Some Author's Notes: Sorry this came so late, but here it is, Chapter Eleven! I thank you for waiting patiently, as well as for reading this far. Like I said, sorry, I got ahold of a new game for the week and I forgot there was a world around me.
As always, comments, reviews, suggestions, they're all welcome.
Like always, I don't own Kim Possible, but at least the plot is mine! At least I'm fairly certain it is…
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"So this is the thing that nearly killed you guys."
Tranz, Dr. Director, Will Du, Shego, and Kim were all in Global Justice's headquarters, deep in another one of the building's many R&D labs. They were observing, from a distance, one of the creatures known as a Reaver. It had been held back in a cage and for further protection, it had been placed in restraints. Still, the creature was trying to work its way free, violently thrashing from side to side.
The creature was purple, with a yellow line running through the side of its body. There were no visible eyes on it, but it definitely knew how to find people. Kim and Shego knew that all too well. It was held down by strong restraints over its arms, legs, jaws, and even its tail, just to be safe.
Drool slid out of its clamped jaws and Kim and Shego flinched, shuddering a little bit. Tranz, on the other hand, was eager to check it out. He walked closer to its cage and ran his fingers along the bars, noticing how it followed him.
"It's weird," he finally said. "Never seen anything like it."
"If I'm not mistaken," Dr. Director replied, "I believe it's you who's the expert on demons."
"I know," he answered. "I am an expert. That's not a demon. It doesn't feel like one. It doesn't act like one from what Kim and Shego described. It most certainly isn't a demon. I'm positive about that."
To emphasize his point, he brought his hand out and let energy rush to it, sending it into a golden shade. He then took his other hand and left it alone, quickly stretching his arms out along the cage and slowly waving them. The creature seemed just as interested in the normal arm as much as the one with energy. Then a scientist came in and began taking observations. Once again, it seemed just as interested in the scientist as it had been Tranz.
"If this was a demon," Tranz said, "One of presumably low intelligence at that, then it would have been more interested in my energy than that man." He pointed to the scientist for a moment then tapped the bars. "It seems to just be some kind of animal I've never heard of before."
"That makes two of us," Kim said while Shego nodded in agreement. As far as they were concerned, there was no such thing as a creature that was so shaped like a raptor, a blind raptor with some yellow strip over its body, let alone anything that could bite you and turn you into a black mist. "How'd you get this thing anyways," Shego asked.
Will Du stepped up, looking proud of himself and replied, "That would be because of me." "Let me rephrase then," Shego said calmly. "How'd you get this thing and not wind up dead?" Will Du laughed and then replied, "I believe the phrase is 'I got mad skills' and I most certainly do." Shego rolled her eyes at him when Dr. Director replied, "It was chasing Agent Du into public and he accidentally led it into traffic where it was hit by a semi." Will scowled a bit, having the image of his amazing capture dashed, while Kim stifled a laugh. Shego, on the other hand, had no problem laughing out loud over the situation.
"Okay, okay," Will finally said with a huff. "If it isn't a demon, and we know it's not a normal creature, what the heck is it?" That set a tone of confusion. No one knew what to say at the moment. What the heck WAS this thing?
"Genetic manipulation maybe?" Asked Shego after she pondered on it for a while. After all, demonic or earthly, it wasn't natural. "DNAmy?" Asked Will Du. "No way," Kim replied. "This sort of thing isn't her. She's into cute and cuddly. That's anything but…" "Still," Dr. Director said, "If these things belong to Gemini, then he'd want the best." "DNAmy IS the best in the field of genetic manipulation," Will Du replied, eager to score some points with his boss by agreeing.
While they talked over the possibilities of who made the mystery creature, DNAmy seeming to be the most likely candidate, Tranz eyed the Reaver. It was so puzzling to him. He'd never heard of a creature that acted like it did. Sure demons ate people and so did this thing, but it did it for different reasons, apparently. Otherwise, Kim and Shego would be dead at the moment.
Something caught his mind for a moment. Why would it ingest people, but not for the right to eat them? That's part of the food chain, right? You eat or you get eaten. You do it for survival. You don't eat people and then give them right back in the event you're killed. So just what the heck is this thing?
"Black mist," he thought, "Black mist…like what? Hmm, like the mist coming out of its arm, that's it. Interesting. Wait a tick…" Tranz rubbed his eyes and made sure he was seeing what he was seeing. The creature was leaking black mist. Was it dieing? No, it didn't look like it was in pain, it didn't seem to be weakening. It was just…melting.
"Guys," Tranz said, trying to get their attention. "So what if Gemini forced DNAmy to make them," Kim suggested to the group, still debating the origin of their new animal. "Guys," Tranz said again with the same failure. "GUYS!" he finally shouted, catching their attention. Before anyone could say anything, he pointed.
The creature gave its form to black mist and slipped free of its restraints and further still, the bars of the cage holding it in. It reformed and instantly went for the scientist that was taking his notes. The man shrieked in his spot, to scared to move.
"Shoot," Tranz muttered as he jumped into action, eager to try his hand at this new creature while desperate to make sure that Kim and Shego didn't have to fight another one too soon. He leapt, landing down on the creature's jaws as it tried to snap at the scientist. He felt the creature's jaws clamping down on themselves with terrible pressure, but to his surprise, didn't feel the rewarding snap of its bones, which he was certain should have happened to the jaws, considering how hard he'd attacked.
It whipped its tail out and tripped him, now turning its attention to Tranz, striking with its sharpened claws. It was easy enough for him to dodge. He was certainly having a better time at this then Kim or Shego had. He could go on like this for a while, but it wasn't his place to enjoy an exhibition match with a dangerous creature in the presence of those who couldn't defend themselves as well as he could. The only problem was how could he disable the creature without killing it? He knew ripping one to shreds would kill it, Kim proved that, but the creature was apparently resilient to other forms of damage, like bone fractures. He'd rather not kill it if there was still information that could be gained out of the creature. He sighed, knowing there was probably only one skill to rely on.
