I do not own any Disney or Marvel character named within, and am only borrowing them for a work of fiction meant for entertainment purposes only.

KimPossible: X-Factor

By LJ58

Part 7:

Kim woke abruptly as her Kimmunicator chirped.

"Wade," she grinned as she switched it on, grateful to see the young teen's face for the first time in several days. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"Uh, yes, Kim. I am fine. I just….had to move. Couldn't risk calling you until…..I was certain I was….safe."

"I thought they had grabbed you. Or worse. How did they find you at all?"

"I underestimated their own hackers," he admitted. "While I digging into their files….one of them spiked me. Not, however, before he….back-traced me."

"Dr. Director has a hacker that can trace you?"

"Trust me," Wade said after a moment. "I was pretty surprised myself."

"I'll bet," Shego said, sitting up beside Kim on the bed, having been woke by their conversation, and laying there listening to it.

Wade blinked, staring at the screen, and then asked, "Kim? Is that Shego in bed with you?"

"It's not what it looks like," she blurted, glancing over at Shego. "Well, not completely. That is, I…."

"Just ask what him why he's waking us up at…. Good grief, two in the morning," Shego groaned, falling back on the bed after glancing at the clock.

"I thought you'd like to know, Kim. I found out where they're really holding the other mutants that GJ has rounded up to date."

"Really," Kim asked. "Where?"

"It's an island off the coast of Mexico. I'm sending you the coordinates now."

"An….island," Kim asked, frowning now as she got an odd feeling. That sense of 'offness' suddenly making her cringe. "Are you sure, Wade?"

"Positive. This time, it's the real thing."

"Okay. Where at on the island?"

"There's a compound in the center of the jungle. I've GPS marked the detention center. Got it?"

"Yes, Wade," she murmured, eyeing the map on the Kimmunicator screen. "I've got it. What about….guards? Think they will be expecting us?"

"I doubt it. They're pretty sure you won't be finding this place, I'm certain. I had to really dig to find it myself."

"All right, Wade. Thanks for the hard work. We'll get right on it."

"When do you think you'll be arriving," he asked.

"You know me," Kim said blandly. "I like to plan things out a little first these days."

"Of course," Wade agreed. "Keep me posted."

"What," Shego murmured, her head buried under a pillow as she lay there as Kim continued to sit up beside her, frowning into the darkness.

"Something's wrong."

"Why? Because your nerdy pal didn't know the Pit was under the island?"

Kim eyed Shego, unable to help but smile. Not an early riser, she knew well enough by now.

They had come back to the room, ended up sharing a few casual confidences, and sharing perspectives on old missions as they actually sat there practicing mental barriers in the heart of the X-Mansion, and sometime during the evening, they had both dropped off in the same bed. It actually felt quite…comfortable to her. Almost right.

She was so not going to dwell just then.

Not when something else felt right.

"Wade wasn't acting like himself. He didn't even use the countersigns we agreed on the last time we had trouble with people hacking his systems and pretending to be him. Not only that, I know him. He doesn't usually pause that long when giving me answers. In fact, he doesn't pause at all."

"Oh, yeah. So, Drew wasn't the only one that tried that ploy?"

"We've had issues. Wade, however, knows I do not always plan my assaults. He certainly wouldn't give me a map with 'X' marks the spot, and expect me to go right to it."

"Trap?"

"Trap," Kim nodded as Shego sat up. "They've got him, Shego. Betty has Wade."

"How can you be sure?"

"First, the obvious trap. I need Dr. McCoy's computer, though. If I'm right, I can shred any holo overlay, and see what was really on screen when he called me," she said, rising to her feet, and slipping her boots on, glad she didn't have to worry with dressing just then.

"You going to call the blue fuzz ball for help?"

Kim snorted. "For a digital scan? Be serious. Like I couldn't do that in my sleep?"

"Maybe, but you realize that if they're using the same island for the party we're all about to crash, they're going to have an insane amount of security waiting to catch us. The harpy may be a stone bitch, but she's not stupid."

"I know. First, I need to see what's to be found in the recording of Wade's call, and then we'll figure out where to go from there."

"Okay, good. Because I was afraid you were going to say we're still going."

"We are."

"See, that was what I was afraid of," Shego sighed.

"Look at it this way, they won't expect us to actually fall for their trap."

Shego rolled her eyes.

"Stoppable's been a really bad influence on you, Kimmie," she told her as she followed her out of the room, and toward the lift that led down into the bowels of the mansion where the X-Men truly operated.

"Hey. Ron's not that…. Okay, well, he can be….. That is, he….."

"Uh-huh?"

Kim sighed. "He's better than Drakken."

