Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible, or any of the characters from that show, or those from any other media I may reference in my stories.
Author's Note: In case of confusion, the timer at the end of the previous chapter was set for twenty minutes, not hours.
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Kim and Shego sat opposite each other in their cell. Shego had just finished telling Kim the whole story of what had happened when Drakken's lair had been bombed, and the girl was absorbing the information. "So, you're saying these girls were dropped off here by the Doctor, or at least they claimed to have been?" Kim finally asked.
Shego nodded, "Yeah, Princess, that's what they say, and they had the tech to prove it, sort of. Not sure how they ended up involved with this mess, but Global Justice was taking charge of them the last I saw."
"But, they aren't here yet, just one of the skulls? Okay, maybe...they were with Ron at the house, and the skull slipped into the Rani's TARDIS, and was brought back here?" Kim suggested with a touch of hope in her voice.
Shego mulled that over, slowly nodding, "That makes some sense, Princess. Only explanation that does, for the moment. But, can it communicate with the others, or whomever is looking for us? By the way, Amy said we're in Thailand, Kimmie. Quite a distance from the Yucatan. Even if they know where the Rani went, no telling how long they'll take to get here."
After a few minutes of silence, Kim spoke up again, "Shego, you do realize that the Rani did age us nine months, making the babies? She took that time away from us."
Shego scowled, then nodded, "Yeah, the thought crossed my mind, Princess." She looked up and smirked, "Means biologically you're legal, now, Kimmie, for a whole lot of things, if the law recognizes it."
"That's a big 'if', Shego, and only works if we let anyone know the truth about what happened to us." She sighed, and looked resigned, "Which we have to, if we want to legally claim our girls as our daughters."
Shego grimaced. "Well, unless we can arrange some kind of adoption...right, a wanted criminal and a teenager with a dangerous lifestyle, real likely!"
Kim's face grew more serious. "I think I could give the lifestyle up, to keep her. I mean, I intend to go to college, and being a mother, too...this is really the Drama!" She shook her head, "Anything is possible...Boy, Dad may have to eat those words."
"This all supposes we can get out of here, and get the girls, Kimmie. And my power is still MIA, so that doesn't seem likely without outside help. And presumably, the Rani can leave any time, and take the girls with her."
Kim looked up with a horrified expression, "We can't let her! She can't have them!"
"Princess, I agree, and if anything I can do will make it happen, I'll do it, I give you my word, whether you trust it or not."
"I do trust it, Shego, at least in this case." She smirked slightly, then became serious again. "And getting those little girls away from the Rani is more important to me then anything, even my life!"
"Whoa, Pumpkin, turn it down a notch!"
"I mean it Shego, I may be a burden when we try and escape. You once promised Drakken that you wouldn't let me suffer, if one of his traps didn't kill me cleanly, now I want you to promise me that if it comes to choosing between me and them, you'll save them, without hesitation!"
Shego stared at the girl in shock for a second, trying in vain to form words. Then she clamped her mouth shut, and put her thoughts in order before expressing them. "Not fair, Princess, that was a whole different 'sitch', and you know it. But, yes, If I have to make a choice, babies first. But don't expect me to like it."
Kim nodded, satisfied, and lapsed into silence. But not for long. "I'm thinking of naming my little girl after Amy."
Shego blinked in surprise, then slowly grinned, "Princess, you're one of a kind!" Then she frowned, "I suppose I should think of a name, too. But, I have no clear choice here, I didn't know my own family, so can't name her after a relative...what?"
"Did you legally change your name to Whitlock, or is that an alias?"
"Legal as can be, Kimmie. After they made us Wards of the City, those bozos gave us all the surname 'Go', thought it was appropriate. Henry was the only one they had to convince, he wasn't a foundling, he was orphaned at a young age, so he had a last name from his family. The rest of us were 'assigned' last names for the official records, and none very imaginative. Mine was 'Black', oddly enough, Anastasia Black. So, yeah, I had it changed to 'Whitlock', after poor..." She looked up suddenly, comprehension dawning. "Of course! I see where you're going, Princess, and Thanks for the prod!"
She looked off into space, and whispered, "Millicent Whitlock." "You never had a chance for your own kids, Milly, maybe this will make up for it."
"Another thing has been bothering me, about the pregnancies." Kim had a thoughtful look, as she chose her words carefully, "You need a lot to make a baby inside you, I mean, just basically you do have to 'eat for two' at the very least. So, obviously, whatever fluid the Rani had us in provided all the things we needed to stay healthy, and produce a healthy baby, right?" Shego nodded agreement, "Then, why did I still come out looking like this?"
Before Shego could frame a reply, another voice interrupted. "Actually, Miss Possible, the answer is simple." The two looked up to find their captor standing outside.
"In point of fact, if not for me, and my abilities, you never would have carried a healthy child to term." This matter-of-fact statement by the Rani stunned Kim. "I don't know if you injured yourself with your 'active' lifestyle, or just developed poorly, but a successful pregnancy should have been impossible for you. But, I did manage to work it out so you were able to deliver a perfectly healthy little girl. However, because of your problems, and the rate at which your body could process the nutrients inside the chamber, your body had to assign priorities, and it put the child first. So, your own body didn't benefit very much at all."
