IT'S BEEN A WHILE, HUH? NOT ONLY HAS THERE BEEN A LOT GOING ON AT WORK, BUT I'VE HAD EVEN MORE WRITER'S BLOCK, IF THAT'S EVEN POSSIBLE. BUT I FINALLY SAT DOWN AND DECIDED WHAT I WANTED TO HAPPEN, SO HERE WE ARE. THE NEXT FEW MAJOR HAPPENINGS ARE ALREADY DECIDED, SO NOW IT'S JUST A MATTER OF GETTING IT TYPED UP AND SUBMITTED TO FF! PLEASE ENJOY!
ALSO, KP AND RELATED CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME. HOWEVER, ONYX BEDRA, WALTER BARON, RICK OWENS, MATTHEW, SHIFT, KAREN BECKWIT, DANIELLE BRIDGER, ROY, NATHAN VELLICK, THE DARKUT, THE WILGUT, AND THIS SCENARIO BELONG TO ME!
CHAPTER 14: Surprise Surprise!
Night had already fallen in New York City, but several hours to the West, the sun was still setting over the Pacific Ocean. For a brief moment, however, half a mile above the water, the bold yellows, reds, and oranges of the descending sun were overpowered by a flare of emerald green. If anyone had been there to see it, they might have doubted their sanity, for the flash died just as readily as it had sprung to life.
They might have doubted their sanity, were it not for the large, shadowy figure and the beat of wings that the light had left behind.
Derrick began a slow, circular glide, and waited for the signal which would tell him that his presence was needed.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
"So," Onyx confirmed, "Derrick is circling over the ocean above the base waiting for our signal. How exactly will he know when we need him?"
"He cast a spell before he left that will allow us to call him by thought. Not only that, but it will direct him to exactly where we are so that he doesn't have to search for us."
"That's all well and good, but don't we need his spells to get us into Drakken's lair?"
"We did, but since we now know that he can be detected by the Wilgut, I've revised my plan. I have the coordinates for the room I was in when Baron captured the others. We're going to teleport there."
Onyx raised an eyebrow. "I sure hope those coordinates are accurate. If we step through in the wrong place, we'll be crushed by hundreds of tons of water. And even assuming we could survive that, we'll drown before we can reach the surface."
Danielle held up her left hand, displaying her wristwatch for the agent. "No worries there. They've been triple and quadruple checked. I made sure they were accurate so that I could pass them off to either Global Justice or the IPA after all this blows over."
"Well, if they've been confirmed, let me see them."
Danielle accessed the location of Drakken's lair and activated the holographic function on her watch, allowing Onyx to clearly see the numbers. In response, the agent retrieved a six-by-one-inch plate of metal from a cargo pocket and began to fiddle with it.
Had Danielle not known better, she would have thought that Onyx was crazy, but the teen knew that the object was laced with sophisticated circuitry, which the agent was manipulating in order to activate the unit's teleportation capabilities. In a few short moments, the device was ready. Before activating it, however, Onyx handed it to Danielle, returned to her SUV and opened the cargo area. She looked back at the Glider and smiled.
"I know you told me I'd only need my standard gear, but if we're going up against armies and giant lizards, I'm going to need more than a couple of pistols and a knife."
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Onyx and Danielle stepped through their pillar of jade light only to be greeted by a different kind of darkness. There had been ambient light and a few security lamps in New York, so at least there had been a little visibility, but here, wherever Danielle's coordinates had taken them, it was so dark that neither individual could see her hand in front of her face.
The IPA agent froze in place, not daring to move lest she step into some sort of pitfall or trip over an unseen object. "I probably should have asked you before we stepped through." She reached up to the shoulder of the vest that comprised her body armor and turned on a flashlight. "Where are we?"
"It's an aircraft hangar. Drakken has no cameras in here, so we should be able to move freely until we reach the rest of the base."
"That should help." Onyx replied, reaching for another light on her belt. "Flashlight?"
"No thanks." Danni closed her right hand and pressed the middle two fingers into her palm. A square of light flared to life on the back of her hand.
"That's neat." Onyx remarked.
"Fiber optics." Replied Danni. "Come on. The exit to the hangar is this way."
Onyx allowed the teen to lead, running herself through a mental check as she fell into step behind her ally: Her right side shoulder-holster held an M9 with a silencer; her left boot held her mousegun; her right boot contained her combat knife; her right upper arm was home to a secondary knife; on the outside of her right thigh, a compact tactical shotgun was held in place by a simple strap and a strip of Velcro; on the outside of her opposite thigh, compact assault rifle was secured in a similar fashion; and held to her body via her vest and utility belt, ammo for each weapon. Her vest also doubled as body armor. The agent was a walking armory. She unholstered her M9 and reminded herself that the weapon's extra ammo, four backup clips, was attached to her right side via her utility belt.