Summoning his spiritual essence to his index and middle fingers on his right hand, he took in a breath and moved the fingers at blinding speed, making a symbol, drawing it in the air with his energy before the symbol was completed. He then moved it with those same two fingers, and shoved it into the head of the creature.
No one knew what to say. The creature's posture changed immediately. It stopped moving about and began to swat itself in the head before it dropped to its knees and began to bash its head into the ground. It got to its feet and smashes itself into a wall before shoving its head back into the ground and kicking forward with its feet. Finally, it collapsed, twitching occasionally.
"What was THAT?" the entire room full of people exclaimed to Tranz. "It's…the Waxing Curse," he said., "named after one of the phases of the moon. Imagine…say…being struck by lightning and then think about how that'd feel if it were around ten times more powerful and you could feel every bit of it. Now imagine that pain doesn't go away. There's the Waxing Curse. I, of course, didn't put enough energy into said Curse to kill the creature, but it's down. At least long enough for you to put it into something a bit more secure."
At that, Will Du whipped into action and left, quickly retrieving a pair of guards and a new set of restraints, regardless of how ineffective they had proven to be. They then took the creature away, placing it into what was described as a cage that didn't have any bars.
"You've got to teach us that one," Kim said with a smile on her face. "Yeah, I gotta admit," Shego added, "That would sure take the cake when it came to moves." "Absolutely not," Tranz said rather sternly. "Neither one of you are ready for it. You'll just end up destroying yourselves." "Not true," Kim protested, "We're plenty skilled! We could handle it!" "Trust me Kim, you don't have near the control over your energy for it. You'll wind up dead, living your last few moments in a myriad of pain that you could never imagine, even after my description. I won't be the one responsible for killing you, either of you. Look, I'm the teacher here, let's leave it at that."
Tranz refused to talk anymore about the Curse, even though Kim's mind was buzzing with the need-to-know of something she apparently didn't need to know. After a while, she resigned herself to discussing the origins of the creature and after a thorough analysis, a genetic marker, almost a calling card of DNAmy's was discovered. Of course this went all over Tranz's head, seeing as how he knew nothing of genetics. He didn't even want it explained to him.
Now that they had a lead, it was Global Justice's job to track down DNAmy and get to the bottom of the Reaver mystery. Shego of course wasn't interested in the chase, only the exciting capture. As she stared off into the wall, lost in her own daydream, Agent Du had apparently convinced Tranz to learn a bit of genetics, as he was explaining the best he could. Dr. Director was busy coordinating efforts to locate the wild geneticist. No one noticed Kim on her own, scheming.
She produced her Kimmunicator and looked into it, bringing up the face of Wade. "Hey Kim," he said smiling, "What's the sitch?" He chuckled a bit, always loving the chance to give Kim back her constant phrase to him. "Well," she said quietly, "I have a favor to ask." "Shoot Kim," he said. "I want you to find me any information you can on something called a Waxing Curse. You do it with your fingers," she emphasized by wriggling her fingers in the air, "and it like causes major pain. It's something Tranz knows but he doesn't want to teach it to me yet." Wade frowned, "Maybe he doesn't think you're ready. You know, there's a reason people don't teach people dangerous things." "So not the drama Wade," Kim said, "Remember the motto." "Which one," he asked jokingly, "Anything's possible for a Possible or you can do anything?" "Both," she replied with a smile.
Shego frowned when Dr. Director had a location on the insane geneticist. "The woman certainly has villains under her thumb," she thought to herself as she got over the daydream she'd had that was now broken. She'd had a rather unusual, but entertaining nonetheless dream where she was wrestling midgets deep in the heart of Mexico. The midgets had been riding bears that were riding unicycles and the midgets had eyebeams, no, the bears had eyebeams. The midgets had the flaming chainsaws. At least that's what she thought was in her daydream.
DNAmy had been last tracked to an island lab, oddly enough, escorted by Gemini's men. Dr. Director figured that she'd merely overlooked it since Gemini had numerous villain ties. Now, given his demon associations and this creature called a Reaver, she cursed herself for not seeing this earlier. Shego and Kim on the other hand, were wondering why villains always seemed to have island hideouts. It was like normal landmasses were insulting to them or something.
They didn't have time to ponder it though, as they were quickly ushered to a Global Justice jet, which made Shego's day. She was actually given the pilot's chair and that suited her fine. She was an ace pilot after all, even if most situations didn't call for such skills.
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It had taken nearly seven hours of flight, mostly because Shego twice expended the jet's fuel thanks to her need to cut loose and perform tricks, but they finally made it to DNAmy's island complex, landing on the roof, thanks to the jet's VTOL capabilities. It was Tranz that first exited, planting his feet on the ground, or at least a reasonable facsimile.
"LAND," he exclaimed, forgetting anything about his mission as he kissed the hard steel of the building's roof. Flight was something he'd never experienced before and frankly, he could go the rest of his life without it, especially if it usually involved flips, spins, twirls, and dives like Shego did. Sure, he jumped into the air and performed death-defying tricks all the time, but that was when there was definite land under his body. Over the ocean like that, forget it. After all, he was part Earth Dragon, their strong point was NOT swimming.
"Oh it was not that bad," Shego said defensively. "Besides," Kim said, "I'm pretty sure your Dragon Clan isn't in the United States. You take a boat here, then WALK to Middleton?" Kim had been as into Shego's flying as Shego herself. She saw no reason to be frightened.
"Actually, I walked all the way." Both girls blinked in disbelief as they removed themselves from their craft. "How?" They asked together. "Well it's a simple matter of going in and out of the demon world at the right intervals to avoid detection by demons and circumvent things like…say…oceans. It's a hell of a lot safer than how YOU got us here." "Fine," Shego said as she crossed her arms and looked off, insulted, "You can walk back."
