Kim Possible: The Darkness Without
Pt 3
By Eoraptor
Boring but important legal stuff: Kim Possible and all related characters are property of the Walt Disney Corporation ©2002-2007. Use of the characters here is not for profit and is specifically for the enjoyment of fans of the characters and series. Kim Possible was created by Mark McCorkle and Bob Schooley, and without their strokes of brilliance, none of us would be reading anything like this, and absolutely no offense to their hard work, blood, sweat, and ink is intended. Redistribution of this text for profit or without the author's consent is prohibited.
More boring but important stuff: This publication is rated by the author as R for violence and adult themes throughout. If you can't handle this type of material or it is illegal where you are located, don't complain to me or the site admin this document is posted on, JUST DON'T READ IT!
Less Boring and Still Important Stuff: This work is inspired by and based on the fan artwork and concept, "The Green Wraith" by YogurthFrost on Deviant Art. ( It is with his permission that I write these pages, and that the characters and situations here are only partly my creation.
Author's Notes: Two years after the fourth season of Kim Possible. KP and Ron have just stopped Shego from carrying out their latest plan and adding some angst to their lives, but was the TPVR (if you think I'm typing out that nonsense name any more than I have to, you're nuts) really what it was played up to be, by any party? Okay, this one starts out gruesome, and gets morose from there, so don't say you weren't warned.
Now, on with the Story...
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"Booh Yah! Chalk another one up for the good guys!" this time it was Kim spouting off Ron's favorite exclamation and grinning. She looked up at Drakken and Shego, who both looked worse for the ware, as their hover-car retreated towards the stratosphere, and waited for the typical retort as she moved towards Drakken's machine. She grinned as she caught sight of Rufus grabbing a souvenier and then darting back into Ron's cargo pocket.
Ron, for his part, took one more look at the vortex, where the taller figure seemed to have been joined by others in facing the shorter figure with the two-tone arms. There seemed to be more definition now too, the shorter figure had what looked like body armor on. There was a lot of green for some reason. Ron grumbled, though, as Rufus returned and flipped another switch, and vortex contracted, finally vanishing.
"Hey I was watching that!" he almost whined.
"hu-uh hu-uh bad news…" the mole-rat shook his head fervently.
"Oh… all right. KP, you coming?" Ron was headed for the elevator since there wasn't much more they could do.
Sure enough, as Kim turned and looked up, and just like clockwork came the usual parting words, "You think you're all that Kim Possible but you're-"
The next two seconds would be etched into the minds of the four survivors with stunning clarity. Three humans and one mole rat were transfixed by the blossom of orange and white that expanded from Drakken's machine. It seemed to move in slow motion, a living thing expanding in time lapse, reaching out with glowing tendrils and snatching everything in reach before flinging bits of flaming debris back out ahead of it.
One of the "everythings" in its path was a startled Kimberly Anne Possible.
Ron didn't see the most horrifying part of this beast's brief two second lifespan, and for that he would both thank and curse the fates. The blast blew him into the already opening elevator door and severed his consciousness even as he turned to see Kim silhouetted by the orange monster. Rufus, still nestled in his pocket, suffered the same consequence.
Drakken, piloting the hover car and spouting off his retort to the sky more than the people perched atop the building, also failed to see a large part of what happened in the next three quarters of a second.
Shego, having just hauled herself groggily up over the front bar of the hover-car, was witness to every gruesome detail. She couldn't say if it was through some cursed gift of her super-powers, or just the normal time dilatation of crisis that burned the images so clearly into her mind, but she too cursed them with her every breath.
Kim Possible, with her long red hair, her vibrant purple tunic, her black jeans, and even that ubiquitous blow-dryer grapple gun, was caught from the left by the beast of fire as it hatched from the machine. She'd just managed to turn her head to see what the sudden blossom of light was, and her arm was coming up instinctively to deflect what could not hope to be deflected.
In a gruesome moment that seemed a lifetime, Shego watched the fire latch on to her arm and, at the same moment, smash her entire body in the opposite direction. Transfixed brown eyes watched as the woman who had been fighting her with such precision just a moment before was slammed like a marionette with its strings cut in the blast wave of the explosion. Shego couldn't flinch in the fraction of a second that she was forced, by fate or biblically poor timing, to see Kim's head snapped to one side with hideous force, a blank look of surprise on her face even then.