The pair had been walking for perhaps five minutes when Danielle paused.
"What's wrong?"
"They haven't cleaned up yet." Danielle sidestepped, allowing the IPA agent to move forward and examine the indicated mess. What she saw not only surprised, but reviled her.
Throughout her career as an agent of the International Police Agency, Onyx Jen Bedra had seen a lot of bodies. A lot of them. She'd even made her fair share. But this, this was a massacre. Dozens of red- and silver-suited henchmen, along with several dozen well-equipped mercenaries, lay strewn across the floor like so many dolls. Their blood had thickened and was already beginning to harden on the concrete floor. Onyx's growing urge to vomit was suddenly overridden by curiosity as something white caught the beam from Danielle's flashlight. The agent moved forward and bent over to examine the object.
"Are these feathers? They're huge."
"Yeah. They're Shift's. She transformed from a Pegasus to a. . . to something else."
"I thought that when a shapeshifter changed-."
"You're right, but she wanted to put on a show. She was trying to get them to panic, but Baron had already prepped them for us. They were freaked out, but they held their ground."
"Hmph." Onyx turned away from the scene and readied her weapon again. "Well, no good just standing here. Where to?"
Danielle took another step across the floor and was interrupted by a chittering noise coming from below. She paused and looked down to find Rufus at her feet, pointing in the same general direction she had been walking. The Glider bent down and picked up the naked mole rat.
"Rufus? You got away?"
The mole rat chittered some more and pointed again.
Onyx approached Danielle and peered over the teen's shoulder. "So this must be the famous Rufus." The agent grinned. "Lead the way, friend."
Following Rufus's insistent directions, Danni continued across the hangar, skirting the remains of the men as best she could, until she reached the exit door where, unbeknownst to her, Kim and the miniature Monkey Master had stopped earlier. The Glider offered Rufus a position on her right shoulder, which the mole rat gladly accepted. She turned to Onyx. "Through here is the rest of the base, but I've never been beyond the hangar, so from here on out we need to cover our corners. You should lead, since you have a little more experience with this sort of thing."
Onyx nodded and sidled up to the door, which gave a little 'hiss' and rose upward into the wall above. The agent entered to find a wide, metal-lined hallway that extended for fifteen feet before terminating in a 'T' shape. She glanced upward in search of security cameras, but either the devices were too well hidden to be seen, or there weren't any. She looked back at Danni, who gave a thumbs-up.
There were no other doors along the walls here, so they each took one side of the passage – Onyx on the right and Danielle on the left – and moved forward, unafraid of someone entering from either side. When they reached the branching hallways, they paused and listened for footsteps. All was silent.
Onyx peeked left beyond Danni's corner to see more empty hallway that seemed to stretch forever, then turned her head toward her own side. The passage continued for twenty five feet before ending with a second automatic door with a placard above it reading: Generators.
Onyx contemplated entering the room and cutting the power to the rest of the base, but there were several drawbacks to that plan. First, she might not have the time. If Danielle's friends were in danger, she needed to move quickly, and she had no idea how big this base was; she would only be extending her search. Second: She didn't know the layout of the base as well as Baron's men did, and there was no guarantee they didn't have backup measures to counter the problem. Onyx didn't know about Danni, but she hadn't brought her night-vision goggles.
The advantage to the plan, however, was that if there was anyone in the room monitoring the equipment, she could at least incapacitate them to prevent unwanted followers through the lair.
Onyx's final decision was to disregard the room and lean out into the corridor to further assess the other portion of the passage. It was still empty, except for a third door another twenty five feet from her current position. Onyx raised her M9 and stepped boldly into the passage, beginning her mission in earnest. Danielle removed the cover from her wings and stuffed it into one of her suit's cargo pockets, ready to use the feathery limbs as weapons if she needed to. She sidled out into the passage and crept along behind Onyx.
The agent strode forward at a moderate pace, but since her boots had been designed with stealth in mind, she didn't make a sound as she approached the unidentified door. Onyx had expected the portal to open automatically when she got close, but nothing happened, even when the agent found herself standing directly in front of it.
"Yoo hoo!" Rufus hopped up and down on Danielle's shoulder. The Glider reached toward a key-pad near the right side of the door, leaving her hand palm-up so that the naked mole rat had a place to stand; the tiny pink Monkey Master skittered down Danni's arm and punched in a series of characters on the device.