Tranz actually hugged Shego, much to her surprise, and thanked her before his mind got to wondering, "How long have we been up here?" "A few minutes, why," Kim replied. "Well…I haven't done the mission thing much, but shouldn't we be stormed by some ridiculous number of guards, I mean based on older adventures of yours, Kim."
Kim stopped to think. He was certainly right. Actually, there had been no action taken on DNAmy or Gemini's part when it came to landing on the island. Team Possible had felt quite certain of their ability to handle any problems thrown their way, and that was why they'd landed on the roof, but they still should have been attacked by the guards.
"Maybe there aren't any guards," Shego offered. She then walked to a door, more then likely the door that lead into the roof from below, and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. Now frustrated, she punched, getting the same lack of effect. Now getting angry, she slammed a plasma charged fist into the door, getting nothing in return. "WHAT'S WITH THIS DAMN DOOR," She shouted furiously, now trying to hack her way through with no avail with her arm blades.
Kim put her hand on Shego's shoulder as some level of consolation before Shego actually hurt herself against their sturdy enemy, the door. Meanwhile, Tranz ran his fingers over the door, getting a feel for it, before commenting, to himself more than others, "This is a very sturdy door." The comment got a shot of disgust from Shego, who couldn't take statements of the obvious at the moment.
Tranz sighed, "I think I can get through, but before you even try to bring it back up, no Kim, I'm not teaching you the move." Before she could ask what he was talking about, his fingers began to glow and they moved at the blinding pace that she recognized as the Waxing Curse. When the symbol was complete, he turned to them and said, "This is part of why I won't show you this move." He pressed the symbol into the door and commented, "It's because you're putting this into someone's body." The symbol quickly burned a hole in the door that expanded, melting the door away, leaving a glowing ring of heat around the area that used to occupy said door.
Tranz stepped through and said, "When you put the Curse on someone or something, it's a massive release of energy, where the living body greets the phenomenon as pain, ridiculously indescribable pain. On the other hand, something inanimate like this door…well you saw what it did."
Shego nodded, not sure if she was ready to learn a move that could melt through a door that she'd spent a few moments wailing on with all she could muster with no effect. Kim on the other hand had to fight to stay calm. She wanted to learn more advanced skills, more than Tranz had shown them. It had always been a silent desire, but after her encounter with the first Reaver, and how it had cost her Shego and nearly herself, her silent desire had become a burning one. Still, she held her tongue. If Tranz wasn't going to give her the know-how on the technique, Wade would find it.
They entered the building through the hole Tranz made and stayed close together, prepared for whatever might await them. Steps descended into the top floor of the building and no signs of life. The entire floor was empty, with no evidence that the place had ever been used.
After making sure it was alright, the trio split and explored the floor in its entirety, discovering nothing but a thin layer of dust around spots that could have previously been used for equipment. It was like someone had picked up everything and left. The next floors all the way to ground level proved to be equally as useless to their investigation and they were going to call it quits since the elevator and stairs only went down to ground level. That was when Shego discovered another elevator, this one going to a basement level.
After checking in with Dr. Director to let her know of their progress, the trio entered the elevator and descended. The ride seemed to take minutes, indicating just how far down the basement floor actually was. When it finally slowed, the all instinctively tensed, ready for what awaited them, or at least, that's what they thought.
When the elevator doors opened, they were speechless, which wouldn't have seemed too amazing since they'd spent so much time silent, but this was a situation that demanded to be made known with words and they had none.
Blood was everywhere, smeared over the walls, on the floor, and even on the ceiling. The lights flickered uncontrollably, constantly changing the shade of the crimson fluid that had been so generously spilled. Bodies were slumped and strewn about, many ripped and torn to pieces in a display that was so graphic that Kim and Shego needed a moment, not prepared for the level of gore. Tranz complied with their request and decided to look about for himself, albeit close-by.
As he went further down the hall, he began to take note of how these people had died. Serrated claw and teeth marks were evident on many of the corpses, but some seemed different. One had needles embedded into his face, apparently, from Tranz's judgment, melting the skin off, and another still had apparently taken the time to extinguish their own life. The woman was slumped over with a gun in her hand and a bullet hole through her head. The gun was still in her mouth, so Tranz pieced together the suicide.
Shego and Kim eventually made it past their abhorrence to the situation and rendezvoused with Tranz, who wasn't too far away, since he was too busy taking note of how people had died. "What could do this," Kim asked. "Big demon?" Shego offered, but Tranz shook his head. "There's too much left of the bodies. Granted they've been fed upon, but this seems more like the actions of a wild animal…or pack," he mumbled as he surveyed the slew of dead bodies once more.
Kim found herself scowling at the lack of compassion in Tranz's voice and to her surprise, Shego was finding herself equally upset. "What is it with you," Kim finally asked. "What do you mean," Tranz asked in return. "Doesn't any of this unnerve you? You're the only one of us who took the scene so…so well, like it doesn't matter to you that they're dead."
Tranz looked back at Kim, puzzled. He then noticed the look on Shego seemed to convey the same feelings, feelings of care and compassion, of mercy. He thought about it a moment, trying to put his words into the right context, lest he make them think he's even more insanely heartless than they already were beginning to believe he was.
"Of course it unnerves me Kim," he finally said. "Of course it creeps me out. It sickens and disgusts me to a degree I barely reach. Still, it's more important right now for me to act as impartial as possible. If I gave in and allowed myself to visit your state of mind, and something happened, then explain to me how we'd be able to make it out of the situation?" He stopped his observation of the dead bodies in favor of scoping out the basement floor further and added, "Kim, Shego, remember what it is we do. Death is an integral part of it, whether we like it or not."
Satisfied, Kim and Shego assisted in the search of the basement floor, discovering more corpses, to which they found to be scientists, equally as ripped to shreds as the bodies they'd found earlier. They also discovered a room full of unusual pods, as if pods weren't unusual by nature. As they checked over the room, they noticed a few of the pods had creatures growing in them, creatures that none of them had ever seen, nor, from the grotesque disfiguring, would any of them want to see. Four of the pods were empty, with a sticky residue around them. They then located several spots where pods should have been, but had been removed. They counted fifteen missing pods and were all entertaining the guess of Reavers.
