Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible or any of the characters from that program or any other characters I may reference from other works.
I am posting what I consider an incomplete chapter for two reasons. First, the great length of time since my last post, for which I apologize. Second, because bizarre behavior by my computer makes me concerned it might crash(again!), resulting in the loss of the file.
Thanks for the reviews and the favorites I have received for this story, and apologies to those I didn't thank with a PM.
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Back in the lair, the mayhem continued with little abatement. Though some of the main players were now absent from the central chamber, more then enough villains and minions had survived to this point to keep things very lively.
Zelda the Doominatrix had had to leave for an appointment to dominate a Middle Eastern dictator, to the collective disgust of her arch-foes from the S.S.S.D.M.O.H.C.V.. The five surviving members of that organization still present then spent a brief time harassing the 'Anagrammer', a villain known for sending his foes clues as...well, anagrams('Much harder then riddles, you know!'), hoping he might actually have a suggestion for a new title for their organization. After being rebuffed by him(That's Anagrams, not Acronyms!) however, they decided that things were winding down, and made an unobtrusive exit.
Whether or not Ding Bhat had left or not was a matter of tense concern for the four E-Ninjas presently in hiding throughout the lair. None had laid eyes on their lethal victim for some time, but that was no guarantee that he was not laying low to entice them into revealing themselves.
Doctor H. Youngman DeEvers was still plying his trade remarkably unscathed, though he had begun to talk to himself with alarming frequency. And he had plenty of patients. He was being assisted without his knowledge by the four Ninja Nurses, though circumstances had forced one to make a supply run, and another was busy looking up the various client contracts on her tablet to make sure they didn't exceed anyone's due coverage.
And now into the mayhem entered another figure, dressed in a blue three-piece suit with matching fedora...and a video screen for a face. In point of fact, he was wearing a helmet on which were visible several lenses surrounding the screen. And the best name he had managed to come up with for his villain persona was...VidFace!
In trying to gain employment as a henchman, his spiel was that for every hero there had to be something on the Internet that would distract them, or merely cause them to decide that whatever villain VidFace was assisting was no longer a priority, causing said hero to depart to deal with more important things. And VidFace claimed that his patented search engine would find that 'something' and allow him to display it on his helmet screen. Or, if necessary...
"EVERYONE! Stop shooting and look at this!" He bellowed, before grasping the lapels of his suit jacket and pulling them wide as he squeezed two buttons in the lapels. At which point the suit was shown to be a facade, as vest, shirt and tie all became part of a 36 inch collapsible flatscreen, on which was shown a view of the massed forces of law and order outside the lair. "THIS is what's outside, Right Now!" He turned slowly in place, giving all the villains in the main chamber a look.
In point of fact the absolute ludicrousness of someone yelling for them to stop had already caused most of the villains and minions to cease fire. Or cease strangling, stabbing, etc, etc, etc. Some shots still echoed from the passageways, and one single minded villain continued to search for matches or a light to get his personal flamethrower going again(Who knew so many villains had given up smoking?), but most of those present had their attention riveted on the image of massed police, military, and superheros outside.
For a moment there was tense silence in the chamber, then voices broke out all over. The confusing babble mostly focused on one question: was there a back way out, and preferably a secret one?
"There was a map in the brochures! I'm sure there was an exit shown!" someone yelled. That declaration caused an immediate scramble for said brochures or fragments thereof, the brochure stand having been hit by a lightning bolt, a small grenade, and a homemade 'flying guillotine' hat, with one of it's owner's self-severed hands inside it.
Though some of the first to obtain an intact map tried to slip away quietly, the fact that those less discreet began an undignified stampede down the proper passageway soon left all the members of the horde seeking said exit. At least, those still capable of moving under their own power. But even some of those who were incapacitated began to vanish, somehow disappearing into the shadows.
Monkeyfist emerged from those very shadows, tsked at the fleeing villains, then agilely scrambled up the wall towards the blocked 'skylight', followed by his dutiful ninja monkeys. Still jammed tightly into that portal, PowerJaw, never the swiftest of individuals, was heard to sarcastically begin, "Well, if it isn't the High and Mighty Lord..." at which point a resounding crunch was heard, and sunlight once again shown through the skylight, accompanied by some complimentary chittering from the ninja monkeys.
Meanwhile VidFace was having some difficulty collapsing his big screen, mostly due to his anxiety to make his own exit. Then the image on it abruptly changed to the frowning face of Wade Load, duplicated on Vidface's helmet screen as well. "Oh, that's really not good..." The young tech genius remarked.
"Dude!" VidFace bellowed, "How dare you violate...um, why is it 'not good', Dude?"
Wade grimaced. "Well, the escape tunnel goes about half a mile, all downhill, before it comes out of the mountain. Problem is, in order to finish it on time, they let it narrow down to four by four feet at the end..."
