The Breaking of a Hero
Chapter 4: The Plunge
Okay, let's get this over with:
Don't own Kim Possible? - Check!
Use her anyway? - Check!
Make no money? - Check, and double check!
So, here's more of this unauthorized non-profit piece of fan-fiction of mine.
Read and enjoy, if you are so inclined, or don't, if that's your choice.
Leave a review, get a response.
Thanks to Rshiel at deviantArt for beta-reading. Remaining errors are, of course, my own.
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"It's like this," Kim Possible said. "If you're right, and this Mr. Smith is the man you met, and if his programme is so dangerous or down-right evil, then he really hurt you nearly 10 years ago. I mean really, really hurt you. And if that's the case, I wanna make him pay!"
Shego looked at her for a while in incomprehension, mouth slightly open. Then she snapped into action and threw herself out of the car.
She started pacing to and fro across the parking lot, hands fisted and shaking with restrained frustration. Now and then, a shrub or a trash can would be vaporised in a burst of green flame, in a vain attempt at anger management.
After about ten minutes of pacing and random destruction, Shego walked back up to the car, opened the passenger side door, and leaned in.
"You know what, Brat? You go ahead. Just jump straight into the fire if you wish! But don't say I didn't warn you!"
She then slammed the door and stalked off towards her house.
Kim shook her head in resignation, and waited to see Shego enter the building before driving off. She would fix this, and get some justice for her friend, and it would all be well.
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Shego was much too agitated to go to bed.
She tried watching TV for a while, but found nothing to capture her interest.
She decided she needed some help to wind down, and raided her bar.
Finishing off all the whiskey and bourbon she had, she was still angry and frustrated, but at least a little more sluggish. She couldn't even find the energy to go to bed. Instead, she pulled a blanket over herself and crashed on her living room sofa.
A large intake of alcohol can make you pass out. Shego, after all, had extensive experience of these effects. It was not, however, conducive to a good night's sleep.
Lying down on the sofa, the living room looked enormous. The green luxurious carpet suddenly looked very threadbare, almost like a well-trodden meadow of wizened grass. She would have to do something about that, soon. Or perhaps not. The view from the windows was beginning to look very ugly, with a lot of girders and scaffolding obstructing the sky-line. Perhaps it would be easier just to move somewhere else.
She got up, and stood in line with a number of other persons. She must have lost her blanket because it felt very cold, standing there dressed only in a pink apron and bunny slippers. It was night, but the field was illuminated with the type of flood-lights common at sports arenas. In the distance, the dark and silent attractions of an amusement park rose towards the sky. Roller coaster trestles and tracks, merry-go-rounds, Ferris wheels and other installations surrounded the open area.
They stood at attention, face straight forward, and Shego could not see any of the others. She knew that they were all good comrades, though, even if she couldn't name them.
An big man, dressed in a Roman Centurion's armour, rode up before them on a small bicycle, bellowing insults, and sending them running for the very challenging amusement park obstacle course. Climbing and crawling over the girders and trestles was hard work. Avoiding the huge roller coaster cars and the whack-a-mole mallets was almost impossible.
When she arrived at the finish, by a big popcorn stand, she was greeted by Captain Steve Barkin.
"Ah, pvt. Go," he said. "Will you marry me?"
She could not answer, but the officer took her silence as a refusal.
"A pity," he said, pulled out a flint lock pistol, and shot her in the forehead.
But when the gun smoke had dispersed, it was Kim lying dead on the boardwalk.
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She woke with a start, lying on the floor below the sofa, her mouth tasting like the cat's litter box.
It was not yet day, and the booze was all gone.
She groaned and sat up. Sending a wave of comet powered metabolism through her body quickly got rid of the excess alcohol. It was a pity that it couldn't just as easily get rid of her queasy stomach and her headache.
She gave up all hope of going back to sleep, and went out into the kitchen. The clock on the microwave read 4:23 AM.
She grabbed a carton of juice from the fridge and drank it all down in a vain attempt at getting rid of the bad taste in her mouth.
She felt restless and furious, and knew she had to do something to stop herself going mad.
The cordless landline telephone lived in its charging nest on the wall beside the fridge. She grabbed it and punched in a number from memory.