Shego walked around the room, taking note of the creatures in their pods, scrunched together in the space, floating in an amber-colored fluid, and shuddered, trying to work off the sight. "What the hell," she said to herself. She'd remembered her time with DNAmy when she and Drakken had been getting…into each other. Granted the woman seemed more interested in someone else, but that time spent with the woman AND Drakken had been enough for her to consider suicide. DNAmy was into cute, sickeningly cute. None of this was cute. Anyone she ever found calling it cute, she'd beat into the ground until they learned their lesson on what was cute and what was disturbing.
"Let's keep looking," said Tranz, eager to move on. Science was something he was still getting used to, newest to the list of things he'd have to learn about being genetics, and if this was genetics, making things that to him, so closely resembled demons, he'd stay out of it.
Kim, just as eager to leave as Tranz, left with Shego, pondering all she was taking in. It was like the first time she had demon flesh or when she'd first seen a demon's handiwork firsthand. It was sickening and disturbing. It took all she was to hold back the urge to vomit continuously.
They left the room and began to walk down the hallway, looking for their next clue, growing nervous as time passed. It was hard to shake off the feeling that they were being watched. "So," Kim said to break the silence, "What do you think was in those pods?" Tranz stopped moving down the seemingly endless hallway and replied, "I'd say something long and lanky. Something with bony protrusions coming from its body with needlelike teeth coming from its jaws and a rather scorpionlike tail." "Wow," Shego sad, "That's rather descriptive. What gives you that idea?" "I've been using my Shadow Eye to track it ever since we first entered that lab. Would have told you sooner, but agility is a moot point in a hallway, we're better off here." Tranz had stated that they'd been followed and hadn't informed them for their safety.
The creature of Tranz's description leapt into action, screeching as it came from behind them. Tranz pushed both women out of the way and brought his open palm on the creature as it landed near him and winced at his action. He'd apparently grazed one of the creature's bony spines and it had cut right into his skin.
Praying that the creature's spines weren't poisonous or the like, he whirled around and slammed the heel of his foot into its head. It went down quickly while he noted just how hard the creature's skull felt. It got up quickly and retaliated, trying to stab Tranz with its pointed tail.
Kim and Shego prepared to interfere and help, but Tranz held his hand up to stop them. He really didn't need them interfering with his fight at the moment. The lack of space was his advantage at the moment. If they help, then his advantage is gone.
He leapt back and avoided another powerful thrust of the creature's tail, grabbing the tail and shoving it hard into the ground, then he stepped on it, embedding it into the ground. Now stationary, the creature tried in vain to pull itself free and after resigning itself to the fact that it was stuck, it opened its mouth and sprayed Tranz with needles that lodged themselves in his shoulder. He immediately felt the pain and staggered back.
"Tranz!" both women shouted, now not caring if he wanted his fight to be personal or not. Kim grabbed Tranz, who was hissing in pain, holding his shoulder, which had begun to pour smoke. Shego extended her blades and began her attempt to lop the creature's head off. Even stationary, it had enough agility to avoid her blows, so she jumped back and tried something she hadn't done since it last shot Tranz in the leg. She aimed both of her blades at the creature and let loose rapid-fire, pinpoint beams that riddled the creature with holes and it finally fell over dead.
"So much for taking it alive," Tranz muttered under his breath as he struggled with the pain in his arm. He began to attempt a healing spell after pulling the needles from his body, but found he couldn't focus well enough for it. Taking note of his lack of action on his part, Kim tried her own, but the shoulder quickly turned green, a far darker shade than Shego's skin, and the flesh began to slowly recede. She gasped and took her hands away from the spot, quickly apologizing to Tranz, who waved it off.
"It's fine," he said, though he was lying. "I'll be okay." He stood up to emphasize his health, but quickly stumbled and had to lean on Kim to keep from falling over. "Okay, so the poison's stronger than I thought," he said with a laugh. Shego walked over to him and inspected the shoulder. "Poison huh," she said, "Shouldn't your healing spell fix that?" "I thought it would," he admitted, "but this is an interesting little bit of poison. I already can't concentrate enough to try a healing spell, and Kim's just seemed to speed up the process."
"We need to get out of here and get him some help, Global Justice should hopefully be able to do something," Kim said, trying to turn Tranz around and head back for the elevator. "No way Kimmie," Shego said. "I doubt they have an anti-venom for a poison that punishes a demon hunter for trying to heal himself. We'd best try and find it here." "But there's probably more of those things," Kim countered. "Yeah, three more if the empty pods are any indication," Shego said calmly.
The women argued over the best course of action for a while, leaving their male companion to try and focus his head over the pain running through his body. He was finding it increasingly hard to move his body and the skin on his shoulder was still receding. "Office," he forced through his teeth, stopping their argument. "See," Kim said, "He wants to go back to Dr. Director's office." "No way," Shego said, "He's so hocked up on poison, he probably doesn't even know what he's saying." "No," Tranz forced again, "Head office…here…probably has its own…its own…" his voice trailed off, and he started feeling drowsy. He tried to shake his head and stay awake, but it was just too hard to move.
"Of course," Kim said with a snap of her fingers. "The main office probably has its own supply of anti-venoms!" "Yeah Princess," Shego said, trying to act like it was her idea. Well it mostly was, though her plan involved finding any type of medical bay.
Noting that Tranz was out like a light, Kim hefted him onto her back and they began their search for an office, a medical facility, anything that could give Tranz a chance to survival. Doors led to nothing of note. More labs seemed to be all they could discover and a light moan from Tranz made them worry and pick up their pace before they finally came across an office.