Kim continued to stare at the woman for several moments, but she wasn't truly seeing her. "No children? Because of what I've done, maybe? Mom and Dad...no, I would've been so disappointed, we all would have. I wanted to be a mother, someday, and now she tells me I never would have been." A scowl grew on her face, as she turned it away from the grinning woman. "But I am, and that little girl will end up with me, no matter what happens!"
"You decided what to do with us, yet, or our children?" Shego asked the Rani.
The Time Lord lost her grin, mouth setting in a grim line. "Actually, I will probably just leave you here, to be found, or to rot. As to the children, I may find a way to erase the 'imprinting' of your faces on their little minds as their mothers." She smiled again as she saw the anger rising in both captives' eyes. "In fact, I am inclined to leave today, my original purpose in coming here has been accomplished, as far as possible, and I am inclined not to outstay my welcome. So, Good Day, Ladies. You can hope for someone to find you before you starve." She then made her exit, immune to the glares directed at her back.
Kim and Shego turned to each other. No words were said, the determination visible in both sets of eyes were enough.
Unseen by either woman, a small area of visual distortion was approaching the watching spider from it's blind side.
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A level below them was a chamber for disposing of failed experiments. The means of disposing of many of the creatures was an acid bath, a large, open vat filled with the dissolving agent. Saul floated over the acid, waiting.
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Something out of the corner of her eye drew Shego's attention. Their watch-spider had vanished abruptly. "Where the Hell..." She broke off as a shiny black skull appeared outside the barrier. "Well, hello there!" She leaned as close to the forcefield as she could, looking both ways, but saw no sign of the creature. "And where did you send our ugly friend?" Fred tilted slightly to the left, as if shrugging, then leveled. He then began to investigate the forcefield.
Kim was looking at the little skull with wide eyes, but she slowly began to smile. "He is kind of, um, cute, in a way. Does he have a name?"
Shego rolled her eyes, then furrowed her brow in concentration. "Yeah, he does. Let's see, Blue was Ben, Red was Roy, the steel one was Saul, so this is Fred." The skull bobbed briefly in acknowledgment. "Think you can get us out of here, Fred?" The skull bobbed again. "Good, then we have to find two babies..." Fred bobbed once more, "You found them? Great! You can teleport them to us, right?" Another affirmative answer. "That saves us some trouble, it also means there are at least two of these little guys here. What about Charley, Ron, and the other girls, Fred?" The skull swung back and forth in a negative answer. "On their way?" A bob. "Well that's something, anyway."
"Depends on how long it takes." Kim replied.
Fred suddenly fixed on one spot in the frame. His eyes began to flicker, and there was a sudden change in air pressure. Shego reached out through the field, and met no resistance. "Well, we're good to go, Princess."
As she started forwards, however, Fred suddenly butted her in the chest. "What the..." He repeated the action, and she brought both arms up, to fend him off. He tilted to look at her arms, and the light dawned. Even as Kim asked, "What's he doing?" Shego formed her arms into a cradle. Fred's eyes flickered again, and Shego had her arms full of baby.
"Oh!" exclaimed Kim, even as Fred turned towards her. Moments later, Kim was holding her own little redheaded girl. Both babies were naked, and quickly announced their displeasure at the change in temperature. Both women got the same idea at once, picking up the towels they had washed with. Though damp, they had been lying on the warm floor long enough to dry a bit, and were the only available option, anyway. Trying to get as much dry material in contact with the little ones' skin as possible, they wrapped them as warmly as possible.
Kim looked into the little redhead's eyes, smiling, and received one in return. "Hello, Amy, welcome to a very weird family, my baby." She looked up to see Shego with an awed look on her face, just staring at the dark-haired bundle in her arms. "And that's your sister, Milly, over there, being held by the very strange lady who contributed half of your DNA."
"Huh? Oh, very funny, Princess, very funny!" Then Shego frowned. "Sisters? I guess they are, at that. So, we are each responsible for both of them, right?" Kim nodded, "So if anything happens to either of us, the other takes care of both babies, right?"
"Of Course!"
"Okay, Princess, I get it." She looked at Milly again, "You know, Milly, even if you do have a little frog DNA in you, I may keep you, anyway." She smiled at Milly as Kim snorted in amusement. Then she looked up, and asked the big question. "Okay, Princess, shall we wait for rescue, or try and blow this place?"
Kim nodded in confirmation as she replied, "Never been much for waiting to be rescued, myself."
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Seven and a half seconds after the timer expired, Wade Load had Charley on the line. "Contact! They're in Thailand, Charley!"