The door hissed and rose upward.
Onyx raised an eyebrow, and the corner of her mouth quirked upward in a rare grin. "So that's what you've been doing for the past couple of hours, huh?"
Rufus gave a little mole rat smile and nodded. "Uh-huh!"
The IPA agent's grin faded and she raised her sidearm again as she stepped into the detainment area. Danielle followed, watching the woman's back as the two of them made their way further into the base. They encountered no opposition, which told Onyx that Baron's security posture was low at the moment. Not only had he lost plenty of men during the battle earlier, but he hadn't expected aid to arrive so soon, and certainly not within hours of Danielle's escape.
Which, in turn, informed her that the millionaire was indeed ignorant about the government's teleportation technology, as Danni had suggested. Considering the fact that even Baron, with his extensive network of contacts, hadn't discovered the secret of teleportation, meant the ability was still exclusive to United States government and IPA agents. Good.
Onyx pushed the thought from her mind. No distractions. Not now. She studied the hallway as she stalked forward, noting that while there were no visible doors, there were two other passages that intersected with the one in which she stood. 'Those other hallways must be where the entrances to the actual cells are located.'
Rufus hopped from Danielle's shoulder and ran across the floor to the first intersecting passage. He turned left and disappeared around the corner, then reappeared a second later and chittered. Onyx followed.
The agent adjusted her grip on the M9 and stepped around the corner. No one greeted her or attempted to kill her. She continued to follow Ron's small pink companion, noting that there were doors in this area, four of them total, totaling two on each side of the hallway. She looked back and noted that there were another four across the intersection in the hallway. If the layout further in was the same, that made a total of sixteen cells within the detainment area.
Rufus's feet made hardly any sound as they made contact with the floor, but Onyx could still hear the subtle clicking sound his nails made on the metal surface. When the noise stopped, she glanced down to see that he had stopped in front of the second door on the left. She approached the portal and allowed Rufus the same privilege Danni had: a place to stand on her palm. Rufus activated the keypad and the door's lock disengaged with a dull 'clunk.'
Onyx turned to Danielle and jerked her head toward the door, indicating she would wait while the teen checked on whoever was being detained inside. The girl adjusted her wings in the equivalent of a shrug and stepped toward the cell.
She opened the door to see Roy sitting in a corner of the room, watching the portal with keen interest. His eyes brightened when he saw his rescuer. Danni approached the young technopath and knelt on the floor next to him.
"You all right?" She laid a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"I will be, just as soon as I can get rid of this queasiness. How did you escape?"
"Karen refreshed her spells so I could get away and bring back some help. Rufus led Onyx and me here so we could free you."
"Really? How long have I been here?"
"You went down a little over an hour and a half ago."
Roy closed his eyes in thought and a look of confusion passed over his face. "Oh, right. I remember now. I'll explain later."
Danni extended a hand and helped Roy to his feet. The youth swayed a little and leaned against the wall.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yeah. I'll be fine. Once we get going, the nausea should wear off."
"Good. Let's go get the others."
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Still thirty feet from the door to the main atrium, Rufus could sense Ron's presence, but he was still unable to reach into the Monkey Master's mind. There was no way to keep him from following Baron's orders to engage Kim in open combat. Thus, rather than waste time trying to communicate with Ron, Rufus mentally scanned the area surrounding the two combatants to find that every one of Baron's, Drakken's, Dementor's and Señior Senior's men was gathered around to watch the fight unfold, not to mention both Wilgut and Monkey Fist's simian ninjas. There were too many people in the room to simply walk in and engage them.
From his place on Roy's left shoulder, Rufus leaped to the floor in front of the others and hopped up and down again, jabbering all the while. Rather than risk stepping on the mole rat and killing him, they all stopped.
Onyx, who was leading the group, asked, "What is it?"
Rufus pointed directly upward.
Danielle cocked her head to the side, the gesture seeming rather alien while she was wearing her helmet. She looked at Onyx and said, "He wants us to bring Derrick down here."
Rufus folded his 'arms' and nodded.
The woman shook her head. "How did you know about – nevermind. The Wilgut will be able to sense him, won't they?"
"Yes," Karen remarked, "but they may have already sensed that I've escaped my cell. They might be ready. Having an extra dragon with us isn't a bad idea."
Matthew cleared his throat. "There's a problem with that. Derrick will be too large for this hallway in his dragon form. We have to backtrack to the hangar to guide him here."