Shego gave a thoughtful glance skyward as the doors closed, and the descended downward.

"Shego," Kim scowled at her.

"I'm thinking. It's really close, you know."

Kim scowled all the more.

"Okay. Okay. He's better. By a narrow margin. A very narrow margin."

Kim shook her head, and grinned at her. "They both have their moments, don't they?"

"Oh, I am so not going there," Shego sighed.

"Wise."

"Hey, at least I never dated my buffoon!"

"That's not what I've heard," Kim cooed.

"What? From who? Who dared say that…..?"

Kim was giggling.

"Oh, that's low."

"Well, I did see you that time at the U.N. ceremony."

"That was the vine, and you know it. His freaky flower power did some really weird things at times. You ought to know that one as well as anyone."

"Okay, granted. But you're saying that in all the years…..?"

"We had a contract. He paid me. Cash. Nothing else. Zip. Nada. Nothing. Gah, I cannot believe you would think I would ever stoop that low….."

"Shego," Kim grinned.

"What," she growled.

"Gotcha," she beamed, winked, and walked out of the lift when the doors opened.

"That was still low, Possible," she grumbled, stalking after her.

"Computer's in here. Right," Kim asked, using her increasingly honed telekinesis to open the doors without bothering with a pass-code she could probably crack anyway with just a few seconds. "Let me just find the computer port, and we'll get the answers we need in no time at all."

"Good. Because, you know, we could be sleeping just now. Or still in bed."

"Shego!"

"What? We are making progress in that area. Tell me we aren't?"

"We are," Kim sighed, smiling at her. "Now, let me get to work."

Shego nodded, watching as she pulled an expandable USB port from the side of the Kimmunicator on her wrist, and plugged it into the computer she had just powered up. It took her only seconds to download the last message from Wade, and then to put it onto the main monitor where she went to work running A/V scans on the footage.

"Running full scans now. Just as I thought. Look. A VR overlay right on the surface. A little discreet remapping, and….."

"I'm guessing that's not the kid's room."

"Not even close," she said, nothing the metal walls, and the heavy security door in the background. Along with three GJ agents standing near that door with readied arms. "Let's see. Holographic mapping from the reflections in his iris…."

"You can do that, too?"

"Oh, with the right software, you can do anything."

"No wonder the Doc hated you Possibles," Shego murmured. "You guys make this look too easy even when you're being scary smart."

"Somehow, comparing me to Drakken doesn't help my self-esteem issues."

"What issues, Miss "Anything is Possible,"" Shego huffed.

Kim only grinned. Then the smile slipped as she saw the image she digitalized, expanded, and fixed.

"Damn. I hate to say it, Kimmie. But they definitely got your buddy," she said, eyeing the image of Betty Director standing by holding a control box of some kind as Will Du was seen at just the edge of the image holding up a white card with the writing for his then current response to Kim's statements and questions.

"They are so going to pay for this one," Kim said quietly.

Which was when the overhead lights came on, and the two women turned to see Hank, Charles, and Jean all standing there. The professor was back in his wheelchair just then, but he looked less than pleased to see them.

"Couldn't sleep," Henry asked.

"We've got a glitch in whatever plans you're making," Kim said, and waved them over. "Wade just called me. Only it wasn't his idea. They have him, and if you study the footage I scanned…."

"I see," Henry murmured, walking forward first to study the screen. "This is your friend? You know, I think I've chatted with him on a few Tech Blogs. Oh, dear. And that is definitely Dr. Director."

"What did his message contain," Charles asked her quietly.

"He was directing me to this building on the island's main complex," she said, bringing up the GPS map.

"Hmmmm. Our own scans and Cerebro's monitoring suggest that is the main barracks for the posted personnel," Henry remarked as Jean walked over, eyed her, and then frowned after glancing at Shego who only stared blandly her way.

"The surface labs aren't even in that area. They're across the compound," he pointed. "Here."

"They can't have expected you'd fall for so obvious a trap."

"No," Kim agreed, nodding at the professor. "She was letting me know she has Wade. In essence, she was inviting me over."

"This does put a wrinkle in our plans," the bald leader of the mutant militants agreed.

"Not necessarily," Shego drawled, smirking.

"What are you thinking," Shego was asked as Kim looked her way with complete trust.

"We both know Bets, and we know how she thinks, too. So, we give her just what she expects. A full, frontal attack. Or, we make her think that's what she's getting."

"Ahhhhh. You're suggesting a bit of a diversionary tactic, with a hint of subterfuge?"

"Close. I happen to know where Doc has a few of his older syntho-drones mothballed."

"Syntho-drones," Kim grimaced.