A feeling of intense relief ran through the girl, but she was careful to keep the screen and pick-up pointed towards her, as her companions were already shucking clothes. "Great, Wade! Please pass the coordinates to UNIT, please. We're on our way." At Wade's acknowledgment, Charley signed off, put the communicator on the shelf with her armor, and dashed into the back compartment, stripping as she went. The other five were already in the tubes, Jen looking mildly apprehensive. "Don't worry, just restrain yourselves from moving when the isolation field kicks in." Charley assured them, as she took her own place.
"Is this going to hurt?" Despite the question, Sam had a big grin on her face. Before anyone could answer, Sam's eyes widened as she rose up off the deck, and she just stopped herself from reaching out to the sides of the tube. Then there was a momentary feeling of disorientation, everyone's feet came back in contact with the deck, and Charley and her team rushed back into the central bay, leaving the two mercs blinking behind them. "That's it?" Sam asked, mildly disappointed. Jen grinned, shook her head, and headed forwards.
The four girls had the easiest time dressing, only having to don their bodysuits, then slippers and gloves, before shifting into combat mode. As soon as the armor plates stabilized, they grabbed their weapons belts and donned them, then their weapons. Their pistols adhered to a plate, which angled out from their hips enough for them to get an easy grip on them, rather then being holstered. "Right out of Star Trek." Jen mused. The twins' assault rifles likewise adhered to the back of their armor, but unlike the previous diagonal position, they now hung vertically down behind the right shoulder. Charley and JJ stuck with their pistols. JJ also chose to carry two of the mimetic melee weapons, hers slung on her back so she could draw them across her shoulders. The other three girls took one each.
The two Mercs pulled on their clothes, gray fatigues under form-fitting body armor, also gray. Jen's big .45 rode on her hip, while Sam's Kama went into sheathes on the front of her armor, with the blades horizontal, and easy access to the hafts. They were made with modern materials, instead of traditional wood and steel. Jen left her assault rifle alone, since she had to sling it over the harness for her big gun, while Sam put on her knee-length black duster, and make sure her braid was safely tucked beneath it.
While all the dressing and equipping had been going on, Charley was talking with Thundagirl. "What's our status, T-Girl?"
"Twenty-five miles from transmission location right now, boss, dropping to treetop level, and closing. We have heavy jungle, very hilly, many small streams making cuts. No roads, but there is a narrow track running towards our objective. One radar operating, about fifty meters north of our transmitter, at the very top of the hill. No return off me, though."
"Only get close enough for the moment to get a good underground scan, T-Girl. Any sign of UNIT's transponders, yet?"
"Will hold at four kilometers, boss. And affirmative, have them over Malaysian territory. And if those are stock Lynxes the lead troops are riding in, I'm a blimp. They're doing at least thirty MPH more then they should be."
"Can they get here without being picked up by that radar?"
"Not if they come straight in, but I can plot a course they can use to avoid it."
"Okay, open a channel to them, and ask politely to interface with their tactical computer."
Behind her, Sam leaned close enough to whisper in JJ's ear. "Is that armor of yours some kind of 'powered' armor?"
The girl shook her head, "No, it's protection only, but the plates have no weight, and they can take a lot of punishment."
"What about your heads?" Sam asked.
"Actually, that's the best protected part of us, but I can't tell you why, sorry." JJ replied. T-Girl interrupted before the conversation could continue.
"Channel open, boss, and asking politely." Charley nodded, finished adjusting her belt, and took up her comm. As she did, a panel folded down from the front bulkhead, and a holographic display appeared, showing the target as T-Girl's sensors began to reveal it. "Boarhound, Boarhound, this is Valkyrie, do you hear?" Charley transmitted.
"Roger, Valkyrie, this is Boarhound Six, over." It was a male voice, with only the vaguest accent.
"Boarhound, this is Valkyrie, we are on station, sending you tactical data." T-Girl cut in with more information for Charley, "Boss, UNIT has four aircraft total, all 'normal' appearing, Two Westland Lynxes, and two of those 'Chinooks' again, about fifteen miles astern. They're modified, too, moving about fifteen MPH over their rated speed, and that would normally be their 'empty' speed, these are fully loaded. I think one is the command ship, the other carrying the main ground force." While listening to this, Charley also heard a slight splutter in Boarhound Six's voice as he responded.
"On Station? How on earth did you manage to get here that quickly, or did you delay informing us of the target's location?" Surprise turned to suspicion in one sentence.
"We cannot reveal that, just trust me when I say that I did stick to the letter of my agreement with Brigadier MacLaren. Now, we have a schematic of the target. Main door recessed fifteen feet into the hillside, forty feet wide by thirty tall, about four and a half feet thick, Stone, no reinforcing metal. Personnel door to one side, Metal, and heavy, from this reading. Another entry via a thirty-five foot vertical shaft, very narrow, looks like a spiral staircase, entrance disguised as a rock outcrop. From main door, passage runs west, and slopes down about 18 degrees for 70 yards, enters a eighty by eighty by forty foot high chamber. Passage from there goes north, fifteen degree downslope for 340 feet, ending in a T-junction. One passage from there leads to a small room, the other to a very large area, one hundred by eighty feet, thirty foot ceiling."