"Well, isn't this your lucky day," a cheerful voice answered. "You have reached the Ron-man! Only, not really, 'cause this is just a recording in a clever machine …"
"Oh, man! Pick up, already, Stoppable!"
"… message after the beep! Bye for now!"
She hung up and dialled the number for Ron's Kimmunicator instead. After a long series of signals, there was a mumbled and almost unintelligible response.
"Eh… wazzat? Who's there?"
"Ron, you loser! Wake up and talk to me!"
"Oh, hi, Shego. What's up? What time is it?"
"It's half past four in the morning, and Princess is gonna do something stupid! You gotta stop her!"
"What, this deal with the training offer?"
"Well, duh! You have to talk her out of it!"
Ron sighed.
"Shego, I learned a long time ago, in pre-K actually, that it's impossible to talk Kim out of anything once she's made up her mind."
Shego started pacing her flat in agitation.
"But you have to! She'll get hurt and it will all be my fault!"
"What?"
"It's my fault, I tell you! I met that man about ten years ago, and something really bad happened. It's my fault!"
"Hey, how do you figure that? Bad man does bad things to you, bad man is back to do something to Kim. How could that be your fault?"
"Not that bit; the bit where she has to go and do it. I asked her not to, and now she just has to do it, to sort of get revenge for me!"
Shego had reached her bedroom, and threw herself on her bed, cordless phone still at her ear.
"Ah. Proves my point, really. You can't tell KP what to do. Especially not by telling her not to do something!"
He hesitated a bit before explaining further.
"Let me tell you a story. When we were five, we got new play-ground stuff for the pre-k. The most exciting new out-door toy was a really big jungle-gym. Well, the teacher told us all to be careful and not climb too high to start with. How long do you think it took for Kim to climb up to the very highest bar she could find, and stand on one leg, singing 'Eensy weensy spider'?"
"Oh, I get it. It has to be reverse psychology all the way, right?"
Ron sounded almost smug.
"Well, that might work. But, if the teacher had told us "let's see who can get to the top first", I think the result would have been much the same."
"So we're screwed?"
"Well, yeah. I have certainly learned to not stand in her way when her mind's made up. That doesn't mean we can't do anything, though."
"Like what?"
"Like help her! Even in her craziest escapades,she knows she can rely onme, and even you, to get her out if it all goes pear-shaped. So, Wade is giving her a lot of gadgets to take with her, and he'll be doing all the net snooping he can to get the info on this scheme. I'll be asking Dr. Director to look out for Kim's sake, and giver her all the info we can get. And I'll be going to Japan to talk to Master Sensei."
"Huh! Old codger still alive, then?"
"Yeah, he's fine. Rather frail, though, so he doesn't leave Yamanouchi anymore."
Shego wasn't overly impressed.
"So, what do you expect him to do? Send an army of monkeys to the rescue?"
Despite his Mystical Monkey Powers, Ron shuddered at the thought.
"No, of course not. But his advice is always good."
Shego was silent for a while.
"Listen, Stoppable, do you think your Gandalf of the Apes would be any good at unlocking suppressed memories? Could he help you remember things that have been hidden for you?"
"Oh, sure! He can guide anyone to find the mysteries of their own soul."
"Eugh! I don't want him pawing my soul,thank you very much! But," she continued in a smaller voice, "it could be useful if I could remember more about what happened to me, earlier…"
Ron's voice brightened.
"Good thinking! We should both go see him! Can we take your jet?"
Shego sighed, suddenly very tired.
"Sure. It's a long flight, though, so I need to get some sleep first…"
"Yeah? Well, it would help if you didn't get up to make crank phone calls in the small hours, don't ya think?"
"Oh, ha ha! Love you, too, Buffoon! Call you later."
Shego hung up and stretched out on top of the bed.
She really didn't like the idea of reliving the memories behind her nightmares. But she liked the idea of Kim getting hurt even less. And having something to do, something that could help to lessen the risk for Kim, made her able to relax.
Soon she slept peacefully, cordless phone still in her hand.
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The following afternoon, Kim went back to the GJ offices to announce her decision.
After waiting for just a few minutes, a GJ administrator came to get her. She wasn't shown to Dr. Director's office, though, but to another one two doors down.
The office worker knocked on the door and announced their presence.
"Miss Possible to see you, sir."
"Ah, Kimberly Ann! So good to see you again, and so soon! Please come in and have a seat. I trust you have been well?"