The fireball fully engulfed her suspended body over the next two eternities, which encompassed perhaps another third of a second. Shego's eyes, heedless of her minds frantic screams to look away, followed the blossoming monstrosity as it filled and then surpassed the limits of the observation deck. The flame-beast, reaching the limits of its lifespan, began to grow dark and angry at its outer edges, withering and dying like a neglected garden.
"Kim!" came the half-choked scream from her throat finally. Time started moving once again as if on cue. Immediately following the orange beast, a crackling blue beast of flame expanded out from the center of the maelstrom. This one moved with the speed explosions were generally supposed to, and obliterated its orange predecessor's remnants. The green-clad mercenary could only watch as the giant TV antennas were bent hideously aside in the same manner her rival's body had been, but remained fixed to the top of the tower. Smaller shards of shrapnel sprung up, but were seemingly consumed by the blue wave before it too dissipated.
Shego didn't notice the hover-car lurching upwards violently, or Drakken's attempts to right it. She didn't notice the stench of burned glass and metal on the air that singed at her nostrils bitterly. She also completely failed to notice the black helicopter they only narrowly missed as it too was buffeted.
It was a good ten minutes before Shego noticed anything at all in fact. By that time, the hover-car had covered several dozen miles and Drakken was verbally berating it and its lineage if only it would go faster. She slowly turned her head, black hair frazzled from the fight and now the flight, and began to make out the blue shape responsible. Finally, all she saw was red.
"YOU!!!"
-Five hours after the death of Kim Possible-
A black suburban pulled up into the driveway of the still awakening Possible household in the suburb that was Middleton, California. Twenty minutes later it left, and the household wished it had never awoken, or that it had yet to awaken and this was all a horribly unfair dream. Screams and sobs echoed through the cul-de-sac all of that day and into the next.
-Seven hours after the death of Kim Possible-
Brick Flagg, along with the rest of the world, watched what seemed to be another 9-11 unfold on the news cycles. He'd been to the Arena early that morning to do warm-ups, and had yet to hear anything other than the CD's in his car before now. The overnight security guard had pointed him in the direction of the smoking tower a few miles to the east of the Arena, and then let him in. No one should be alone on days like this.
"Early reports are very sketchy at this point." The current commentator went on from somewhere in the downtown metro,
"One survivor was pulled from the area below the Observation Deck in the early morning hours. Unconfirmed reports are that the survivor is Ron Stoppable, running back for the Rush, and partner to Kim Possible. The Department of Homeland Security, in a news conference earlier this morning, confirmed that Miss Possible herself had been investigating the tower during the evening hours. DHS is thankful the timing of the attack, near midnight Central Standard Time, had the tower nearly empty; and the limited number of people on the streets below prevented horrific casualties like those of the WTC attacks several years ago. Further reports of at least two aircraft over the tower at the time of the blast have yet to be confirmed…"
The news repeated like that for several hours, but most had tuned it out after the first cycle.
-Three days after the death of Kim Possible-
"Ronald, we all understand that you're still very tired. But you have to tell us what happened to set off the explosion." Ron didn't know who was speaking exactly. The bandages over most of his face prevented him from seeing anything more than gray blurs that talked too loudly.
After a few moments, he pointed to the picture of Drakken which he was shown, and shook his head. He did the same to the picture of Shego, his hands bandaged into unidentifiable white packages. He was shown a few other pictures, still tiredly shaking his head at each as he pointed. When he was shown the last picture though, he had to be sedated; and the General and his staff were asked to leave. They took all the pictures with them, including the crumpled picture of a girl with red hair.
-Seven days after the death of Kim Possible-
"Well, whoever had him beat the hell out of him… and then they did it again with a lead pipe… and then again with something I don't even want to think about. It looks as though the skin was burned off of his back before all of that however, in eight vertical strips… Simply hideous."
"Thank you Doctor… Please, let us know if he can be woken up any time soon."
"Oh, I doubt that… he'll be on morphine for the rest of his life if he ever does wake up… Frankly, I hope to god he doesn't."