Rufus gave a small 'harumph' and a mole rat's growl from the floor. He waved his arms and started chittering again.
Roy caught on to the mole rat's plan. "If he can phase through walls like we did, it won't matter. We call him down here and hold just out of visual range of the base while we barge in. When we need him, he can phase through the walls and join us. Even if the Wilgut notice him before he arrives, they won't be able to do anything about it."
"Wait," Shift interjected, pointing toward the door, "what if that room isn't big enough either?"
Rufus hopped twice and closed his eyes. Onyx heard a voice in her head that wasn't hers. "It has to be." It said. "Baron, Drakken, Senior, and Monkey Fist are proud and haughty men. They will want grandeur and glory, and a place large enough to accommodate it. Already I can sense that they and all of their leftover forces are inside, as are Kim and Ron. I needn't tell you to be ready for a fight."
Rufus opened his eyes and nodded at Onyx, who turned to the others. "Don't worry. The room's plenty big enough. Shall we go and greet our hosts?"
Even as she accompanied her friends toward their final struggle, Danielle began a mental conversation with the shadow dragon far above, and Rufus retook his place on Roy's shoulder.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Trapped.
He was trapped.
There had been a moment, a single forever-second when he'd had the ability to keep the entirety of his will from collapsing around him. But even as long as it had lasted, the moment had passed too quickly, and he was plucked from his own consciousness, even as another presence leaped in to fill the void.
That was what it felt like, at least, but Ron knew better. His own desires were there, but they were being overshadowed by something else, suppressed and twisted until he was performing actions he knew were not his own.
He had almost had it. There had been a moment after the collapse when he was able to reach out to Kim's mind, but the binding-other (as he had come to know it) wrestled his thoughts back into submission and buried them once more.
He had to break whatever bond was holding him down before he could be forced to hurt someone in earnest. He had to dig himself out of the rubble.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.
The door 'whooshed' open to a large half-dome of steel and reinforced glass, but all Onyx could see was a large crowd of henchmen and mercenaries. She might have regretted the decision to barge into a room full of them, but only if she hadn't come with some serious backup.
Several of the hired hands turned to greet what they had thought was more of their own, but once they noticed the M9 pointed in their direction, they moved aside and allowed Onyx, along with the others, to move into the room.
Apparently, Baron had planned on forcing Kim and Ron to fight, but whether to death, or simply until one of them or the other submitted, was unclear. At the center of the group of henchmen, a large area had been left open, and the two human members of Team Possible were standing opposite one another. They were surrounded by Baron's men, as well as the two Wilgut, who stood in human form at the forward edge of Kim's half of the clearing.
Onyx stopped directly between both Kim and Ron, hoping that the gesture would prevent all hell from immediately breaking loose. The position also gave her a good view of her surroundings. A glance was all she needed.
The atrium was about two hundred feet across, and since it was a large hemisphere of steel and reinforced glass, it was a hundred feet tall at its apex. Almost directly across from where she and the others had entered, there was a portal marked with a large '1', followed on the right by two more marked with both a '2' and a '3.' They were apparently submarine docks. Fifty feet to the right of the last dock (and about seventy-five feet to the right of where she had entered) was another door, which undoubtedly led to other portions of the compound, though Onyx cared more about where she was standing than what she couldn't currently see.
A catwalk circumvented the room nine feet above the floor, with a twenty-foot-long extension that supported a large control panel, which was being manned by none other than Doctor Drakken. The extension was situated directly across from the third submarine dock.
More troubling than the scientist standing above, however, was the presence of more mercenaries. Several dozen of them stood at intervals along the catwalk, each cradling his tranquilizer with a predatory glint in his eye. Onyx also spotted Monkey Fist's monkey ninjas interspersed among the men; some of them hung from the catwalk's railing by their tails, while others simply stood atop the metal walkway near the men they had been trained to fight with.
A third of the atrium's wall, the portion farthest from where she stood, was entirely made of reinforced glass, which extended upward to include the apex of the dome. All that could be seen beyond was darkness. Derrick was certainly keeping his distance, assuming he had already come close enough to join his comrades.
Onyx became aware of a familiar sensation in the back of her mind and turned to her left. She pointed her sidearm at the nearest mercenary. "Don't even think about it, pal. You touch the trigger on that weapon and I'll put a round through your eye."
The man gaped at the agent.
Onyx turned again, this time to her right, and though her weapon was still trained on the first man, she pointed at a second with her index finger. "You, too."
Several of the henchmen and mercenaries shifted, preparing to move forward at the same time, but a voice cut through the shuffle.
