AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Three! I really appreciate all your comments! Thank you so much: CajunBear73, DrakkenFanboy, xyzisme, Kwebs, screaming phoenix, Michael Howard & bthecatslayer! As for the way Drakken appeared in my last chapter, xyzisme pointed out something to me here, so I just wanted to explain that to all of you: True, Drakken normally wouldn't be so mean and take away Shego's abilities. But at first, Drakken didn't know the ability transferator takes abilities away from the other person, he thought they'd only be "copied". So, he didn't intend to steal Shego's abilities, he just wanted to prove a point to her, as she didn't seem to believe him. Now, along with her abilities, he also acquired her (evil) ways of thinking. And we all know that Shego's mind works way more evilly than Drakken's. Now, imagine Shego's ways of thinking here: If Shego had just stolen someone else's abilities that appeared to be far better than her own (theoretically), would she give them back? The answer would be: No, she wouldn't. That's why Drakken wouldn't, either, now, and that's why he seems so very evil. Sorry if that wasn't entirely clear before. Now, on to Chapter Four! ;)

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Chapter Four: An Explosive Situation

Kim had only rushed back home to change, let her parents know and pack all the stuff she would need for the mission, then she was up and away again to find Ron. She did not have to search for long, as Ron was sitting at home in his room on the attic, brooding over the same things again. When Ron first heard steps coming up the stairs, he thought his father or mother might be wanting something. That almost made him shout in an annoyed way that he wanted to be left alone, but that very moment, Kim appeared in the hatch, asking: "Ron, are you there?"

Just then, she caught sight of him sitting at his desk and turning around to face her. "Oh hey, KP!" Ron said, being in a considerably better mood than the second before right away. "What's up?"

"Wade just called back. Pack your winter clothes, we have to go check out Drakken's secret lair in the mountains."

Ron's smile disappeared, but he did not let her notice, when he inquired dryly: "The one with the huge sign?"

"Yes, exactly. So, hurry up now! Meet me at the car outside."

Shortly after that, she already disappeared again, heading downstairs, so Ron only shouted a halting "Alright, KP!" after her, before getting ready for the mission.

-xXOXx-

Now, they were on their way. It was not all that far to Drakken's "secret" lair, about one hour by car at normal speed – Kim's car, of course, made that faster. However, the way through the mountains was too steep, so they would park the car rather far away and cover the rest of the distance walking or using their snowboards. Of course, Kim could also switch to rocket fuel to fly into the mountains rather than drive, but she preferred not to draw too much attention to them, in case Drakken was really there.

When they had been driving at full speed – without using rocket fuel – for a while already, Kim slowed down to normal speed in between in order to contact Wade through the built-in kimmunicator system: "Wade, we're on our way. So, what did you find?"

"Like I said, I've got all the infos about the stolen prototype by now. First of all… that's what it looks like." With that, Wade projected a photo onto the display in the car.

"That looks way cool!" Ron exclaimed enthusiastically.

Kim's glance went back and forth between the street and the display about every other half second – like always when Wade showed her something while she was driving –, and then she replied dryly: "Looks like a water pistol."

"Really?" Ron said confused. "Oh, okay, now that you say it… To me, it looked kinda like a taco with a…"

"Ron," Kim interrupted. "I don't even wanna know! Wade – go on."

Now, Wade reappeared on the display and said, while typing something on his keyboard: "Comparing it to a pistol is not all that wrong, Kim," Now, a green screen appeared, showing a three-dimensional model.

"Actually, you aim it at the person whose abilities you mean to acquire, just like a gun, and pull a trigger, …" At that, the trigger in the depiction flashed in a brighter green color shortly.

"…then, it emits an energy ray that scans the targeted person's brain for their abilities, …" Now, the ray was depicted in a green color.

"…that ray takes up the abilities and stores them in some sort of a pump, …" The pump in the depiction flashed in a brighter green color for a while.

"…and finally, the abilities are transferred into the brain of the person who pulled the trigger." The last depiction showed how the ray emerged from the rear end of the pump again.

Kim thought for a while. "What about that interim storage in that pump?" she then inquired.

Wade reappeared on the display and explained: "It's like some sort of a registry. Every bundle of abilities that has been transferred is documented in there. It looks like you can even read on a display exactly whose abilities have been transferred to whom afterwards."

