I do not own the characters named herein from either Disney, or D.C., and am only using them for a tale meant for entertainment purposes only.
Kim Possible: Sacrifices
By LJ58
10
"Hey, Ron. Heard you went to see Kim. How was she," Monique asked her friend when Ron appeared in school that next week after being missing most of the weekend.
"Grim," he told her quietly, far from himself even then. "Really grim."
"Yeah, I can see that. Have you heard anything about her mom," the ebony beauty asked him hopefully.
"No."
"Oh. So, how's she doing with that rich cousin….."
Ron looked around, knowing he didn't have much time, and leaned over to say, "Watch your back. If Kim's right, bad guys are going to be looking to take out all her friends, next."
Monique visibly paled.
"Please tell me you are….."
"No joke," he said. "If you see anyone….off... Blaze," he told her. "Or find me. I've got Wade covering the whole town, but it is a big town. Someone bad is out there, Moni. And Kim doesn't think they're done."
The fashion-conscious teen just stared at him as Ron straightened up in his seat again.
"What about Kim? Won't she need….?"
"She has….other backup," he said quietly.
"Okay, listen up," a familiar booming voice drawled as a known, and less than liked figure stormed into the classroom. "Ms. Beeman broke her legs yesterday figure skating. So….."
"Not you," someone groaned.
Barkin instinctively looked toward Ron, but the usual troublemaker wasn't even paying attention to him. He was staring out the nearby window.
"Stoppable, what do you think you're doing already daydreaming."
Even the big ex-Marine took a double-take when Ron stared at him, then looked back out the window.
"Not daydreaming," he said blandly.
"Then what do you think you're doing, funnyman?"
"Looking for bad guys," he said so soberly that everyone in the class eyed him.
Mr. Barkin, stunned by his earnestness, found he didn't have a comeback.
"What bad guys," he demanded.
Ron didn't even look back at him now.
"The one's coming to wipe us all out."
Some students laughed. A few nervously.
There were just as many gasps.
"This is all Possible's fault. I know it is," Bonnie's strident voice complained from across the room.
Ron glanced her way, and stated evenly, "You should be safe, B. They're likely only after KP's friends."
That shut everyone up.
KP
"You still pull your punches when you shouldn't," her new mentor scowled as they stood back from one another in the underground gym. "Some of the people we'll face are stronger than the usual Henches you meet, Vixen," he had taken to calling her in the cave to keep her in character. "You keep doing that, and they'll hand your butt back to you. Then, there is the League."
"I don't want to hurt you," Kim told him blandly.
"Me?"
"Right now, I'm wearing a state-of-the-art battle-suit based on old Centurian tech friends of my dad's recovered from a UFO. Even on low power, it packs a punch," she admitted. "Watch," she said, and activated the band on her wrist. Her belt, and gauntlets glowed, and she zipped across the gym, slammed several punches into a bag, and virtually destroyed the bag before zipping back to where she had been.
"I've heard of that tech. Most of it was mothballed, and deemed impractical."
"Well, after I….accidentally interacted with the prototype, it somehow keyed to my genetics, and so it wouldn't work for anyone else but me. It's something built into even the successive models that even Wade hasn't figured out how to undo."
"Not that I doubt he's tried too hard, since it is an impressive secret weapon."
"Well, it took a full month to really learn to focus on controlling it. A lot of the new systems are cybernetic. So all I have to do is think, and most systems now respond to just a thought."
"That is…..impressive. I take it you have learned to control it?"
"Trial and error, but it works. The first one actually overloaded my emotions, so Wade learned to fuel it off kinetic energy, rather than adrenal responses. Only that creates a loop that can exponentially amp speed, and strength to insane heights without the failsafe limiters he built in. Still, even with the limiter, that can happen if I cut loose," she said, indicating the burst bag laying to one side of the chain.
The Bat nodded, and told her, "Were you wearing it the first time we fought?"
"Wearing it, wasn't using it. I can switch off the amping abilities when not needed. Fighting most guys I've faced, I've rarely needed it."
"Then why wear it?"
