Deconstructive Legacy

by Luke Danger

A continuation fanfic. In the aftermath of the lorwardian attack, supers have been revealed to a relatively ignorant world. As the world picks up the peices, things continue to destabalize, leaving Kim and Ron to find their way through this changing world

10. Chapter 10: Fire isn't Friendly

"One thing I never understood was why Power Busters Division or even Global Justice to a degree tolerated the hiring of mad scientists to do research for them. I mean, had anyone considered the potential backfiring of that? It's like those Marvel 'Civil War' comics the Tweebs read in their rooms about guys trying to enforce some new supers law use villains to do their dirty work; villains they could hardly control. It backfired from what I overheard. Least Doctor Director kept strong watch on any that GJ had to hire, though some PBD officers were a bit lax in their security or had their priorities skewed. I didn't make many friends in one of those backfirings. Heck, I almost got a slot in Cell Block D if sane heads didn't prevail. Funnily enough, PBD didn't hire any of the more sane mad scientists out there, but were quick to get the villainous ones."

- Kim reflecting on PBD hiring/recruiting some mad scientists (including villains Kim had foiled) as researchers to develop new technology to counter villains and the interesting (lack of) control on them, as recorded in her Liber Memoriarum

"Sorry Doctor Director; I know you want to use copies of the battle suit for GJ's top agents to use, but I'm still working out the kinks. Kim can survive the battle suit going haywire, I'm not sure a GJ agent can. I can work on taking some of the gadgets from it and making alternate versions, but it'll be watered down considerably without the suit's nanite back up systems that's built through it. [...] You want me to work on armor? Heh, yeah, I can do that. […] Light armor that doesn't encumber? No problem, but it'll take a while, especially if we want it to take hits. […] Got it, Doctor Director, I'll call you when I have something to report on that."

- Wade Load to Doctor Director of Global Justice as he's being commissioned to design a new armor composite for GJ agents to use to protect them without encumbering them as much as the Kevlar armor in use currently does

Chapter 10: Fire isn't Friendly

July 24th, 2007

Kim glanced around the environment; it consisted of three dimensional cubes with some sides filled in. Most were of a blueish grey color, especially the outlines, which had a dull glow, but she could make out some dark red and navy blue colored blocks as well. She could also see her objective a good distance away, high above her across the black, space like environment. Fortunately, the cubes did not prevent light from passing through, giving her good visibility. She put her hand on her grappling hook; the only gadget she suspected she'd need for this, but Wade had insisted she take her shock stick in there as well.

Ahead there was a large gap with red lasers hanging in a tight net below it. She ran forward, springing across the gap and landing on the blocks at the other side. She didn't both with left to right at this point as her path was ahead, even if she had room to move. She heard distinct zapping noises as she entered a building-like collection of the cubes, which had sturdy poles sticking out across from one wall to the next. However, blue laser beams regularly cut through between the bars. Kim waited several seconds, watching the lasers cycle, then moved forward, leaping up and grabbing the first bar, swinging forward and twisting so she faced the other way, and as she swung up, she pulled herself higher and released, soaring towards the next bar. She repeated until she'd gotten past three of them, then held on tight, stopping her swings as a net of blue lasers began to cut down between the bars. She held on tightly, inhaling and exhaling as she began to slip, but she simply regripped and waited for the lasers to pass. As they did, she started swinging again, building momentum before she launched herself forward again, gaining height every time she moved up a bar.

Two more laser nets had cycled through by the time she was at the last bar, swinging up and grabbing it, pulling herself up and out of the way as red lasers began to come up from below. She glanced forward and saw a platform waiting with green outlines instead of the usual blueish grey. She leapt onto it and looked ahead: it was taking her through an array of lasers, blue and red. All he needs are white lasers and it'd be a star spangled mess, Kim thought with amusement as she put herself in a prone position to avoid the first net of blue lasers, three above her and one below. Once the lasers passed, she looked at the next net: a pair of red lasers above, but she wouldn't be able to stay prone because of how they were spaced.

She pushed herself backwards, her legs hanging off the platform until she pushed herself back over and gripped the side of the platform, letting the lasers pass over her as the platform pulled her towards them. She pulled herself up as the last net came towards her, red below and above in a net about as tall as her above, and one below that'd cut her grappling hook and herself if she tried to go below. She braced herself, waiting as the lasers got close enough. Then she leapt into the air, somersaulting over the lasers and landing on the platform as they passed her. She did not land smoothly however, and was teetering over the edge as she landing. She leaned backwards, avoiding the fall forward and took a step back with the lasers past. She exhaled in relief, then looked up as there was no where further to go at this point other than a further abyss.

The platform came to a lurching stop that caused her to stagger, then it began to move up. Kim smiled as she knew what it was and was able to make out the next floor of the course. The platform pulled her up to it, taking her through rings of outlined cubes with no solid faces, and the platform fit like a glove into the opening above and locked in, changing color from a green outline with a black surface to the same greyish blue as most other blocks. She looked left and right as ahead and behind her was just empty space, but to her left there was a large wall, and to her right was a path made of larger blocks, some of different color.

Kim began walking forward across the path and leapt over one of the rows of navy blue tiled blocks, quite well aware at this point what they were set to do. She heard zaps and a humming sound. Glancing behind, she saw a thick net of red lasers plus two redundant nets were closing on her, telling her that she had to hurry and outrun them. She picked up the pace, moving at a fast jog, leaping over gaps, sometimes just jumping, but some larger spaces called for her to use her grappling hook, targeting a conveniently placed ceiling of blocks in the air and swinging across. She swung over blue laser nets more often than not.

As she crossed the fourth of those laser net covered pits Kim shook her head and said aloud, "Might as well make them red lasers, I'd just fall forever otherwise." She didn't get an answer, but she wasn't expecting one. She continued, running forward as the laser nets chasing her began to close, vaulting over the trapped blocks that were thrown in to keep her on edge. However, she slipped as she landed, and fell forward despite her best attempts and landed on one of the navy colored blocks. A blue laser shot out of the block, zapping through the space between her lower rib cages and knocking her up and backwards. It hurt, but it was only a stun laser. She pushed herself back up as the red net started to come too close for her comfort and sprinted ahead, leaping over the trapped blocks as she did not want to be hit again. Her vision was clouding already as the shock registered in her mind, realizing she just had an energy beam blasted vertically up her body.

She reached the end of the course and looked around; there was a large red bar below her, and she smiled. Leaping up and using her grappling hook to pull herself above it, she inhaled and then jumped down feet first onto it, breaking through and speeding down. Below it was a green-outlined platform, which began to move up as she landed. It carried her up, blocks moving out of the way as it pulled her over the laser nets, and into the unknown above...

-X-

Suddenly, the entire world dematerialized, becoming static, then Kim found herself standing in a square room with a green-blue hue to it, all solid filled cubes. Her feet were locked in manacles on the floor, solid and entirely encased, and her arms were held at her side by similar, though while typical of a dungeon or villain's trap, they were cushioned, of all things. A straight beam of metal was raised behind her, which she was leaning on somewhat, as it kept her back straight. The last thing was a T-shaped visor that kept her from seeing out, and the visor was connected to a set of headphones that covered her ears, leaving her in perfect darkness and perfect silence.

The cuffs released her sweaty hands, and Kim pulled the helmet off, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the sudden light, and glanced behind her; Wade walked out and nodded, "Sorry Kim; had to cut it early." he explained, walking up and pressing a button, the manacles covering her feet and keeping her pinned releasing with a hiss, and she stepped out of them, rolling her neck and stretching her arms; even though she was using complicated maneuvers in the simulator, it was only that: a simulator, she wasn't actually using them, and they tensed over time.

"No problem Wade; not like I was going for best time. So what's the sitch?"

"HenchCo has something big brewing."

"Define big." Kim asked with amusement as they entered Wade's room, Wade walking over to his usual seat and accessing his computer which was showing something about a Mass Neural Compliance Ray, with the tagline under it reading "Dominate the other guys with mass mind control!", a slogan that sent a chill through Kim's spine as she recalled Bortle's neural compliance chips and the experiences of it. "Yeah, alright, it's big. Let me guess, steal it?"

"Nah," Wade said, "No dice; Hench is going to have an army of henchmen there, plus every villain and their great grandmothers. You'd need an army to get in."

"I've done that kind of stunt before," Kim pointed out, "Pretty easily too."

"Nah, the problem is that it's the main prize for something called the Henchlympics, which is probably mass henchmen games like the Olympics are for sports. Got a feeling we need a team to field ourselves. I was contacted by Doctor Director, who has GJ agents to fill in where you can't."

Kim frowned, "So we're basically faking a whole villainous ID?"

"Nah, that's plan B." Wade explained, "You're going to go in and suit up as one of Hench's goons; he's getting so many that he can't track them individually and a lot of them are competing, again, too many for him to track. That means we can get you into one of the several teams. All you need to do is slip in and steal a uniform that fits. GJ already has agents who can fit in as HenchCo henchmen; it's just you that'll need to steal a set of duds to fit in."

