Chapter 4: Section 13

The first thing that Kim became aware of was the too bright light that was shining directly into her face. Groaning in agitation, Kim began to open her eyes, but hissed as they saw nothing but bright light and vague shapes. Instinctively, she raised her hand to shield her eyes, but was stopped with a jolt as something attached to her wrist held her arm in place. Grunting in confusion, Kim was able to squint her eyes open and looked down at her wrist.

The first thing Kim noticed was that she was laying in what looked like a hospital bed with railings on either side. She had been covered in a white sheet and blanket, and it appeared someone had changed her clothes, leaving her dressed in a simple, white t-shirt and matching pajama pants. The room around her was largely white as well, the fluorescent lights almost causing the windowless room to glow. An antiseptic smell hung in the air.

What had Kim's attention though were the white plastic bands securing her wrists to the railings on the sides of the bed. Jerking her arm, she attempted to pull free of the restraints but only managed to scrape her wrists against the bindings.

Her breath quickening as she began to panic, Kim glanced around with windowless room again. It was small, only containing the bed she was laying in. The one door to the room sat in the wall directly across from her, a single window set into the heavy metal that made up the door. Kim attempted to look through the window in the door, but all she could see was a beige colored wall.

"Hey," a voice whispered, causing Kim to start in surprise and whip her head around to look at the source of the noise. To her shock, Kim found a young girl of Asian descent crouched at her side. The girl flinched back as Kim looked at her, her eyes wide.

"Sorry," the girl whispered, "I didn't mean to startle you. I just thought I'd try to calm you down. I think you're hurting yourself by struggling like that."

Kim stared at the girl in bewilderment for a moment, though she did feel herself calming as she did.

"Who are you?" Kim questioned, instinctively keeping her voice low.

"My name's Jade," the girl replied, "Your name is Kim, right?"

"How did you know that?" Kim asked.

"I overheard them talking about you when they brought you in," Jade answered.

"In?" Kim pressed, "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure," Jade admitted, "I've been sneaking after my Uncle Jackie, who works with these people, or used to work for them, or something like that. I think it's some kind of spy agency or something."

"Spy agency?" Kim repeated in confusion, before giving her head a quick shake, "Nevermind, you have to get me out of here."

"I-I don't know if I should do that," Jade replied hesitantly as her gaze fell to her feet, "My Uncle Jackie works for these people, so they can't be all bad…."

"Jade," Kim said sharply, bringing the girl's eyes back to her, "These people kidnapped me. I don't know what for and I don't care. I just want to go home."

Jade, however, continued to look unsure, which caused tears to start welling up in Kim's eyes.

"Jade, please," Kim whimpered as her bottom lip began to tremble.

"O-Okay" Jade finally relented, "Okay, I'll help you."

"Thank you," Kim replied with a small smile, "We have to work quickly, I don't know when someone will come back."

Nodding her head in understanding, Jade turned her attention to the restraint holding Kim's right hand. Clenching her right hand into a fist, Kim's heart began to beat rapidly with fear and excitement as Jade began pulling on the restraint.

Suddenly, a sound caught Kim's attention. It was subtle at first, but after a moment Kim was able to make out the sound of muffled conversation and approaching footsteps.

"Jade!" Kim whispered harshly, "Someone's coming! Hide! Quick!"

Jade gasped and looked up at Kim in shock before quickly looking around the room for somewhere to hide. Settling her gaze on Kim's bed, Jade hastily squeezed behind it, obscuring herself from view.

Not a moment after Jade had hidden herself, the door to the room swung open and a number of people entered. Most were tough looking men and women dressed in black jackets and pants. Another appeared to be a doctor, dressed in a button-down shirt, pants and tie under a white lab coat. One of the other people Kim recognized as the man she had fought with in the school parking lot. Looking at him, Kim noticed a similarity in features between the man and Jade and quickly surmised that he must be the Uncle Jackie the girl had been talking about.

