I do not own any Disney characters named herein, and am only borrowing them to tell a nonprofit tale meant for entertainment purposes only.

Kim Possible: Origins

By LJ58

11

"Someone screwed up," Kondor swore at the phone he was using.

He listened to the voice on the other end, and grit his teeth.

"Not me, you sanctimonious jerk. It was probably that stupid mouse you pass off as a spy. She led us right into a damned ambush. Those jerks had force fields, and laser weapons! Nothing was said about…. No! Not Possible! I never saw one red hair on that coward's head! It was that team of clowns you said not to worry about," Kondor almost shrieked.

He listened again for a moment, and his dark eyes narrowed as he jerked off his mask, and almost flung it down in his rage.

"No! No, you listen to me for once! You have been screwing things up since the start. Fake wings don't make any of your pets a match for me. I've played your game, and all you did was…. No! I'm not aborting. Not this close. From now on, I do it my way, and damn your games," he swore, and slammed the phone down so hard it shattered the receiver.

He glared at the instrument, then at his mask, and then drew a deep, shuddering breath.

Looking around, he eyed the fourteen people in the small diner, and gave a cold, insincere smile.

"Sorry about that," he told the fourteen dead people. Or fourteen people that would soon be dead as the paralyzing toxins slowly worked into their systems. "Some people just can't own up to their own incompetence. I'll just leave you to your fates," he smiled coldly again as he put on his mask as he headed toward the door. "Things to do, people to kill. You know how it is?"

Stepping outside, he unfurled his black wings, and shook himself before he then launched himself into the air.

Toward Middleton.

A full two minutes passed before a trembling hand rose to use the counter to pull a visibly trembling body up from behind the counter.

The young waitress eyed the shattered phone, then staggered to the end of the counter where she pawed clumsily at the purses stacked underneath in the open space, finally pulling out a cell that fell from one of them.

"Help us," she managed to croak. "He's insane," she got out before passing out with the phone clutched desperately in both hands.

KP

Dr. Betty Director walked with purpose.

Her heels echoed down the long, empty corridor as she headed for her destination. It had been a long time since she had come here. Since she had dared to come here. It was beyond obvious that it was time to shake things up.

Team Possible was no longer hiding.

They were moving, and it was obvious even to her that they painting targets on themselves to get the madmen out there to show themselves, because none of them had any real clues. Not yet.

Even she had heard of Mr. Gray, but they had never met.

She had never wanted to meet. The man was a fanatic in the purest sense of the word. He was the kind that made diehard, insular warhawks look positively moderate. He was the kind you never wanted to trust with power of any kind, but someone had, and it was definitely coming back to bite them hard.

Her people had not been able to find him when Wade discreetly slipped her a message on the communicator he had also sent just for their personal discussions. Gray had vanished, but his authority was being used everywhere. The Aerie, it seemed, was proving to be the tip of a proverbial, if ghostly iceberg.

Which was why she was here.

Where it started.

Because, she knew, even Kim Possible was going to need real help before this one was over.

She could see it.

She walked out of the hall and into the larger chamber, and was immediately confronted by a massive mountain of a man.

"Dr. Director," the blue-clad hero said in a voice that dripped disapproval. "You've not come here in a long time."

"A very long time," Mego grunted from his chair, not rising, but giving her a look that suggested she was far from his favorite person.

"Ditto," voices in stereo said from behind her.

"I need your help," she told Hego blandly.

"I think that ship has sailed," one of the Wegos told her.

"No, it sank," Mego snorted. "Too bad you weren't on it."

"Guys, let's just hear her out. Then we can throw her out," Hego suggested.

The three brothers grumbled, but the twins moved to their chairs, dropping into them, and glaring with expressions that suggested they weren't going to listen too closely.

"I know we have….history."

"Let's not go there," Hego suggested. "Shego might have made a lot of mistakes, but it turned out she wasn't too far afield when it came to….."

"I'm here about Shego."

"We're not going to help you catch her," Mego huffed. "Whatever else she is…."

"I don't want to catch her. We both know she's been keeping her nose clean for over a year now. You, however, don't know why. I do. I also know that she, and Kim Possible, need your help. Badly."

All four brothers frowned now.

"Shego…..is with Kim Possible?"

"It's not too surprising," Betty Director told Hego pointedly, prepared to hook the boys yet to truly grow up and mature. "She is her birth mother."

Not one of the four said a single word.

"Ready to listen," Betty asked them.

All four simply nodded. Not one of them yet to speak.

"Good. Because I'm serious, and if you don't help, they may both be dead very soon."

"Tell us everything," Hego finally said, his voice as grim as it had ever been.

KP

"So, we're still on the job," Dash asked Will Du as the man walked into the room to debrief them.

They had brought down one bird freak. Drove off another. But he was still in the wing, and according to the surviving witnesses, killing anyone in his path as he headed directly for Middleton once more.

"In a manner of speaking. Possible, as is usual for her," he grumbled, "Has decided to run off."

"We noticed," Burn grumbled, but fell silent when Will's eyes fixed on him.