"Stealth-cloak, limited speed boosts, rocket boots, and onboard grapple. Handy tools in any occasion."
The detective merely nodded.
"Isn't your suit like that?"
"Hardly. It's lightweight Kevlar. My tools are in my gloves, or belt. But my most important ones are my mind, and my skills."
"I get that," Kim nodded.
"All right. Turn off your suit, and come at me with all you have. I want to push you without your…..trump card."
Kim smiled somberly.
"Anything you say," she said. "Just as long as it gets me closer to Gemini."
"I have new leads. We'll visit one tonight."
"Good," she murmured. "I'm getting tired of hiding in shadows."
"Only that is just what we're going to keep doing. Or do you want an even larger target painted on you, or your friends?"
Kim scowled.
"You know what I mean."
"I hope you know what I mean," the Bat shot back, launching a punch without warning.
And then the fight was one again.
KP
Shego sighed, and walked away from the window that looked down on a wide, green meadow.
Gordon Rehab was a very private, very reclusive clinic that was in the middle of ten acres of private land. Behind high walls, and covered by some very serious security. Even as Shego was escorted inside, she saw nine blind spots, and three different ways she could have strolled in without trying. She had the feeling if she really checked, she could find more.
When she was taken to Ann Possible's room, she almost didn't recognize the redhead.
She was shrunken, covered by thin sheets, and all but hidden behind a maze of tubes and wires, and IV needles that seemed to be stuck everywhere. The woman's once vibrant features were pale, and slack, and her head was still wrapped in thick bandages.
She seemed more a caricature than a living woman.
She found it struck her deeper than expected, and she just pulled a chair over, and sit by the bed, staring at the comatose woman for a very long time.
Dressed in dark slacks, and a muted green top, she hardly looked like a special bodyguard Mr. Wayne had hired to watch over his relative. Especially when her green-skinned visage was so obvious to almost anyone that bothered to really look at her.
"If Mr. Wayne himself had not vouched for you," one doctor kept grumbling, obviously not caring for her presence.
"Then complain to him," she finally shot back.
He hadn't been back. Not yet.
After three days of relative silence, having decided to simply move into the room so she could keep an eye on the woman, Shego found herself starting to talk to her.
"Hey, Ann," she found herself speaking as if the woman really could hear her. Maybe she could. She had heard it both ways, but who really knew?.
"I guess you know who this is by now," she told her. "Kimmie sent me. She's really worried about you. She's fine, by the way. Really anxious to see you back on your feet. So you really need to get better soon."
She ended up spending whole days talking to the woman, unexpectedly dragging up old memories, and silly anecdotes she shared. Even giving special secrets she doubted anyone else would ever guess. After all, who was she going to tell?
"You really need to wake up, though," she finally told her one day. "I'm really worried about Kimmie. She's headed for a dark place. She needs you. Or I'm afraid she may not come back. Wake up, Ann. Please, wake up," she told her, and sighed, and stared at the woman.
Which was when the door opened, and a nurse walked in behind her.
Shego saw her shadow moving. Saw her approaching just behind her.
Then she just tilted the chair back, letting it fall as she fell with it, coming up to drive her feet into the woman's chest, and driving her out of the room as Shego kept rolling, came back up on her feet, and spun around to face her.
"Don't think so," she growled, glaring at the obvious assassin.
"The cold-eyed woman glared at Shego, and assessed her in a single glance.
"I'm curious," the woman murmured with a faint trace of an accent that suggested India, even if she looked Chinese. "What gave me away."
"You're too quiet for a duty nurse," Shego sneered. "Those woman are huffing, and puffing, and worn out by this time of day. You were floating like you had wings. Too damned quiet for a real nurse."
"Live, and learn. A shame you won't," she said, and pulled matching daggers.
"Back at you, assassin," and her hands erupted in energy.
"You….aren't wearing your gloves," the woman frowned.
Shego laughed.
"You are suffering from another misconception. My gloves don't give me powers. It's all natural," she smiled coldly even as security belatedly came running up the hall.
"Careful," a man shouted her way as Shego closed on her. "She's already killed three guards!"