The final person was a woman who appeared to be approaching middle age. She appeared to be the same height as Kim with an athletic build. Her brown hair was cut short and her left eye, colored dark brown, immediately met Kim's gaze while her right one was obscured by a black eye patch. She was dressed in a purple jumpsuit overwhich she had on a darker colored trench coat.

"She's awake," the doctor observed.

"I can see that," the woman replied curtly.

"Shall I sedate her?" the doctor inquired.

"You might as well," the woman answered with a sigh, "I have enough to deal with as it is."

Nodding his head, the doctor opened his lab coat and reached inside, retrieving a syringe a moment later. The doctor held the syringe up to the light and took a moment to test it before he began approaching Kim.

"Wait, please!" Kim pleaded, her face stricken as the doctor drew closer, "Please, I just want to go home! Please, don't do this!"

Walking over to one of Kim's arms, the doctor grabbed hold of it in an attempt to keep Kim from moving around to much.

"Now, hold still," the doctor said as he brought the syringe down towards Kim's arm, "I don't want to-"

The doctor was interrupted when Kim wrenched her arm free of the loosened restraint and the doctor's hand, striking the man in the face in the process. The doctor howled in pain as blood began pouring out of his nose, the syringe slipping from his hand and tumbling into the air. The action caught everyone off guard, stunning them into inaction for half a moment. Jackie recovered first, darting forward and reaching for Kim arm as she tried to pull it back. Kim's reflexes were faster though and she batted Jackie's hand away before reaching out and grabbing the front of his shirt. Before Jackie could pull away, Kim yanked him toward her and wrapped her arm around his neck. After this, she opened her hand and snagged the falling syringe out of the air before flipping it around so she held the needle a bare inch away from Jackie's eye.

All this happened before the others in the room managed to draw their guns, which they all now leveled at Kim.

"Let him go!" the woman barked.

"Not until you let me go!" Kim shouted back, tears welling up in her eyes, "Look, I just want to go home!"

"I don't give a damn what you want," the woman snarled, "You let him go or you're going to need that doctor for more than just knocking you out."

"Director, please," Jackie pleaded, "This isn't the way. Just have everyone put their guns down!"

"I can't do that while she's got a needle to your eye, Jackie," the woman argued.

"I don't want to hurt him!" Kim exclaimed as she tightened her grip on Jackie's throat, "But if you don't let me go I'm going to have to-"

"Wait, Kim, don't!" Jade suddenly exclaimed as she emerged from her hiding spot and began tugging on Kim's arm, "Don't hurt my Uncle Jackie!"

"Jade!?" Jackie exclaimed in astonishment, "Jade, what are you doing here!?"

"Jesus Christ," the director swore, "Quick, someone get the girl!"

Nodding one of the guards began moving towards Jade, his gun still trained on Kim.

"Don't come any closer!" Kim snapped, causing the man to freeze in place, "You take one step closer and I'll-"

"Kim, don't!" Jade wailed.

"Put that gun down!" Jackie shouted, "Don't you go pointing a gun anywhere near my niece!"

The guard immediately froze, clearly unsure of what to do.

"Goddamnit, do I have to do everything around here!?" the director snapped before glaring at Kim, "Drop the needle! Now, damnit!"

"No!" Kim screamed, hot tears spilling down her cheeks, "I want to go home!"

"Kim, please!" Jade continued to plead, "Please don't hurt him!"

"Everyone just stop!" Jackie shouted, "Stop before someone gets hurt!"

"I don't want to hurt him!" Kim declared, scrunching her eyes closed as her voice began to hitch in her throat, "I want….I just want-"

"Kim!?" a voice called faintly from somewhere Kim couldn't see, "Kim, can you hear me!?"

"Kimberly, where are you!?" another voice called.

"M-Mom?" Kim questioned, "D-Dad?"

A moment later, Kim's parents came rushing into the room, bewildered and frightened looks on their faces.

"Kim!" Ann called before stopping and looking at the men and women aiming guns at her daughter in shock, "What's going on here!?"

Locking eyes with the director, Ann immediately got in the other woman's face.