"Why can't they provide me a set?" Kim asked with a frown, "Not that I wouldn't mind a little infiltration."

"They don't have one; the sets they have are older designs." When Kim didn't comment, he continued, "That means they don't have tracking devices in it. When Hench started to get a lot of recruits, he slipped tracking into the suits so he could check for runaways or any GJ agents slipping in. These agents were prepared beforehand for previous infiltrations."

Kim nodded, "Alright, makes sense." And then it hit her: "Uh, Wade, if Hench can track me while I'm in disguise, won't that make anything I do well," she left it in the air as she tried to find the right word, "not so fitting?"

"That's why I figured out how to disable it. We have to add some to the GJ agents when they do their part, since Hench would notice if we didn't, but when the time comes to make the getaway, I can disable them."

She frowned as she considered another problem, "What if we have to go silent during the event and something happens, like say, Hench wanting to talk to me personally for a fine performance? I mean, I'm guessing they want me to be smoking the competitions easily to keep it down, Hench is going to notice."

Wade smiled, "I inserted a computer virus last month that played havoc with his systems, leaving the tracking frizzy at times; Hench is still trying to fix it."

Kim looked at Wade dumbly for a second, wondering when he'd get a better hobby. Then she considered the fact that hers was saving the world, and shut her somewhat dropped jaw. "Alright. The only other problem I see is I'm not much of an actor, but it's not hard to be chillin' like a villain. What're we looking at on these Henchlympics?"

"Not sure. I need to do some digging, but they're on the twenty sixth. That means we have a day or so to get ready before I need to ship you in there since teams have to stay overnight."

Kim nodded, "Fair enough. Think you can create a cover story by then?"

"I'll do it in my sleep." Wade said with a smile, then glanced to his door, "Hey, look, I know you want to finish the sim, but I need to do some work now. Think you could come back later today with the battle suit? I need to do some tests on it again, make sure it'll stay solid if you go after Dementor or Gill."

"Sure thing, Wade," she answered, "Let me know if you hear anything from Ron, alright?"

"Of course." Wade said, and with that, Kim left with a nod.

XX

Global Justice Headquarters

Somewhere underground in the Tri-City Area

Doctor Director watched as Agent Mallard interrogated the 'mage' named Thackeray, but it was no avail. They had already gone over the security tapes and had confirmed that these men were similar to those encountered by Will Du and Atton Williams last month. She wondered who these people were; they used archaic 'technology', yet seemed to have reliable access to powers and gear that could simulate effects even modern day advanced technology was still developing. What worried her most was the fact that they seemed to be of nearly no trace of anything further, and they weren't confident the texts they had would yield anything.

There was good news however; thanks to the swift attack on this Thackeray's base camp, they had recovered a few texts from the base camp and were now analyzing them. The texts made mention of a "Conclave" that had been concealing magic; a most intriguing thing, as they knew magic was around for a while at this point, especially when they reopened research into "The Ron Factor" to learn about Ron's powers that he exhibited at the alien attack. GJ scientists hoped to use it as a springboard for further understanding of superpowers in general. Unfortunately, such research was on hold due to Ron's current MIA status with only an assurance from Kim that he was alright and would not be available.

She sighed as she looked to one of GJ's scientists, "Status report on the texts?"

"Still translating ma'am, it will take a while. It uses an odd dialect of the language Latin, but seems to contain words we don't recognize. There is mention of a group of creatures called 'vulnari', however." the scientist answered still looking at his screen.

"Related to that text he attempted to steal?"

"Correct ma'am."

"Understood; keep me informed on the texts' translation. The more we understand of this 'magic', the better. We must be ready for whatever this magical WWEE analog this 'Conclave' is."

"Yes ma'am. We've also learned of a group called the 'Chronomancers' in passive mention in one of the texts. It includes a location list, mostly obscured, but one fragment of coordinates links to the temple in Central Africa that Agent Jones' team is investigating."

"Good. What's her status report?"

"They've set up their base camp and have begun their archeological examinations. They'll have more details soon."

"Good. What about the Henchlympics infiltration?"

"Kim Possible has been contacted and Agent Duquette and his team are on stand-by for infiltration."

"Excellent! Keep me informed of any developments." She glanced at the clock, and nodded. She had a meeting to attend to with a number of officers to brief them on their investigative missions against WWEE operations in Europe. They had to stop WWEE from continuing to ferment lawlessness and chaos around the globe, especially in these trying times.

XX

Yamanouchi, Japan

Ron glanced around as he walked through the snow in the mountains; Sensei had instructed him to gather several vials of the water from the volcanic hot springs for some reason. Ron wasn't sure why, but since they had healing properties, he assumed it was for some healing tonic or equally fantastic purpose. The trees were standing forebodingly as he walked through, Rufus in his pocket as he didn't wear the usual robes issued out to the students, but instead chose to wear his mission gear for this one; just to keep comfy in them. Besides, he had thought when he made the decision, I've been in robes day in day out too often; gotta change my pace. He was shaken out of his thoughts when he heard a rustle in the trees and tensed his fists, alert. He looked around in the trees, making out a shadow. He stood there, waiting patiently...

Suddenly, he heard a slight whoosh as a projectile struck and exploded on his chest, blowing him ten meters backwards and causing him to land on his back. "OW!" he shouted as he landed, grunting as he pushed himself up. Two men clad in light armor came out of cover. One was carrying a Japanese-style spear while the other had a number of disc-like projectiles of a yellow color with an oddly familiar sigil on them. They glanced at each other and one of them commented something in Japanese. Ron couldn't understand it, but it sounded roughly like they were surprised he was pushing himself up.

"Really guys?" Ron asked, thinking they were students from Yamanouchi practicing, "Can't you practice gank someone else?"

The two looked at each other when Ron realized they weren't from Yamanouchi. The one with the spear charged as they seemed to come to the conclusion he'd be a fight. Ron grimaced, and charged as well, dodging another of the discus-shaped projectiles as he closed in. He stepped to the side as the man stabbed at him with the spear, then grabbed it, tugging. The man was pulled forward, grunting. Ron ducked as a third discus sped over him, giving the spearman a chance to recover, turning and starting to force Ron back with rapid jabs. Ron growled, leaping to the side, only for another discus to miss him by mere inches.

Wait a second; ward! Ron thought, focusing a moment, and felt a faint drain as the ward was activated. Ron punched at the spearman, hitting the spear's shaft, which stopped the blow, but a hurled discus exploded off of his barrier which stopped the kinetic impact, but Ron grunted as it drained him for stopping the hit. He continued his attack on the spearman, aiming low with a leg sweep and knocking the spearman to the floor. Ron leapt onto him and started hitting him in the face. The spearman's shoulders shot up from the hit, and seemed to be down. Ron glanced up at the other man, who pulled another discus from his backpack.

"Disc Thrower failure," Ron commented, knowing the guy wouldn't get the reference. He ran at him, dodging another discus that exploded under him as Ron leapt over. Before Ron got close enough to hit him, however, a second discus exploded onto his ward, causing him to stagger, but the ward took the hit. Ron closed his eyes from the drain on him, feeling it begin to take a toll as it not only absorbed the impact of the discus but also the nonlethal yield explosion. He recovered and charged, tackling the disc thrower and pinning him to the ground. They struggled and began to roll on the ground as they tried to hit each other, blocking punches and tangling legs as they rolled.

Ron grunted as he was pinned by the larger man and the additional weight afforded by the loaded backpack, looking up at him. Since he was wearing a full face-concealing ninja mask, only his brown eyes were visible. Ron felt something slipping out of his pocket as the two struggled, the man bringing his arms down to try and choke Ron as he fought to keep the arms away from his vulnerable neck.

A loud chomping sound was heard and the man's eyes widened and irises shrunk before he howled loudly in pain and leapt forward over Ron, holding his groin. Glancing ahead, Ron saw Rufus sitting there with a satisfied smirk. Ron chuckled, "Nice one buddy." He pushed himself up and Rufus hopped back into his pocket; the two bandits were on the floor, one too dazed to get up, the other tending his wounded 'dignity', whimpering pathetically in pain as he crawled under a tree. Ron glanced around, wondering if he should do anything.

"Nah," he decided, "Can't do anything anyways..." and with that, he continued along the path to the mountains.

XX

Secondary Dementor Lair

Bavarian Alps

It was night when Shego ignited her plasma as one of Dementor's heavily armored henchmen charged her, and hurled a bolt into his face, knocking him back, but his helmet withstood the impact. Drakken followed up by using his plant powers to trip him before using his powers to bind his legs, unprotected by the man's Balmung battle armor. Shego then walked up and hit him a few times to make sure he stayed down. "Let's go," Drakken said, running to the lair's gate and pulling the control panel off and rewiring the gate lock mechanism easily. Shego looked around, alert for any other defenses Dementor might of had up. Nothing popped out of anywhere from the castle walls or the courtyard around them. Drakken laughed as the gate opened, enjoying the successful hacking as they rushed in and quickly crossed the courtyard, opening the door into the actual lair itself.

To their surprise, the atrium leading into the main hall was empty, as if Dementor had long since abandoned it. Shego frowned as they walked through the main hall; "This doesn't look good... nothing here."