"That's because you sent a boy…..to do a woman's job," Shego growled, and blocked one knife thrust at her, twisted from a kick, and then knocked the other knife spinning from the faux nurse's hands as the security guards tried to rush the assassin.
"Get back," Shego warned, but one man howled as the woman deftly sliced a line across the man's chest when he tried to grab her.
"Get him out of here. That blade is likely poisoned."
"You seem to know much of me, Green One," the woman scowled.
"I get around."
"So I've heard. Weren't you working on the other side of the law last week," the nurse sneered.
"What can I say," Shego spat, blocking several quick strikes, and driving the woman back again with a hard kick. "I'm fickle!"
"Not much longer," the woman sneered, cutting a long line down Shego's left arm with her dagger.
Shego jumped back, glaring at her, and tugged at the shredded sleeve.
"Do you know what this top cost," she demanded indignantly.
"It will soon not matter," the assassin spat even as the guard she had cut began to convulse, and white foam spilled from his lips as his companions stared in horror at the dying man.
The nurse turned her back on Shego, stalking back into the room to raise her weapon over Ann Possible's chest.
Just before Shego clamped a glowing hand over the assassin's hand holding the dagger.
The woman screeched, jerking back even as she dropped her partially melted weapon while cradling her scorched hand.
"How? You should….be dying….?"
Shego saw her fear now.
"My only flaw," Shego smiled coldly, reaching for her with two glowing hands. "I live to disappoint."
The woman swore, in Chinese now, and then turned, and ran right at the window. She flung herself out, and smashed through blinds, glass, and all, and went straight down. They were, Shego knew, on the fifth floor.
She walked over, looked down, and saw the twisted body below.
Turning back to see two doctor's now rushing in to check their patient, with two surviving security guards staring at her incredulously from the door, she swore, and eyed her shredded blouse again.
"Ready to listen to me about your security now," she asked the older man in uniform.
He nodded numbly.
"How….did you survive that….poison," the younger guard asked. "Tom went down like…."
"Comet power, rent-a-cop. It pretty much works as a hyper-immune system, too. That, and I'm really hard to take down."
"She's still stable," the elder doctor finally said with a sigh as he turned from Ann's bed.
"You better check on the duty nurse that was supposed to be here, too," Shego suggested, dropping back into the chair she put back on its feet. "I'll keep an eye out for backup until you guys finish sweeping the area for any of her friends."
The two men looked horrified.
The doctor didn't seem to bat an eye, and simply said, "I'll have a new nurse sent up right away," he assured her. "If only to check that gash for you."
"Hot coffee, too. I get the feeling it'll be a long night," Shego added, not adding her arm would be healed by morning anyway. It just wasn't that serious a cut.
KP
"Yes, Alfred," Bruce asked when the man came in looking even more dour than usual just as he and Kim were about to go out for the night.
"Miss Go called, sir," he told him, and Kim tensed.
"Mom's okay," she asked uneasily.
"She's fine. Thanks to Miss Go. Another assassin tried to kill her. Your friend stopped her, but the assassin took her own life when she realized she had been thwarted."
"So, they are still after Ann," Bruce murmured.
"Then they might still go after my friends, too," Kim frowned.
"Your friends, and Global Justice, have all been alerted," Alfred assured her.
"Yes, and if we want to stop this," Bruce told her, "Then we need to find, and remove the head of this snake. Ready?"
"Yes," Kim said curtly.
Alfred eyed her, and frowned as Kim vanished into the back to change.
"Are you sure she's not too…..?"
"She's not Dick," Bruce told him, reaching for his cowl. "That said, even I don't have any right to stand in her way. If I did, it would only make things worse. This is one she has to face herself, or she'll never move on."
"As you say, sir," Alfred murmured. "Only I recall how close Master Richard came to crossing the line, as it were. And he very nearly got you both killed doing it."
Kim came out just then, clad once more as the Vixen, and walked over to eye Alfred.
"Tell Shego I appreciate her help with mom," she told him. Then headed for the car without looking back.
The Bat nodded at his friend, then followed Kim to the car.
To Be Continued…..