draw them in. Gracie wrestled her way through the branches and caught a glimpse of the two. It really looked like they were taking the bait.
"Do you see her?"
"You hear that? I think she's hiding in the house."
The pair made their way to the stairs, moving towards the sound of the loose screen door. The pair set foot on the steps leading up, giving Gracie the opening she needed to leap out. She loosed a kick to the back of the right thug's knee, knocking the leg out from under him. The shock of the impact made the thug drop the nightstick in his hand and right at Gracie's feet. The teen scooped it up in one fluid motion and delivered a blow to the kidney of the thug's partner, dropping him on top of the other. Gracie brought the nightstick across the man's face, drawing a bloody gash and brought her foot down on the other's jugular, incapacitating both of them.
"GRACIE? GRACIE, WHERE ARE YOU!?"
Shego burst through the door, arms bathed in the fiery green glow of her plasma, followed closely by Kim and Abby, one of the bodyguard's Heckler & Koch .45 pistols in hand and scanning for targets. The trained bodyguard instantly leveled her sidearm at the two bodies lying before Gracie's feet. The older women were about to ask for an explanation when a shot rang out from across the way and as if in slow motion, the pre-teen was forced to the ground. The Heckler & Koch swung towards the door to the clinic and unleashed a flurry of hollow-point rounds burrowed into the body of the gunman who'd dared shoot a child.
Potential shooters be damned, Kim Possible burst past her wife and friend and cradled her daughter, searching for the wound.
"Mom…Mom I'm okay." Gracie tried to haul herself up, level with Mom. There was a shooting pain in her left shoulder but that felt like the only thing wrong. The bullet must've just grazed her.
"THANK YOU GOD," Kim gasped, running her hands all over her oldest daughter, still searching for any wounds. "Gracie Anne Possible…what in heaven's name is going on?"
In all the activity of the past few moments, Gracie had completely forgotten about Joss. She began explaining what she saw, the truck and trailer ramming through the wall, the goons taking Comet and Joss, and especially Joss's head wound. The roar of a diesel engine signified that the group had taken off with the pregnant horse and Kim's beloved cousin.
KPKPKPKPKPKPKP
"Why would they take Comet?" Shego asked, looking around at the damage with her wife.
Gracie and the twins would be safe under Abby's eye; the older Possibles had to puzzle this out FAST!
"Comet's racing stock," Slim explained, drastically trying to keep his head. "She's won the mare division of the AERC National Championship three times since we've had her. The foal's sire is a legend in the distance racing circuit. Even untested, Comet's foal is worth close to $1 million."
The tracks indicated the truck had headed off towards the east. No bullet casings, no discernible marks, a dead end. If Kimberly knew her wife however, the reformed thief would be running the gauntlet on the two that were left behind. Outside of her plasma powers, Shego Possible had a mind both fiendishly clever and borderline scary. Kim had once seen a hired thug break down and spill his guts after Shego sent for a bag of kiwis and six mice. When questioned about it, the key was always letting the prisoner's imagination do the work.
"I know where they are!" Shego burst through the door and into the clinic, a look of satisfaction plastered on her face. Best not to ask HOW she knew but the two thugs had revealed that Comet and Joss had been taken somewhere near Missoula. Neither one knew exactly where nor who they were working for and Shego was fairly certain that she had gotten all she could out of the poor schmucks.
Their next best option was Uncle Slim's den. Unlike many ranches throughout the country, the Lazy C Ranch was probably the most technologically advanced agricultural operation in North America. Unknown to the locals in the county, Slim Possible had his own network of satellites roaming in the space above the ranch. When in the den, Slim could see anything and everything happening on his property
"Uh…wow," Shego marveled, looking at all the computer screens and mainframes. "I've broken into nuclear missile silos that didn't have this good of surveillance."
"FOUND the dirty wranglers," Slim brought up the footage on the central monitor. "All my satellites are timed to go red when the sun goes down." A glowing red outline of the clinic appeared, time stamped for 2: 37 pm. Kim could make out the outline of some kind of truck pulling a single-horse trailer. Four bodies piled out of the truck and everyone had a bird's eye view of the theft. Once Comet was in the trailer, the satellites followed the vehicle as it maneuvered through back roads and off of Uncle Slim's property. "That's all I've got. I can't track anything outside my property." His daughter had been abducted! She was wounded and suffering God knows what from God knows who! There HAD to be another way. DAMN the horse! If he lost his baby girl, he…wait…"the horse"? "Kim…are you still in contact with that fella Wade?"