VidFace looked down the passageway the villains had vanished down. "Oh...yeah, not so good." He looked around the empty chamber, "And...they'll probably blame me, right?"
Wade shrugged. "No idea, 'dude'. Now, I have to call Doctor Director and tell her most of the villains will be doing an impersonation of a giant toothpaste tube on the far side of the mountain!" Then the screen went blank.
Moments later, sounds behind him caused VidFace to whirl around in alarm. Only to see Hank Perkins, the two Henchco lawyers, and the new prospective owner of the lair emerging cautiously from their hiding place. The latter looked around the ravaged lair, nodding thoughtfully and muttering to himself. The two lawyers didn't linger, but hurried up the passage without a word.
Hank looked around the room with an appalled expression. Then his shoulders sagged and his expression became crestfallen. "There goes the Real Estate career..." He muttered mournfully.
At which point his client clapped him hard on the back. "Hey! Don't be so sad, you got a commission on this sale didn't ye?"
Hank nodded. "Yes..I got ten percent, which turns out to be seventy-five dollars, minus any overruns on the budget for this event..." He looked around, doing figures in his head, "Which with all the stuff that was supposed to be returned, probably means I owe Mister Hench a few hundred dollars." He concluded mournfully.
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The robot was in a quandary as it literally paced back and forth in front of City Hall. It could tell exactly where it's creator's greatest foe was hiding from it's wrath, but wasn't sure what it should do about it. Or to be more accurate, what lengths it could go to with the approval of the 'Progenitor'.
[Query: Of what importance are these structures when balanced against the eradication of the Progenitor's greatest foe? Are any of these structures of the Progenitor's own design? They display a variety of aesthetic styles and construction techniques, demonstrating a chaotic and random order. Analysis: consistent with known thought patterns of the Progenitor...Conclusion: destruction of said structures could potentially displease the Progenitor.]
It paused in it's ruminations when it accidentally trod on a compact car in it's distraction. But deciding that such a vehicle could not possibly belong to the great mind that had built it, and minions' vehicles were of no concern, it began to return to the solution of it's dilemma. Or would have if not for a shocking disruption to it's musings.
"HEY TINHEAD! WAKE UP, YOU FRAKKING MORON!" The all too familiar voice of the Progenitor's unfaithful organic servant echoed through the cockpit of the robot. This shocked the machine's logic circuit, it had thought such a thing impossible. It had shut down all external audio pick-ups and sealed all openings through which sound from outside could possibly be heard. It had then filled the cockpit with low volume, soothing music to try and keep it's occupant soundly asleep. Yet now, somehow, these defenses had been bypassed, with potentially disastrous results.
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"Do you think it worked?" Bernadette Barr asked Shego, even as she nervously tried to watch all the indicators on the control panel of Dementor's hovercraft, holding the controls in hands that she kept as steady as possible, even though she felt like her knees were shaking enough to unbalance the aircraft by themselves.
"Well, the theory was perfectly sound." Drakken's voice came over the speaker before Shego could reply. She was peering over the side, microphone in hand as she studied the robot. "So long as Wilhelm made the modifications to his sonic 'device' correctly." Drakken continued.
"I heard That!" Came Dementor's own voice in reply. Bernie flinched and cast a quick glance towards the side of the craft, but she was too nervous to peer over the side. Professor Dementor himself was currently underneath the craft, using a wall-climbing invention of his own design to make modifications to the sonic device. Bernie had a suspicion regarding it's inspiration, with individually magnetized metal plates replacing the 'traditional' suction cups. "You should come here, und try to do this hanging upside down, two thousand feet up!" He was in fact hanging upside down with only the toe and knee plates in contact with the belly of the craft, and doing his level best not to look down. Or up, from his perspective.
"That's the only reason I expressed doubt," Drakken spoke in a placating tone, "Being upside down can cause one to see things from the wrong perspective, after all." Drakken was tempted to add a comment relevant to his own experiences in similar situations, but decided to refrain.
"Boy, isn't that the truth!" Ron's fervent comment sounded over the speaker, and on Dementor's earphones, briefly forestalling his own response. But only briefly.
"Vell, I made no mistakes!" He declared, even as he double-checked all of his work hastily, "Der Robot's occupant is most certainly avake!"
"So all that remains is for him to regain control of the robot." Kim interjected, "For better or for worse." She had serious reservations about the change in control being the lesser evil.
"Well, he merely has to turn the AI off, what could be simpler?" Drakken observed.
Shego groaned "Doc, if the villains of Go City had ever been capable of thinking 'simply', Team Go wouldn't have lasted a month! They failed more due to overly elaborate plotting on their part, then anything we ever did!" Then she winced, hoping that Hego was not close enough to Kim to have overheard her on the Kimmunicator.
He wasn't, but as it turned out, that wasn't good news...
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And that's all for now. I hope to resume some sort of more regular writing soon.
Please Read and Review.