Kim Possible: Reversal
Chapter 4 - Search
Kim groaned and pulled herself off the floor, taking a moment to brust the dust off herself. Dust? She looked up, her eyes wide. She was standing in what was left of the main building of the Space Center, though it looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago. She peered around. "What happened?"
She searched the ruins, but there was no sign of Ron or Yori or even the unconscious scientists. In fact, she couldn't find a single human, dead or alive, at all. That bad feeling in her stomach returned. She was starting to get an idea of what had happened to her, and she really hoped that it wasn't what she thought. It can't be... I already dealt with this sitch.
She checked the few cars in the lot that seemed the most intact, but none of them would start. With a sigh, she set out walking back towards town. Maybe she could find some answers there.
The roads were just as deserted as the Space Center had been. Only a few rusting vehicles scattered abandoned on the sides or crashed in the middle. Still no sign of anyone. Worse, she'd seen only a few birds, and the grass and trees were sickly shade of brown. Even the sky had an angry red tinge to it.
Kim soon reached the outskirts and made a short detour to the library. A quick check of the archived papers confirmed her suspicions. The last entry was almost twelve years from today's date. Well, not today, but the day I left. And from the looks of things, that had been some time ago.
The headline on that paper wasn't much help. 'Supreme Darkness Reaches Middleton' and 'Global Justice Task Force Defeated'. Unfortunately, the rest of the story was unreadable, so she had no more details than that.
Kim decided she'd lingered too long and headed for her home. "No..." She whispered, her heart sinking.
The entire block had been levelled. Only a few scorched pieces of concrete remained. That and the wreckage of her Roth. Somehow, the license plate had survived relatively intact and hung from the remains of the bumper.
She was about to investigate further when strong arms grabbed her from behind, one hand clamping over her mouth. She reacted instantly and slammed an elbow back, but whoever held her was too experienced for that and easily blocked it. She twisted instead, turning to break the hold.
Familiar emerald green eyes widened as they met her own gaze. "Princess... It really worked?"
"Shego." Kim growled. "I should have known you were behind this." She launched a kick that her longtime adversary dodged effortlessly.
"Kimmie, stop. We can't do this, not here." The green woman made no move to fight back.
"Why not? I see you already destroyed everything, was ruling the world not enough? You had to destroy it too?" She said bitterly. She punched again at Shego. Her anger grew even hotter. Not only was her changed body still not cooperating fully, but her enemy wouldn't even fight her.
An eerie howling echoed from the west and Shego's eyes widened, an emotion Kim had never seen before from the green woman entering them. Fear. "We have to GO!" She grabbed Kim's arm and started running towards the south.
Kim used the one positive aspect of her new body and broke the thief's grip. She smiled slightly at Shego's shock. At least she wasn't completely helpless against the green woman. "I'm not going anywhere, and certainly not with you!"
The howl sounded again, definitely closer. Shego looked in that direction again then back at Kim. "I'll tell you everything you want to know, but not here. We really have to go, or we'll both die. Please!"
Kim blinked. This was the first time she'd ever heard the proud thief sound like she was, well, begging. And genuinely scared. "Everything?" She asked suspiciously.
"Yes, now let's go!" Shego took off in a run.
She followed the thief, doing her best to keep pace with her. They ducked through ruined buildings and around abandoned cars until they reached a very familiar skeleton of a building. "The hospital?" She asked doubtfully.
"Trust me." The green woman vaulted over a fallen door and started down the halls. Kim followed along, taking the opportunity to look the other woman over. If it had been twenty years or more for Shego, she couldn't tell. The woman looked even better than she had the last time Kim saw her. She was in her prime, and if some of her curves were gone, it was because they'd been replaced with a layer of muscle.
"Open sesame." The thief growled as she knocked on the door to the janitor's closet. It creaked open and a man wearing some sort of paramilitary gear, including a ski mask, waved them in. Shego ran through and motioned for Kim to join her.
The man stared at Kim for a moment, but Shego shook her head. He looked like he was going to say something, but that howl sounded once more, this time very close. He gulped and waved for Kim to get in the room. She did reluctantly, and as soon as she was inside, he carefully replaced the battered door. Once it was back in place, he pressed one of the bricks on the wall. With a soft hiss, a portion of the wall slid to the side, revealling a secret passage.
She followed the two down the passage, making a mental map as they made their way through the dark halls. After numerous twists and turns, they emerged into a large chamber. "We're here, Cupcake."
"This is your lair?" Kim asked doubtfully.
"Nein! Zhis is my lair, fraulin!" Hans Heinrich DeMenz, better known as Dementor, waddled in from a side room. "Und now you are here at last! Vell done, Shego. Vell done."
Ron sat despondantly in the Possible's living room. "I'm sorry Dr Mrs P, we looked everywhere but there was no sign of her. Even Wade couldn't pick up anything. She's gone."
"I know you tried your best, Ronald. You wouldn't have left her if there was any chance of finding her. We don't blame you." Anne told him.
"Yes, well, in my day, people didn't just vanish into orbs of energy." James said.
"We know, dear." The brain surgeon replied.