The man she knew as Mr. Smith didn't get up from his desk, but merely gestured to the chair in front of it.
"Ah, yes, quite well thank you…"
"And now you have come to give me your decision? Or is there something more you want to know before you make up your mind?"
"Not really. I would just like to ask you, again, about the programme, and if I would be able to, say, visit my parents some time during the training. Or call my boyfriend?"
"Oh dear, Miss Possible! I believe we discussed this yesterday? I am very sorry, but due to the secret nature of the training programme, that would not be possible. We can, however, undertake to let them know you're all right from time to time. Would that be acceptable? Remember, we are offering you the path to your dream job, here!"
Kim made a show of hesitating before answering.
"That'd be fine," she finally said. "I'm in!"
"Excellent! Good decision, Miss Possible!"
He got up and walked round the desk.
"Let's get this underway, then, shall we? Follow me, please"
"What, right this minute? Just like that?"
"Yes, just like that. Why wait? Did you need to do something else before starting? I thought you'd have taken care of that before coming back with your answer."
Kim shrugged.
"Let's go, then."
Mr Smith led her along the corridors of the GJ building and out into the parking lot in the back. A big, truck-based RV stood just outside the doors.
"Come on in, Miss Possible. I always have my own mobile offices with me if I need to work away from headquarters for a while.
The first room in the RV held just a small desk. They sat down to sign a few papers; the contract they had gone through yesterday, a number of insurance papers, and a few forms for data on next of kin and the like.
After that, Mr. Smith handed her off to a nurse, who took her further back into the depths of the RV for a medical check-up. Kim went through the usual examinations and had her blood pressure, lung capacity and ECG measured, vision and hearing checked, and weight, length and shoe size recorded. She was also given an inoculation for a cocktail of different tropical diseases.
After that, she was asked to strip and take a shower. Her clothes, even the underwear, were taken away. Unfortunately, the majority of the Wade-supplied gadgets hidden in the seams went with them.
She was given a hospital-style gown and taken to another room that looked like the military version of a beauty salon, where a man in a white coat greeted her.
"So," he said, "I'm going to cut your hair for you. But don't worry; I won't give you a crew cut, just something short and stylish."
He looked at her face and brushed her hair this way and that before starting.
The end result wasn't bad, Kim thought. It was almost a reddish version of the style Adrena Lynn usually wore. The bad thing, though, was that the transponders and com gear she had had hidden in her hair were now lying on the floor around her feet.
On her way to the next room, she passed through what looked like airport security portals. A buzzing discharge hit her with a sharp electro-magnetic pulse. This, of course, destroyed the micro chip senders that had been placed subcutaneously in her shoulder and in the small of her back.
In the next room of the RV, a quartermaster issued her with a number of different sets of clothing. There were sports bras, panties and socks; a number of military looking overalls, a set of outdoor gear that looked suitable for going camping in Alaska, and what looked like a uniform for a patrolling police officer.
She wasn't given any weapons, radio equipment, or badges, though.
She dressed in one of the overalls and put the rest of her gear in a duffel bag before emerging stepping out from the back of the RV.
Mr. Smith was waiting for her there. A sleek, black helicopter was idling in the parking lot behind him.
"Ah, Possible. All set?"
"Yes, thank you."
"That's 'Yes, Sir!' if you please!"
"Yes, Sir."
"Good! Then we head out. Get on board."
Kim couldn't really say she was surprised at the change in Smith's demeanour. She did mutter something under her breath, though.
"What was that, Possible?"
"That was 'Yes, Sir!', Sir."
Smith nodded.
"Thought so. Well, enough of the chit-chat! Get aboard."
Soon, Kim watched the familiar view of Middleton dropping away below her.
She was on her way to the training course arranged by the man Shego thought had ruined her life, and was currently without any of her prepared means of contacting Wade.
"Well," she thought, "This is it. Now it's just down to me!"
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/Author's note/ Yeah, now she has taken the plunge, and Mr. Smith has dropped a bit of his Mister Nice Guy act. Can she tough it out? Can Wade find anything helpful? Is there any clues hidden in the depths of Shego's memory?
And also, how does this read? Too much dialogue? Too little action? Boring? Confusing? All of the above?
Please read and review, and stay tuned if you wanna know what happens next.
/Feudor/
