A/N My last couple of chapters have been pretty short, but this one is quite a bit longer. A lot to go through, here, including another of my favorite scenes.
Beta read by Eddy13
Chapter 9: Dress for Success
(Monday Morning-Week 2)
The next day, Zorpox got up bright and early, way before Drakken, and checked on the blue villain's work. There were now nine satellites. The caped villain wondered at this, because at the speed Drakken had been working, there should have been more. He went over to a lab computer and pulled up footage to see what Drakken was doing, but for some reason he was out of the lab for nearly four hours-but the blond didn't really care why-actually, it worked to his advantage-the longer the doctor took, the better a position Zorpox would be in.
He quickly looked through the satellites, checking the actual part setup, and was pleasantly surprised. Drakken may be a fool, and prone to over thought, but he could definitely build a superweapon. He'd actually improved on the design, increasing power flow by thirty percent, and halved the size of the power conductors as well. Zorpox made a mental note to adjust the blueprints he had made to take into account the changes. As he pulled his hand out of the last satellite, he hissed in pain.
The caped villain held his hand up to the light, noting a long gash across his palm. The gloves he was wearing were substandard; while the clawed fingertips were impressed, the rest of the glove was simply cloth. The villain hadn't had time to make any adjustments to his wardrobe when he had first fought Kim Possible. He decided this was a good time to amend that flaw. He moved down a side corridor.
Zorpox walked into the lab...his lab, as he had begun to think of it. Drakken could have his main lab-this villain wanted a small out of the way room that he could work in peace. After he had scrambled the cameras in the room, he began working on upgrades; upgrades to his outfit. First he slipped off his gloves and looked them over. They were a purple color, with black fingers; the ends of the fingertips tapered to a clawed point, filed to a sharpness that let him easily cut through wood, metal, and many other substances. They were made of a strong alloy, nearly indestructible; they wouldn't rust, chip, or break.
He picked the glove up, then began messing with the sharpened points, placing a small pressured gas inside of the tips-he added a quick release, and with the right amount of pressure, he could cause the fingertips to shoot out; unfortunately, he would have to get a new set of claws, and specially prepare them if he wanted to do it again. He test fired the weapon directly ahead, and watched as the small darts stuck into Drakken's metal wall. After the weapon met his approval, he attached new tips, then continued his upgrades.
The inside lining was taken out next, then recovered with a special rubber compound-flexible, but electrical resistant. He used a second layer on the outside-better safe than sorry-this layer was also fitted with a rubber/metal compound of his own design-since the villain was always messing with something or other that was electrical, he knew that padding the gloves wasn't just smart, but a necessity; even Drakken's gloves were made with an electrical-nullifying material. The metal helped to give the gloves strength against the slash he had received on his hand-it should be strong enough to protect against a sword strike as well. He had other ideas for upgrades to the gloves, but decided that they could wait.
Next Zorpox took off his boots, then brought out a second and third pair that Ron had actually packed away before he left for the nonexistent cooking expo. He looked at the first pair, his set of rocket skates that Kim had insisted he have. Ron had hardly ever used them, since his roller blading skills were practically nonexistent-throw in super fast speeds, and it was a disaster waiting to happen. Zorpox, however, knew he would be much more skilled in their use. He pried out the necessary parts, then picked up the second pair of shoes. A gift from 'Janitor' Joe, it was the pair of shoes that included rockets for flight. After taking parts from it as well, he combined them together to his own boots, giving them the abilities of both.
He slipped the boots back on, the pulled off his cape. The villain tossed it to the side, in favor of a similar cape made of a different material. The new cape was identical in color and shape to his old one, but had a few significant advantages. This one couldn't be torn, and had a special property; if he snapped it out in a certain way, it would become rigid, and could be used as a glider-helpful for quick escapes. Zorpox may not like to run from a fight, but there were always tactical reasons to retreat.
Other minor adjustments were made, to the clothing-including body armor, and thermal-resistance shielding-he wouldn't want his clothes to catch fire for some reason. The last upgrades were added to his hat and goggles. The hat now supported a special sensor suite, as well as omni-directional audio recording devices. The goggles had a number of changes; thermal detection, for nightvision; special polarization to prevent blinding; pressure sealing, in case he needed to use them underwater; even small cameras that recorded everything, so he could review it later.
Finally the villain filled his belt pouches with a number of different items that could provide useful. He made small duplicates of some of Kim's gadgets, including laser lipstick, an elastic constricting agent, a similar knockout gas, and a set of four small suction pads for his hands and feet. He even had a small rebreather that would actually draw oxygen out of water allowing him to breathe. Now Zorpox was as well equipped as Kim herself.
He looked up, to the clock on the wall, and realized that it was too late to head to HenchCo today; he had planed to spend the time meeting with the business leader, then planning and constructing his new lairs-if he were to head out now, Drakken may wonder what was taking up so much of his time. With a sigh, he stood and grabbed some other things to put in his pouches, then sat and began putting them in place. He finished closing the last pocket, then heard an almost non-existent sound as the door behind him opened. Rather than turn, he busied himself with something else, waiting for the stealthy intruder to say something.
Realizing that Drakken would have said something by now, Zorpox spoke as he turned. "Shego, trying to sneak up on me?" The green woman stiffened, but otherwise tried not to react. She didn't trust Zorpox, and was trying to keep tabs on him. He grinned at her. "Well, my dear, sorry to disappoint."
She growled, then inquired, "What are you doing?"
He held his gloved hand up, wiggling the fingers. "Just sharpening some claws. You know all about that, don't you?" He looked at her, pointedly. She glanced down at her own claws, automatically, before making eye contact.
She ignored his tone. "You were doing more than that." She motioned toward his table full of different tools. "Was it part of Drakken's big plan, or something else?"
"Why, what else could I be working on?" He feigned ignorance. "Don't you trust me?"
Her look said it all-What do you think?-and he chuckled, then stood. Shego backed away, hesitantly. He seemed to enjoy her look of uncertainty and fear. His next question threw her for a loop. "Do you play chess?"
She frowned. "What's that got to do with anything?"