"Two hundred five feet down from the first large chamber, we have the first of three doors on either side of the passage, leading to rooms of varying sizes. There are narrow passages running behind both sets of rooms, with the vertical shaft opening into the eastern one. They extend all the way to the rooms off the 'T'. I suspect the doors into them are concealed. The vertical shaft descends twenty feet past that level to another level, containing three large chambers. T-Girl, show me power sources, please? Ah, one of those chambers contains a Geo-Kinetic Reactor, which appears to be the power source for the whole facility. And there's the Rani's TARDIS, in the one chamber off the 'T'. Okay, show me lifeforms now, please?"
Her eyes widened as the display resolved itself. "Wow! That one big room is full of creatures, the Rani's been busy! Have four very small, and hard to classify, lifeforms at various points in the complex. And there is the Rani, first room on the left facing downslope, and our hostages, on the move?...Uh, I'm reading four lifeforms, two being carried...Babies?" Charley turned to see the curious looks of her companions.
JJ shrugged, before suggesting, "Think the Rani did some experimenting, or kidnapping?" Charley just shook her head in response.
"Geo-Kinetic Reactor?" Jen asked Belle quietly.
"Yeah, generates power from the movement of the planet through space. Only stops if you turn it off, and no pollution, either." the girl explained.
"Nice to have one of those around the house." Jen replied, impressed in spite of herself.
Boarhound Six was speaking on the radio. "Well, it looks like we will have to blast the main door, or more likely the adjacent personnel door. No chance of surprise that way. When Spearpoint gets there, they should have enough explosives with them for the job."
"No, we have a much better and more stealthy way to get in, Boarhound." Charley responded, a system installed in our ship."
At which point T-Girl herself spoke up. "Boss, two things I need to tell you. First, there is a jamming field in effect that will block any teleports through it, as well as any transmissions."
Charley grimaced, then nodded, " I was wondering why I couldn't connect with Fred and Saul!" Then she spoke on the radio again, "Boarhound, this is what I propose..."
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Fifteen miles to the south, the lead UNIT Lynx swung down into a narrow canyon, following the evasive course provided by T-Girl. As it did, it passed over a device hidden in the foliage below, one of a ring of such devices deployed around the lair. As soon as the vibrations of the helicopter's rotors reached it, the device activated, extending three small sensor 'fans'. Analyzing the vibrations, the device decided that it's purpose had been activated, and it broadcast a signal.
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Boarhound Six was talking, "Valkyrie, I have reservations about that plan, and would rather try this my way. I believe..." then he was cut off by T-Girl.
"Boss, just detected a burst transmission, targeted at the lair! Point of origin...I believe the UNIT choppers set off a passive sensor, we've lost the element of surprise!" A muffled curse came over the still-live microphone, and two or three more echoed through the bay aboard T-Girl.
Charley shook her head, "I hate being forced, but I think we need to go with my plan, Over!" She made a signal to the other girls, and they nodded. The portside hatch slid back a foot, and Ben shot out of it, while Roy moved up beside his mistress.
"And I hate to be forced, as well, but I can see no alternative. Go with your plan, Miss Cob. Boarhound Six, out." Came the UNIT commander's reply.
Charley turned to the two mercenaries. "Okay, you guys wait for the UNIT soldiers, then come back us up." As they both nodded, Charley fidgeted, waiting for Ben to cover the distance to his target. "T-Girl, close to one kilometer, please." After several minutes, she smiled slightly, looked at Roy, and nodded. A second later and she was gone. The red skull spun to face each of the team in turn, and they vanished as well. Roy then darted out the hatch, which closed behind him.
Jen turned to Sam, "Okay, let's get the big guns ready, it looks like we might just need them, if all that ..." pointing at the large life sign on the display, "Is full of fangs and teeth!"
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In the lab room with the large chamber where she had accelerated the pregnancies of Shego and Kim, the Rani heard a short tone issue from her pocket device. She took it out and consulted it. "Hmmm, a helicopter? No, two, signatures a close, but not exact, match to a military model. Coincidence? I don't think I will chance it. Time to go. After I collect my two young specimens." Rather then take the main entrance, she walked to the back wall, and opened the hidden door into the back passage, entered, and closed it behind her.
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Peeking around the corner of the exit from the cellblock, Shego grimaced and pulled back. "Damn, there are two big ones in the doorway straight across, they must be guarding, or rather, think they are guarding, the babies." Saul popped up besides her, to take a look. He made a beeping noise, then activated his stealth mode, and disappeared into the main passage. "Hmmm, I think a diversion is coming up, Princess, be ready to move."
Moments later, a whistling noise emanated from the room beyond the creatures. Both turned to listen, then moved out of Shego's sight. "Okay, let's go, quick and quiet!" The pair moved as quickly as they could to the main passage entrance, and Shego peered up and down it before waving Kim out. They moved to their right, ducking into the corridor to the storage room.