The office was rather spacious. It even had its own sink and a refrigerator. There was a couch against one of the walls and a few plants. The floor was even carpeted. The door was open, but it was definitely more reinforced than the other doors and walls of the building. It was like in the event of an emergency, someone could live in here. They carefully closed and locked the door, hoping not to come across more of the creatures that had poisoned Tranz. Last thing they needed was to be in the same boat.
After eyeing a cabinet, they set Tranz down on the coach and went to it, discovering not the life-saving antidote they were looking for, but dry foods that had been heavily feasted upon. They groaned in agreement over the lack of anything useful and were prepared to try another room when they heard a hoarse voice cry out, "Who's there! Didn't he do enough already?"
Both women turned around and laid eyes on the form of DNAmy. She definitely didn't look the way either woman remembered her. Her usual plump figure was beginning to thin and her face, usually a jovial glow, was dull. Her hair was a mess that went every-which way and her clothing was dirty and smudged. The otterfly that she always had around her neck was reddened with blood and her eyes were stained with the makeup that had smudged when she apparently spent time crying.
"DNAmy, is that you?" Kim asked the woman. "Kim Possible?" DNAmy looked at Kim and hope filled her eyes for the first time in a while. She grabbed the adventurous woman and hugged her, glad to see a kind face after so long. "Yeah, look, we're here, we can save you, but you need to help out first," Shego said, pulling DNAmy off of Kim and directing her to Tranz. "One of your freaks shot needles in him and he took some real strong poison. You got anything for it?"
DNAmy floated through her thoughts until she remembered. "I most certainly do." She smiled with that usual level of cheer that sickened Shego and went to the desk at the back of the office, opening a drawer and producing a bottle and a needle, quickly filling the needle and approaching Tranz, saying, "With this, the little sweetie will be back to normal in no time at all!" She injected it into him and almost like magic, they saw the look of pain on his face fade away and he went into a peaceful sleep.
"So," Kim said, easing into a calmer state of mind with Tranz's look of contentment, "What are you doing here?"
DNAmy sighed and then shuddered, not particularly fond of the memories, but she conceded and decided to explain. "About seven months ago, that meanie Gemini looked me up. He was going to give me all the funding my little heart could desire, but in return, I'd have to fulfill his requests for a genetically altered creature. I happily accepted. After all, it was all state of the art equipment and technology that not even I'd seen before. I was so elated." She giggled a little bit, but then resigned herself back to her sorrow, "He set standards, weird standards that I'd never head of before. He wanted a creature that could be a hunter. Something capable of taking down an entire population if need be. I tried to give him some early ideas, some cute and cuddly little creatures, but he rejected them, saying that it had to be vicious, ferocious. I went through a few trial phases, getting a few creatures that came out hideous, like the one that attacked your friend. Finally, I ended up with a new breed of creature, called a Reaver. I'd made it by accident actually, I'd found it while studying weird mutant samples he'd given me, and it had weird capabilities, like its resilience, and its ability to mutate into a black cloud. It even had the power to make a victim turn into a cloud of their own and it would inhale them. In essence, it was like reducing the victim into a simpler essence that it stored and could release in a given direction."
The story would have continued, but the door shook. Screeches were heard on the other side and DNAmy flinched. "After I gave Gemini what he wanted, he thanked me and my staff by releasing my older test subjects on the lab while he took the fifteen Reavers I'd made. We didn't stand a chance and I was the only one who managed to get back here…so I waited. The building was strong enough to keep them out, so I felt safe, especially with my food stores. Of course, after a while, those things realized I was the only living thing left alive. They try for a while every now and then, but they leave me alone after a while. It's just…I can't escape with the four of them prowling around."
"Three," Shego corrected. "I took down one of them." "Tranz did all the work," Kim said in return. "Hey, I finished it. He was trying to bring it in alive and look what happened to him." "Yeah, getting shot like that in the shoulder hurt like hell."
All three women turned around and laid eyes on Tranz, already awake, applying his healing spell to his shoulder. He figured they'd cured the poison and that was the only reason he was awake and capable of such focus. "What," he asked. "I don't sleep for long and I nap even less." Kim and Shego hugged Tranz, happy to see him getting back on his feet and Kim asked, "Since we saved your life, NOW will you teach us that move?" "Sorry Kim," he replied, "You just aren't ready for it." Kim could only pout in vain while Shego shook her head.
They repeated DNAmy's story to Tranz, who helped himself to cookies in her cabinet. He felt hungry, physically, something he rarely gave into, but with a lack of demon to sate him, cookies were a good substitute. While he ate, DNAmy pulled up all the information she had on Gemini's plans and Kim uploaded them to her Kimmunicator. They jumped when they heard the screeching and pushing on the door again, the heavy reinforcement of the entire building seeming to make sense, and they agreed at the next quiet moment to make their escape.
The screeching died down and after ten minutes of waiting in silence, they parted the door slowly and checked the hallway, finding it empty. They quickly raced to the elevator at the start of the hallway and quickened their pace when they heard the screeching.
"Go on without me," Tranz said, his arm turning white and the hilt of his sword forming in his wrist. "No way," Kim countered. "You nearly got killed by one of them and that's three back there!" "I know," he replied, "But that was when I was trying to bring one in alive. I'm going to kill them now. Besides, you should really get her out of here," he pointed to DNAmy.
The look of worry in both women's eyes made him sigh and concede defeat. He decided to go with them to the exit and picked up DNAmy and ran. Now without her slowing them down, they made it back to the elevator in almost no time. They entered the elevator and watched it close as the creatures rushed them, not getting the prizes they sought as the elevator went to the surface.
Once out of the basement level and back on the roof, they all took a moment to bask in the sun, even though it was starting to go down. None of them looking forward to spending more time on the island than they had to, they crammed into the jet and took off, Tranz ignoring Shego's comment on how he was supposed to walk back instead of taking the jet, mainly because he just didn't have it in him to walk that far for so long at the moment and he wasn't willing to go into an argument with the woman, almost certain he'd lose at the moment.