He tapped his chin with a single clawed finger. "Nothing...or perhaps everything, you never can tell. You can tell a lot about people by comparing them to chess pieces. The henchmen are just pawns, many of the villains are just bishops or knights." He lifted his hand, in thought, then lowered it to point at her. "You, just like Kim, are a queen."
She was slightly surprised to hear that Zorpox had such a high opinion of her; then she realized that if he considered her a queen, he would know that she was more of a threat than anyone else-especially Drakken. "So what does that make you?"
He touched his chest. "I'm obviously the king." Shego made a gagging noise, but he ignored the interruption. "I'm pulling all the strings, moving the pieces, giving the orders-do you disagree?" She could only mutely shake her head. "And why-because I'm the smartest, the most devious, the most cunning."
Shego finally tried to work up some of her normal sarcasm. "Oh, sure, you're doing real well on the devious department-you made GJ think a monkey attacked a golfer."
He chuckled. "No, I removed two knights that you could otherwise use against me, and distracted the only other king on the board. Come on, Shego, stay current. How am I supposed to win if you don't even know you're playing the game?"
"Oh I'll win, Zorpox, you can count on it."
"Oooh, scary." He made an over exaggerated shiver. "Well, I really must be going."
"Go, go where?"
He grinned. "You'll see."
X X X X X X X X
Monday morning, Kim woke up and got ready for school, then went downstairs for breakfast. She was surprised that her father wasn't there. "Where's Dad?"
Ann looked up with a smile. "He went back into the space center late last night-he had some big idea that couldn't wait until the morning." Her husband was brilliant, but also a little excitable-once something got into his head, he had to act on it immediately, or else he was afraid he'd forget it when his next amazing thought came along. "As far as I know, he's still there." He could go days without sleep; and when he came back, he'd sleep for days-it was a vicious cycle.
Kim nodded, familiar with her father's fascination with rockets and robots and other science things, even if she didn't share the interest. She remembered when her father had first set her down to watch the show Captain Constellation; he'd been extremely disappointed when she'd left midway through...of course, you couldn't blame a three-year-old that left a non-cartoon filled show. Since then, anytime the subject of the show came up, she tried to avoid it. It didn't help that both Ron and Wade like the show too.
The teen sighed as she started thinking about Ron again. She wouldn't admit it to herself, but she was dreading the school day without Ron. Sure, she had friends at school, like Monique and Felix, as well as acquaintances, but she spent nearly twenty four hours a day, seven days a week with Ron-and without him there, she was really at a loss for what to do. He may be afraid of everything, and an awful student, but he made her day interesting.
She quickly packed her things, then sat across from her mother for breakfast. Ann gave her daughter a smile, and the two chatted until Kim had to go to school. She met Monique halfway, and after a few minutes with her, Kim didn't think the day would be so bad. She arrived at school, then went into Barkin's first class of the day. She still hadn't figured out if he was the only teacher she had-she sort of vaguely remembered a math teacher that Ron hated, but nothing else. She had just gotten settled in when she heard the Kimmunicator go off. She reached into her backpack to pull it out, giving Mr Barkin a weak smile. Wade appeared.
"Kim, I don't think we're going to need to look for Dementor-he's attacking the space center."
Kim's eyes widened. "Dad!"
Wade quickly shook his head. "He's okay, Kim, they've all been evacuated-there's security in place, but your dad doesn't know how long it will hold-I've got a ride set up as soon as your ready." Kim nodded, then looked at Barkin for permission to leave. He nodded his assent, irritated, so she dashed out before he could give her extra homework. She ran into the girls locker room and quickly changed, before rushing outside to find her ride. She was expecting to see a car, or maybe even a helicopter, but instead there was a contraption that looked like a computer terminal from an airport. She frowned and walked up to it carefully.
As she got closer, the screen on the top lit up, and the entire things turned toward her. She grinned as she saw Wade's face. "I take it this is the Wadebot 3.0?"
He grinned back. "Yup-state of the art-stealth mode, telescoping extending arms, and new with the 3.0 model..." He hit a button at his computer. "A forcefield."
Kim stepped back as a blue bubble appeared around the Wadebot. She stuck her hand out and touched the field, getting a slight static shock, but nothing more. She tried to push her hand through the bubble, but it was surprisingly tough-she couldn't even force a finger in. Wade hit some more buttons and the shield dropped. "Good against lasers, electricity, Shego's glow power, depths of up to 1000 feet, and the car wash." He got a funny look. "Don't ask. Okay, grab a hold, Kim, and I'll fly us to the space center."
She wrapped her arms around its slim neck, and watched as a small propeller appeared from the top of the Wadebot, just above the computer screen. She was surprised when the thing lifted them both off the ground. "Is this safe?"
Soon they were nearly fifty feet off the ground and moving higher. "Oh yeah, I fixed the flaws in the last model." She gave him a confused look. "I accidentally forgot to put all eight bolts in the plate connecting the propeller to the base-it...um, it flew off-that's how I lost the Wadebot 2.0." Ironically, this did nothing to increase Kim's confidence.
X X X X
In no time at all, they had arrived at the space center. The Wadebot set down in the parking lot, where all the evacuated personnel were. Kim's dad quickly arrived. "Kimmie-cub, good, you're here." Kim made a face at her dad's pet name, but listened as he continued. "This demented fella-"
"Professor Dementor." Kim said.
"-right. He broke into the lab, intending to steal the fuel for the new rocket system the space center is making. Fortunately he hasn't got it yet-he can't get into the secure vault where the supplies are." He walked with Kim up toward the secondary small entrance on the west side of the Middleton Space Center. She tried to open the doors, then noticed that there was a key card reader there. She motioned for her dad to slide a card and open it up, but he shook his head and shrugged. "Sorry, Kimmie-cub, the first thing that Professor Dementer did was cut the power to the whole building-I think he expected it to cut out the security."
"It didn't?" She asked, looking at her father.
Dr Possible pointed up toward the roof. "The space center has a number of solar panels on the roof that we use to store extra energy; we use it on a number of projects, but it's also used to power the security systems if we lose main power-it's designed to cut in if needed." He looked back over toward the door. "The outer doors are designed to auto lock if power is lost-it will prevent people from getting inside, but people can still go out the doors. The solar panels primarily power the main safe lock-it's electro-magnetically sealed, so as soon as that power cuts out, the lock is useless. Hopefully it will take that villain a while before he can get in; but if he finds out about the solar panels, he can cut power to the safe room and get in easily."