"Wait a moment, if you please. I would like to speak with this woman before you detain her."
The men relaxed.
Onyx lowered her weapon and turned toward the glass portion of the dome to find a distinguished-looking man, as well as a collection of rather interesting-looking individuals, standing on a raised portion of flooring. Apparently, the space where she stood was not in the exact center of the room, for the other third of the floor space, which was indeed raised to accommodate a large machine, was situated so that those standing upon it could see the fight below. The individuals described as Shego and Dr. Vellick were not present.
The agent studied the man who had obviously just ordered the mercenaries to stand down. "You must be Walter Baron." Her expression gave nothing away, and her voice remained level.
Baron likewise kept his composure, despite the alarm he must have been feeling. "I am. Who are you, exactly? I'm certain that no one within the IPA knew of my plans, not to mention the fact that Miss Possible's companion left here only a bit more than two hours ago."
Onyx took note of the fact that Baron had willingly given his identity, which told her two things. First, he didn't consider her a threat, because second, he didn't plan on letting her leave. Not alive, anyway. She pushed the thought away. "Well, you're right on one count. We didn't know about your plans. You are wrong about the girl, though. She called me right after she left here. We were prepped to crash the rest of your party an hour after that."
A look of curiosity passed over Baron's face, but he quickly concealed it. "Is that so? Then do you mind explaining how you got here so quickly?"
"Actually, I do mind. You don't have the clearance for that information. I'll tell what you do have, though: the right to remain silent."
Baron cocked his head ever so slightly to the side. "You think it's that easy, do you? Simply walk in and arrest me?"
"Well, I hoped. But you maniacs never give me a break any more. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." Onyx sighed. She was about to say something else when the person standing next to Baron caught her eye. "Rick Owens?"
Walter raised an eyebrow and stared at Onyx for a moment before turning to his bodyguard. "Do you know this woman?"
Rick chuckled. "Actually, I do." Grinning, he turned his attention to the agent below. "Yeah, Bedra, it's me. Long time, huh? By the way, how's the old ticker doing? Played opossum lately?"
Onyx ignored the taunt, but her eyes hardened at Rick's question. Before she could retort, Baron interjected, "Possum?"
Rick laughed. "Oh, yeah, this one has some very unique talents! Get this, she can actually slow her heart so that she appears dead! Problem is, she tried it too many times, and she damaged her heart!"
Baron looked back at the IPA agent. "Really? Then I suppose I can't simply have you killed after all. You would make a fine addition to my army of clones."
Onyx raised her weapon and pointed it at Baron. Rick's grin faded as he bristled at the threat. "I don't think so, Baron. Your entire scheme is done. I'm here to get Team Possible and their friends out, not to mention get rid of you. I don't care if I have to arrest you or shoot you, but you aren't leaving here a free man."
Rick interposed himself between Onyx and Baron. "Not if I have anything to say about it."
"And what are you going to do, Rick? We both know I can knock you on your ass any day of the week, and you look a little beat up already. What happened? Did you try too hard and kick yourself in the face?"
Baron placed a hand on Rick's shoulder and gently moved the Kung Fu master aside. "Enough! Both of you!" He stepped forward so that he could once again see Onyx. He pointed at the agent and frowned. "Either you submit, or I force you to. I warn you, I am not a patient man, and I don't relish asking more than once."
Danielle and the others tensed.
Onyx began to suppress a grin, determined to maintain her appearance as a hardened agent, but then she brushed the urge aside. She let out a low chuckle. "You're not patient, huh?" She chuckled some more. "That's a trait we have in common!"
Baron didn't even bother to hide the confusion on his face. "Then you understand me when I say that I'm not in a sporting mood."
This time Onyx laughed, a sound that, though meant to represent happiness and joy, sounded more like the embodiment of psychosis and lunacy. She allowed the M9 to drop to her side. "Please forgive me if I don't take you seriously, Mr. Baron, but I've gone up against much, much worse than you." The woman's expression turned deadly serious. "I've fought ancient, cursed kings and their hellish minions; I've been shot to death by mercenaries, and then resurrected by some freaky gemstone; I've been cut open and studied; I've been experimented on; and I've been tortured nearly to death… multiple times." She raised her weapon again. "You don't intimidate me."
Baron's eyebrows furrowed. He opened his mouth to speak, but Onyx cut him off. "Stop. Don't even say it. No clone will have my experience because experiences aren't genetic. You aren't making a copy of me."
Baron faltered for a moment as he realized that the agent had just read his mind.