"What the hell do you think your doing!?" Ann all but screamed.

"My job!" the director snapped, not intimidated for a moment.

"Your job is threatening teenage girls!?" Ann demanded.

"No, my job is containing situations before they get out of hand," the director snarled.

"Out of hand!?" Ann parroted incredulously, "You start a fight with my daughter and abduct her in broad daylight, pump her full of God knows what, and then start pointing guns at her the second she wakes up and you consider that keeping things from getting out of hand!?"

As Ann and the director continued to argue, James slowly pushed his way past the guards and cautiously approached Kim with his hands raised.

"Hey, Kimmy," he said in a low, calming voice, "You recognize your old man, don't you?"

"O-Of course, Daddy," Kim replied with a sniffle, "I'm scared."

"I'm sure you are," James agreed with a nod as he took a few careful steps towards Kim, "But your mother and I are here now. Everything's going to be okay."

"I-I-I want to go home," Kim moaned, barely able to keep from bursting into tears.

"We can do that," James stated with a nod as he reached the foot of Kim's bed, "But we can't do it until you give me that syringe and let that poor man go."

Hesitantly, Kim looked at Jackie, who was doing his best to remain completely still, nervously glancing between James and Jade. Her whole body shaking with a sob, Kim quickly dropped the syringe onto her bed and unwrapped her arm from around Jackie's neck. As Jackie quickly pulled himself from Kim's bed, James rushed to his daughter's side, grabbing the syringe and tossing it away as he did. As her father reached her, Kim wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck, weeping openly.

"Jade, what are you doing here!?" Jackie demanded as he kneeled in front of his niece, and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"I was worried about you, so I followed you here after you left and snuck inside," Jade answered, before throwing herself at Jackie and hugging him.

"It's okay, Jade," Jackie saide as he stroked his niece's hair, "Everything's okay now."

"I'm sorry, Uncle Jackie," Jade whimpered, "I didn't know she was a bad guy."

The words stung Kim somewhere deep in her core and she gripped her father tighter as she wept.

Later,

Kim found herself sitting in what could only be described as an interrogation room. She was still dressed in her hospital clothes, and was flanked by her parents, the three of them sitting on one side of a metal table, facing the director, who sat across from them. The room was largely dark, lit only by a weak, fluorescent bulb in the ceiling directly above the table. One wall was dominated by a large mirror, but Kim had watched enough television to suspect that it was actually made of two-way glass. Kim's attention was brought back to the director as the older woman cleared her throat.

"Alright, Ms. Possible," the director said, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions you'd like cleared up."

"Yeah," Kim replied coldly, "Like who the hell you are."

"I'm the director," the woman replied simply.

"That's it?" Kim asked in annoyance, earning a shrug from the director in reply, "Alright, Mrs. Director, I-"

"Doctor," the director interrupted.

"Excuse me?" Kim asked as she blinked at the woman in confusion.

"That should be Dr. Director," the director explained as her lip quirked up in a smirk, "If you're going to be cute about it, it's Dr. Director. I didn't spend all that money on college just to be called Mrs."

Kim looked incredulously at the other woman, trying to figure out if she was being serious or not.

"Are you quite done jerking my daughter around?" Ann demanded angrily.

"Sorry," Dr. Director apologized cooly as she gave Ann a hard look, "People barging into my office and making demands tends to make me uncooperative."

"And people kidnapping my daughter tends to put me in something of a sour mood," Ann growled as she began to rise to her feet.

"Ladies, please," James pleaded as he reached around Kim and placed a hand on Ann's shoulder, causing her to stop rising, "This isn't helping anything."

For a moment, Ann did nothing but continue to glare at Dr. Director before she sighed and lowered herself back into her seat. Dr. Director held Ann's gaze for a moment before turning her attention back to Kim.

"What's your next question, Ms. Possible?" Dr. Director inquired.

"Where we are would be nice to know," Kim replied as she crossed her arms.