"Ugh, don't tell me Dementor got up and moved on us!" Drakken growled in irritation, "That always vexes me..."

Shego held her hand up, stopping Drakken and closing her eyes as she heard it again. This time Drakken heard it too: snoring.

Then she glanced outside before she turned to him, whispering, "Quiet; I think most of the lair is asleep."

Drakken smiled, nodding, and they crept up the stairs, looking for Dementor's main lab, where, hopefully, information on what Dementor had in mind for his take-over-the-world scheme would be found. He pulled a door open, just a bathroom. He shut it, then moved onto the next one... a bowling ball rolled out, and landed on Drakken's foot. He felt his veins tense as he struggled to keep a scream from echoing out as the bowling ball rolled away and down the hall, rolling down the stairs with dull thunks each time it hit. But no alarm went off.

"That was close," Drakken whispered in pain, gritting his teeth, "Come on…"

"Let me open the next one, doc," Shego said with a glance as she opened the next door; inside was one of Dementor's typical base power generators, and he smiled, looking around for alarm systems; nothing. They entered silently and Drakken moved to the computer, powering it up and overriding the security on it. He snickered quietly as he began downloading the information onto his flash drive, watching a disorder-worthy obsessive amount of information on Kim's battle suit, various notes on HenchCo products, blueprints for unnecessarily evil doomsday devices of all scales from miniaturized Tesla based technology to seismic tectonic disintegrators, and his grocery list.

There was a ding as the download completed, and he smiled, "Got it, let's go!" He ejected the flash drive and pocketed it, following Shego out the door…

"Oi!" shouted someone, and the two skidded to a halt, looking behind them; one of Dementor's grenadiers had spotted them, and pulled the alarm system. Loud klaxons and sirens began to sound, utterly destroying the silent night's peace. Henchmen poured out of the two barracks, some of them carrying shock staves. Drakken sighed, "Oh come on, you think you can really take on the guy who," he shivered, "saved the world from aliens?"

"Get them!" shouted one of the henchmen, and they all began to charge. Shego moved forward, cutting a swathe through the right henchmen while Drakken let his vines have their fun, shooting them through and around the floor, grappling the henchmen with them. As they struggled entangled and unable to move, Shego knocked the defenseless henchmen out with horrific pace. Just the way Drakken liked it.

Something exploded in front of Drakken, severing the vines he had out from him and blowing him back into the door. He slid off of it and landed on his bum, rubbing his head as he glanced up, the pedals yet again popping out. He sighed as he watched the grenadier hurl another of his grenades, but this time Drakken was ready…

… but he didn't have a chance to react as Shego simply shot it with a bolt of her plasma before hurling two more into Dementor's henchman, causing him to be blown back down the hall. Drakken smirked, looking at a security camera and giving a mock salute just to tease Dementor, then pushed the door open, running out with Shego behind him as auto turrets began to pop out of their concealed locations on the walls and opened fire down on them with horrid accuracy, dust kicking up as the blasters hit the ground near them but not hitting them. The overridden gate was trying to shut, but it stayed open until they were both through, at which point it slammed shut as pursuing henchmen slammed into it. They hurried into the nearby hills where Drakken had parked the car, and they hopped in.

In the air above as they flew away, Drakken chuckled, "Now we can see what Dementor is up to!" He plugged it into the hover car's computer as Shego drove, and he looked at it, reading some of the things out loud, "Hah, look at this! Half of this is about Possible's battle suit! I knew he was obsessed, the technophile."

"I don't think technophilia covers that level of obsession," Shego dryly commented, "I think he just wants to get into her pants."

Drakken chuckled despite being unaware that he missed the double meaning, "Indeed, he really should realize that with his short, stubby legs and dwarf like body he wouldn't fit into a skintight cat suit for a slim and agile cheerleader. I can get why he'd want to study the tech, but wear it? How can that be comfortable?"

Shego just shook her head as Drakken droned on. He was amazed at the level of detail Dementor had: it was almost enough data to build his own battle suit. All he needed was component notes and then he could duplicate it!

"Shego, I think we have our next scheme; getting our hands on Kim Possible's battle suit!" Drakken declared at last, "We'll show Dementor, we'll duplicate it first…"

"What? Oh come on, don't give those sites any more help than they need." Shego commented sarcastically.

"They don't need our help." He dismissively stated, "Besides, the suit's tech is way too advanced to pass up."

"Alright, but I'm putting this in the 'going to fail' category right now."

"Whaaaat? Really? Why?"

"Professional hit men failed to take Kim out," Shego explained with a sigh, "They had sniper rifles and all the usual long range coward stuff. I don't think we're going to be able to walk in and take the suit."

"Touché" Drakken commented, "But maybe hit her computer kid's place? What's his name? Wide Load?"

Shego shrugged, "Yeah, maybe. Not sure if he kept the blueprints for the suit though. For all we know, they may of been destroyed when he realized just how powerful that thing was."

Drakken sighed, "Always putting me down. And my plans."

"Only because this one's asking for trouble."

XX

12:22 PM

Possible Residence

Middleton, Colorado

Kim was in her room reading when Wade called.

Beep beep be-beep.

She hit the button and answered, "What's the sitch, Wade?"

"Not sure," Wade answered, "We got a hit on the site from BioTech Unlimited, from one of their auditors. Apparently a shipment of advanced bio-chemicals was supposed to be delivered to their Lowerton branch today, but they never made it."

"Any police reports? GJ reports? Random ransom demands? Black market deals going up?"

"No, nothing. They just vanished off the map. There is a rumor going around Lowerton about a monster being sighted though. A hybrid of sorts, like a rhinoceros crossed with a rabbit or hare…"

"DNAmy…" Kim muttered, "That's probably what happened. Wait, didn't GJ pick her up back in May after she tried to make off with the Genomic Sequencer again?"

"Yeah they did, but apparently she evaded PBD's prison guards in Cell Block D. No clue how and absolutely no records of it. Kim, this isn't going to be easy."

"When is anything valuable easy?" she asked, amazed that PBD still hadn't solidified the security systems against superpowered villains, "You have any tech scans going for the missing tech?"

"Yup; found a hidden lab at Mount Middleton. Uh, Kim, I just did a deeper scan, I'm detecting some pretty high energy signatures from the base."

"Standard evil lair equipment?"

"Probably. Still, be careful. And bring your snow gear, that high up in the mountain is always cold, and some of the output of the lab may cause issues."

"No problem. Let GJ know I'm investigating this, they weren't happy about DNAmy making off with the genomic sequencer. I think they'd like her back behind bars."

"Already on it. Sending rough coordinates to the Sloth's GPS system."

"Got it Wade. Think this is a battle suit mission?"

"If you think so and wanna risk the BSR again, just stop by and pick…" something beeped on Wade's computer, "wait, cancel that, I'm detecting high energy scans, you bring something like that you'll trip alarms ten ways from. This is a low tech mission, I think."

Kim nodded, "Got it, on my way." She hung up, and grabbed her mission gear, suiting up, then grabbed her purple snow gear; it wasn't actually the same gear she used when she busted Drakken's latest alpine lair just before graduation, but rather a replacement for it as it was destroyed. It was still the same style, however. She didn't put it on yet, though; she could slip it on when she got there.

XX

45 Minutes Later

1:09 PM

Mount Middleton Ski Resort

Kim knocked on the desk, waking up the desk jockey named Jacob (based on the nametag), "Hey, looking for any recent sightings here?"

"Huh? Oh," Jacob said, blinking, "Yeah; boss wondered when you'd come by. Right this way."

He led her into a back office and she entered. She didn't have her snow gear on just yet as she was going to wait before putting it on. The office's occupant was sitting as his desk, frowning at a series of photos, some recent and some old. He looked up, "Ah, I had a hunch you'd be coming by soon. Exploring the paranormal yet again, hmmm?"

Kim shrugged, "Actually not here to look into that, but I got a theory on what's behind it."

"Ah, let me hear it, please."

"Certainly, Mister Slope." Kim said as she was gestured to sit down. "Wade was doing some scans and thinks it's DNAmy; you remember her, correct?"

"Yes, the woman who created the snow beast four years back, I recall. Hmmm. The mountain, as you probably know, is usually not too snowy, but up in the farther reaches it's unpredictable. Recently, it's had a lot of cold weather… too cold to be normal, and there are reports of mysterious shipments and people coming from hikers who head up there."

"What kind of shipments?"

"Guarded ones, guarded by professional looking soldiers clad in blue armor and carrying advanced weapons."

Kim blinked, "No way…" she said, thinking she just realized there were potentially rogue GJ agents out here. She quickly covered it up however by saying in a calm, breezy voice: "Alright; can you give me a better location?"

"Unfortunately no, we've cancelled hikes and the guides are on vacation today. You'll have to scale the mountain yourself. If you need camping supplies I'll arrange for some. You may be up there a while."

Kim shook her head, "I'll be fine. Thanks for your time, Mister Slope."

"No problem."