Kim nodded, then pulled out her grapple hair dryer. She pointed it up to the roof, remembering how she had gotten in after Monkey Fist had caused a lockdown. She watched as the Wadebot flew up to the roof, the paused as her dad gave her one last parting message.
"Be careful, Kim."
She nodded. "I will, Dad-now make sure everyone is a safe distance from the space center in case Dementor does something dangerous." She clicked the hairdryer and quickly got herself up to the roof, where she was able to sneak inside one of the air vents. The Wadebot followed, surprisingly silently for such a large machine. It was just barely able to fit inside without scraping the walls or ceiling. Kim made her way through the maze of shafts, checking with Wade periodically, and finally reached the central vault. She peeked out.
The inside vault was a mess. There were three henchmen trying to figure out the passcode to the giant steel door, and were using a lock-breaking tool of some sort. The large vault itself was designed with a reverse magnetic forcefield-there was no way to cut through the door without turning it off-and since the solar energy was still flowing to the vault, Professor Dementor had no way in.
The villain himself was standing on a floating platform in the center of the room; Kim wondered how he had gotten it inside until she spotted the hole in the ceiling. She knew that she would have to be careful-the villain had the high ground, and Dementor usually had all sorts of fiendish weapons. She focused closer, and realized that Dementor wasn't happy-he was gesturing and yelling-of course, he always yelled.
"Why are we taking so long with the opening of the door? At the rate you're going, I could have made my own rocket fuel and flown to the moon! And brought back cookies!" Two of the henchmen made the mistake of rolling their eyes. "You two! What are you doing! I should feed you to my dachshund!" They both shuddered and worked harder.
Dementer looked around, suspiciously. "Where is the cheerleader? She is usually here by now."
Kim popped out of the vent, landing right behind Dementor. "Boo!"
The villain jumped in place, then spun. He pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket and pointed it at her. She laughed. "Are you planning on doing your scary 'light under the chin thing'?"
"Ha! That shows what you know, Fräulein Possible. This is not a flashlight, it is a flashbulb."
Kim raised an eyebrow. "And that's different...how?"
He grinned. "Watch." He pointed and flipped a switch, and Kim, acting on instinct, moved out of the way. There was a brief, bright flash, but that was it. Kim turned, confused.
"That's it? It flashes-like a camera?" She had no sooner finished talking when her arm started to sting. She looked down. Kim had been able to get most of her body out of the way of the flash, but her arm had been within its range. She now had a very red, very painful sunburn from her elbow to fingertips.
Things just got a lot more interesting.
X X X X X X X X
Things just got a lot more interesting; after the exit the caped villain had given, Shego decided to follow Zorpox and see where he was going. To her surprise, he lead her to the cafeteria. She was even more surprised when she saw all the henchmen waiting for them...waiting for Zorpox. She had heard all the commotion yesterday, but Drakken's henchmen were always loud-she'd though nothing of it. Now she was concerned.
She saw how the men looked at Zorpox-how they trusted him, waited for him, helped him...how he was part of the group. A few of the guys looked at Shego uncertainly, but she didn't do anything threatening, so they finally ignored her. She just watched as Zorpox walked into the kitchen and began to prepare food for them. He quickly made a number of meals for the henchmen, and soon the cafeteria was a busy place, all the men talking, joking around, just having a good time. Shego felt a pang at being left out, but quickly buried it deep-she didn't want to join in that sappy party, she liked how the men feared her.
She walked to the front of the line, pushing past the henchmen. A few of them gave her angry stares, but none of them dared to be overtly hostile. She finally reached the front, and saw Zorpox at a stove, lifting something off and plating it. He grinned when he saw her. "Shego, right on time. Are you hungry?"
The villainess hesitated, wondering if the food was poisoned. She finally decided to risk it-he couldn't have really prepared the plate just for her, and poisoning just didn't seem his style either. Besides, if he'd wanted to kill her, he could have done it the other night-she was still useful to him, in some way or another. Decision made, she snatched the plate with nary a thank-you and went to sit. She found a table she liked, and glared at the henchmen sitting there. They quickly left. She sat to eat her meal in peace...unfortunately, that was not to be.
A plate clanked down next to her, and she turned to the offending person, only to realize that it was Zorpox. He grinned and sat, watching her closely. She glanced at him, then finally stabbed her fork into the food. She brought it back to her lips and took a bite; her eyes widened, and she looked over at her caped foe. He just grinned back. She quickly dug back in, savoring the taste of the food; she'd never had anything like it. Drakken hadn't been kidding-Stoppable was a great cook.
"You know, the way you're going at that food, it makes it look like you haven't eaten in days." She paused long enough to point a glowing finger at him, but he just smirked. "Besides, I thought you'd be more into salads-you know, to keep your figure." She glared, eyes sending him daggers, but his smirk just got wider. His voice lowered to a whisper. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about the way you eat." Shego tried to work up some anger at his statements, but the food was just too good.
"Ah, well." He sighed and leaned back, after realizing he wasn't getting a reaction. "If you stuff yourself like this all the time, that's probably why you like fighting with Kim-helps you keep fit."
Shego finally set her fork down, to look Zorpox in the eyes. "I fight Kimmie because it's what I'm paid to do." She shrugged, then reached for her drink. "Besides, I enjoy it-so what." She set her drink back down. "Okay, I'll admit it-you really are a very good cook. You know..." She gave a sly little grin. "If you cooked for Kimmie like this, I'm sure she'd just fall head over heels for you." She watched in surprise as his face darkened.
"Oh, she doesn't like your cooking?" She laughed. "Oh well, we all know Kimmie doesn't have that good a taste anyway. Look at who she hangs around with..." The villainess seemed to muse for a second. "Or maybe you did try and win her heart with the cooking. Didn't work, sport?" She put on a sad face. "Did the prissy Princess reject your advances? She too good for you?"