"Of course," Kim turned to her cousin. "Why?"
"Because Comet still has a tracking chip on her ear," Slim explained, facing the younger Possible. "Several years ago, I began embedding tracking chips on all our animals. Each horse and cow has its own unique frequency so we can zero in on lost animals. If we give Wade Comet's frequency, can he track her outside our property?"
In answer to her uncle's question, Kim whipped out her Kimmunicator from its case on her belt and keyed up Wade's number.
"Hey Kim," Wade Load, Kim's tech guru and team manager from the very beginning, smiled and took a bite of scrambled eggs. "How's the vacation?"
"A little rocky right now Wade," Kim answered. Might as well get right to the point. "Someone's stolen Uncle Slim's pregnant horse and kidnapped Joss. His satellites can't track off of his property. Now the horse is imbedded with a tracking chip. If we give you the frequency, can you find it?"
"And I thought you had a challenge for me," Wade smiled and cracked his knuckles. "I'll hotwire a GPS dish and can have a position fix for you in a few minutes. Anything else I can do?"
"Yeah actually," Kim replied. "I'll upload the footage we have. See if you can find a make, model, and ID on the vehicle. We know it's a truck capable of hauling a single-horse trailer but nothing more."
Uncle Slim transferred everything to a pin drive and handed it to Kim. She inserted it into the USB port on her Kimmunicator and beamed an instantaneous transmission to Wade's massive mainframe. A few keystrokes later, an aerial image of the truck was run through a database and a match appeared on screen. But try as he might, based on the footage he had, Wade couldn't get a clear view of the license plate or VIN number. While that program was running, a GPS tracking satellite was "borrowed" and was homing in on the signal in the horse's body. The signal traveled twenty miles off to the east of Slim Possible's property and came to a halt. Bringing up a topographical map, Wade could see that the thieves had set up shop in Hell Gate, a ghost town near Missoula MT.
"Alright Kim, I've got a position fix," Wade called back to Kim. "You're looking for a Ford F-150 built within the last two years. Not much more I can tell about the car. It came to a stop in Hell Gate Canyon on the west side of the abandoned town."
"Then THAT'S where we're headed," Kim replied, smiling at the challenge before them. Why? Why couldn't this family have a vacation without something like this happening? Whoever dared interrupt her family's summer vacation and had been responsible for the wounding of her eldest daughter would DEARLY pay!"
KPKPKPKPKPKPKP
"AT LAST! I, DR. DRAKKEN, WILL BE UNBEATABLE!"
The sun was setting over the crest of Hell Gate Canyon and Dr. Drakken was surveying the fruits of his latest endeavor. In the corral before him stood six of the best racing horses in the state of Montana. With these magnificent creatures, he would finally gain the upper hand over that meddlesome Kim Possible, that treacherous Shego, as well as…that sidekick whose name Drakken could never remember. Ever since Drakken had surrendered to their daughter when she was accidentally brought onboard his latest mobile lair, he'd been a laughing stock. He'd even lost his membership to the Villain's Jam of the Month Club. But this would be the end to all of that!
Drakken turned from the corral and looked at his true pride and joy, the Genetic Replication Electron Generator…or GREG! Using this device, he would combine his DNA with that of the race horses, supercharging his stamina and strength so that revenge on Kim and Shego would FINALLY be HIS! Then, and ONLY then, could Dr. Drakken take his place as the ruler of the world…and then all of those other scientists would PAY for those wedgies they'd given him in college.
"The area is secure," One of Drakken's hired henchmen reported to him, pulling the villain out of his internal monologue.
"SPLENDID," Drakken shouted, making the henchman jump back in surprise. "Err…I mean splendid. We'll be able to begin in a few hours. I'm taking NO chances of this being interrupted so I want regular patrols until I'm through. Make sure the locals we hired are pulling their own weight."
"As you command sir," The henchman saluted and returned to his tasks.
Drakken was absolutely giddy with anticipation. For years, Drakken's cousin Edward had been a puzzle but Drakken was beginning to understand his way of thinking. There was something to be said for upgrading your ride…and what better ride than your own body?
Author's Notes:
It really must be difficult for a family who can never seem to stay out of trouble on a vacation. For some reason, wimpy as he is, I have a hard time thinking that Drakken would Gracie capturing him lie. I see him as kind of like as a North American mosquito. Not a threat but annoying as heck. I love the image of him stewing over the humiliation of a four year old getting the better of him. And abducting racehorses to blend his DNA with them? Shego really WAS the brains of the operation and even for Drakken, this is a nutty idea.