XX

Yamanouchi, Japan

Ron bowed politely as he entered Sensei's room. He wasn't sure what the training today was, but it was going to be an interesting lesson considering the preparations that went into it.

"Thank you," Sensei said as he turned to collect the water samples Ron brought from the mountain, "Sit, I will return shortly."

Ron did so and waited, glancing around. He was surprised to see the Lotus Blade there; normally it was kept in some place Ron didn't know (and he had a funny idea that he knew why). He smiled grimly; nah, Kim wouldn't like it; slashing people in half ain't our style. Still, it'd be really handy; it can turn into anything… sword, club, pointy ball stick, nun chucks, boomerang, Swiss Army Knife, telephone…

Sensei walked back in and sat across from Ron, who realized the table between them had a bo staff on it. He frowned, glancing back up as Sensei began, "One of the more useful powers a magic user has is the ability to charge an item temporarily with magic, enhancing the properties of the item. In the case of weaponry, it enhances the impact. Charging is a useful tool, for combat and for mundane uses such as strengthening a rope used to bind something or preventing overheating of a simple cooking pot."

Ron nodded, "So I'm to charge this staff here, for practice?"

"Correct. Some magical artifacts also accept such charging, such as the Lotus Blade." Sensei gestured over to it, "But unlike a mundane weapon, such can allow much more powerful strikes, or as an extension of yourself when using magic…"

Ron was smiling as he thought of uses for such charging, wondering if he hurled a football with a charge that someone who tried to intercept would be hit hard and may fumble it. Wait, forget it, he thought as he cut himself off, that's cheating, irresponsible use of magic. Still really cool though.

"So how do I do this charge?"

Sensei nodded sagely, "You must focus upon the object and let the energy flow. Such is an easy task with most inanimate objects, but when doing so to magical objects, you must be careful, such charging can give certain artifacts a link to drain you; more than one artifact is designed to do so to all but the owner so that none dare use their possessions."

He winced as he considered possibilities of that, none of them pretty. Melting into a pile of gray or green goo was probably the most lenient of the potential fates.

"The Lotus Blade is not one such object as it was intended to be passed down, but I would advise against charging it unless you intend to use it in combat, and then only charge it with your magic for the strike itself and never in advance. Charge loses potency as time wears and there is little wisdom in excessive displays of charging a weapon. Magical artifacts can also suffer magical overload if you are not careful. Those such as the Lotus Blade can withstand more than you or I could power into it, but other artifacts are not so powerful and may explode or shatter if you are callous with charging it."

Ron nodded as he gained a further understanding, "So just charge when I'm actually going to swing or use it, not to be flashy, Limit it to what I need, nothing more."

"Correct. Now, I will walk you through the technique, and we shall practice on this bo staff."

And so they got to work. Ron was able to reach for his magic and call on it without issue; he'd finally broken that hurdle, but the technique was, while simple, difficult to pull off properly without practice, but he was getting better. Unfortunately, he accidently overcharged the staff, sending it flying out through the wall.

Twelve times.

In a different direction each time.

One for each hour of the clock.

But the good news was nobody was hurt by the flying staff, but Ron was definitely embarrassed by the end of the lesson. And dealt about five hundred yen worth of property damage.

XX

Mount Middleton

Middleton, Colorado

Kim, now suited up in her snow gear, climbed up the cliff face cautiously. She knew she should have gotten someone to stick with her in case she fell, but stealth was needed, so she went it alone. She pulled herself further up the rock face, enjoying the workout; it was a good challenge in comparison to the somewhat monotonous workouts she did in the Middleton Gym. The good news was that Wade detected a blind spot using satellite images from GJ, who gave Kim a full go ahead to go in and do what was needed in consideration of the possible dangers involved with DNAmy's creations, though they had no knowledge of the lab.

The bad news was that the blind spot could only be reached by scaling this steep cliff. Not very bad news, Kim had decided and she was still agreeing with the sentiment. The real bad news was that she'd be unable to call Wade without giving away her position as Wade noticed scans from the lab that were also checking for frequencies. And was specifically tuned to the ones she and Global Justice used. That worried Kim as the only villain who'd been smart enough to try it was Ron when he was turned evil and operating as 'Zorpox', but he had an in there since Ron knew the frequencies.

She was almost to the top of the cliff and could make out the ledge. She reached forward and continued to pull herself up. Once at the top, she pulled herself onto the ledge and caught her breath while looking around. It was snowy, but she could make out a small, rarely used trail if all the undisturbed snow on it was any indication. Perfect, she decided and moved along it, keeping to the trees on the inner side (her left) as she quietly advanced. After a while, she began to notice there were footprints in the main trail… footprints of heavy combat boots. And they were fresh, heading up towards the mountain while some were heading down. Kim kept quiet as she snuck along, not wanting to encounter any henchmen before she had to. Experience had taught her that mountainsides were especially dangerous places to fight, and she had nearly died from falling excessive heights more than once.

It took her a half an hour to finally find a side trail and she took it despite signs of wear, noticing that it led up to a good vantage point. Once she reached the end of the trail, Kim put herself in a prone position to minimize her profile and pulled her binoculars out to observe the small plateau on the mountain across from where she was. She was able to make out two soldiers, renegades (she presumed) in PBD snow uniforms standing guard with GJA-14 Katana shotguns. She noted the unusual choice of weaponry as she adjusted the earpiece in her helmet and activated the directional microphone on the binoculars so she could hear them. They weren't talking and were just breathing heavily in the cold, but Kim was concerned and was hoping that they weren't under mind control. Considering Gemini had pulled it off on some GJ agents in the past, she knew the risk was very real. Now I wish I brought the Tweebs along; a silicon phase disruptor would be perfect, she thought as she took stock of the situation. As Wade hadn't called her to let her know that GJ knew about the facility and it was part of some covert operation, she started looking for ways to breach the lab's security. She examined the path up into the lab, but could find no easy way in that would let her slip in undetected unless she was lucky or fast. It won't be a stealth mission once I'm inside anyways, she decided, and moved back onto the main trail and followed it quickly.

She came to the last cover she'd have until she had to sprint across the thin path between mountain faces into the lair itself. She watched the guards from this last piece of cover, and the guards seemed to be bored, one casually holding his energy shotgun over his shoulder as he yawned. That was something she could count on to help, but she wasn't in snow camouflage. Least my old outfit had that for dark corners; she mused briefly before shaking her head to clear those thoughts. She'd just have to wing it, and she did. Leaping onto the trail again and moving at full speed, she hurried down the path. The guards didn't notice her as she dropped below their line of sight for the moment.

As she came back up on their side of the mountain, she leapt at the right guard, who shouted and raised his energy shotgun, but Kim kicked him in the chest and knocked it away, a single heavy blam sounding as the spray of energy spat into the snow and left smoke rising from the impact as the frozen H2O was boiled in an instant. The second guard didn't bother trying to aim his shotgun and dropped it as he activated his electro-gauntlets, swinging at her with proficient skill and accuracy. Despite this, she effortlessly dodged the strike and hit him with a right hook followed by several swift kicks to the chest, knocking him down and out. She went inside, pulling the helmet off as it wouldn't help her in here and dropped it by the door.

"No alarm," she whispered to herself in surprise before she started to creep down the hall, sticking to the side as best she could and looking for any security cameras. There was little wear on the shiny metal flooring and wall finish, telling her the lab was extremely new and by the hum of machinery she heard deeper down, the lab was in full operation. She passed by a few doors, but glancing into each one told her they were janitor's closets or bathrooms, the former more common than the latter. As she came to a four-way hall, she glanced in each direction, and quickly got back into cover as she saw a pair of renegades walking down the hall, energy rifles casually slung over their shoulders. She listened;

"So Maddie, wanna go out tonight?" the male soldier asked, "I can get a reservation easy if you're up for it."

"That's nice, Jack, but I have to head home; mother's sick."

"Oh; right." He sounded disappointed and Kim couldn't help but smirk at the hopeless suitor's dating attempt. The footsteps were closer now, and the guards were coming out by the corner…

She leapt out of concealment, tackling 'Maddie' and knocking her to the floor with a dull thud. Jack, an extremely large man, swore while grabbing his service pistol as he didn't have time to get his rifle off its back mount, but Kim swiftly grabbed his arm and twisted it briefly to force him to drop the pistol before she flung him into the wall with a judo throw, grunting under his sheer mass. He hit the chrome-finished wall with a grunt and slid down, head lolling to the side as he was knocked unconscious. She glanced around and smiled, pulling the two guards into one of the janitor's closets to give her a few more moments of stealth.

She paused, briefly considering taking one of the guard's uniforms so she could slip through any other patrols without having to use stealth, but then decided against it. She knew they wouldn't fit her because they were too large. Kim did find amusement from considering that a uniform too large would be better for her infiltration given her physique, but these uniforms were just too big to work. However, she did pick up their security cards and sealed the janitor's closet with them. "Perfect," she whispered to herself, knowing that with the cards she should be able to access and breach security doors these two were cleared for. Pocketing them, she walked back out and continued to sneak along the walls.