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Kim and Shego flopped on their bed, looking forward to a break. They had dropped DNAmy off at Global Justice headquarters, where Dr. Director no doubt planned a lengthy investigation on the woman while they went through the information that they had taken from the island. Dr. Director had assured them that she'd go easy on the geneticist, considering what she had been through, which they had all been shocked to learn that she'd spent more than two weeks under such a stressfully frightening situation.
Just as they were dozing off to sleep, Kim's Kimmunicator went off and she answered it, pretty sure she knew what the call was for. "Hey Wade," she said as his face came up on the screen. "Hey Kim, heard you had a tough mission," he replied. "No big," she lied. Of course it was big, it was very big and life threatening, but she wouldn't worry him about such stuff. "What did you find?" she asked. His answer was a lot of documents and pictures of scrolls, including the very symbol Tranz had used and he asked, "Are you sure you want a poke around with this stuff?" "Yeah," she asked as her device printed up the information. "Don't worry Wade, I've tackled worse stuff."
They talked for a bit more and then said their goodbyes, and Kim began to look over the documents. Shego eventually looked over and recognized Kim's research. "Princess," she said slowly. "Yeah Shego?" was the reply. "What are you doing? "I'm trying to figure out that curse he did, it looks so awesome! Think about it Shego. It'd be such a help to us!" Shego rolled her eyes and put her arm on Kim, forcing a light laugh and she said, "Are you sure you want to try this? I mean Tranz says we're not ready. You saw what it did to that Reaver AND that door. You think you can handle this?"
Kim scoffed at the question pointed out her studies. "It's simple," she said. "You let the energy run to your fingers like so," her index and middle finger began to glow and she put them on the paper, on the symbol, and began to trace it with her fingers. "You then have to make the symbol. All I have to do is work on the speed of my fingers."
She completed the symbol without thinking and it lit up, burning the paper that her fingers had traced the symbol on and she jumped, instinctively making a fist with the hand that had created the symbol. The symbol followed her index and middle fingers and hit her hand, entering her body.
Both of the women gasped and went silent before Kim started a low moan that grew into a scream. The pain was intense! It was like nothing she'd ever felt! Each and every nerve in her body was searing with pain, pain that was rushing through her body in a wave of sheer agony she had never thought existed.
Her scream resonated through the house and Shego panicked. What was she supposed to do? She should get Tranz, but should she leave Kim alone? Kim began to claw at her face, her arms, her stomach, anything as she finally collapsed, her body twitching, her face with a look of sheer torment. She soon began thrashing about in her agonizing sleep, scaring Shego even more, who had lost herself on the right course of action at the moment.
Tranz quickly burst into the room, desperate to know what the disturbance was. "I don't know what happened," Shego said, fighting a tear in her eye. "She was just trying that curse you did and she wound up doing it to herself…" "She WHAT!" Tranz exclaimed as he pushed Shego out of the way. Even though she tried to explain again, he wasn't listening. He was cursing under his breath while his fingers made a new symbol at the same amazing speed they had made the Waxing Curse and he pressed the new symbol into her forehead.
Kim's body went limp and a sigh of relief came from her sleeping form and Shego smiled weakly. Tranz quickly checked her pulse and confirmed that she was going to be alright. "Thank you Tranz," Shego said, wiping the tear from her eye. "I don't…I should have…" "What the HELL were you thinking?" He asked sharply. She jumped, not used to hearing anger in his voice. "I'm sorry," she said, "Kim was just so eager to learn it and I guess she—" Tranz cut her off. "I don't care what she thought! I told you both that neither of you were ready to learn that curse! What did you do? You went behind my back and tried to learn it anyways!"
He snarled and clenched his teeth as the seals on his back began to glow red, reacting to his anger. "I don't know what to say," Shego said, now looking at the floor. She had tried looking into his eyes, but they were so full of hate and anger that it scared her, HER! Shego could even swear that there was a devil in the boy's eyes as he fumed over the situation.
"Look," he said, trying to contain himself. "This training of ours, it's not some democratic function where if I say 'No', you go somewhere else where someone says 'Yes'. This is a dictatorial relationship when it comes to your training! I am NOT teaching you these moves for you to kill yourselves! If you girls can't take 'No' for an answer every time I do something new you want to learn, then we're going to stop training! I'll gladly reduce both of you to merely being saved in the event of an emergency!" "Tranz, look," Shego said with confidence returning to her voice. "You don't have to go so overboard and bite our heads off!" "Yes I do!" he shouted.
He didn't see a problem with raising his voice at the moment. He was mad beyond belief at the moment. Not to mention Kim's parents were still gone. Even Monique had left to spend some time back at her house, since Kim and Shego had suddenly gotten busy again with the world saving game. He felt he had every right to yell and he'd exercise said right. He was perfectly fine with yelling his head off at Shego until he remembered something, the real reason he was so mad at the moment and his demeanor changed.
"Tranz," said Shego softly. "Look, Shego," he said, "I'm sorry, I'm just frustrated. Look, Kim will be alright, she'll just wakeup with the world's largest headache. I'm gonna go get some air, I'll be back in a while. Try not to learn any new moves while I'm out."
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He didn't wait for a reply or acknowledgement, he simply left. He needed to get out, to get some air. He needed to collect his thoughts. Surely he shouldn't be trying to tear Shego's head off for Kim's apparent mistake. He should also probably go easier on a pair of women who had risked their lives to save his own. Still, how could Kim just go behind his back like that and learn a move he specifically labeled off-limits?
He probably would have wrestled back and forth with his thoughts if he hadn't looked up. He'd been walking for a while now and hadn't been paying attention to the direction and now look where he was: Bonnie's house.
He'd been there a few times, mainly walking Bonnie home at night. He'd rather walk her home than let her go about by herself and run into a hungry demon. He had to admit that he was growing fond of her, and she provided an escape from problems like vicious demons, and while he had to be careful what he said around the girl, she was someone he could talk to. He wondered if she was up. It was night now, but it wasn't that late. Maybe it was ten, probably a bit earlier. A few lights were on, he decided to pay her a quick visit.