"Could be useful, I guess," Kim remarked. "That way, we'll know whose abilities had been transferred to Drakken, and it'll be easier to give them back to their original owners."

"Yeah, but it's not all that simple," Wade agreed, hesitating a little. "If one and the same person acquires multiple persons' abilities, only the most recently transferred bundle of abilities can be transferred again. So, you'll have to keep to the documented order."

"Ooh, entering complication nation!" Ron interjected.

After a while, Kim asked Wade: "Dr. Director mentioned that both physical and mental abilities were affected. What exactly happens during the transference?"

"The energy ray makes use of the junctions found in specific areas of the brain," Wade answered and now projected a model of the human brain onto the display, in which mainly frontal areas and also some other regions had been marked in color. "Namely those responsible for the so-called procedural memory and the executive functions."

Ron pulled a face: "Could you translate that?"

"Huh, I think I've heard something like that before," Kim pondered. "Maybe from my Mom. As a neurosurgeon, she knows about brain functions, after all. But I better leave the 'splainin' to you, Wade."

"Okay, the procedural memory stores certain motions that had been learned through long practice and that become second nature over time. Like for driving a car or for certain fighting techniques, for instance."

"Ahaaa…!" Ron's voice sounded as if inspiration just struck him. "Then, Kim must have a badical proceed-uh-thingy…! So, what about the ex… excess… uh, the other thing?"

"The executive functions…" Wade corrected, "…are responsible for several mental abilities, like for example advance planning, attention, concentration, self-control, logical thinking…"

"All the things Drakken never even heard of," Kim deduced with a grin.

Wade continued: "Additionally, the ability transferator is very sensitive for finding activity in brain areas that aren't activated in normal people – that means, for superhuman abilities or superpowers."

"Cool!" Ron interrupted.

Wade ignored that and added: "What isn't affected, for instance, is the long-term memory. Episodic memories or knowledge aren't transferred. When someone's abilities have been taken away, the memory of the abilities that used to be there still remains, even the memory of how they had been taken away – but you're no longer able to apply them. Well, those are all the infos about the prototype for now."

"Okay, thanks, Wade," Kim said. "Any news about Drakken?"

"Sorry, not yet, Kim. But I'm on to it."

"So are we. I'll call you back when we arrive at the lair." With that, Kim ended the call for now.

Ron clutched his forehead with a pained expression: "Ooh, I think all that brain talk gave me some serious brain pain…!"

Kim rolled her eyes shortly and then stepped on the gas again.

-xXOXx-

About a half hour later, they had reached the mountains. Kim and Ron had put on their jackets and skiing pants, along with their helmets, and Kim was also wearing multifunctional skiing boots. She could not only use them with her snowboard, at the push of a button, they could be turned into mountaineering boots or skates with built-in rocket propulsion. They both stuffed their snowboards into their backpacks, and equipped with Kim's "hairdryer", they were on their way.

After some more or less exhausting minutes of climbing – to Ron more, to Kim less –, they were standing on top of a hill in the middle of the mountains, from where they had a good view of Drakken's lair. Kim peered through a special pair of binoculars that was connected to Wade's system. She looked at the conspicuous sign first, then at the area beneath them and asked: "What's the sitch here, Wade?"

"I'm getting access to Drakken's security system again, at least restricted. No traps to be found outside of the lair. No sensor beams, no avalanche triggers, nothing like that at all. You shouldn't have any trouble getting into the lair. I can't tell you about the inside until then, though."

"Okay then, we're going in."

Before Kim put the binoculars back into her pack, Wade reminded her: "And don't forget the new function of your jackets."

Kim and Ron looked at their jackets. Since only recently, each of them had two white cords with two little balls of different colors attached to the breast pockets. The ball at the end of the one cord was red, the other one was blue. Ron asked with a curious expression: "What are they for again?"

Before Kim could even answer, he had already pulled at the cord with the red ball – and in the next moment, his jacket and skiing pants had been stretched about five times in volume! Kim looked pretty surprised when Ron was balancing on the spot in the snow, looking like a huge ball with outstretched arms. "Uh-huh…" Ron said in a slightly annoyed tone. "Air bags, padding,… something like that."