She came across a locked door and opened it with one of the security cards. Two guards and a technician turned as she entered. "Kim Possible?" the technician shouted, "What're you doing here?... why do you look like you're going to beat us up?"

The two guards were quicker on the uptake though, and brought their GJA-13's to bear. Unfortunately for them, Kim was much faster. She ducked and got out of the way as they fired, the two guards blasting each other into the wall with their stun rounds. The technician screamed in horror and ran, but she leapt at him quickly, knocking him to the floor before he could pull the alarm. She checked to make sure he wasn't too hurt and confirmed he was only unconscious. She glanced at the computer terminal and smiled, pulling the technicians keycard from him.

Accessing the still-opened computer, she was able to access what the tech was controlling. She smiled even wider as she realized that she could disable the scanners and get Wade access as the actual device was located here. She got to work doing so, going through the screens until she found it: Disable High-Tech Scanners. She hit it and a small form came up and it requested ID. She put the tech's keycard in, getting a green light, and put in a quickly falsified maintenance need. The computer blinked an acceptance, and the advanced scanner went down as it thought it was getting repairs. With the scanner down and communications presumably unmonitored, she decided to call Wade.

"Kim?" Wade asked, "What happened to communications blackout?"

"Disabled the scanner. Here, I'm linking you into the facility." She hit a few keys and Wade got to work, cracking into the opening Kim had made as Wade put his cyber-fu into full effect.

"Got it! I'm in. Kim, there's a barracks full of guards a floor down, and the elevator is right next to it. I can't disable the cameras, so once you get out of the elevator you'll be swarming with these renegades."

"Got it Wade; anything you can do?"

"I could douse the lights if you have your nightvision goggles, but these renegades may have them too." Wade stated.

"Don't have them;" Kim answered, "They were destroyed at graduation, remember?"

"Oh, right. Huh, the vents in the barracks are open. You have any of the lip gloss with you?"

"Yeah; but gassing the whole place will get me too. I didn't bring a gas mask or a rebreather."

"Don't worry; I'll lock the barracks down. Put it in the vent and let it loose then get into the elevator, it's sealed from the vents. I'll ping you when it's safe to get out."

Kim nodded, and set to work. She opened a vent grate and inhaled as deeply as she could, opening it and letting the stink solution into the vents. She closed it once Wade beeped her Kimmunicator once, and she shut the grate, which Wade remotely sealed. She then hurried to the elevator, glad there wasn't any guards as she nearly needed to breathe for air as the solution began to spill despite Wade's vent adjustments. Once inside, she exhaled sharply, almost gasping for breath as the slid down on the elevator's walls. She stood up as the elevator stopped, dinging faintly. Wade gave her the signal, and she stepped out…

And the moment she did so, an alarm klaxon began to blare loudly, almost deafening her as a woman shouted over the intercom: "Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Base perimeter has been breached! Repel the invader!"

"There goes the stealth part of this mission," Kim dryly commented to herself as an enemy riot soldier rushed out with his shield and baton ready. She didn't want to know where or how these guys got genuine PBD equipment, but if DNAmy was behind this, she had a feeling she'd find out soon enough with the full facial masks they wore. The riot soldier swung at her while using his shield to try and force her into the wall where she'd be trapped between a hammer and anvil, but Kim leapt into the air over him and kicked him in the back of the head as she came down tumbling, knocking him forward. He grunted as he hit against the metal wall, turning awkwardly as his shield banged against it. He was dizzy from the experience, and Kim finished it with a few swift strikes to his chest, knocking the wind out of him. He collapsed and Kim rubbed her hands briefly. Even wearing thicker gloves than she usually did, hitting Kevlar armor never became less any painful for her.

She moved on, passing the knocked out barracks as the alert continued to blare loudly. Two more soldiers charged, one with electro-gauntlets active, the other crouching and taking aim with a GJA-13. Kim leapt into the air and pushed herself off the walls over and around the first clip of energy rounds as it was being expended, dodging all forty rounds as he fired a spray-and-pray barrage at her. As he reloaded, she grappled with the other soldier who struck hard and knocked her into the wall with a painful hit to the chest. Pushing herself off, she ducked under his next swing and flung him into the other soldier, leaving them as a neat pile to the side.

"Possible!" shouted a soldier with a GJA-15 Vindicator hybrid, "What's going on?"

"Wait," Kim said as she turned, wondering why he wasn't just shooting her in the back with his fairly close range, "What're you talking about?"

"Close the blast doors! Intruder identified! All hands target and gun down Kim Possible!"

The soldier paused, and Kim realized that something was wrong. If its mind control, it's wearing off… then she grunted as an energy blast caught her in the chest, sending her soaring backwards as her muscles started to spasm from the stun energy at close range. She snarled as the soldier took aim with another shot, Kim recognizing the rifle's shotgun mode. She pushed herself off and leapt over the conical burst that slammed into the wall and singed it before she landed, hitting him in the chest before hurling him into the floor and knocking the rifle away. He charged his energy gauntlets, but it was too little too late at this point: she was up close and easily knocked him out despite his futile swings. Getting up, she turned and rushed towards a door into a large room as it shut. She tucked and rolled forward as it nearly slammed down and crushed her like a pancake, giving her only a split second to spare from that grisly fate.

Kim got up as she stopped rolling, finding herself in the large room that was dome shaped. Within was a large amount of equipment exactly like DNAmy's favored lab equipment. She suspected it actually was her favored lab equipment, as she could make out a genetic splicer. There were large catwalks on the side where it looked like there were a series of small isolated areas for testing any experiments from the lab. In the center was a raised platform, and towards the back was a large amount of unpacked lab equipment. Kim could make out several thickly armored tubes of what she assumed was unstable chemicals to her right, hooked up to the genetic splicer. Kim was glad that DNAmy had learned from her previous mistakes, but she didn't see the obsessive collection of Cuddle Buddies that was in the previous one. Kim was well aware of the fact DNAmy had recovered her collection. She concluded her observations noting a large door to the left, another blast door, but it didn't seem to be sealed.

Two laser turrets suddenly popped out from the floor before the unstable chemicals on her right and a large door on the left, and Kim leapt into the air before they fired, hitting the blast door harmlessly. She landed, and they fired again, only for her to step to the side and dodge. She spun into the air, and over as the lasers turned up, and they hit each other, disabling themselves. As she landed, she smiled, "Once again, cheerleading beats overly advanced hardware."

She glanced up as she heard a loud roar, and saw a giant hybrid animal stomp in from the large door she saw earlier. It was a hybrid of a rabbit and a rhinoceros, with two large buck teeth, fur, and rabbit ears but with the horn and thick skin of a rhino. Its muscular yet lean grey body was well protected from anything she could do to it between both thick hide and fur intended for the quite cold climate of the Rocky Mountains. Its actual face was lighter than its body, and cute whiskers came from its almost rectangular head along its mouth. She immediately had flashbacks to almost four years ago in vivid, rapid detail, practically pinning her in place as adrenaline surged and the door behind it sealed shut.

"Shit!" Kim swore, realizing just how screwed she was unless she could come up with something clever. She normally didn't swear, but this was a bowel breaking sight as DNAmy's huge monster confronted her for a one on one battle and she didn't have anything to take it out with. She sighed, rolling the sleeves of her snow gear up and glanced out of her peripheral vision for something that she could use. The rhino-rabbit charged at her and she barely had time to leap to the side as it collided with the blast door, tearing through it with its horn and pushing the now twisted metal outwards. It growled like a fierce wounded animal as it pulled itself out, leaping at her.

Kim barely had time to get clear as it landed, the shockwave of such a landing blowing her away into a thick and (fortunately) armored tube of unstable chemicals. Grunting as she hit it and fell down, she pushed herself back up and kept moving, running through a gauntlet of various lab equipment sets in an obstacle course of escaping death, her limbs aching moderately from the impacts she'd taken. She reached a dead end and turned around as the rhino-rabbit charged after her, snarling at her. She leapt up and landed on its back, causing it to skid to a halt as she ran forward and leapt onto the lab equipment. It began to slam on it, trying to knock her off as the lab equipment shook heavily from each hit. "Wade!" she shouted as she leapt over a gap, gripping a catwalk and pulling herself up, "Got a big hairy problem! When did DNAmy's buddies get released?"

"Trying to figure that out Kim! GJ just said that a PBD officer is swearing up a storm on their channels, I think something's going down. They're trying to find out what!"

"Anything on the rhino- hang on!" she leapt off the catwalk as the rhino-rabbit leapt up, nearly smashing her off of the catwalk as she leapt, drawing her grappling hook and shooting it at the ceiling, the hook embedding itself, and she swung across and released the grapple. The rhino-rabbit roared again, loud enough to shake the lab equipment and cause her to stagger. She was panting at this point with the athletics she had to pull off to avoid getting hit. She landed atop the genetic splicer, turning as the rhino-rabbit continued its pursuit.

"No, you try shocking it?"

Kim flipped the shock stick out and zapped at the rhino-rabbit. The arc of electricity sped across and hit it, arcing along, but besides the faint odor of singed fur, there was no effect. "Yeah, just did. Nothing." She quickly shot another grapple into the domed ceiling and soared away as the rhino-rabbit began to climb up on the splicer.