Zorpox moved so fast she didn't even register it. She did, however, register the fork embedded in the table-between two of her fingers. She watched the villain stalk off, his cape twisting around him; her vision was then drawn to the still vibrating fork. It had missed piercing her hand by less than an inch, either by design or luck. The room was deathly quiet, all eyes now staring at the table, at her, watching to see what she'd do. Shego pulled her hand back slowly, self-consciously, then grabbed the fork and tried to pull it out. It wouldn't budge. She tried harder, finally breaking it free.
She looked at the bent and mangled fork, then stood and walked out of the cafeteria, unconscious of all the stares. A small smile flitted on her lips. It seemed that for all his actions, Zorpox had a temper too...
X X X X
Zorpox frowned, his steps coming rapidly as he left the cafeteria. He'd over reacted, he knew it, and Shego did too. Fortunately, she'd mistaken the direction of his anger. He wasn't mad over the indication that Ron was a buffoon-Zorpox already knew he was. No, the caped villain was upset over the way that Shego was talking about Kim-about the insults to her and her character. Kim may hang out with Ron, but that didn't make her less, didn't drop her status. She was too good for Shego.
Even so, Kim didn't consider herself to be better than anyone-well, she didn't go around like Bonnie, trying to be the Queen Bee of the school. Kim knew she had talent and skill, and wasn't afraid to show it; she forced herself to do the best that she could, and took pride in her achievements. If that made her a prissy Princess, well, she had every right to take pride in what she did.
Finally he shook his head to clear it. It wasn't worth dwelling on-and in the end, it was probably for the best-now Shego thought she had a way to taunt Zorpox, and instead she had nothing. He frowned, considering going back to the cafeteria, but knew that the henchmen were finished and probably putting things away by now. Instead he moved forward, down the hallway that led back the lab he had been in earlier. He needed a chance to cool off-he pulled out a few different machines and began working on them, letting his mind wander. He could check on Drakken later.
X X X X X X X X
Kim was in the middle of a backflip when she realized that she'd completely forgotten about the Wadebot. She flipped over near it, and when she had landed behind it, Wade flipped on the shield; it was easily able to counter the flash. Kim looked at Dementor. "Give up-you can't win."
"Yes I can, even with your fancy talking computer screen." Dementor huffed. "I could design something like that in my sleep-it takes a real genius to design a flashbulb!"
Wade stuck his tongue out. "Yeah, a demented genius."
"It is Dementor! What is this demented thing about? First the loud scientist, now you...does no one appreciate true genius?"
"Sorry, Dementor, there's only one genius in this room, and he works with me." Kim looked over the top of the Wadebot's shield, then watched as the villain seemed to look around the room. He scanned back and forth, then looked back at her. Finally he spotted the twelve-year-old's face on the machine.
"Him? You say that the kid on that screen is smarter than me? Ha! I am Professor Dementor-I invented the transportulator and the flashbulb-nothing can compare to that!"
Wade crossed his arms, and the Wadebot did likewise. "I invented this robot...and a holoprojector, grapple hook, and other things for Kim. I even invented a way to keep your cereal from going soggy in milk."
Dementor's eyes widened. "Oh, that would really be useful! I admit defeat to you, Robot-man, but not to you, Fräulein Possible." He suddenly frowned as another idea hit him. "Where is that boy who is always with you? Is he sick? If he is, Mama knows a very good soup that will make him better in no time."
Kim looked at Wade onscreen. "Why does everyone always think he's sick?"
Dementor spoke up again. "He follows you everywhere-plus he's so thin. What else would he be doing?"
"He likes to do lots of other things-play games, cook-and why am I telling you all this?" Kim stopped speaking and dropped into a fighting stance again.
"Don't you know? It pays to be polite!" Dementor fired his flash bulb again, to no effect-the Wadebot's shield held. He frowned, then looked down the flashing end of his weapon-and accidentally fired it. "Oh, my eyes!" Dementor staggered around blindly, and Kim chose that moment to attack. She was easily able to knock him down. The henchmen watched, but made no move to help Dementor.
Kim lifted him up to his feet. "While we're politely answering questions, why did you frame Monkey Fist?"
"Monkey Fist? I wouldn't frame that baboon even if I could-he has no vision! He loves monkeys too much-it is unhealthy-just like trusting a foe!" Dementor grinned, then opened his eyes, revealing that he hadn't blinded himself. He'd turned down the power on the flashbulb, and only received a slight tan for his efforts. Now he turned the weapon against Kim and flared it up to full power.
Even surprised, Kim was still faster than Dementor-but her only options was to retreat. She dove off the center platform Dementor was on, then made a quick about face and slid under his hovering transport. The short villain was unable to target her there, and knew that it wouldn't take long for Kim to figure out a way to stop him. He motioned to his henchmen, and they quickly jumped aboard. With a parting shot from the flashbulb, Dementor and his henchmen shot out of the hole in the roof, leaving the space center behind.
"Auf Wiedersehen, Kim Possible." He laughed until he had disappeared from sight.
Not two seconds after he'd left, the primary door to her left exploded inward, sending stuff flying everywhere. Kim watched as three fancily clad heroes rolled through the door, ready for action. Kim grimaced.
"Team Impossible-as always, your timing is impeccable." She rolled her eyes as they looked around, finally standing up after they realized there was no threat. "I could have used your help, oh say five minutes ago."
Dash glanced at another member of his team. "Someone isn't good at writing down directions."
Crash grinned sheepishly. "Did you know that Maple Street isn't the same as Maple Drive?"
Kim just walked past them without a word. She finally met up with her dad outside in the hall. He looked in, then gave a sigh of relief to see that the security door was still intact. He turned to his daughter. "Thanks, Kimmie-cub. If Dementor had stolen that rocket fuel, it would have been weeks, or months before we could have launched the Hephaestus probes." Dr Possible frowned. "Of course, I still need to finish the Hephaestus project. Anyway, good job-now get back to school-I'm sure these circus folks can clean things up."
"Dad, they're not...nevermind."