"The official response to that would be 'classified'," Dr. Director stated before noting the heated glare Ann was giving her and sighed, "But unofficially, this is the headquarters for Section 13."

"What's Section 13?" Kim questioned as her brow furrowed.

"A clandestine peace keeping organization under the purview of the United Nations," Dr. Director explained.

"I've never heard of it," Kim admitted.

"I suppose that means we're doing our job right then," Dr. Director responded with a shrug.

"Okay, what does Section 13 want with me?" Kim inquired.

"That is the important question," Dr. Director observed as she glanced at Kim's parents, "The answer to which involves your parents."

"My parents?" Kim parroted in confusion, as she looked at the two adults flanking her, who returned her gaze with troubled expressions.

"I take it since you've never heard of Section 13, you're also unfamiliar with the Impossibles Project," Dr. Director continued.

"What's that?" Kim inquired.

"The Impossibles Project was a top secret research operation funded by the United States government," Dr. Director explained as she pulled out a folder and began rifling through it, "It's goal, essentially, was to create the perfect soldier."

"What do you mean "create the perfect soldier"?" Kim asked.

"Exactly that," Dr. Director answered, "The idea of the project was to create a designer human being, one built from the ground up to be the best warrior who ever lived. Faster, stronger, smarter, better."

As Dr. Director continued to talk, she pulled out a document from the file and placed it on the table. Looking at the picture, Kim saw that it was of a man, a scientist judging by the lab coat he was wearing. He had jet black hair that he wore in a ponytail and rather cold, dark brown eyes. A prominent, vicious looking scar was under his left eye.

"The head of the project was a man named Dr. Drew Lipsky," Dr. Director continued, "He discovered a way to sequence DNA so that certain traits could be chosen and even improved upon. Along with a team of scientist who had discovered a number of other groundbreaking methods, they set about building their perfect soldier."

"Various setbacks occured," Dr. Director went on, "Most notably, it was discovered that the process had an adverse reaction to the Y chromosome, so only female subjects were viable. Eventually, after many iterations, the project produced its first successful subject."

Pausing, Dr. Director pulled out another document from the file and placed it on the table. Looking at it, Kim saw it was some kind of research document. In one corner was a picture of a young girl with dark, wavy hair and dark skin. Most of the document was redacted, but Kim could make out the title, "IP-22" and the name "Gomez, Shelanda".

"So, the Project worked?" Kim inquired.

"Yes, except for one detail," Dr. Director replied, "Shelanda Gomez was violently psychotic. During a demonstration, she killed three members of Army special forces who were sent to spar with her. She had to be sedated and dragged out in restraints. She was twelve at the time."

"Oh my god," Kim whispered in horror, "What happened after that?"

"The government tried to shut the project down," Dr. Director explained, "They had three dead servicemen on their hands and only one psychotic little girl to show for it. But Lipsky wouldn't hear of it."

Pausing again, Dr. Director laid a third document on the table. Kim quickly realized the document was a crime scene photo, depicting what had once looked like a well appointed office, but was now trashed and covered in blood stains. A figure with a white tarp spread over it lay on the floor in a dried pool of blood.

"What is this?" Kim asked, her face turning slightly green.

"Lipsky sent Shelanda to have a chat with the general in charge of the Project," Dr. Director explained, "After that, Lipsky attempted to take the Project underground, but we were alerted by a couple of scientist in the Project who didn't like how things were going. We raided the compound and arrested most of the scientists involved, but Lipsky managed to slip through our fingers with Shelanda and his research. But he didn't get everything."

"What didn't he get?" Kim inquired.

"Shelanda might have been useful to him, but she wasn't his perfect soldier," Dr. Director elaborated, "She was a physical specimen beyond even the world's greatest athletes but she didn't have the mind to go with it. Lipsky envisioned a soldier that had all it's training from birth, with combat skills buried in its mind on a subconscious level. And that's what he got. Unfortunately for him, the two scientists who sold him out also went into hiding and took the resulting child, and the research needed to make another, with them. Everyone, including Lipsky, has been looking for them for years."