"Its skin is thick; try getting a breach!"

Kim released the grapple as it began to break out of the ceiling, falling and landing on another catwalk. She sped down as the rhino-rabbit began to pull the catwalks down from under her. She panted heavily as she ran for her life, trying to figure out how to stop the thing. She couldn't find anything she could turn on the hybrid to take it down as she reached the end of the catwalk and leapt down, landing with a roll as she kept sprinting. The rhino-rabbit pursued as she leapt onto the central platform, leaping off as it landed on it, splintering the place and sending her flying away again as the shockwave caught her, knocking her against an unpacked crate of equipment.

Crashing against it, she pushed herself away as the rhino-rabbit turned towards her again, growling fiercely. She hurried past the genetic splicer and ran by the unstable chemicals, towards the broken blast door, but as she got closer, she realized it wasn't breached enough for her to slip through, and the door didn't look like it was going to open. She saw the (now right) blast door and ran forward towards the access panel as the rhino-rabbit skidded to a halt as it tried to turn, it's bushy tail briefly hitting the broken blast door.

"Come on, come on, work for Kim…" she muttered desperately as she accessed the panel, trying each of the ID cards, but it was rejected each time. She glanced behind her, the rhino-rabbit was beginning to charge again, and to her left was a solid wall.

She didn't have any other option and ran to the right, taking cover in a maze of lab equipment. She swore it was larger on the inside than the outside as she ducked left, right, doubling back at U-turns, zigzagging through the maze. The rhino-rabbit maintained pursuit regardless, the thunder of its thumping feet as it gave chase causing her vision to bounce. She darted to the left again when she suddenly found herself caught between a wall and two huge stacks of packed lab equipment, like an open box before the trap was closed. "Oh no, dead end!" she gasped in horror as she skidded to a halt and turned around hoping to clear herself from the trap in time. She couldn't: the rhino-rabbit had already gotten in the way and boxed her in like a rat. She heard a loud noise in the distance, that of metal collapsing, but she hardly registered it as she felt fear rushing through her body.

The rhino-rabbit galloped at her and this time, she was stuck. You only got one chance, Possible, make it count! She thought as she tried to leap up and climb over it, but as she jumped it grabbed her and dragged her to the floor, pinning her and snarling at her with its hot, smelly breath beating down on her as it looked at her with furious rage. Kim struggled, trying to pull herself out; she had no intention of getting eaten by a hybridized herbivore. Way to go, Possible, she thought grimly as she realized she was stuck, you got your ass handed to you by a giant mutant, she struggled to get free as the rhino-rabbit's huge buck teeth closed on her neck.

"Don't hurt her!" shouted a woman with an innocent voice, "Let her go, it's alright, come to momsy, Thumper, it's alright… it's alright…"

Kim paused as she tried to place the voice, it was very familiar to her and upon hearing it the rhino-rabbit let her go and trotted off. She pushed herself up to see DNAmy in lab gear petting the aberrant hybrid gently, "It's OK, it's OK; she didn't know about the deal."

"Deal? What deal?" Kim asked with a frown when and about twenty-five soldiers took up positions, some with riot shields forming a barrier while others aimed GJA-13's and 14's at her. A female officer with a captain's insignia walked up to the forefront of the semicircle aimed at her.

"Miss Possible; you're under arrest for trespass, forced entry, assault and battery of PBD officers, and vandalism." The officer said with her hands held behind her back, the nametag reading 'Sarah Wesley'. "If you don't comply we will use force, lethal if necessary."

"Stand down," DNAmy said, turning, "She wasn't aware of the agreement. No one was."

"She just assaulted my men."

"And in the agreement, I'm in charge of this facility. Or do you not want my expertise?"

"Miss Hall…"

"Don't be such a meanie! She probably got a call about the chemicals we bought under-the-table and you're aware this is hardly a public lab."

"I'm not backing down," Captain Wesley said with a low, threatening voice as she sneered, "Men, take Possible into custody."

"Stand down," DNAmy said as the rhino-rabbit growled at the soldiers, who looked at each other and edged backwards a few steps. Had the circumstances been different, Kim would have found the scene hilarious, but they weren't. What really got her was the fact she just beat the daylights out of the guys she was on the same side of. Even if she didn't have the full story it was hardly a way to help GJ protect the reconstruction and help ensure a safe free world. The officer stared daggers at her and Kim wondered if she should be watching her back for snipers, especially considering PBD bases usually had at least one for long range support.

"Fine, I'll call the General." Wesley darkly stated, "Men, keep an eye on Possible. If she tries to leave the facility, take her down."

The soldiers saluted as she left, and filed out of the lab. The rhino-rabbit put a paw to its face, where it was bleeding from hitting the blast doors. DNAmy hugged the aberration, baby-talking it as Kim glanced around, calling Wade as DNAmy walked back into the main area of the lab near the wreckage of the central platform.

"Hey Kim; yeah, I know it's too late, but…"

"The lab was run by PBD, yeah… GJ get the full story?"

"Affirmative," Dr. Director said as she came onto the channel, "Needless to say, I've had some choice words with Brigadier General Duran about arranging for a villain's release from Cell Block D. PBD doesn't have that authorization unless said villain's sentence is actually up."

"General Duran?" Kim asked with a frown as she began walking out of the maze of lab equipment, "I thought General Malta was in charge of PBD activities in Middleton."

"So did I," Dr. Director answered. "GJ will be investigating this, but since you were investigating a legitimate concern and potential security risk, they can hardly blame you. Still, it is within Duran's profile and character to be extremely volatile about his actions being disrupted."

"Define volatile," Wade asked, "Because if he goes too far-"

"He'll attempt to see her incarcerated for this, but it won't stick. Don't worry about it; I'll handle him and talk to General Malta, he won't be happy about Duran doing something like this in his jurisdiction. This isn't the first time he's done something under the books, but it is a first for something else. He evidently had authorization to begin this research, however, and recruited DNAmy for that purpose."

Kim nodded as she glanced over towards DNAmy as she came out of the maze, "I'll see if I can't find out anything here; doesn't sound like he'll come around and out on this."

"Affirmative. Remain in the base until dismissed; we'll iron things out on this end. Doctor Director signing off." She cut her connection to the channel, and Wade nodded before ending the transmission. Kim sighed, then walked towards DNAmy, who was nursing the cuts her so-called 'pet' had.

"So…" Kim awkwardly asked, "What's the sitch here?"

"Oh! PBD wanted my expertise with DNA; after all I'm called DNAmy for a reason… anyways, he was willing to let me retire peacefully with no further penalties from the genomic sequencer's theft if I did research into alien DNA samples PBD had."

"Wait, alien DNA?" Kim frowned, immediately thinking of graduation and Area 51.

"Yeah; apparently they got some samples from the wreckage from those meanie walker's mother-ship. Thanks for not completely wrecking its med bay, by the way. It's really interesting to examine some of the samples from it. Oh, the limitless knowledge!"

"Heh, thank Ron; he was the one who practically demolished the ship. With the aliens themselves." She sheepishly answered, "So, why does he want you to do it?"

"Well, evidently he thinks genetic augmentations could be gained, you know, sort of like what HenchCo uses. Oh, it'll be amazing to make hybrids of human an alien, without needing to drag an alien into a genetic splicer! It's one plus point five equals two!"

Kim inhaled sharply and backed a few steps away. DNAmy was one of the less evil villains she faced, but she made up for it in sheer creepiness and her obsession with hybrids. If she had an upside, Kim had long ago decided, it was that she tended to be harmless on the large scale, which was saying something given the unstable technology she worked with. And being fused with alien DNA was not something she would wish on her worst enemies, in fact, she didn't even think human DNA would be compatible enough for it to work.

XX

PBD Firebase Alternate-1

Upperton, Colorado

Brigadier General Malta held his fingers in a tent as he frowned, listening to Brigadier General Duran and Dr. Director.

"I want Possible incarcerated immediately!" Duran demanded, "She just took out one of my bases. If she was a PBD soldier or GJ meat bag she'd of been brought in on charges, I don't see why her being a freelancer has anything to do with this! Bah, she's nothing better than a mercenary whore, why're we even bothering with this conversation!"

"General Duran, your experiments were kept off the books and under the table and you used technology that was, based on all evidence, illegally acquired from BioTech Unlimited." Doctor Director responded,"An auditor from BioTech noted this and called Kim to check out given the fact that the cargo mysteriously disappeared without a trace en route and the fact that those chemicals have been used for nefarious purposes in the past. A tech scan that GJ correlated indicated energy scans from the equipment in said secret lab coming from Mount Middleton. Given rumors of a snow beast going around again, Kim was investigating what she recognized DNAmy's handiwork. Given her equally mysterious escape from Cell Block D, the only logical conclusion with such information was she had escaped and was up to her old tricks again. Given that you did not inform either Global Justice or General Malta, who is responsible for the nearest PBD Firebase to your lab and the fact that Miss Possible contacted us prior and received a full go ahead from us means that in technicality, Global Justice was investigating a potential high-tech hazard to the free world, as is our duty, which is not unlike your own."