The lights were shut off, and the doctor, the General, and the Global Justice agent left the room, next to the door was a sign that had read John Doe. That had been scratched out, and below that was another label that read Drew Lipsky.
-Eleven days after the death of Kim Possible-
"The Presidential Medal of Freedom was today awarded to Kim Possible, posthumously. This is added to the French Legion, the Star of Indus, and numerous other awards given already, or planned for the fallen hero. Additional ceremonies are planned leading up to the state funeral, and there will be a private ceremony held Saturday following the…" The channel was changed by a shaking hand.
"…and no body was recovered from the damaged tower. Although traces of DNA indicate strongly that the mysterious explosion and its radiation killed Miss Possible, and it would have proven fatal to anyone immediately near it…"
The flat screen exploded in a blast of green and black plasma. It was followed rapidly by the remote, the stereo, the couch, and eventually two walls. When the fire department arrived on scene minutes later, they were perplexed to find any cause of the spontaneous combustion of the high-rise apartment.
-Six Months after the death of Kim Possible-
Dateline: Washington DC
The Department of Homeland Security today, in conjunction with a previously little-known independent group, Global Justice, released its preliminary findings on The Sears Tower Detonation. The blast that claimed the life of Kim Possible has been ruled officially to be the work of rogue criminal elements of a thus far unknown origin. No particular group or individual has taken credit for the blast, which was initially reported to be linked to terrorist activities. Drew Lipsky, AKA Dr. Drakken, had been suspected, but was later found badly beaten in an unrelated incident and has since been cleared. The whereabouts of his long-time accomplice Kelly Sheba Go, AKA Shego, are still unknown.
Reports of two aircraft circling the tower at the time of the late-night blast have never been confirmed, and radar and air traffic control reports show no unusual traffic patterns over Chicago surrounding the time of the blast.
The newspaper was crumpled in a tan, leathery hand and hurled into the fireplace. The voice of an older man, speaking with a rich Spanish accent, and choked with tears oddly enough, cursed anyone so dishonorable as to use a bomb to kill their foe. For once, the slightly higher-pitched voice that followed his agreed completely.
-Eight months after the death of Kim Possible-
"I don't care if you don't have any leads! I want Shego! She's taken out three of our best people in as many weeks. We're not going to get enforcement approval from DHS if we can't even catch one damned woman who used to be a member of Team Go!" There was a pause as he listed irritably to the phone.
"Fine, bring them in then."
"I don't care, just lodge it under the SSCA, we'll handle the paperwork later."
After a few moments more for the caller to cool off, the receiver was picked up again and another number was dialed. "Get me Director Du."
-Eight Months and two days after the death of Kim Possible-
Dateline: Go City
Team GO, the heroes of Go City, today turned themselves in to Global Justice on a warrant pertaining to the Super Science Control Act. SSCA, passed in the weeks following the Sears Tower Detonation, is intended to control the access of any civilian group or individual to "Technological, medical, or material means of causing mass destruction."
While the exact nature of the sealed warrant is still unknown, it is widely believed that it is related to Shego, the former female member of Team Go, who turned to crime and had long been an antagonist of Kim Possible. The group had had their powers bestowed upon them by a meteor storm some twenty years ago.
With laws similar to SSCA passed in many nations around the globe, the stock of Global Justice has been rising since the revelation of its existence six months ago. The independent body is specifically sited in many of these…
"That's going to piss her off… She may not like her family, but she still loves them." There was a series of horrendous coughs, and the newspaper was temporarily discarded in a paroxysm of pain.
"Easy Miss Smith… your lungs sustained a lot of scarring during your…" The nurse tried to fish for any term to use, since no one on the ward had been told how the young woman had been so critically injured… In fact, she'd only been awake for a week now.
One green eye glared at the nurse, daring her to say 'accident' as Sarah Smith gritted her teeth and allowed the dressing to be changed. After a moment, the nurse simply relented and tended to the thickly bandaged stump that had once been her left arm. Miss Smith growled and gripped the arm of her bed in pain as the bloody dressings were removed, and new ones were applied. The nurses left after a few moments, and once they were out of earshot of the woman's uncannily keen hearing, began their usual discussions.