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Outside, T-Girl adjusted her position so as to have a clear line of sight to the main door. A sensor beam activated, focused on the door, probing the stone and determining certain properties of the material. Once the data was stored, she moved to the clearing where the UNIT Lynxes were going to set down, and descended.
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Coming out of the back passage into the lab, the Rani was entering commands into her device. "That should slow down the military, if it is them." Smiling with satisfaction, she strolled over to the chamber where the two babies were supposed to be, and spotted her two guards inside the room, looking around in confusion. Her smile turned to a scowl, then to a look of shock as she looked down into the now empty chamber. "WHAT! How could they..." She looked at her two creatures, a suspicious look growing on her face, "Or, did you..." Then she shook her head, and brought her control device back up and entered another command. A schematic of the lair came up on it's screen, and she nodded grimly. "They did get out, again! A little kindness...but they really were beginning to reek...No more, time to end this, and get out!"
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Sixteen UNIT troopers, led by a Lieutenant seconded from the Malaysian Armed Forces, had now gathered in T-Girl's central bay. They included two Aussies, one New Zealander, and four Gurkha, among other representatives of the region's nations. Introductions were in progress when an ominous "Uh, Oh!" came from the ship itself.
Jen was the first to respond, "What's wrong, Thundagirl?"
"An unusual energy field just activated around the gate. Characteristics suggest a combustion and chemical reaction suppression field. I don't believe any explosives or firearms would work within it's field of effect."
"Well, that won't stop our entry, but can she activate a similar field within the whole lair?"
"No idea, but it is possible, Miss Paladin."
The Malay Lieutenant, Basim bin Hamad, turned to his men. "Check your bayonets, and other close combat weapons." Half the men were carrying machetes in addition to their bayonets, and the four Gurkha had their kukri fighting blades. Sam checked her Kama, to make sure they were secure, but Jen didn't seem concerned. "What about you, Madam?" Basim asked her.
"Don't worry, I'll manage." She replied calmly. She then gazed speculatively at the weapons rack. "T-Girl, I have a question..."
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Shego and Kim were barely in the storeroom when Saul uncloaked between them, and began to act agitated. "That does not look good." Kim observed.
Shego nodded agreement, "We better find the back door, pronto!" It looked like it might be an easy task, only a small part of the rear wall was accessible, the rest being blocked by crates and boxes. It occurred to both women that Amy might have blocked the entrance carelessly, but neither voiced that worry. Fred and Saul began to sweep the exposed sections of the wall.
As they waited, Milly began to get fussy, and became interested in a significant part of Shego's anatomy, even though it was covered. Shego got the message. "Oh, sorry, Milly, I don't have any, I should be surprised you haven't been hungry before!" She looked around at all the crates. "I don't suppose there would be anything here we could feed them?"
Kim looked doubtful. "Baby food? I doubt that, though who knows what Amy fed her critters. Juice, maybe, we could...Shego, we have company!" The last was in a low, urgent tone.
Fred let out three beeps from nearby, as Shego focused her attention on the entrance. She sensed some kind of movement, but from where they were standing, they couldn't see very far out. She turned to the black skull, who was tapping his forehead against a spot on the wall. A small rectangular panel was being displaced by the tapping. Shego walked quickly over to it, and pushed on one side, spinning it in place, and revealing a switch. She pressed it, and a door opened inwards a foot to it's left. "Here, Kimmie!" She stuck her head through, rather incautiously, but nothing happened. The door led to a short hallway about five feet long, leading to another passage, a narrow, five-foot wide hallway, at right angles to the first, and dimly lit. Shego moved quickly forward to peer along this new passage, and spotted an opening in the far wall, twenty feet to the left, and what appeared to be a step up, hopefully the bottom one of the exit stairs.
She turned back into the room, and was shocked to see Kim had picked up a tent pole with a pointed end, and was balancing it in her left hand as she backed away from one of the Rani's creatures, just entering the room. Shego moved back to her side. "Here, Kim, take Milly and go, I'll hold them off!"
"NO! Shego, I'd never make it carrying both babies, and we both know it! You take them, and go, please!" Kim pleaded her case even as she held Amy out.
Shego shook her head, "No! We can... the skulls can teleport us up to the top! Give me the baby, and..." She saw Fred giving her a negative shake, "Why not?" The monster was advancing, and a second was visible behind it.
Kim shoved Amy into Shego's arms. "No time, save them, Shego, Please and Thank You!" Shego had to accept the baby, as Kim took the pole in both hands and moved towards the monsters, lunging at them enough to back them off. "Go, Shego!"
Shego actually felt tears in her eyes, a rare occurrence. "Damn You, Possible, don't you die!" She spun and hurried through the door, turning left towards the stairs, and stopped dead. Something horribly familiar was slithering towards her, cresting the top of an incline beyond the stairs, where it sloped down to the room where the Rani stored her TARDIS. Moving rapidly forwards, the huge, Cobra-like snake she had last seen at the Rani's camp in the Yucatan coiled and reared up, head pulling back prior to spitting.