He stayed for a while longer, but eventually he found himself returning to the Space Center. It took a call to Doctor Director to get him past the guards posted there after the incident, as none of them recognized him as a girl. Once that had been cleared up, he headed towards the main building.
"Wade?" He wasn't surprised when the hacker answered his call right away. The boy looked as worried as he felt. "Can you run some more scans? I've gotta do something or I'm gonna go crazy."
"Sure thing." Wade said. "I have a theory about what happened to Kim, but it would be good to get some more data before I share it."
"May I assist, Ron-san?" Yori spoke up from next to him.
"Yori!?" Ron startled. "How did you get the guards to let you in? It took me forever and I still hadta call Dr D."
The other girl gave him a flat look and Rufus, who had been doing some searching on his own, paused to roll his eyes at his human. Ron blushed. Right, ninja... He pushed back his hair, annoyed by how long it'd grown since he'd been zapped by that damn ray. He kinda wished Kim were here so he could ask her for advice, but even he knew that asking his ex-sorta-girlfriend for advice on asking out another girl, this soon after their breakup, was a Very Bad Idea.
They went over the spot Kim had disappeared from one more time. When they'd finished, Wade told them the results of his findings. "It's what I was afraid of. Kim was involved in a major temporal dislocation event."
"Uh, and in english that is?" Ron asked, confused.
"tim'travl!" Rufus chirped, annoyed.
"Booyah, thanks buddy."
"Ron-san, if Kim-san has been taken through time, how will we retrieve her?" Yori inquired.
"I have no idea. But we'll figure something out. I'm not going to give up on her." He said.
"Yes, it would be most dishonorable for you to abandon your girlfriend." Was it his imagination or did that last bit sound like a question. Rufus must have thought so too, because the molerat gave him a nudge and pointed towards Yori with a 'don't be an idiot' look.
"Kim and I aren't together." He told her. "I mean, we were, but only after her last boyfriend turned into goo. And only for a couple weeks. We tried it, but it was awk-weird in the extreme. Like dating my sister. If I had a sister. A hot, redheaded sister..." He cut off as Yori glared at him and Rufus shook his head in despair.
"idiit..." The rodent commented.
Ron watched Yori stalk away. "Was it something I said?"
Drakken installed the last piece of his remodeled Reverser Ray. This version had a lower power output, but could be used without the annoying recharge period the first version had. With this, it would finally be time to start The Plan!
The blue man grinned at the thought.
The first step was obvious: find Shego. He'd heard rumors that Professor Dementor was employing some superpowered woman now. Apparently his former bodyguard hadn't taken much time before finding someone else to work for. Well, once he showed her his new and improved Reverser Ray, she'd return to where she belonged, at his side.
After that, Phase Two would begin. A special model of the Ray was under construction already. Once it was completed, he would finally take his place as the rightful ruler of the world.
At last, the world would be his!
"Shego!" Kim shouted. "I knew it! I shouldn't have trusted you!"
She dropped into her combat stance, stumbling slightly. She kicked out at the green woman, driving her back. While her opponent was off balance, she looked around for an escape route. She saw the tunnel back to the hospital was only watched by the guard from before. She dashed towards the man, hoping to get past him before Dementor could order more guards could intercept them.
"Kim, wait!" The man said. His voice sounded very familiar. "You can't leave. Please, it's not what you think."
"Get out of my way... wait... Jim?" She paused.
"Hey Kim. I wanted to tell you before, but it wasn't safe up there." Her brother removed the mask. "Please, stay and listen. It's important."
"Jim, why are you with them? And where's Tim? And Mom and Dad?" Kim asked.
"They didn't make it." Jim frowned. "I'm here - we're all here because we're trying to save the world."
"Him? And Shego?" She nodded doubtfully towards the villains.
"Yes." Her brother said seriously. "Will you trust me long enough to learn what is going on?"
"Did they mind control you or something?" She asked suspiciously.
"More like Dementor was the one controlled." Another familiar voice spoke up from a door on the side of the room. A man walked in, and it only took Kim a few moments to recognize her friend from the past. "Hello, Kim." Wade said.
"Wade? You too?"
"Please, just listen. We don't have much time." He looked past her towards Shego. "She sensed you and now she's on the way. We've got maybe half an hour."
"Snap." Shego paled.
"We all knew it was a risk." Jim sighed. "We were committed when we activated the prototype."
"What are you guys talking about?" Kim broke in, wanting some answers. "What is going on here? Who are you so afraid of? Is it that Supreme Darkness person I saw in the headline on that paper?"
"We're trying to stop this from ever happening. That's why we brought you here." Wade sat down at a nearby table. "All this goes back to Drakken and his Reverser Ray."
"Drakken is the Supreme Darkness?" She asked.
"He's not, but he's the one responsible for her." Jim said. "Trust me, if it was just Drakken, we could have handled that, no problem."
"Then who? Electronique? Evil clone?"
"Hana, the YoNo." Shego spoke up.
Next Chapter: Kim gets some answers, Ron gets a clue, and someone gets a kiss!
A/N: This one's a little shorter than normal, but the ending just sorta worked. Plus, I wanted to get it done before my vacation. The next one is already about a quarter done, but it might be a little late, as I'll be on vacation for a week or so.
As always, thanks for reading!