"We now believe Kondor will move to secondary targets, trying to use them as bait. The Stoppables have left town on some matter, but the Possibles remain viable targets. As do any of those known to be Possible's friends. I want you in Middleton, on full alert, and leading a strike team you will assemble to cover the family and friends. As of now, you are field commander, Agent Damon. I hope you won't hesitate to bring your best game against this mutant, or whoever else might show up looking for victims?"

"Count on it," the man nodded.

"Good. You move at once. Get to it."

"Any word on the prisoner?"

Will turned to Burn.

"Still comatose. It wasn't the 'knife,'" he told the man when the men frowned. "He was linked to highly experimental, and obviously volatile technology that severely distressed his nervous system."

"I'll say," Crash agreed.

"Just focus on the job, gentlemen. We still have a world to save," he reminded them, and left before they did.

"That guy never unbends, does he," Burn asked.

"You should hear what Possible says about him," Dash chortled.

"Not asking," Crash said. Then glanced around, adding, "Not here."

The three smirked, and walked out of the debriefing room.

KP

"Mr. Stoppable?"

"Call me Ron," he told her in the same bland, toneless voice as he maneuvered the mini-jet that was carrying them across the nation.

"Oh. If you want…. Ron. Can I ask you a question?"

He flew on without saying anything.

She took his silence to stay quiet, too.

Finally, when she thought he wouldn't speak, he asked, "What's on your mind?"

"I just…. What are you going to do with me? I mean, when you're done. You know, with….whatever?"

"I haven't decided."

"They say you're an assassin, too," she said quietly.

"Hardly."

"You've killed," she said quietly, but knowingly.

"Only when I have had to kill," he admitted. "I don't kill because someone points a finger at a target, or because someone thinks they need someone gone. I kill to defend others, or to protect those who cannot protect themselves."

"So, you're still a….champion?"

"I suppose," he said after a moment.

"I've never killed."

"Yet you help those who do."

"I….didn't have a choice."

"We always have a choice."

"I didn't," she said quietly, but emotionally. "I wanted to say no, but…. I didn't want to die. To be….recycled. You don't know what that's like. To be so…..helpless," she whined.

"You think I was born with my skills or power? You think Kim was? We worked hard to earn our place. To earn our abilities. We faced danger every day, too, and yes, we got scared. We faced death, too, but we didn't blink. We didn't let fear force us into a cage."

He glanced over his seat at where she was tied to hers, and eyed her.

"You had wings. In the end, you could have just left. If you had any courage at all."

She stared back at him. Hard.

"I…..tried once."

"Only once? Let me tell you something about the woman you want to help kill," he said, and turned back to eye his instruments. "Once, she was caught by a real madman….."

Sparrow listened intently as he relayed his story, unwittingly, or perhaps not, telling his own. She listened to every word as the jet carried them across the country, and possibly right to their own deaths. That was what she truly feared.

She had been caught. Compromised. Loyalty was as paramount to the Aerie as secrecy. Betrayal was unthinkable. It was also instant death.

Worse. Kondor was still out there now. And he wouldn't just make her die. Not swiftly. Not painlessly. That madman was well past insane. He liked to make his victims suffer. She couldn't count how many times he had almost blown a mission just because he wanted to watch someone suffer a little longer in his hands.

Yet they kept using him. Kept turning him lose.

Now, for the first time, she almost hoped he did fall. It was just too bad they hadn't grounded him like she had heard Eagle had been.

She couldn't help but wonder when they would ground her.

Or kill her.

Stoppable just said he didn't kill unless necessary.

Still, she wasn't quite sure that spared her. Not if he thought she remained a threat.

She wanted to cry just then, because she was pretty sure, that no matter who won this one, she was going to die. And it was going to be ugly, and probably painful.

Sometimes, she actually wished she were back in that orphanage. At least there she had been overlooked. Just another blank face in a sea of blank faces.

Just now, all she felt like was….a target.

KP

Drakken's gaze kept going from Kim to Shego. Then back. Then back again.

"I don't see it," he finally declared. "You don't even look alike."

Shego slapped a hand over her face.

"That's not the point, Drakken," Kim told him. "The point is, someone is using cybertronic tech to create winged assassins. Now, do you remember anyone that was using that kind of research?"

"Hmmmmm."

"That sounds like a no," Kim sighed.

"Actually, it sounds vaguely familiar," the flustered, self-styled villain declared when he risked eyeing Shego. He knew she didn't take well to being contradicted.

"What do you know," Kim demanded.

Drakken sighed.

"It might help if I still had my computers. I had a lot of my work and journals on my files, and….."

"Wade's been through them. You didn't have anything on cybertronic work left there."

Drakken eyed Kim.

"My files were highly encrypted. I doubt even your pet hacker could have….."

"Shall I share your 'top secret' receipe for the perfect cup of cocoa-moo," Kim asked. "Or should I ask your mother about someone you felt she might not approve of you seeing? Someone named….Rhona?"

"Rhona," Shego asked, looking curious in the way a shark a did when it was nosing prey.

"Meh. Never mind. Maybe I didn't write that part down," Drakken said quickly, making a cutting gesture at the redhead.