X X X X X X X X
After Zorpox had gone back to work in the lab, Shego focused on her offensive strategy, looking for things to show that the villain was working against Drakken. She had spent the last few hours trying to come up with some way to prove to Drakken that that sidekick was up to no good. She'd gone through all the footage for the last couple of days and couldn't come up with anything, even the footage from Zorpox's own room and the lab. She was good enough with computers to recognize the tampering that hid her foe's actions, the cycled tape, but she couldn't recovery any of the real footage. She went to her backup plan-she knew that the villain was using the computer in the lair, so theoretically, it should be available for her to access as well.
Except it wasn't. There was no record of any action being performed on Zorpox's terminal in his room. She tapped her fingers against the desk and growled. He must have locked the computer off from the central system. Fine-the back up-back up plan-she'd break into his room. That was perhaps the most surprising thing yet-the door was unlocked.
She walked in, wary of traps, but nothing happened. She finally sat and booted up his computer, only to realize that he'd encrypted a section of the computer and protected it with a keyword-and after multiple tries, she realized she would never guess it-it wasn't even Nacos!
After her twelfth attempt, she received a prompt on her screen: Shego, nice to know that I can attract so much of your time. Don't you have anything better to do, like I don't know, DIE! She twitched back at the last word, and fell out of her chair. She looked around frantically, scanning for danger, but didn't see anything. Finally there was a loud laugh issued from the speakers on the computer. She stood up, and forced herself to take a deep breath. She would not let him get to her like this.
She gave up on the computer and made her way around his room, looking for something, anything to use against him. Nothing-if it weren't for the computer, she wouldn't even know that he'd ever been in this room. She bent down and looked under the bed in the room, and had almost given up her search when she decided to look one more place. She went over to the desk, and looked beside the computer in the trash bin. A single piece of paper sat at the bottom. She quickly snatched it up and tucked it into her suit, then left, figuring she could look at the paper later-she really didn't want to get caught in his room.
X X X X X X X X
Kim was not in a good mood after the events of her morning. Sure, she'd managed to stop Dementor from stealing the different supplies that he was going to use, but he got away-and she hated it any time the villains escaped. In the back of her mind, she knew that if Ron were here he'd point out that even though Dementor hadn't been captured, he had been foiled.
The second strike had been the fact that somehow, Wade had made another slight error with his Wadebot-no sooner had the mission been finished, than the robot had totally died. Wade, for all his technical genius, seemed to have one small problem-ironically the same type of problem that plagued Drakken. Sometimes, when he was working on a new project, Wade didn't always pay attention to all the details-it seemed that he had failed to fully charge the batteries before he used the robot. It was actually pretty amazing that the thing hadn't died sooner, during the battle with Dementor. End result-Kim had to go back to school on foot, so it took her nearly twenty minutes longer than she had expected.
The third strike, making this a very bad day?
She missed lunch.
It was thus very understandable that Kim was in a bad mood, and upset enough to lash out at just about anyone. Fortunately she had the self control to keep the attitude to herself when it came to teachers, however one other little problem decided to rear her evil little head.
Bonnie was in fine form, casting insults at Kim, as well as Ron, yet somehow making it come out as observations and not snarky comments that a teacher could punish her for. If it weren't for Monique running interference...again...than the insults would have quickly escalated into a physical confrontation-and after the mission with Dementor, Kim was looking for an outlet.
Finally, Monique pulled her friend aside. "Kim, girl, what's wrong? You look ready to turn Bonnie into your own personal punching bag."
Kim gave a wry little smile at the comment. "I don't know, I'm just having a bad day." They were currently in Chemistry class, and the teens were working on a lab. Kim gripped her pencil tightly, looking over at her high school foe. "There's just something about Bonnie that makes me want to..." Kim's hand gripped tighter, and her pencil finally snapped.
Monique raised an eyebrow. "That's so NWI."
The red head dropped the broken pencil, and pulled out another from her backpack. "Yeah, I know it's not worth it, but a girl can dream, can't she?" She tried to focus back on the lab work. "So, um, how are things going for you, Monique?"
Her friend gave her a look that said-changing the subject? Real smooth. "I've got no complaints." Kim have her a look, and the dark haired woman sighed. "Fine, I've got one complaint-what's with all the guys here? They're either JWAB or nerds."
"JWAB?"
"Jocks without a brain. I mean, sure, some of them look pretty nice, and I might be willing to go after Brick to tweak Bonnie, but there's really no available date worthy guys here. Well, with one exception." Monique gave a small mysterious smile. "Except he's kinda off the market."
Kim was getting ready to ask who she was talking about, but could tell by the other teen's grin that Monique wasn't going to let that little bit of gossip go without a heavy price. Kim finally rolled her eyes-it wasn't like she was really looking for a date anyway. Unfortunately, Monique's teasing hints just caused her friend to wonder who the guy was.
As Kim lapsed into silence to consider this little bit of news, Monique smiled to herself-her mission was a success. The red head wasn't thinking about Bonnie anymore, but instead had been given a new question to muse over. If there was one thing that Kim hated, it was a mystery...unfortunately for her, there was no way that Monique would reveal the name of the only unattached, dateworthy guy in Middleton...and, there was no way that Kim would guess his name either. Fortunately for all involved, the aforementioned great catch wasn't even in Middleton right now...
X X X X X X X X
The caped villain had finally finished his project and returned to Drakken's lab. As soon as he'd come through the doors, the mad doctor was waiting for him. "Zorpox, where have you been? I need your help-I just thought of something."
Zorpox grinned. "You need my help-I thought you didn't need me anymore, that you had everything you needed for this plan?"
"Now that's not...I just..." He frowned. "I was thinking, you said that Kim always checks to see which villain has been getting different things, right?" Zorpox nodded. "Then if we start buying lots of rocket fuel, won't she notice it? I mean the electronics and parts for the satellite can be used for other things, but she'll put two and two together if she sees we're getting rocket fuels."
"Hmm, I hadn't thought of that." Actually, he had, but thought it might be good to play to Drakken's ego.
"Really? What do you think we should do?"
Zorpox frowned, playing along. "I don't know, do you have any good ideas?"
"Um...we could capture her."
The caped villain rolled his eyes. "And that's worked really well in the past, hasn't it?"
"Fine..." Drakken thought. ''Your idea of distracting her seems to be working well-what about doing something like that?"