Kim pulled at the cord with the blue ball on Ron's jacket, and before he even knew it, his winter clothes went back to their normal conditions – which made him fall over backwards into the snow: "Whoa! Ouch!"

With a stifled giggle, Kim offered him her hand to pull him back to his feet. Ron gave her a strange look, then he glanced at the two cords on his jacket once more and asked: "And what happens when I pull the blue one first?"

Kim quickly got a hold of his hand that was about to grab the other cord and answered: "It'll make the winter clothes light and thin. Better not touch that before we're inside. Come on, let's go!"

They unpacked their snowboards, and Kim jetted downhill right away. Ron tried hard not to fall behind that much – both in the figurative and literal sense.

-xXOXx-

It really had been quite easy to get into the secret lair. Kim and Ron packed their snowboards and helmets away again and glanced down the empty corridor. It was so quiet, they could hear the wind outside. It all reminded Kim of the time when Drakken had "dadnapped" her father to here, and not one sign of the villain's presence had been left behind, except for a hologram and some traps. Back then, Drakken had unfolded a plan that ingenious, not even Kim had been able to figure it out. That way, he had almost succeeded in razing the world to the ground with an army of cybertronic robots. What, if he was one step ahead of them again this time? Kim did not like that thought at all. She activated her kimmunicator wristband: "Wade, we're in. No sign of Drakken yet."

"Let me double-check that…" Wade said and typed something on his keyboard. Kim bent her arm, holding it in front of her at the height of her chest, and from the side of the wristband, a reddish, almost invisible beam of light emerged that went down the corridor and expanded to the walls on both sides. After a few seconds, the beam contracted again and disappeared back into the kimmunicator wristband. Wade made an analysis on his computer.

"Corridor's clean," he reported finally. "No traps and no one there, either. At the far end, there's a double door that leads to Drakken's lab, as far as I know."

"Okay, then we'll go check it out. Let us know when you notice something." This time, Kim did not disconnect, so that Wade could continue analysing the lair at the same time. To Ron, she said: "We should be prepared, though, in case Shego or an army of synthodrones appears…"

With that, she pulled at the blue cord of her jacket, and in the next second, her winter outfit was light and tight-fitting, almost like her battlesuit – but without additional functions. However, it gave Kim way more room to move for a fight than her normal jacket did.

"Wow!" Ron let out.

Kim turned to him with a questioning look: "What? Spankin' new function, huh?"

Again, it just escaped Ron: "No, I think that looks just ho…t-uh, badical!" And that was when he blushed.

Kim smiled shortly. But that smile disappeared soon and she simply said, pointing to the end of the corridor: "We better keep going."

While Kim turned around to get going, Ron tried to concentrate again as well. First of all, he pulled at the blue cord of his own jacket. In the blink of an eye, his winter outfit became tighter. Ron twitched and winced: "Oww, too tight!"

"Ron! Come on now!" Kim shouted back over her shoulder from further ahead.

Still with a painful expression, Ron took a step forward, but then pulled at the red cord of the jacket. Immediately, his outfit turned back to normal. "Huh, that's better. Well, a little."

"Uh-huh!" Rufus agreed in an anguished tone, as he had not liked the sudden tightness of the pant pocket in which he resided, either.

Kim had almost reached the end of the corridor by now and waited for Ron, a few feet away from the large double door. The last time they had been sneaking through that corridor, suddenly a trapdoor had opened beneath them. This time, no such thing happened. Even the numerous large windows they had passed did not reveal anything. The whole lair seemed to be abandoned, indeed.

"This is a 10 on the weirdness scale…" Kim muttered, when Ron finally appeared. She shortly turned around to face him and asked in a confused way: "And that's not too warm for you?"

"Who, me? Duh, no… Uh, I'm cool!" Ron grinned, slightly embarrassed.

"Well… then let's see how we can get in there – whoops!" Kim had taken a few steps forward, and the double door already slowly opened automatically. She and Ron exchanged a confused look, then shrugged and entered the large room behind the doors. This looked more like a cave than a laboratory – and was completely empty as well. Except for an object in the form of a big crate covered by a green blanket that was to be seen in the middle of the room. Kim kept standing in the doorway, Ron a bit in front of her.