"Well, I heard they found her in a van, and she'd been gang-raped and set on fire…" one particularly catty nurse began. She was quickly shushed by the others, who knew that anyone who had a grip as strong as that woman's was after eight months in a coma was not likely to be gang-anything.
"I guess they found her without the arm, it's a miracle she didn't bleed out." One of the slightly more politic nurses continued. "…why the stitches haven't healed after eight months is beyond me though."
"You know… I don't understand how she stands the pain; she won't let them get any where near her with the zexapril. If she'd only take a shot a few times a day, maybe she wouldn't be grinding her teeth or have that ulcer."
"I guess one of the Doctors actually caught her digging at the stump." A younger nurse shuddered as she recited the latest. "…not just picking at it; actually… well… is it self-mutilation? Anyways, they restrained her. Somehow, with only one arm, which was bound, she got completely free and wandered down for coffee." The duty nurse nodded. This last gossip item, at least, was true.
"…and what about the way she is with the news? I swear I took copies of the times, London AND New York, the Post, the Gazette, Go City Journal, and Jefferson County Examiner out of her room the last two days; and when its not those, it's the damned news channel on the satellite. I guess if I'd been asleep for eight months, I'd be a little concerned with current events too, but she's just spooky."
"That's nothing; you know she speaks at least French and German? Fluently. She was watching a news break on Univision without even blinking too." A few of the nurses nodded. They'd seen such linguistic feats also.
"Well, however the hell she got to JCCH, she'll have to be discharged soon. Family or no, she can't convalesce here forever. The state will put her in a long term care facility until they find some relatives I guess…" There was some sadness here, as none of the nurses, even the catty one, wanted anyone stuck in a state home.
"You know, it's a shame about her hair… I'll bet it was just beautiful before… before whatever… its such a bright red. You'd think someone would notice that our Jane Doe has about the rarest hair color around. Can't be that many missing people with hair like hers?" This was the second nurse again, the discussion having made its round in the small group. "Why, I'd say its even brighter than those shots of Kim Possible in Time last month."
There was a horrendous crash from the vicinity of Miss Smith's room, loud enough to be heard all the way down the halls of Jefferson County Community Hospital. When the duty nurse entered, she found the remains of an Illinois tourism cup and its formerly hot coffee spattered across the wall. The wall in question though, was a good forty feet away, across the hall, and into the day room of the small hospital. She eyed Miss Smith, as she preferred to be called over Jane Doe…
Miss Smith's one piercing green eye challenged her keeper in return. And nothing was said… that was, until the train rattled by the small station just outside, and the sobbing started again as it did every time that train went by.
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Author's notes additional: Didn't I warn you things would get dark? You've not seen anything yet… Hope I didn't cram in too many interludes of the days and weeks after the explosion. But I felt short little snippets would be more effective, from a story telling point of view, that long chapters from each of those times, or to just gloss over them entirely.
Shego's name… a bone of great contention I suppose. I figure, she wasn't born a super powered crime-fighter or villain, so she must have had a Christian name at some time. Sheba seemed to both fit her name scheme, and be the kind of haughty regal type of name she'd just love to have anyways.
Shego's eyes… I know in most of the series they are portrayed as green, like Kim's… but take it from someone with a weakness for pretty eyes… green eyes are just not that common.. So I figured they could be brown… artistic license, probably the only such license I'll employ, but what the hey?
Okay, so I didn't exactly hide who the resident, badly scarred redhead Miss Smith is, did I? but anyone who followed the link at the top of part number one of "The Darkness Without" has a pretty damned good idea anyways. So, the question is, how would you feel if you woke up after the better part of a year, horribly disfigured, in a world where no one recognized you and the world thought you were dead?
Zexapril pain killer? Just a name I pulled out of my butt... Don't go asking your pharmacist about it.
JCCH is not a real facility, although the little old hospital is set in the very real western Illinois county, and is based on a few older small town hospitals and care facilities that I am familiar with, you'll be seeing it again, don't worry.
And seriously, I'm sorry if anyone is offended by the allusions to September 11th, the patriot act, and other items I listed here… I know I didn't personally lose anyone in the attacks (although I came close, my best friend and his father both worked in the towers frequently as PC techs) But I felt that tonally, it was right for the piece.