"Okay." Zorpox nodded. "That sounds like it might work-but how to do it? We already made it seem like Dementor was framing Monkey Fist, so lets frame someone else. The bigger question is where do we get the rocket fuel from?"
The blue doctor stopped, thinking things through. "We can't steal from the Middleton Space center, because Kim's Dad will get involved, ordering is too dangerous..." he looked at Zorpox. "What am I missing?"
Now the other villain grinned. "The obvious. If you're going to steal from someone, and you don't want them to tell Kimberly, who do you steal from?"
"Jack Hench?"
No, you idiot. "Another villain Drakken, another villain. Can you see someone like Dementor going to Kimberly and saying some other villain has stolen from him? No, he's got way too much pride-he'll never admit to her someone stole from him-of course, even if he did, we could make it look like someone else stole from him instead."
"How?" Drakken frowned.
The other villain smirked. "You've got money-use it." Drakken mused for a second, then turned away from Zorpox, walking over to the communication console at the side of the room, intent on following the advice. The caped villain let himself out; he had someone else to check on.
X X X X
"Am I no longer worthy of your time?"
The voice caused Shego to twitch, and not just because he'd sneaked up on her-something about Zorpox gave her the heebie jeebies. She was currently reclined on her tanning bed, doing her best to improve her rather pale complexion. It took hours under the tanning lamp just to make sure that her skin wasn't a pasty green. This tanning room was her refuge, the one place that she could retire and relax, just let all her feelings die away. Anger and frustration at Drakken had been her most popular feelings; now a few more had been added to the mix-anxiety, fear, and most of all, confusion.
She'd read over the file that she'd found inside the trashcan-it had been nothing more than a recipe for haggis. Haggis-not even a superweapon, or designs for a lair, just a simple, if nasty, food. It didn't even look that important-it had been scribbled on a half sheet of paper. At first, Shego thought that it might have been a code for something, but she couldn't figure out for what-she'd run through every decoding she could think of-she was finally left with the realization that it was exactly as advertised-instructions on how to create haggis.
The villainess focused on Zorpox standing above her, and grinned. "Oh no, don't flatter yourself, Zorpox, I have much more important things to be doing. I mean, you're pretty low on my list-somewhere after listening to Drakken rant, but before scrubbing the bathtub." The sidekick's eyes narrowed. "Besides, don't you have better things to do than keep bothering me? I'm sure you need to whip up another batch of food for the henchmen, right? That is you're job, isn't it-a glorified caterer?"
His eyes took on a malicious glint as he sat on the stool her feet were resting on. "Hmm, 'glorified caterer'? Yes, but what's that make you? A secretary? You do take care of things for Drakken, don't you? You know, as I think about it, you clean up his messes, too-that makes you a janitor."
Now it was her turn to glare. "If I'm a janitor, I'm the highest paid janitor in the world." She forced herself to relax. "Besides, I never got too hung up on titles anyway. Drakken knows what I do, doesn't matter what he calls me."
The smirk only widened. "Sure, sure, whatever you say...a lackey by any other name...is still a lackwit."
It was only through intense concentration that she kept her cool. She spoke through gritted teeth. "I am not a lackey. Besides, don't you fall into that category more, Ron? I mean, you're Kimmie's little lapdog, aren't you? Always following her whim, at her beck and call." She pitched her voice high. "'Stop fooling around, Ron.'"
He leaned in close. "Lapdog or not," He hissed, "I'm still smarter than you, and that's what really bugs you, isn't it? Knowing that even Kimberly's little pet is still smarter than you. Of course, if the buffoon is this good, that probably means that she's been holding back every time she's fought you, right? She wouldn't want to insult you by beating you too quickly." With that last statement, he stood to leave, but Shego changed tactics.
"So, what're we having for lunch tomorrow, Zorpox? I think that a salad would go very well with the haggis..." He paused, and Shego knew that she'd finally struck gold. "Of course, haggis just doesn't seem like that good of a choice for the meal anyway. Just so you know, I really don't go for sheep's lungs-a little too tough for me, wouldn't you agree?"
To her surprise, he turned not in anger, but in amusement. "I agree wholeheartedly, my dear. Don't worry, the haggis has a much more...important role in the main course. Don't worry, you don't have to worry-you don't want any haggis, I won't give you any-you won't see it all...Besides..." And now he smirked. "I plan on feeding this haggis to people of a little higher importance than you..." He laughed and went to find Drakken, leaving a puzzled Shego wondering just what exactly Zorpox had revealed about his plan.
X X X X X X X X
A puzzled Kim spent the rest of the afternoon deep in thought, considered every student in the highschool. Only one dateworthy person in all of Middleton? Kim had been wondering about her friend for a long time, and despite repeated questions, was still unsure what, exactly, Monique thought a good date-worthy guy was. The redhead knew that her friend had gone on a couple of dates since coming to Middleton, but as far as she knew, her friend was never in any sort of serious relationship-most of Monique's dates were considered platonic at best.
Under best (girl) friend rules, Monique always called Kim after her dates, and the two would talk about how the night out had gone. They would both discuss what they considered a good date-dancing and a nice restaurant-as well as some of the other things they expected in a date. Through it all, however, Kim never really heard what her friend considered to be the perfect date, or the type of person that was perfect. The red head had never really thought about it before, but she realized that most of Monique's dates hadn't been 'hotties'-and that left her to wonder what type of person her friend was attracted to.
As Kim sat back in her desk, she frowned to herself-of course, it was really a waste of her time to be trying to figure out her friend's taste in guys when she really didn't have a clue what she wanted in a guy herself. At one time, the red head had thought that Josh was golden, but that fairly quickly dissolved from a crush into just being friends. While the boy was rather nice to look at, she really didn't have that much in common with him. Sure, he was interesting and very intelligent, but overall they just never really hit it off.
No, she wanted someone different from Josh, or any of the other people she had considered dating-even Bobby Johnson had been nothing more that a way to irk Bonnie, and nothing had even developed there. Someone like Hirotaka was nice to look at, but after some thought she really couldn't get over the way he had acted-in hindsight, his 'cool' act had come off as nothing more than aloof. As she frowned to herself, she realized that she shared Monique's sentiments-there really wasn't anyone that she would consider date worthy. Kim mentally shrugged-whoever this mystery guy was, he was probably not in any classes she took.