"More like you let a mercenary do what she wanted." Duran bitterly answered, "Has Global Justice really fallen so far that it can't fight its own battles and has to rely on a mid-pubescent bitch to do its work?"

General Malta shook his head; he normally didn't agree wholeheartedly with Doctor Director, but this was one time where he was really on her side of an argument. Duran's badmouthing did not help his case either, as Kim had likely felt the full joys of puberty by then. "She's correct, General Duran. I wouldn't of sent Possible in alone, but had I gained similar information, I would have acted on the knowledge I had and was able to access. Because it is our responsibility to prevent these so-called villains from endangering innocent lives with their experiments so it becomes necessary for those like Kim to intervene, a pre-emptive strike with that evidence fits well within our rules of engagement. As you're aware, no one was killed, and while there were several injuries, none were serious."

"And about ten thousand dollars worth of equipment was destroyed. Tell me, can that be replaced so easily?" Duran angrily replied, "I want Possible locked up in Cell Block D for this! She almost entirely destroyed the lab!"

"General, the only damage she directly did was to the guards and their combat equipment, a damage that is well calculated in the budget. It was DNAmy's hybrid rhino-rabbit did most of the damage to the lab." Doctor Director countered, "Are you going to hold that abominable aberration responsible as well?"

Malta sighed, shaking his head as Duran answered, "It was answering to Possible's break in; any damage it dealt is her responsibility! It is not the responsibility of DNAmy's pet."

"Why did you let DNAmy keep her pets anyways, or allow them near such a lab?" Malta asked, "It sounds to me like you knew the risks of such if there was a break-in."

"She refused to leave Cell Block D without them released from our labs," Duran stated, "Besides, I suspected having that around would be useful if someone attempted to break in, just like Possible did. Given it managed to corner her and almost used her for floss, I was correct."

Malta smacked a hand to his forehead and sighed as he pulled it down. This was just too much of a mess for him. "Doctor Director," he stated as he pulled his hand away from his face, "Kim falls under GJ's purview more than she does PBD's. What's your status on this mess and what we should do about it?"

"I think that we need to debrief her. I expect she shall be sending an apology for the misidentification, but otherwise all that occurred was a grievous miscommunication between our branches and reasonable reactions based in incomplete information."

"Bullshit!" Duran thundered, "Don't play favorites just because the cheerleader can wipe the walls with all your incompetent so-called agents, Doctor Director. If you have a problem with detaining her, I'll send in my snipers with GJA-19's, she's only mortal. Or we can just have her international visa redacted, so when she tries to go do her amateurish stunts again, we can pick her up that way and get local law enforcement's support. I doubt she'd resist honest cops doing their jobs."

Doctor Director stared hard through Duran's view screen on her end, enough that Malta almost pitied Duran as she began; "General Duran, I think you've misunderstood me. I'm confident that we could detain Possible if needed, but the need to do so is not yet here. She verified that it wasn't a secret lab of ours and since PBD is supposed to log these kinds of bases with Global Justice just like we do for you, that should settle the matter."

"Bah; I'm taking this to the Security Council. See what they think. Mark my words, these vigilante screw-ups we've allowed to roam free are going to be the death of us all. Stopping these kinds of incidents is exactly why PBD was founded in the first place." With that statement of livid disgust, Duran cut the feed. Director shook her head and glanced at Malta again as he leaned his cheek against his fist, slowly shaking his head.

"Well, this was a mess." Malta said, "But while I disagree about incarcerating Possible given she acted reasonably with the evidence she had, he did have a point about accountability."

"What are you suggesting?" Doctor Director asked with a frown, her one good eye focusing on him.

"I think we need to 'enlist' her sometime soon. She's already expressed interest in joining Global Justice, so I would personally suggest you extend the offer to her. She's old enough now. Yes, she hasn't started college, that's true, but I think that can be taken care of given we have soldiers in our ranks who're still going to night courses." He didn't like the idea; in fact, he was opposed to Kim joining either PBD or GJ just yet, but she needed accountability in either organization, her civilian status was becoming a problem between not being obligated to file full reports and this, he was starting to wonder if he had made the wrong choice in planning to convince her to play poster girl for getting a lid on powers before it was too late.

"I will make the offer, but she's made it clear she wants to at least finish college first. If you want her to consider PBD that's your area, not mine."

"Of course. I'll see if I can't speak to her soon. General Malta signing out." With a nod, he cut the transmission and sighed, leaning back in his chair. The afternoon was indeed an annoying one; between this and a report he'd been reading on a major HenchCo expo coming soon he really wondered if the dogs hadn't broken the leash already. Then again, Hench keeps it legal enough to pass. Bah, he should have been shut down years ago. He just hoped Global Justice's agents in there would be able to nullify anything.

XX

"Secret" PBD Research Lab

Mount Middleton

Middleton, Colorado

Kim had to admit it: DNAmy was a talented geneticist given her ability to splice DNA together and built as if she was playing with Lego bricks. But what surprised her was that DNAmy was good enough with tools to maintain all her own equipment: she had already repaired some of the damages that had been caused in the lab, all with parts on-hand.

"Of course, it's going to take a while to fix all the way; catwalks aren't exactly my area," DNAmy stated as she reconnected tubes to a vat of likely unstable chemicals, "But then again, we can't do anything. 'cept for you, I guess."

"Yeah, I'm lucky like that…" Kim slowly answered with a frown, "So what kind of DNA research did this Duran want?"

"Didn't I say it already, silly? He wants me to see if we can't hybrid human and alien DNA. Just think of the amazing work behind it!"

Kim thought of that and the possibilities. None of them were looking good to her the way she saw it. She had enough problems with Hench's genetic modifications to Dementor's henchmen; she didn't need to fight henchmen boosted up to the level of aliens that she had to wear the battle suit to fight one-on-one. Even the benefit of powerful GJ or PBD soldiers wasn't something she thought was worth it and she personally felt that using these things cheated people out of working for it, the thing that made real fighters. The door opened again and Captain Wesley walked in with a scowl on her face. Kim turned towards her as DNAmy just continued working. "Captain Wesley?"

"You're free to go, Possible, but if I see you back in here without authorization, I won't hesitate to go full protocol on you. Have a nice day." The PBD officer said darkly. Kim nodded slowly, knowing that she didn't make any friends that day.

"I understand," Kim said, then nodded, walking out.

As she rode up the elevator, the door opened and one of the soldiers she beat up was leaning against the wall, he looked up as she came out. "Hey, Possible!" he said. Kim was worried it would be a problem as he stood off the wall and looked at her.

"What's the sitch?" Kim asked.

"Just wanted you to know a lot of us aren't holding ill will over this. I mean, it isn't every day we get to say we got our asses handed to us by the Kim Possible," he said with a smile, chuckling faintly, "There's a heck of a thing to tell the kids, eh?"

"Uh, right." Kim answered, caught off guard by how well they were taking the fact that they got the daylights beaten out of them. She really hoped it was more than just hard heads, because if it was, then she wasn't sure if they were thinking straight. "No one was really hurt?"

"Nah," the soldier answered, "Few bruises but we're all fine. Don't worry 'bout us or the Captain, she tends to take things outta proportion."

Unfortunately she may have a better grip on this then these guys… Kim worriedly thought, realizing that what she did should have landed her a spot in Cell Block D, but it wasn't. She wasn't sure how much the fact that she was acting on information she had and had checked with Global Justice would actually protect what she did to these men and women doing their jobs. She walked out of the base, picking up her helmet at the door, surprised no one grabbed it, and headed down the mountainside, using the main trail rather than the blind spot.

It was evening by the time she had gotten back to her home.

XX

Drakken's Caribbean Lair

Drakken hummed to himself as he set to work, experimenting with the schematics he had found in Dementor's archives. The poor synthodrone he was playing with was silent and unmoving, but Drakken could tell it wasn't pleasant with the experience as he modified the circuits with new targeting capabilities. Grenades are nice, but once I'm done these drones can use electrostaffs or actual ranged weapons! he thought with a smile as he continued working, connecting the wires back together. He always disliked the fact that synthodrones were unable to man equipment or use weapons because of programing limitations on most of them… except for 901.Alas, poor Erik, I knew you well, he thought with a sigh. If he had to pick one synthodrone, it'd be Erik. Top of the line upgrades and a literal made-to-order hottie, he showed just how easy it was to lure Kim Possible into a trap. Of course, that avenue had been welded shut thanks to her and Ron finding their feelings for each other.

"Doctor D?" Shego asked from behind him.

"Huh? What?" Drakken asked, feeling like a deer in the headlights as he was jolted out of his thoughts.

"The drone's melting."

"Huh? Aw doodles…" he said as he turned to see the drone melting as it's skin had been breached by the tweezers he used. He sighed, "That's it, maybe the first upgrade I need to do to these things is armor. Come on, the naked weasel can bite through these things."