"I don't understand," Kim stated, confusion plastered across her features as a feeling of dread ate away at her belly, "What does this have to do with me?"

Sighing, Dr. Director paused for a moment before she gave Kim a sympathetic look.

"Because that's what you are, Kim," Dr. Director continued, "You are that missing child. You are the end result of the Impossibles Project. You are the perfect soldier."

The words hit Kim like a physical blow and she actually flinched backwards.

"W-What!?" Kim managed to stammer out, "N-No, no! Y-You're wrong!"

"No, Kim, I'm not," Dr. Director argued gently, "The fact of the matter is we've been looking for you for a very long time. We know the real deal when we see it."

"How could you possibly think this!?" Kim demanded.

"How could we not?" Dr. Director pushed, "You're a straight A student with Olympic level athletic abilities. I know you've been approached by the American teams for both gymnastics and track and field."

"M-My straight A's are my hard work paying off, thank you very much," Kim said, trying to sound hostile but undercut by the quaver that had entered her voice, "And….and the Olympic stuff….that would just be too much attention. I-I just wanted to do stuff for fun. That's why I decided on cheerleading."

"Is that really your reason?" Dr. Director questioned, before turning her gaze towards Ann, "Or was it someone else's suggestion?"

Blinking in surprise, Kim thought over what Dr. Director had just asked her before slowly turning her attention towards Ann.

"Mom," Kim began, "What is she-"

Kim cut herself off as she saw the expression on her mother's face, a horrible mixture of sorrow and fear. It was then that the dread in Kim's belly crawled up her chest and latched onto her heart.

"Kimmy….baby…." Ann began to say, fighting against the tears that threatened to come spilling down her cheeks, "I….Your father and I….we just wanted what was best for you….to protect you."

"No," Kim whispered, "N-No, Mom, please."

"When I joined the Project, it was my chance to make my theories of… of implanting knowledge directly into people's minds a reality," Ann tried to explain, slowly wrapping her arms around herself as the tears rolled free from her eyes, "I never thought….thought it'd go so wrong. Watching that….that girl kill those poor men, and then….we didn't have any more mothers to carry the subjects and….he said….I was the only woman on the team…."

"Oh my God!" Kim exclaimed, horrorstuck and disgusted, as she rose to her feet so fast her chair toppled over behind her, "Oh-Oh my God!"

"Kim, honey, please," James pleaded, slowly rising to his feet as Ann buried her face in her hands, "It's all going to all right."

"All right?" Kim asked, looking at James incredulously, "All right!? Everything about me is a lie! I'm not some cheerleader from Colorado, I'm some sick bastard's science experiment! I was made in a lab! Am I even a real person!? Is Possible even our real name!?"

"Kim, whatever happened in the past, we're a family," James tried to reassure Kim as he slowly approached her, "We'll get through th-"

"Are you even my real dad?" Kim asked, her voice barely above a whisper as she looked at James with wide, wild eyes.

"K-Kimmy," James stuttered, feeling as if he'd been struck, "Of course I am. I raised you since-"

"DON'T BULLSHIT ME!" Kim suddenly screamed, causing James' heart to leap into his throat in a brief moment of mortal terror as Kim's gaze became hard and furious, "Are. You. My. Father!?"

James looked at Kim for a moment as a look of deep sorrow fell across his features.

"No," James answered with a shake of his head, "I built the DNA sequencing machine. All the genetic traits that were combined for the Project were taken from dozens of individuals, male and female and implanted in a viable egg. All of your inconsequential traits, such as hair and eye color, come from your mother."

James paused for a moment, looking as though saying the words were physically hurting him.

"Technically, you don't have a father," James finished, his voice having gone hoarse.

Kim fell completely silent at that moment, looking at her father as if her whole world had just shattered before her eyes. Slowly, her gaze turned towards her hands, which had begun to shake.

"Kimmy…." James said as he reached out towards Kim, only for her to violently flinch away from him.

"Don't touch me!" Kim exclaimed as she backpedaled away from James, "Don't come near me!"