"C'mon, Doc. Rhona," Shego grinned. "I thought Amy was the only squeeze in your….."

"I told you never to remind me of that…..that…..strumpet!"

"Well, it's not like you ever managed a caper on your own. You couldn't even have used cybertronics without Kimmie's dad. I doubt you even know who else had that kind of tech. I think you were lying just to get out of the basement."

"I was not lying! It was General Dillon Spare. Some hack in the Pentagon weapon's department that was trying to create covert agents that could go anywhere. That no-talent hack actually tried to have me arrested just for looking over his private notes," he sputtered.

"Get that, Wade," Kim asked with a grin, raising her Kimmunicator as she silently nodded at Shego, who obviously did know Drakken pretty well if she could play him that easily.

"Yeah, and Kim? There is a D. Spare listed on the files under the Aerie's chain of command. I think it's a solid clue. I'll let Ron know."

"Good. I'm heading back home. If Kondor is still out there…."

"He is. We just got a third sighting. Five police officers were killed when they tried to keep him from breaking into Monique's house."

"What?"

"She wasn't there. Team Impossible has anticipated the attack, and moved everyone directly linked to you to your house. It's a bit crowded, but likely the safest house in Middleton just now."

"But not safe enough," Shego murmured. "Sooner or later, the loon will quit looking for selected targets, and just start killing people."

"Wait. You said third sighting?"

"Yes, Kim. I just got the reports. Fourteen people were hospitalized earlier, nine still critical after he hit a diner just to use a phone. The witnesses say he had a very heated argument with someone. I am still trying to trace that call, but while I don't know who yet, it was definitely in D.C. somewhere."

"Fits," Shego murmured.

"And the other sighting?"

"He paused for directions, and killed an old couple walking their dog. Their grandson saw it. He hid until Kondor left."

"Sound like bird-boy's snapped."

"Wade, how is that battle suit coming," Kim asked somberly.

"I'm sending it over now. The Roth is ready to go, too. I've upgraded your weapons package."

"Tell me what I've got," she said as Drakken found himself shivering at her tone.

"You're going to like this," Wade promised her.

"What," Shego asked Drakken, who was looking positively terrified.

"Don't you see? I figured it out."

"Figured what out," Lars frowned as even Wade eyed him through the monitor.

"The pieces," Drakken told them. "The pieces. It makes sense."

"What makes sense," Shego hissed, and glared at him. "Without the ranting, please?"

"The distraction-death threat? The covert operations that seem mad? It is all quite logical. Whoever is doing this isn't trying to conquer the world."

"No," Kim asked. "What are they doing?"

"Trying to destroy it. It's the only thing that makes sense," Drakken said in an ironically reasonable tone. "They sideline, or destroy you, along with Global Justice. They then have a free reign to encourage genocide. It's all very classic. Frankly, I don't know why, but some people don't want to rule the world," he pointed out. "They just want to..."

"Destroy everything," Shego and Kim said with an easy shiver. "Drakken, Lars," Kim went on. "You're on your own. I have to go."

"Where?"

"D.C.," she told Shego. "Ron's walking into a trap."

Shego didn't argue as she nodded at Lars, and followed Kim to their rooms to pack.

KP

"Coffee, anyone," Ann Possible asked as she moved through the crowded living room.

"I'd like a cup," the older woman that was Monique's mother smiled. "Thank you, Dr. Possible."

"Please, call me Ann," the redhead smiled at her.

"What I'd like, is to be able to go back to work," Bonnie huffed. "This is my peak season, and my boutique needs….."

"Chill, Bon-Bon," the voluptuous black woman that walked into the room just then with a platter of homemade cookies. "It's not like your tacky little dress shop can compare with moi," the rival fashion diva in town told Bonnie Rockwaller.

"Oh, please. You're nothing but another Coca wannabe," the brunette in a very stylish sundress huffed from her chair.

"Nice to see some things haven't changed," Felix drawled as he rolled into the room next to Dr. James Possible who had been talking with him about certain research.

"Oh, my, yes. I recall once when Kim first had Shego over….."

"Not now, dear," Ann cut him off when every adult in the room eyed James with trepidation.

Except Bonnie.

"Oh, come on, Dr. Possible," Bonnie smiled insincerely. "I'm sure we'd love to hear all of Mr. Possible's stories about our little Kimmie."

James beamed.

"Well, did I ever tell you about…."

Ann sighed, and Monique moved next to her saying quietly, "Kim better hurry up, or Bonnie may be back in the newspaper business by the time he finishes telling his stories."

"James? Finish a story," Ann asked knowingly.

"Ah. Right," the ebon-skinned beauty smiled, and walked over to the rocket scientist. "Say, Dr. P, would you like to try one of my cookies. I used Ann's recipe. Tell me how they compare," she asked, interrupting him.

"Say, that's quite tasty. And it reminds me of…"

Monique flashed Ann a smile, winking as she did.

Ann looked around, and hoped Kim made short work of this new villain. She didn't mind company, but having so many people seeking refuge at their house was dangerous. Dangerous, because the twins were due in from school any time now.

To Be Continued…