"Well, they are supposed to be expendable, Doc. I mean, you admitted it yourself, making them to function as henchmen replacements just didn't work out because they're inherently more fragile." Shego pointed out, "Maybe getting those old armors out wouldn't be a bad idea, or try another type of robot."

Drakken inhaled, sighing, "Maybe, but synthodrones are my invention and even if HenchCo got their hands on the ability to make them, they're still my patent." He paused, curling his lip, then muttered to his self, "Not that I actually patented it..."

"Well doc, I can always check the arsenal that's up in Greenland if you want."

Drakken frowned, considering. "Hmmm… yes, I think that would be a worthwhile trip. You want to go alone or should I come with you?"

"Whatever works for you."

Drakken glanced at the melted drone and it's central parts, then back at Shego. "I'll stay here, I think. Keep up the work and get these modifications ironed out. Hopefully I'll have something worthwhile to use on Dementor once you're back."

"Alright then Doc, see you tomorrow."

XX

End Chapter

* A filler chapter, really. I always wanted to establish that PBD is somewhat eff'd up when you consider that, going by the fic using the blue-Kevlar wearing soldiers as PBD, hire and sanction experiments into things like Mind Control (see The Twin Factor for that story), and I always find the TV Trope "Civil Warcraft" to be an interesting one to look at. In this case, it's a case of epic communication failure. Think about it; in the KP setting secret labs are practically run of the mill/daily. People like Kim break into these labs. I've always wondered if she's ever gotten word of a black ops one that was actually ran by the good guys; call this fleshing out the idea. Though to be honest, I personally think Kim should of realized it was a PBD base sooner, that'd just ruin the suspense. Heck, if someone didn't realize it was a PBD firebase when I make mention of the GJA armaments they're using, then well, not sure what I can do.

* DNAmy is a villain that I find is less evil and more just insane/extremely obsessive. She's still evil, but in comparison to some of the other villains like Monkey Fist, she's mild. Alright, so potentially her two henchmen in Downhill were people she kidnapped, but that was never confirmed so we have no way of knowing besides fan theory. She's also interesting to write, given these facts.

* Sorry folks; Drakken and Shego won't show up in the next chapter at the Henchlympics. They'd notice Kim in a heartbeat and basically SNAFU the entire operation, so the iron fisted hand of plot intervenes. Well, Kim/Ron/Shego/Junior/Senior seem to all acknowledge the genre savvy things to do, they just seem to have a 4th wall realization that they have to do something for the plot :P

* Ron's "charging" magic trick is pretty much just setting up for rule of cool. Hitting someone with a magical blade is badass. Hitting someone with a magical blade that glows with power for additional massive damage? That just exponentially increases the badassery. And crosses the line into overkill and "everybody gun that super down NOW!"

* I probably should of mentioned this last chapter, but Mister Cuirass, the curator at the Tri-City Museum, is the same man that Kim and Ron talked to in ASiT after the Tempus Simia was stolen. Obviously, the events of that timeline are technically non-canon in the sense that they didn't happen in the 'main' timeline, but are canon in the sense that they happened, they just didn't... (Quote Ron; "Time Travel, it's a cornucopia of disturbing concepts")

* Several original character's have visuals made using Mission Architect in Paragon Studios' City of Heroes on DeviantArt at my account LukeDanger for those interested in seeing my interpretation of how they look. Up at this point are, of those that have actually appeared so far, General Adrian Malta, Robert "Shieldbash" Webber, and Fredrick von Vage.

* As another note, expect updates to be biweekly now rather than weekly. This should give me less crunch time and allow me to keep 'draft space' made ahead. I've done it for two weeks but never made a note of it. However, expect Chapter 11 to come in three weeks as I want time to work on my entry to AmericanGecko's Minor Character Contest.

* I also apologize for being late on this update, but I was recovering from a case of "America, Fuck Yeah!" after I found out the news of what happened May 1st, 2011 ;)

XX

XX

-=Document Recovery: "Wade Load"=-

Source: Global Justice Databank

Select Data Folder:

Important Figures/Teams/Organizations:

Choose File Set:

Team Possible:

-Sub-Directories:

Members:

File: IMP-03

Subject: Wade Load

Alias: Geek-One (online nickname/standard GJ operational codename)

Gender: Male

DOB: September 17th, 1992

Classification: Non-Combatant (Akin to a Mad Scientist; relies on gadgetry)

Origin: Tech (No known powers, but extremely reliant on technology)

Affiliation: Freelances his talents occasionally to companies such as Valkyrie Dynamics as well as Global Justice, but is not directly affiliated outside of Team Possible

Citizenship: United States of America

Summery/History:

- If Kim Possible is the tank, then Wade Load is the engineer who keeps it operational for combat situations. Subject is the backbone of Team Possible's operations; without him, they would have great difficulty operating as they would lose access to free and reliable gadgetry and someone able to maintain watch on incoming calls. Given the subject is not yet old enough to hold a proper job to use his talents he has found a calling in Team Possible. Wade is notable also for being the only member of Team Possible at this time who was not there in the founding, being recruited approximately three months after she rescued Mister Paisley during the events of her run-in with a WWEE front company (see file MOA-01B). Wade had provided her with the lead and also provided subtle hacking support for the operation and approached Kim after it had finished, offering to maintain her site for her. Although somewhat hesitant at first, Kim accepted the offer after she verified his story. He was skipped ahead to the High School level and by the age of ten he had aced both high school and college (in six months) with degrees in engineering and a wide array of physics and a minor in biological chemistry.

- Wade Load's actions have been on the subtler side in comparison to Kim Possible or Ron Stoppable, but Global Justice is keeping an eye on him as he has the very easy potential to become a very effective villain. This was made clear when Drew Lipski (AKA Doctor Drakken) had knocked out Wade's systems and used video and audio mimicry to impersonate him, resulting in him using Kim to acquire the "Transportulator", a teleportation device designed by Professor Dementor (see file HTS-32). Should Wade turn, he would be able to manipulate the rest of Team Possible towards his evil schemes. Fortunately, due to finally meeting him in person several times this is less likely to be unnoticed instead of before when they never met in person.

- Wade Load has designed a large array of gadgets in use by Team Possible, the most iconic of these being Kim's grappling hook, her battle suit, and the 'Kimmunicator', a pun-named PDA-like device recently converted into a watch form used for communication purposes. Other gadgets he has developed includes 'laser lipstick', a compact mirror using an ablative glass composite to deflect plasma and laser based weaponry, a (rarely used) stealth suit, rocket rollerblades, a hologram which can be used for anyone but most notably Kim, electromagnetic scramblers, and many more situational gadgets. His skill in creating these from relatively mundane and common components has given GJ logistics agents pause, but duplication of his methods have proven to be inefficient without his personal touch.

- Global Justice agents have recommended recruiting him into its science and engineering divisions to benefit from his skills and to hopefully find ways of mass producing his gadgetry, even if it must be in a watered down state for such. Given his scientific skills, Global Justice agents believe that he will be capable of advancing human technology to new levels and what was once thought of as Science Fiction will become reality.

- Wade has recently been contracted by Global Justice to develop new combat armor and it is intended to contact him as well as Jim and Tim Possible in regards to reverse engineering alien technology recovered, as PBD Brigadier General "Pinpoint" Townes has been having difficulty in that department (See File LTD-66). Given Wade had managed to figure out how to reverse the secondary radiation effects from the alien's plasma weapons. He has also written reports on synthodrones, Diablo-class robots, "lorwardian" walkers, and villainous mechanization, (See File Set LRW).

Combat Style:

- Wade Load lacks combat proficiency and his large, mostly out of shape body is not suitable for direct combat. However, Wade is extremely effective at using his gadgets to great effect despite his lack of field experience causing some friendly fire incidents within Team Possible (See File NIA-16), but in general he has shown improvement. Like Kim Possible, he has taken a Global Justice Demolitions course and is fully certified for using high explosives ranging from his custom-made (and rarely used) sonic mines all the way to C4 charges. Because of this, Wade falls in a support role for Team Possible.

- However, it's been noted by GJ spies that he has recently been working on a wrist-based device of some sorts that seems to be designed to remotely engage electronics, presumably robotics given his previous work with synthodrone AI. Global Justice will monitor this closely.

Weaknesses:

- He is not a combatant, and can be easily detained by most with any form of combat training. He is also inexperienced in the field, although he is nigh impossible to stop once he is accessing a computer terminal or manipulating technology. As such, the best way to detain him if needed is to isolate him from technology before going in for the nullification. He is not a major combat threat, but if he can avoid combat he can become nigh impossible to trace due to his computer skills.

Conclusions:

- Wade Load would be a fine recruit for Global Justice's R&D and technology arms. Given his incredible score on the Genius Aptitude Test (146), he ranks amongst the foremost minds of the day despite his young age. This great potential must be carefully cultivated and steps must be taken to ensure he does not fall into madness. Given he is practically a mad scientist himself (albeit a non-evil one), it is predicted that the right conditions could turn him into such and add yet one more threat to free world. However, if cultivated properly his potential could be a key player in ushering in a golden age for humanity in the aftermath of the alien invasion should his invention abilities become duplicated and usable by the common man.