Kim was glad that this was a study hall, so that she could let her mind wander like this. Generally she was so focused throughout the day, with projects and school work that she never really got a chance to think things through. It was actually rather refreshing not to have anything to work on.
The red head let her mind wander again, and drifted back to her attempts at cooking. She kept failing, it was sort of disheartening. As she thought about it, though, she had managed to cook some food well-the brownies had tasted very good; maybe she wasn't as inept in the kitchen as she thought. Oh well, nothing to do now except wait until Ron got back...unless she could find someone else to help her...
X X X X X X X X
Dementor looked around his lair. After Kim Possible had attacked him, he'd been sure she was going to come here next-instead, the place was quiet. Too quiet. He ordered his henchmen to stay on alert, and even turned on his defenses. He didn't like wasting the power like this, but something wasn't right. He'd learned that you never know when something could go wrong-and as Murphy's law states, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.
And he was about to be proven right.
It started as a low rumbling, before transforming into a slight shaking, then a full blown earthquake. Pictures fell off Dementor's walls, vases broke, and finally one wall just collapsed inward. After the dust had settled, Dementor was facing a large robot. He glared at it with envy. It was the top of the line Burrow and Steal Robot-he'd considered buying one many times, but it had been way out of his price range-he only knew of one villain with enough money to buy such a large contraption.
"Senior Senior! Why do you break down my house? I told you I won't listen to your boy sing again. I have delicate ears! Henchmen-Attack!" Thirty men opened fire, pouring hundreds of red laser blasts into the robot. Unfortunately, they were all deflected off the armor. It was only now that Dementor noticed the upgrades to the model-again, very expensive. He had nothing that would be able to combat the giant robot. He just watched in disgust as the machine took everything he was using for his plan-explosives, machine parts, electronics, and most importantly, the rocket fuel. "I won't forget this!" He screamed as the robot disappeared.
X X X X
Drakken stood behind Zorpox, looking over his shoulder. He studied the diagrams, realizing that he now had all of Dementor's rocket fuel, as well as some odd trinkets that Drakken thought it would be nice to have. Zorpox turned the giant robot around, then had it leave by another exit, and set it to return to the Carribbean lair. He sent it in a direct line toward the Seniors' Island, then cloaked the machine so it couldn't be traced. He programmed in a special directive that Drakken couldn't override, and a small drone shot off, with some of the supplies, and a few of Dementor's inventions-he didn't need them, but they may be useful later. He did it carefully, and Drakken never knew that it happened.
From there, Zorpox stood up and turned to his co-conspirator. "There-now Kimberly Ann will think that the Seniors attacked Dementor, throwing even more confusion on the field." He studied the numbers on the screen again. "The professor had a lot of rocket fuel-that was almost half of what we needed. If you pick the rest up in small quantities, and ship them all over the world, to the launch sites, Kimberly will never know."
Drakken nodded, and Zorpox moved past him to the hall, his mind already on other matters. Let the mad doctor study what he was doing, hoping to learn. Zorpox knew that it was all beyond him-Drakken could make the simplest plans fail-a complicated one always meant he was doomed to failure. Despite this, Zorpox did try to make things as simple as possible-after all, he didn't want Drakken to mess his plan up.
X X X X
As soon as Zorpox was gone, Drakken sat in his seat, then pulled up the robot controls. He turned off the autopilot, and made a small adjustment, sending the robot to a small island in the Pacific. He instructed the machine to find a specific location, and drop some of the supplies off. He had recently purchased a warehouse in the area, and wanted to keep things in separate locations.
The name on the deed was Shego's.
X X X X X X X X
Later that evening, Kim sat reclined on her bed, her head and feet dangling off the sides. She was looking down on the floor at her Kimmunicator, and Wade was staring back up at her. Kim had just gotten her homework out, and decided she could multi task and talk with Wade about the day's earlier mission.
"I just don't get it, Wade. Why would Dementor lie about framing Monkey Fist?"
Wade shrugged. "Why would he frame Monkey Fist in the first place? It's really weird."
"I know." Kim rolled over and pulled out a pencil, then noticed that it didn't have a point. She reached for another. "I mean, all of the villains just avoid each other normally-it's like an unwritten code or something."
Wade grinned. "'Paragraph 1, line 1-villains are not to attack each other unless there is a very good reason for it.' From Issue 97 of the Villain's League of Evil Villains. Did you know that they're all supposed to be based on real villains?"
"Very interesting, Wade." Kim said dryly. "Maybe the next one will be about Shego, the green clown of doom." She shook her head. "No, back to Dementor. He must have been using that to keep GJ off his back-they have been getting a little better, lately." Just a few weeks ago, Will Du had managed to save a senator from an untimely death-he prevented the man from walking into an open elevator shaft. And, of course, he'd somehow managed to stop Duff Kiligan-although the golfer had been unconscious.
Wade nodded, then looked at his computer in surprise. "Speaking of Will Du, he wants to talk to you, Kim. Should I just cut him off?"
Kim was very tempted, but she tried to be courteous to people-even if she didn't like them. She finally gave Wade a nod, indicating she would hear the agent out; soon Du appeared on screen. "Ah, Miss Possible-as prompt as ever." He somehow made it sound like an insult. "The Director felt that I should tell you Kiligan is awake-he named the person who attacked him." He seemed to pause, as if he was contemplating something very distasteful. His voice was quiet. "It appears you were correct, Killigan was not attacked by Monkey Fist."
Kim resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at him. "Gee, thanks for your call, Agent Du. I really appreciate being kept in the loop-but I already know who attacked him."
"How could an amateur..." His eyes widened as he was cut off. Again. He turned to Dr Director, who was standing nearby. She had the slightest half-smile.
"Very good, Agent Du-you managed to insult her yet again. You certainly have a way with people." She walked away, leaving a very stunned and confused Will Du. He hadn't done anything wrong...had he?
X X X X
Kim let loose an angry growl, then laid back against her bed; no matter what he did, Will Du was able to push all of her irritation buttons at once. He was as bad as Bonnie. Kim took a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh. She finally looked back to her Kimmunicator. "Wade? Still there?"