Kim knew she had no chance. Physically, she was weakened by all her ordeals of late. Though she was feeling no ill effects such as nausea or dizziness, she didn't have the stamina for anything strenuous, even with the surge of adrenaline rushing through her. She just hoped to slow the monsters down long enough for Shego to escape. And she hoped that she would die quickly, if the monsters were planning on her being their next meal. "I don't want to die, but better me...heh, then just about anybody, right, Kim? Drakken may know me better then I know myself, I would rather die then face the guilt of someone else's death, no matter how much I was responsible."
She made another lunge at the nearest monster, but was forced to back off then, in order not to move into a wide enough space to allow them to gang up on her. The creature lost patience and rushed her, or seemed to. But it was a feint. She lunged to stab it, but it pulled up and batted the point aside, then backhanded her. She lost her grip on the pole as she sailed backwards, slamming into an uneven stack of crates, catching one protruding corner right in the middle ribs. She bounced off and fell to the floor on her back, barely managing to stop from cracking her head on the concrete. "Damn! Smarter then they look!"
The lead monster rushed forwards and loomed over her, bending to reach for her...then howling in pain as it's legs suddenly gave way, and it collapsed to it's knees. A howl also burst from it's trailing partner, just before something sliced right through the first monster's neck, decapitating it. Beyond, Kim saw short black hair and silver armor, and beyond that the second monster folding at the waist, sliced open across the abdomen. As it did, the sword in Charley Cob's hands reversed itself, and swept back in an upward angled sweep to take the second beast's head off, too. The girl then spun around the falling monster, changing her grip again to lead with the sword's point, swinging around the dead monster to bury the point into the side of yet another, pushing it halfway through the creature before wrenching it out through the beast's back, severing it's spine.
A fourth advanced, and the girl swung her blade high, left-handed. The beast responded by blocking the blade, but Charley's right hand was what it should have been worrying about. Gripping her pistol, she snapped it up as the monster's guard went high and fired it three times, each shot placed higher then the last, not least because of the recoil from the .50 Magnum rounds, even with the weapon's recoil suppression. The beast jerked backwards under the impacts, then fell, revealing a fifth creature, looking bemused at the three holes in it's own body, before it too fell dead. Kim saw that the first monster had been slashed across it's lower back. "She got between them, and sliced them both in one spin, but how?" Then she spotted Saul, hovering over the girl's head, and got it. "Wow, those little guys are really handy!"
Shego was raging silently. "No! Save them, dammit! Never mind me, God, these babies deserve life!" As the snake's head snapped forwards, Roy appeared in front of Shego, and the air blurred around him as a stream of yellow venom shot from the creature's maw at her. The venom splattered off the blurred space, splashing on either side of the corridor. As the snake reared back to repeat it's attack, something suddenly sprouted in front of it's central eye. The object, the point of a blade, sliced downwards, bisecting the snake to the first coil. A mix of yellow venom and purplish blood spilled out as the snake collapsed, revealing JJ Ko, a blade in each hand. The sounds of gunshots and curses echoed down the stairwell behind her as she stepped towards Shego.
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In a chamber not far away, Ben had found an interesting console. After a brief analysis, he realized it was not the primary defense systems' controls. But one function made him curious, and divining it's purpose, he switched it off.
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"Are you all right, Shego?" JJ was looking at her oddly, between quick checks back down the corridor. She grinned quickly at Roy, who was focusing his attention solely on the two babies.
The former villainess actually smiled as she nodded, then raised one hand, around which green energy formed a sheath. "Probably never been better!" Then she became alarmed, "Kim!" And she turned to dash back into the room, babies and all.
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Standing in the main passage with a bodyguard of her biggest creations, the Rani was shocked to hear gunshots. "Inside already? How did they bypass the alarms?" She was suddenly startled by a loud tone issuing from her control device. "What? The front door has been breached? Without explosives?"
She looked up as she began punching more commands into her controller. "The lot of you! We have intruders at the main door, go deal with them! While I turn the whole menagerie loose, and see how they handle that, before I get out of here!"
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Moments before, T-Girl charged straight at the front door. Thirty feet from it, as Lieutenant Basim prepared to shout to his men to brace themselves, a pulse of energy radiated from the ship's nose, penetrating through the stone door, momentarily altering the binding between it's molecules. And in the next moment, it was mostly reduced to dust, as the sentient ship kept right on going down the passage. Behind her, what hadn't turned to dust reverted to solid stone again.
The eight monsters sent upwards by the Rani were only halfway to the large chamber when their night adjusted eyes saw movement ahead. They slowed from a steady lope to a slow pace, Trying to make out what was ahead. Then they clearly made out the looming bulk of T-Girl, coming right at them after negotiating the turn. "I hope this doesn't go on my insurance!" The ship quipped just before impact.
The Rani looked up as a series of quickly terminated howls echoed from up the passage, and reflexively backed towards the nearest door, the one into Amy's private quarters. Looking towards the disturbance, she suddenly made out T-Girl rushing towards her, a couple of her broken creations still draped on her nose.