James watched Kim in shock as she backed herself into the corner of the room.

"J-Just…." Kim moaned, her voice hitching from her shaking breath as tears streamed down her face, "J-Just l-leave m-me alone."

As James watched, Kim slid down onto the floor and curled into a fetal position, burying her face against her knees before weeping openly. Slowly, he stepped backwards until he reached his chair and collapsed into it, looking on in shock as Ann continued to cry as well. Watching from her side of the table, Dr. Director sighed before she rose to her feet.

"I'll….I'll just leave you all for now," Dr. Director said as she placed the file on the table. As she did, she looked at the one remaining document in the folder, a heavily redacted one similar to Shelanda's, at the top of which simply read IP-23.

Turning from the family, Dr. Director exited the room. Out in the hall, she found Captain Black waiting for her.

"Sounds like that went well," Black commented.

"I'm not sure we could have expected it to go any better," Dr. Director replied with a sigh as she leaned back against the door, "They kept what was going on from that girl for so long, it's not surprising that she's taking it so hard."

"It sounds like you're developing a soft spot for her," Black observed with a small smile.

"You know, despite what you and some other people might think, I'm not completely heartless," Dr. Director replied with a roll of her eye.

"What do we do now?" Black inquired.

"We give them some time to pull themselves together, I finish debriefing them….then we send them home," Dr. Director answered.

"Just like that?" Black questioned, blinking in surprise, "After the whole fiasco we went through this afternoon?"

"It's been brought to my attention that my initial approach to the situation may have been….overly aggressive," Dr. Director admitted, earning a contemptuous snort from Black, "But I've realized keeping teenaged girls locked up for things that aren't their fault….that's not what we do here. That's not what Section 13 stands for."

"So, we're going to let her back out into the wild?" Black asked, quirking an eyebrow at the director, "Aren't you worried about the other people who will be interested in her?"

"Of course I am," Dr. Director answered, "I said we'd send her home. I never said we'd do it unsupervised."

"So, how are you going to keep her protected?" Black inquired, "I think keeping armed agents around her at all times might be a little conspicuous."

"I agree," Dr. Director said with a nod before she pushed herself off the wall and began walking down the hall, "That's why we're going to send in the XJ unit."

His eyes going wide in surprise, it took a moment for Black to process what the director had just said, before he hurried after her.

"The XJ!?" Black whispered incredulously, "That hasn't been field tested yet!"

"But Dr. Wakeman has repeatedly assured us that it's ready, hasn't she?" Dr. Director retorted.

"Yes, but…." Black began to argue but cut himself off when the director suddenly stopped and turned to face him.

"You and I both know what forces are aligned against that girl, don't we?" Dr. Director questioned, "She deserves the best protection, doesn't she?"

"Yes, ma'am," Black relented with a sigh.

"Then put the XJ in the field," Dr. Director ordered before she turned and began walking down the hall again, "Because you and I both know exactly who is coming for her."

Denver International Airport,

The TSA customs agent stood behind a desk, glancing between his computer screen and the passport in his hand.

"Are you visiting the United States for business or pleasure, Ms…." the agent paused as he glanced at the passport again, "Gomez?"

"A little bit of both," Gomez admitted, grinning at the agent, a travel bag slung over her shoulder and a pair of sunglasses obscuring her features.

"Anything to declare?" the agent asked.

"Nothing you'd be interested in," Gomez answered.

At this the agent paused and looked up at Gomez. As he did, he felt a shiver run down his spine as the woman smiled at him. It took him a moment, but the agent eventually realized what put him on edge about Gomez was that she wasn't smiling at him. She was bearing her teeth.

"Um, well, here you go, miss," the agent said nervously as he quickly stamped Gomez's passport and handed it to her, "Enjoy your time in Denver."

"Oh, don't worry, honey," Gomez practically purred as she took her passport and began walking away, "I'm sure I will."

A/N: So, a lot of development in this chapter. I hope you guys liked it! As always, feedback and critiques are always welcome, so please review! Later!