"Hear me out, Princess. We dress a pair up like you and me, send them in with enough toys to look good, and make a lot of noise, springing whatever trap is waiting while we go in the proverbial back door. Unless the cue ball or fuzz ball there has something better in mind?"

Charles only eyed her as Hank grinned.

"The 'fuzz ball' thinks that is not a bad idea. I was planning a diversionary tactic myself, and had yet to actually work out the details. This sounds like it might just work to our advantage. If we use more than one set of your replicants so that multiple guard points are distracted, confusing the enemy as it were, as to where you actually are."

"Now that sounds like a plan," Kim smiled. "Can we get to those syntho-drones?"

"You got enough outfits to make it look like more than one of you is invading the harpy's lair?"

"It'd probably be easier to just create a few holographic emitters to make the drones look like us. That way it's easier to dupe anyone that actually pays attention," she declared.

"I'm sure Forge….."

"Just let me have a few tools. I can make them myself in no time," Kim told Charles.

"I'll take you to his shop in the morning. While we refine our plans," Charles told her.

"I'll go get the syntho-drones," Shego told them. "What, an even dozen?"

"Sounds good," Kim nodded. "Each. So twenty-four."

"All right. I'll need to borrow your jet," she grinned at the professor."

"I'll have Wolverine fly you….."

"I happen to be a very good pilot, Wheels. Probably better than your pet….."

"But you aren't cleared for the security codes that operate the hangars, or the jet," Jean told her.

"Bet I could still…."

"Wolverine will fly you," Charles stressed firmly, eyeing her coolly.

"Fine. Fine. I just figured grumpy might need his beauty sleep, because I know how much getting work up in the middle of the night tanks."

"Not everyone is as grouchy as…."

Shego eyed Kim.

"Okay, maybe Logan is. But it's got to be as close as….."

"Zip it, Pumpkin," Shego growled. "I'll go wake up the misanthrope….."

"I already did," Charles told her blandly. "He'll meet you in the hangar. Second right outside the door, and all the way down the corridor."

"I know the way," she told him.

"Indeed," Charles Xavier murmured.

"So," Jean asked after Shego departed, "How long have you been teaching your friend how to shield her mind?"

"We just started this afternoon," Kim admitted, guessing that both of them had noted from the way the professor eyed her. "Considering who we were going up against, I felt it best not to take chances. How is she doing?"

"She's actually pretty good," Jean told her.

"Indeed. Her will is quite…..formidable."

"You have no idea," Kim grinned at the professor, and finished the typing she was doing before she told Hank, "See? Instant holographic emitter. It can be programmed to make anyone...look like anyone else."

"Hmmmm. I know more than a few people that might find this kind of device useful. Mind if I borrow the specs," Henry asked her as he absorbed the schematics.

"Not at all. It's hardly top secret stuff. We just perfected existing holo-tech to create the personal emitter for…. Well, a mission I did once."

"You are proving to be far more of a surprise than even I expected, Kimberly," Charles remarked.

"Well, I have been in this business for a while now," she told him. "You pick up a few things."

"Indeed," he murmured again. "Jean, show her to Forge's lab. I'm sure by the time you get there, he will likely be up anyway."

"Calling him, too," Kim asked mildly.

"Oh, no. You open his lab, and he'll know it the minute the doors open. He's actually tied into his personal security systems. You don't even walk down the hall in the main house without him knowing it," Jean told her.

"Right. Well, let's get to work. We still have a lot of people depending on us."

"In that, we are agreed, Kimberly. I just hope you will extend your trust a little further," he asked. "We really are on the same side."

She didn't remark that Betty used to tell her the same thing. He likely saw it in her mind, though. She allowed that much, and could feel his probe, too. Right before she then slammed her own barriers in place.

"What's wrong," Jean asked when she frowned at the idea the professor might not be as trusting as he claimed to be. Which begged the question why.

"Not a thing, Jean," Kim told her as she followed the redhead to the lab. "Not a thing."

X

"Dr. Director," William walked into the command center deep underground. "You called?"

"Yes. I want you upstairs to personally run the defenses when they show."

"You really think she's going to just show up in spite of the fact she's bound to have figured out this is a trap set just for her?"

"I know she will. She's too egotistical not to try barging in, and rescuing her friend. Especially if she thinks she has enough backup to help her. Which is why I called in backup of our own. Are our people all in place?"

"Yes."

"Good. When she arrives, I don't want one of them getting away. Not one of them. But most especially not Kimberly, or Shego. Today is their final day of freedom, William."

"Do we sanction them, then?"

"If necessary with Shego, yes. I want Possible alive, though. For now."

"Understood," he nodded, and turned to go.