Bonnie was relaxing in her bed, reading a fashion magazine, when she felt the bed shift. She checked for the disturbance, scared for a moment and fighting down a yelp when she saw Tranz at the foot of her bed, the boy saying, "Hi." Her reply was a smack to the face with her rolled up magazine. "What the heck are you doing here," she asked as she hit him again.
"Sorry, I was just in the area. I wanted to pop in and say hi." Tranz was apologetic. On inspection of his actions, going in through a window and suddenly showing up next to the girl shouldn't have been his course of action, but Lunatei habits were so hard to break. "Can't you knock like a normal person," she asked. He only shrugged and she replied with, "Hmph. How'd you even get up here?" Her bedroom was on the second floor of her house and it wasn't like there was a tree or ladder he could climb.
"I have…uhm…what was it he said…mad skills." It was true, after all. That was about the only way Tranz could have described it, or he'd have to go into detail of how he had silently jumped the length and slipped in through the window, closed it, and sat on her bed, all without her noticing.
"Right, so what are you doing here," she asked, a bit annoyed. "Speak up and count yourself lucky. I tend to even send the boys I'm dating away when they try this kind of stuff." "Yeah, sorry about dropping in on you," he said, "I just…well I was kinda deep in thought and found myself outside your house. I guess it's because I'm so used to the direction by now." "What's up," she asked, sitting next to him.
He sighed and was about to tell her the entire day, but remembered that it's best not to involve humans that knew nothing about demons. Then he'd have to explain his affiliation with a government agency. He needed someone to talk to in order to blow off steam, not put more pressure inside the pot.
"I had a troublesome person to subdue today. I had to use a move that I'd never shown my students before. I told them it was too advanced for them, but one didn't listen. She hurt herself pretty bad. Argh, why can't students understand that mentors tell them these kinds of things for their safety?"
"So you teach martial arts too," she asked. As far as she knew, Tranz was a bodyguard, but a bodyguard that taught martial arts too was pretty cool in her opinion. "Yeah," he replied. "It's a rare style that's complicated to learn." "I see," she said with a thought on her mind. "Maybe your student wanted to try it to prove she could. You know, prove that you're doing a good job on the whole training bit. I mean, imitation is the best for form of flattery."
She offered a smile and a laugh while Tranz thought. He'd honestly not considered the actual reason why Kim had tried to learn such a dangerous move on her own. Sure he was asking himself, but he wasn't expecting an answer. Of course she wanted to prove herself. Not only that, but the girl was freakin' Kim Possible. She took impossible tasks and restrictions as challenges. Heck, the girl probably was antsy to learn new moves ever since she and Shego had faced their first Reaver.
Bonnie saw the thought in his eyes and added, "I remember when my mom was making me try ice-skating. It took a while for me to get into it, but when I did, I got really good. I even pushed myself to learn stuff my instructor wouldn't show me. Some of it I got on my own, some of it got me hurt a bit and I was yelled at. Still, it was kind of a pride thing combined with a kind of gratitude to my instructor."
"I see," he said, following her words and finding some level of understanding at Kim's actions. "You still ice-skate," he asked. "No," she replied. "I wanted to, I really did, but all the pressure started getting to me. As far as my family was concerned, I had to be in the cheerleading squad and I had to make straight A's and then I had to hold a popular position in school. I had to join all sorts of clubs and make all sorts of impressions." She scoffed a bit at the memories and added, "I was probably working on my way to college when I was eight. It just got to be so much that I had to cut something out. Ice-skating had to go. I miss it though."
She looked down, a bit saddened. Too much stress and pressure in her life had made her give up a lot of things. It was all just too much. Aside from Tranz, she doubted she had a real friend to her name. All of her life was expectation and the prideful will of others. Stress was rather depressing in her book.
Her quiet attitude slowly grating at Tranz's mind, know just discovering more of the girl's interesting past, he put his hand on hers and squeezed sympathetically, gaining a look of thanks from her. "You know," he said, "You can always go back and try it again. I mean you did say you told everyone to back off your life." He squeezed her hand again and mentioned, "I mean it is your life. Treat it that way. Do whatever you want to with it. Don't let others push you around. As a matter of fact, send those people my way, I'll set 'em straight."
Bonnie smiled and hugged him, much to his surprise. After all, emotional embrace wasn't his strongpoint except when it came to family. A life of disciplined training and a struggle to keep a destructive being inside him from ravaging the world would keep a guy from expecting or even hoping for a moment like the one he was in. After a moment, he sheepishly returned her hug and fought the urge to flinch when he felt a tear from her roll off of her and onto him. "Why do girls always seem to be crying around me," he wondered.
His thoughts were broken as Bonnie pulled away from the hug and planted a kiss on his right cheek. He nearly choked in surprise and looked at her, desperate to find words, but only finding more choking until he finally managed, "What was that for?" "I like you," she answered. "You don't look at me like I'm supposed to be doing something. You don't hang around me because I'm popular. You generally hang around me because you like me, not what I'm supposed to be." She caressed his cheek, only adding to his embarrassment, and said, "I've never had anyone around me who never put any extra pressure on me." "Well yeah," he said, slowly getting used to the physical contact, "when you care about someone, you shouldn't make them feel worse about something."
He stopped and considered his own words. He'd probably made Shego feel absolutely awful with his outburst. Combine that with the fact that she had to go through Kim's little episode with pain, and she had to feel crushed, absolutely crushed.
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Tranz finally returned to the Possible household around one in the morning. He hadn't intended on staying out so long, but he'd spent so much time talking to Bonnie. He came to understand that he really liked the girl and he'd made note to spend more time around her.