"Something's completely off here…" Kim said thoughtfully. "No traps, the doors opening automatically,… That's almost as if Drakken had sent us an invitation that we never got…"

"Maybe it got lost in the mail…" Ron suggested. Kim gave him a strange look. "What?! Could be, right?" Ron justified himself, then he rubbed his hands in a joyful manner: "Ooh, if he invited us, I'm sure he left presents for us! There!" he pointed. "Under that blanket!"

"Ron, that's…" Kim started in an annoyed way, but halted. While Ron approached the covered object, she noticed something. All of a sudden, there was a low, strange beeping sound… beep – one… beep – two… beep – three… every other second, as it seemed. Kim reached for her kimmunicator wristband: "Say, Wade, you hear that, too?"

"Yeah, Kim… and it doesn't sound good…"

At that moment, Ron had reached the object, pulled away the blanket and shouted in a confused tone: "What kind of a present is that?"

Whatever the crate that had come into view now contained – it was the source of the beeping sound. Kim's eyes went wide in shock: The beeping was accompanied by a display – beep – 0:20 – beep – 0:19 – beep – 0:18 – …

"Get outta there right now!!" Wade screamed.

"Ron!!" Kim ran for him, pulling at the red cord of her jacket to make it go back to normal while running. Ron froze at the spot. As soon as Kim had reached him – the double door started closing! One push of the button on her glove, two pairs of skates emerged from Kim's skiing boots, the rocket propulsion hissed, Kim took Ron over her shoulder and zoomed off – just through a small crack between the doors! They raced along the long corridor, the skates went fast – but did they go fast enough? The exit came into view… They had almost reached it… Just then…

KABOOM!

The explosive in Drakken's lair went off, the shock wave hurled Kim and Ron outside. They went flying through the air. Only with great effort, Kim could still keep hold of Ron. There was smoke all around them, Kim closed her eyes tightly to small slits. The snow-covered ground came closer – and closer, faster and faster.

"Ron!" Kim shouted at the top of her lungs. "Pull that red cord!!"

"Wha…?!"

Kim immediately pulled at the cord of her jacket that now inflated, along with her skiing pants. That way, her arms were pushed aside, she lost her grip around Ron. She still heard his scream, fading away. She could almost touch the ground. She closed her eyes.

"Oof!" Kim hit the ground, bouncing off a few times – the inflated winter outfit almost worked like an air bag. Finally, she came to a stop, and at that, her outfit automatically emitted all the air again slowly and went back to normal. Kim remained motionless, lying on her back in the snow for a while.

All dazed, Kim slowly opened her eyes and clutched her head. She felt pretty strained, but not injured. Cautiously, she sat up and blinked a few times. She seemed to be okay.

"Ron?" she asked and looked all around her. She did not see him. At least not in her nearest surroundings.

"Ron?" she shouted again, a little louder this time – and a little more scared. No reply. Kim picked herself up off the ground and looked all around her again.

"RON?!"

End of Chapter Four

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AUTHOR'S NOTE – Ooh, a cliffhanger! Am I mean? Sorry if I am. I do hope you liked this chapter, though. I wasn't so sure about the use of Ron's "badical" and Kim's "spankin'", since there are no real German equivalents for these phrases. But I felt like including them, so, I hope that was okay. (Thanks again, Michael, for giving me some advice on that! ;))
As for the "brain talk", it was really hard to translate that part. But I hope it was all clear and helped explain things a little more, like Shego's behavior in the last chapter. Just a teensy bit of simplified knowledge I got from my psychology lectures at university… I just HAD to include that, because that was actually how I came to think of the "ability transferator". And I'm sure Wade the super genius knows about this stuff, too. ;) Talking about Wade, the new function of Kim's and Ron's winter clothes was, of course, my idea as well (and it was hard to translate, too). ;)
Now, like always, I'm not sure when I'll get the next chapter translated and uploaded. The following weeks are gonna be pretty stressful for me, especially around August 1st. I might not even have access to the internet for a while then. But we'll see what I can accomplish until then… By the way, I'm also trying to illustrate some of the scenes from my story. So far, I only sketched two scenes from Chapter One, but you can check them out in the Scraps / Scrapbook on my deviantART page (the URL can be found on my profile). Well, so much for now. Be patient, take care and see you around! :)