"And, Agent Du?"

"Yes, ma'am?"

"I want Xavier alive, too. His own assets are, however, expendable."

"Understood."

"Good. And make sure those men know to stay sharp. Kimberly is too good to take chances with. She's bound to make an entrance, and when she does, we have to be ready to act. Not react. I trust you know the difference?"

"I do," he nodded, and left her studying monitors that showed row upon row of prisoners. One of them a stocky black teen staring blankly at the wall of his cell.

"Suffer, you little brat," she smirked coldly as she eyed him on the monitor. "I haven't begun to tap that brain of yours yet. First things first, though."

X

"All right," Henry told the team readied for the assault on the island stronghold. "Everyone clear on their parts?"

"Clear enough, bub," Logan grinned. "Red distracts the posers. We bust in while they play up top, with Storm giving us all cover while we slip in the back door, and get downside. Sounds simple enough."

"Ah, well, that is a bit of a simplification….."

"I like simple things, Beast," Logan reminded him.

"Why doesn't that surprise me," Kim said sardonically.

Shego sniggered at his expression.

"All right. Everyone be ready at eighteen hundred hours….. Six o'clock," he told Angel.

"I knew that," the winged mutant huffed.

"Just making sure," Hank told him with a knowing grin.

"I'm going to take a walk," Kim said as they left the basement, and Shego went toward the stairs.

"You want me….?'

"No. You can rest, or….whatever. I just need to think on a few things. I will be back in a few," she promised the woman that had delivered twenty-four working syntho-drones she had helped reprogram for their needs.

By the time she had finished, Kim and Forge had working holo-emitters for all of them.

"Okay. Listen, if you need…."

"I know, Shego," she nodded at her. "I just need some air. Remember to keep practicing what I've taught you. Okay?"

"You bet, Kimmie," she smiled, heading up the steps as Kim left the mansion to head toward the forest where she hoped to get a little quiet, and focus on why she still felt that nagging wrongness all around her.

She was barely out of sight of the mansion when she realized someone was behind her. Spinning around, ready for a fight, she was surprised to find a tall, fit man with thick silver hair smiling at her. Clad in an immaculately tailored suit, he actually gave her a faint bow before he spoke.

"Hello, my dear. We need to talk," the tall, silver-haired man in a dark suit smiled. "I'm sure Charles has told you all about me by now."

"Actually, he didn't mention a word about you," Kim told her.

"Really? Now I'm hurt," he sighed. "Still, friendship isn't what it used to be."

"Just who are you?"

"Eric Lehnsherr," the tall man smiled. "But you may call me Magnus."

"Wait. I know you. You're the guy that call Magneto. Don't you usually wear red?"

"Clever girl. Let's see if you're smart, too. I represent a group….."

"The Brotherhood."

It wasn't a question.

"Are you certain Charles hasn't talked to you already," he asked with a wry smile.

"I've run into a few of your…..lackeys now and again," Kim told him, glaring, but making no move other than to continue walking at his side. "By the way, how are you keeping their alarms from going off, and bringing half those guys out here after you?"

"We all have our secrets, Kimberly," he told her with a smile.

"Touché." She shadowed him a few more steps, then stopped, and eyed him. "So, what's this all about?"

"I'm just telling you that there is more to the X-Men, and the mutant world, than what Charles has likely shared with you, Kimberly. In fact, knowing my old friend, there is likely a great deal he hasn't told you about his own connections with Global Justice."

Kim tensed now.

"I know you can read minds," he said, tapping his own temple. "Go ahead. Look inside. See if I am lying to you."

"I don't like to….."

"But I'm inviting you, Kimberly. Because, unlike Charles, I want you to know everything. Even what he won't show you."

Kim frowned anew, and then opened her own mind, focusing her growing telepathy to look into the mind of a…crusader.

She saw the beginning. The fear and anguish of a man imprisoned just for his blood. The determination of his cause that gave him strength, and led him to first unite with an old friend, and then turn on him.

Then she saw…..more.

It was not pretty. Not pretty at all.

"What do you want with me," she finally asked him.

"Why, nothing, Kimberly. While I would not be adverse to you joining the true mutant cause, I just want you to know the truth. The whole truth. After all, isn't that why you're here at this marvelous school? To learn?"

She said nothing as he walked away, and was soon lost in the trees.

Even he vanished from sight, she sensed he disappeared completely from her other senses, too. Somehow, he had simply shut off his mind in a way that suggested he had still managed to hold some secrets back in spite of his invitation.

Still, what she had seen made her furious.

Sick.

She needed to see Shego again.

She had been right the first time. She needed to make their own plans.

To Be Continued…