Eyes widening in shock, the Rani nevertheless possessed sufficient self control to spin and dash through the doorway, as the ship pulled to an abrupt halt, lowered to the ground, and both side hatches opened. T-Girl had inclined slightly to the left, to insure that there was room for the ramp to drop, but there was still adequate room for the people on board her to deploy through both hatches.
Jen and Sam took the center, moving directly in front of the ship, avoiding as much as possible the remains of her victims, which had fallen clear when she stopped. Basim came up on Sam's left, opposite Jen, and the UNIT troops formed alongside them, save for four who took up positions covering the rear, one pair on each side of the ship. "Sergeant Morant, take four men, start searching these side rooms in turn, start with..." A commotion was building, from somewhere downslope from them. "Cancel that! Check these two rooms..." He indicated the lowermost on each side, "For hostiles, quickly, then two men in each for crossfire." One pair of troopers went for each door, as the rest listened apprehensively to the growing din approaching them. Two more set up Light Support Weapons, and all the rest prepared their assault rifles.
"T-Girl, how many?" Jen asked, settling into firing position, and chambering rounds in all three barrels.
"One hundred, Eighty-two different life forms, all different sizes, Miss Paladin, with most of them coming right at us."
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Keeping a wary eye on the entrance, even as she heard T-Girl arrive, Charley turned and hurried back to Kim, securing her weapons. She activated her bracer, dropping to a kneeling position besides the girl, and scanned readouts coming from Fred, who now also hovered around the fallen redhead. "Hi, my name's Charley Cob, Kim. A lot of people are going to be glad to hear you're still breathing ." She frowned, "Mind you, don't breath too hard, you have a fractured rib, there. Also malnutrition, and...you gave birth three months ago?" She gave the girl an incredulous look, "How?"
Kim grinned, "Anything is possible for a Possible!" She frowned slightly, "With the 'help' of a crazy Time Lord, that is."
Comprehension suddenly dawned on Charley's face. "Tempusite." she muttered. Just then, Shego entered, babies in both arms, followed by JJ.
"The twins all right, JJ?" Charley asked, hearing gunshots faintly echoing from beyond the new arrivals.
"As long as they don't shoot or chop each others toes off on the stairs, yeah, a few small beasties showed up in the stairwell, right after you 'ported down!" A few words Kim couldn't recognize drifted through the door. JJ's face turned beet red. "Now, Beth is at it!" Charley just snorted as she studied the readings Fred was taking of the babies and Shego. Roy was hovering protectively close to the little girls.
"Well, everyone is healthy, and fully human, if there were any doubts." Charley announced. She looked curiously at Shego, "However, these readings don't match what I took of you back in the mountain. I can see some obvious changes, but why?"
Before Shego could answer, however, something came over Charley's and JJ's earpieces, from Jen, "Girls, the Rani's let all her pets loose." Charley relayed the news to Shego and Kim, who exchanged horrified looks.
"Great, we needed more monsters!" Said a sarcastic Belle Reeder, appearing in the doorway. She unlimbered her assault rifle.
Charley continued to listen, as T-Girl outlined their enemy's movements, then looked at Belle. "You and Beth head back down that corridor to the bottom, you should reach the chamber where the Rani's TARDIS is parked. Keep her from escaping, but be careful!" Belle nodded, and departed, joining Beth and relaying the orders.
At that moment, a horrendous fusillade exploded in the main passage. As JJ rushed towards the entrance, Charley looked at the former hostages. "Okay, we need to get you four into T-Girl, and out of here. Babies first, or, no, One of you, first, so you can keep them from being scared." She looked at Kim, "And I think you're elected."
About to protest, the girl nodded, resignedly. "I can't hold them, not with this rib, though."
Shego looked at her sharply, "Why didn't you say something?" She set the two babies down carefully on one crate. They began to cry, until Roy started bouncing in front of them, distracting them. "Charley, watch them, please." Shego asked.
Confused, Charley divided her attention between the babies and the two women, as Shego knelt by Kim and put her hand on the girl's bare neck. Simultaneous hisses of pain caused Charley to check her bracer's readouts, and her eyebrows climbed in astonishment. "Whoa, not bad, symbiotic healing, or empathetic, not sure which is more..." Suddenly jumping to her feet from her crouch, she spun as she drew her pistol, and fired at a snake poking it's head out from between two crates. Or something resembling a snake, before the bullet hit. Charley circled to look behind the stack it had emerged from. Fred, through who's eyes she had spotted the danger, circled high above her head, scanning. Saul had meanwhile flown out into the main passage to watch over the fight there.
Concerned about the noise scaring the babies, both Kim and Shego looked, to find them still smiling, making noises, or appearing to, at Roy. A shimmer surrounded all three of them. "Sound suppression field, I sometimes needed it to sleep." Charley commented, then made a gesture with her gun towards one pile of crates. "There's some kind of vent..." And something exploded straight through the crates and hit the girl, lifting her off the floor and slamming her into the wall. Blue-white energy flared over most of her body as her armor tried to absorb the force of impact, and her head briefly was obscured as the air blurred around it on impact with the wall. The monstrosity responsible took Kim and Shego's breath away.