"Yeah, I'm here, Kim." He hesitated, then asked Kim the big question on his mind. "So, uh, what did you think of the Wadebot?"
"It rocked, Wade. A shield, grapple arms, super strength, that thing is amazing!" She chased away a flitting thought that wished Ron was as useful. "You know, it would be nice to have something like that around all the time-you know, with me."
"Like a suit?"
Well, I was thinking another small robot, but a suit would be spankin'." She frowned. "What do you mean?"
She watched as her friend shrugged. "Just an idea I've been working on. You remember the Centurion Project?"
Kim grimaced and nodded. "How could I not?" She'd lied, sneaked around, gotten Ron captured, been caught, and had served a month of grounding-of course she remembered-it was not one of her finest moments.
"They've been working on the Centurion Project 2.0-lighter and more controlled-instead of directly acting to your stress, this system would work more off of your emotions-it's also being designed using a new material-super flexible and soft, yet rigid and hard as steel when necessary-they fired rockets and stuff at it to test it."
Kim shuddered. "Not sure I want to try that, Wade-but it sounds like a good idea-but there's always a catch."
He nodded. "It's still in the testing phases-it won't go into production for another year or two." Now he smiled slyly. "Of course, they owe us a favor for saving the first Centurion Project..."
She grinned back. "...so they'd be more than willing to let us try it out. Sounds like a good idea, Wade-how long will it take?"
The tech genius shrugged. "I don't know-it would be pretty easy to adapt some of the basic systems-like the grappler-but some of the other things will be more difficult. I'll have to completely design them from the bottom up-could take months." He watched as Kim's face fell-that was really too long to be useful. "Although, it's already designed with increased strength and limited flight capability-you could always test the suit out and I can add stuff as it gets finished."
"Wade, I don't tell you this enough-you rock."
He grinned back. "I try. Anyway, it'll still take me a few weeks to get the okay on this from the people over at the Centurion Project-so I'll start working on some of the upgrades." He looked back at his screens. "I'll also try to figure out where Dementor is going to strike next-we really don't want him to get that rocket fuel."
Kim frowned, then turned back to her book. She was getting ready to cut the call to Wade when an idea seemed to flit into her head. She looked at her friend. "Could you just look up the other villains and find out what they're doing too? Something just doesn't seem right about this-I feel like I'm missing something, something obvious." She closed her eyes in thought, but nothing came to mind. "Something's not right." She repeated, but was unable to figure out what.
Wade promised to get the information she wanted, then signed off. Kim went back to her homework, knowing that whatever the nagging info was, it would reveal itself in due time.
Hopefully before the villain struck.
X X X X X X X X
Zorpox sat in his room, frowning slightly. He has made a small oversight; Shego was much more tenacious than he though, going through the trash and finding the Haggis receipe. He figured that it was very unlikely that she could divine his plan from that small clue, but if she was even half as smart as Kim, it was an unnecessary risk. That said, even if she brought it to Drakken's attention, it didn't mean anything-he was a cook as well as a villain-maybe he was trying something new.
Secure in the knowledge that Shego still didn't have a clue what was going on, he sat at his computer, and began pulling up some files he would need. He had some more weapons and projects that he wanted to create, so that was the first order of business. The Electro-Static Generator was his first creation, a device that could be used to provide power for his super weapons and lairs-it's biggest advantage was the way it received power-through a manner undetectable by the super genius Wade.
Next came the Polar Regressor, a device that was really more of a novelty than an actual doomsday weapon-this device could in small scale effect the north and south poles of magnets, reversing them. In large scale applications, it could cause the actual flipping of the north and south poles on the planet. Finally he created a Selenium Phase Disruptor, to disable devices creating using the semiconductor.
Finished with the projects he had set aside, he looked over the blueprints of the different lairs that he had designed, and tried to figure out where exactly he wanted to place his newly designed super weapons. He was not as stupid as Drakken to try and place them all together-they would be spread out, placed into the areas that they would be the most useful, but not necessarily the most obvious. For example, while it would make sense to place the Polar Regressor near either the north or south pole, the villain planned to set it somewhere else entirely.
Also, Zorpox left room for some other creations that he had planed, but had not yet designed; he had plenty of ideas, but not a lot of time to draw up the blueprints-a few every night would be the best he could managed. Between Drakken, Shego, and the henchmen, he really didn't have that much time to himself. Fortunately, he had that all figure out for the next day-projects for Drakken, and pre-prepared food for the henchmen should give him a little more time to take care of things.
Shego, however, was a different problem entirely-she could be detrimental to his plans, if he wasn't able to counter her actions. He had some basic ideas on her-her character, her actions and thoughts, but in many ways she was still a mystery. He knew how to taunt her, to push all of her buttons so she wasn't thinking straight, but he really didn't know much about her. Surprisingly, he knew she couldn't be bought off, and he'd threatened her before-she wasn't likely to stay cowed. She was really an intriguing individual.
This, of course, led to the one key aspect of his plan not quite finalized. With a free day tomorrow, Zorpox let his mind wander, considering the mad doctor's sidekick. She was going to be key to his plan; or rather, her past would be key to what he wanted to do. Somewhere within her sordid history was the clue he needed, and he had to figure it out for his plan to have any chance for success.
He leaned back, considering the greatest question that he had-what, exactly, had made Shego go bad? He was sure that it wasn't as simple and clear cut as Hego had made it out to be-while she had begun to like the evil more and more, he got the feeling that there was more to it than just 'she likes it.'
Zorpox settled in, thinking of the advice that he had given Drakken-research was the key. Since it was unlikely that he could just outright ask how she went from hero to villain, he would have to go to the only other source of information-Go Tower. He chalked that up for the next day, as well as his visit to Jack Hench, and decided to call it a night. He was asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow.
A/N I particularly enjoy scenes between Zorpox and Shego, because they are always explosive. There's still quite a bit of conflict between those two in the next few chapters.
Also, I'll mention, I made a pretty simple sketch of the scene with Shego and Zorpox in the cafeteria. Most of it's really basic, but I do like the shading and look on Zorpox, so check it out if you want. It's posted in my Deviant Art account. You might have to do a bit of digging, but it's in my scrapbook.