He checked Kim's room, wondering on the condition of the redhead, considering he'd left, fully knowing she'd be alright. He entered, discovering Shego awake, sitting on the bed, slowly caressing Kim's hair in her sleep. Shego looked up to Tranz and asked for quiet, as Kim was sleeping peacefully. The girl was probably beyond exhausted thanks to the day and her little mishap with the Curse had probably yanked what little energy she had left for the day.
Tranz sat down at the foot of the bed and looked to Shego, saying, "Look, I'm sorry. I yelled. I lost my temper. Sure Kim did something stupid, but it didn't dictate me biting your head off." He saw Shego was about to say something, but he wanted to get out what he wanted to say. He wanted to tell her about the memory he had and why it had been the true source of his rage.
"You know," he said, "When I was twelve, my village elder told me I was the Devil King of the moon. It was something to think about, to say the least. Just those words set it loose. I was insane with power and it took all the village's warriors to stop me and hold me down for the seals to be put on my body. After that, the entire village was scared of me. Sure there was always a Devil King in the village, but that fact isn't exactly a calming one. I mean, I was deadly, dangerous. Heck, I still am. It was like no one believed in me anymore, no one except for my older brother."
Tranz looked to the ceiling and smiled on the thought of his brother, then continued. "His name was Fritz. Funny name by my standards, but I respected him. He was amazing. He was always so calm and collected. He was one of the strongest in the village and it was his encouragement that kept me training to be a Lunatei. I always thought nothing could beat him, that he was genuinely invincible and nothing would ever stop him. Then one day, he discovered the Waxing Curse from his master. The move intoxicated him and he was so desperate to learn it, but his master refused. He would always refuse, even a year later. It got to him. He was so sure of himself and his abilities. One night he…stole scrolls detailing the move and went into the forest to train with a few of his friends. They would do that a lot. It gave them privacy and space. Heh, I just figured he was going to do like usual, leave for the day and come back, boasting some new combo attack or something. Instead, he never came back. It was the next day when his friends came back. They had to explain to the village that he'd tried the Curse and screwed it up, just like Kim. Problem is, he was a lot stronger than Kim and he didn't have anyone with him that knew the counter curse. They said he'd spent ten minutes under the agony of the curse. Kim only had thirty seconds. That kind of pain Shego, it's lethal. The body will do anything it can to avoid it, even extinguish its life."
He took in a breath and sighed it out. Then he had to wipe a tear from his eye. "They say that until my brother, the longest lasting human under the Curse lived for three minutes. I guess, in a way, my brother set a record, although it's a record I wouldn't want to try and break. Ah Shego, I was destroyed on the inside when I learned about it. I even developed a fear of the Curse, which was the entire basis my master had for teaching it to me. He saw my fear and understood that I'd respect it and never abuse its power. Still, it took me a month to get over it. Further still, I learned the counter curse first, even if it was a foolish effort. In the event I was in the same predicament as my brother, I'd be in too much pain to actually use the counter curse to save my life. I mastered the move. I mastered every known variation of it. I mastered the amount of energy to put into it. I did it…for my brother I guess. I guess that's why I got so mad when Kim went around and tried to learn it. I…it's just…I don't want to lose either one of you like I lost my brother. I miss Fritz, I miss him bad. There's not a day that goes by where I don't wish I could have somehow stopped him, even though it's not possible. I just want you two to be safe and learn your skills at a normal pace…is that so much to ask?"
He finally stopped talking, staying quiet, expecting a response from Shego, who was as silent as him, not sure if he was actually asking a question for the purpose of an answer or rhetoric. She finally got it and answered. "Tranz, you know we want to learn and we're willing. So Kim got a little eager. I know it's wrong, I know it was stupid. Still, I think Pumpkin learned something from this. Odds are she'll be more patient. If not, I'll hold her down and make her more patient. I guess that's all I can say, I mean I can't speak for her."
Tranz nodded, accepting his student's words. They finished the conversation with a hearty handshake, even though it felt silly for unknown reasons. They then looked at Kim, resting peacefully.
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Kim opened her eyes and groaned. Her head was pounding. What had she been doing before? That's right, she had been testing that Curse. She couldn't remember it too well, but she was fairly certain she'd screwed up. She was thankful that she was apparently alright, ignoring the headache, and she quickly located Shego, who was deep in sleep, pressed against Kim with her arm over the girl.
"You're up," Tranz said. He'd been observing Kim in her sleep, taking over for Shego and he'd spent his time knelt against the wall. He stood up and looked her over, glad to see her okay for some reason, considering he knew she would be. "What happened," she asked groggily. "Oh, you went behind my back and tried to learn the Waxing Curse. It backfired on you and if not for me, you'd have killed yourself." There was no reason for Tranz to beat around the bush, she'd done something stupid. She should know about it.
"I bet you're pretty mad at me," she said. "Yeah," he admitted truthfully. "Don't worry, I got over it." "You gonna punish me or something?" She asked it jokingly, but there was a part of her that wouldn't put it past him. "Nah," he answered. "I think the pain you went through is lesson enough. Though, you're going to have to give me your word that you won't go out and do something so stupid again. If you don't watch it, you're gonna try something that will kill you and I won't be here to save you. I don't want you dead. I'm not training you to kill yourself."
Kim wanted to say something, something like how she's supposed to be able to do anything and how he shouldn't worry. Something like how it wasn't all that bad, but the look in his eyes kept her from saying anything. He'd obviously spent a lot of time on the situation and he was right. She was only the student and it wasn't something as simple as saving the world. She nodded, accepting the fact that her role didn't allow for her to go out and try things on her own.
They smiled at each other and Kim eased back into bed, the headache getting to her. He put his hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed and told her to go back to bed. After making sure she was back to sleep, he eased out of the room and went downstairs. He sat down on the couch with one final thought before trying for a short nap.
"Bonnie wants a date…what the crap is a date?"
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Ending Notes: There's Chapter Eleven! I know it took a while to come up, so I made it extra large! I hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to bring Episode Twelve around faster than Episode Eleven came!