It might have begun as an anaconda. Or a garter snake, knowing the Rani. Now it was a solid column of muscle pinning Charley to the wall as it pulled the rest of itself from the wreckage of the crates it had plowed through, coiling itself up as it came. Mottled a hideous shade of purple and bright red, it's head resembled something Shego had seen in a movie once, no eyes, and a four-sided maw, which was open as it grasped Charley.
It pulled her back, and repeated the slam, with a little less force this time, but not much. As it tried again, Charley suddenly vanished from it's grasp, and reappeared slumping to the ground near the babies. Looking up at the monster, the battered girl tried to draw her mace/sword, even as the silver plates of her armor vanished, leaving her in just the black bodysuit. Fred zipped in, protectively, though he had no combat capability, the snake was far too big to teleport into the acid, even if one of the other skulls had been in the proper place for it.
Then Shego stepped between Charley and the beast, and Plasma flared around her hands, with a particularly large concentration around the right one. The plasma burned the same clear green as it had before, with a few bright emerald sparks appearing throughout. "My turn, Ugly! Try and take a bite out of me, and hurry, I rarely make this offer!" The creature lunged, mouth opened wide, straight at her, and Shego raised her right fist and shoved it right into the creature's maw, releasing her plasma as she did so. And the first three feet of the thing just vaporized in a green flash, though there was enough of it in motion to still hit the woman and knock her off balance. "That's what I am TALKIN' ABOUT!" She cheered even as she recovered.
Kim scrambled over to Charley. She had slumped against the crates as the monster died. Blood was in her mouth, as both Fred and Roy circled her, eyes flickering. "Shego, she's badly hurt! We need to get her some help, now!" Remotely, she was aware that the firing from the passage had stopped, suddenly.
Charley was barely aware of those words. Her mind was wandering, to the last time she had seen the Doctor. "There was something in his eyes..." "Is this it?" she muttered aloud. "Charley, look at me!" came a voice. "Shego?" "Charley, please, look at me!" "polite request, have to..." She managed to raise her gaze to look into two sets of worried emerald eyes. "Not dead, yet!" She tried to move her left arm, but just brought pain on herself. "Dislocated shoulder...need to see bracer...put shoulder back, may still need it!"
Shego shook her head, "Nothing doing, kid! If you need to see the doohickey, I will show it to you!" Fortunately, removing it from Charley's arm was easy enough. As Fred scanned, Charley tried to focus on the readouts. "Heh, nothing broken, but a lot of cracks!" she spat the blood in her mouth out, "Bleeding has been stopped by the boys, but I'm useless, for now. Have to stay conscious though, otherwise no...Kim, LOOK OUT!"
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As the first wave of the Rani's creatures came into view, the waiting mercs and soldier's collective jaws dropped. Though dominated by the big, humanoid creatures, there was an assortment of others, as well, reptilian forms both running on legs and slithering on bellies, Insectoids both running and flying, and a few things that had to be crosses between disparate genus.
Lieutenant Basim gave the order to open fire. One of the approaching humanoids had what appeared to be thick armor plating, so Jen targeted him and gave him a .50 caliber round in his center of mass. The plates were obviously not thick enough. A trooper with an underslung grenade launcher on his rifle launched an explosive grenade at the ceiling above and behind the first wave, while Sam unloaded two rounds of buckshot straight at the mass of smaller creatures swarming forwards. The grenade dislodged several spiders, as well as blasting some winged creatures from the air. Both mercs then cut loose with their combined P90s, raking the whole crowd back and forth. Ten SA80 assault rifles and two LSWs joined in, and things got very loud, and very messy. The monsters recoiled from the death before them. To the rear, the four men on guard spotted smaller creatures popping out of holes in the walls and ceiling, and began to engage them, mostly on Semi-automatic.
Running out of the storeroom, JJ sheathed her blades and drew her pistols, stepping into the passage and looking to her left in time to see something that looked like it had begun as a centipede crawling out of the cellblock entrance next up the passage, between the two lines of troopers. She moved forward as she pivoted, to avoid having the rear guard in her line of fire, and blasted the creature with her left hand gun, which was loaded with .40 rounds. "They are coming out of the side rooms, all around defense!" She yelled, barely audible over the cacophony of death. Spinning again, she sent a .50 magnum round from her right hand gun at one of the giants downslope.
And then the guns went silent, all of them.
"Well, this isn't a surprise, is it?" Sam asked, rhetorically. She slung her combination weapon, then drew her Kama. Jen put her own weapon down, then pulled an item from an improvised holster on her left thigh. Several clicks sounded as the UNIT men fixed bayonets, or drew machetes or kukris. The men in the side rooms came out to join the main group. Meanwhile JJ swapped weapons yet again.
From the darkness, the mocking voice of the Rani was heard. "Well, time to fix bayonets and give them cold steel, boys. For all the good it will do you!"
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