Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible or any of the characters in it, Disney does. Isabel Gooding belongs to Starving Lunatic. Kale Possible is mine.
Chapter 26: Like Clockwork, Man
Shego arched an eyebrow at this "Partner? I do believe you may need to explain that one to us Sparky. We only remember seeing you in the house."
Kale stood up and headed for the door with the others in tow, speaking without looking back "I mean my computer is actually an AI that Chel developed to help me on missions when she was unable to go herself. He tends to get a tad grumpy if I don't keep him online most of the time and he's been off for almost three weeks straight now."
As they headed toward the research labs that held Kale's gear everyone was wondering what to make of this new piece of information as so they kept their questions mute until they had a chance to see what Kale was talking about.
As they approached the labs entrance they were surprised to see both Will Du and Dr. Director waiting there for them.
Betty stepped forward as they drew close "I was wondering when you would make your way down here." she directed this at Kale who blinked in response.
She continued "I was about to call you when control informed me you were on your way here. I do believe that you have some explaining to do."
As she finished she spared a glance towards the glass wall of the main lab behind her and everyone saw what appeared to be a younger version of Kale minus the now bi-colored mane of hair.
Upon seeing this a groan escaped Kale's lips "How long has he been active?"
Will stepped forward "Approximately two and one half hours ago although the laboratory technicians were not immediately aware of this."
Both of the senior GJ agents looked to Kale again as though expecting something from him.
His shoulders slumped forward slightly as he nodded " It would be best for everyone to follow me so I can make introductions then."
As he entered the lab he could feel the glare of his partner trying to burn a hole right through him and he gave him a weak smile.
Once everyone had filed in Kale asked that the room be secured, Betty gave him a wary glance but coded the lock closed.
As he turned to look at the younger version of himself it started in on him "Three weeks! It took you three frigging weeks to come and switch me back to operational mode?!? I had to hack my way through twelve levels of encryption that gave Chel a headache just to find out that you actually were still alive and had just left me in a lab for under trained monkeys posing as technicians to try and figure out which end of my housing way up!"
Kale flinched from his partner's ire and tried to explain but was cut off as it continued " Oh no! You are not just apologizing your way out of this one. I've really had enough of trying to help keep you going after everything you've gone through but this is too much. You go gallivanting about, no doubt with the floozies I see behind you and leave me to rot, again. I am going to see if director Du will transfer me to another division where I might actually get some thanks. You know, like down in Waste Maintenance or something."
Shego was fairly shaking with rage at the accusations this walking suit was implying about both her and Kim as well as slighting Kale for not allowing him to try and explain the extenuating circumstances of why it had been so long for him to get here.
She was about to lay into it with both guns and a plasma chaser when a green blast and guttural yell came from a very unexpected direction, Kale's.
As the blast connected with the suit and sent it flying all eyes turned to see a fairly frightening sight, even with what they had seen recently.
Kale stood there, his hands alight with the green plasma so close to Shego's own, the rest of him was enveloped in a pulsating field of pale yellow and darker green energies twisting about each other.
His countenance was one of barely controlled rage.
As his partner stood up it spied the figure that had attacked him and balked "K..k... Kale? What in the name of the divine circuit happened to you?"
The answer came as a visibly shaking Kale tried to calm himself "Harli. You will sit down, shut up and pay attention."
Harli did as it,'he', was told and stared at Kale with a quizzical look in it's eyes.
As Kale got himself more under control, the shimmering field of energy faded from sight.
When it had dissipated he looked to his partner and sighed "First off Harli you are never to insult the ladies here again. I do apologize for taking such a long time to reactivate you but things, as you have seen, have not lent themselves to an idle pace."
He took a breath then resumed " Things here are a bit askew from even our usual routine. I've got a question for you. What is the last thing you can recall before breaking through your software safeguards and reactivating."
Harli looked up in thought before answering "Well I actually have bits from in between but the last solid thing was we were on a standard bag and tag. I remember you infiltrating the house, most of the fight, and a message that was sent...hmm that's odd. The time stamp on that message was both local and was received in real time, not time distorted at all."
This news completely sidetracked Kale from his current thought process "You're sure about that?"
"Yes, I've just run a diagnostic on the message, it was streamed in real time and from the signal strength was broadcast from very short range. It does seem odd that operations would need to have an operative send that from nearby."
Everyone was watching this display in slight wonder as to what exactly what they were saying until Kim decided that someone needed to say something "Kale, what does this have to do with the current situation?"
He blinked a couple times as she broke his concentration and then turned to look at her, Ron, and Shego "It has the potential to mean either nothing at all or something very big indeed. You all remember the message I played for you at the house just after our first meeting."
They shook their heads yes and he continued "From what Harli here has just told us, that was a local transmission meaning..."
Shego got what he was saying as Kim was reaching the same conclusion "Meaning that someone had to know what your original mission was and was trying to change it for the worse."
He nodded "It would appear that way, yes."
Harli held up a hand and after Kale nodded a yes he spoke up "Umm, why do I get the feeling I'm missing something very important to this conversation? I know I may look like I'm only eighteen but I am almost eight and can comprehend more then you might imagine."
Betty raised the eyebrow over her good eye "Almost eight? You certainly could have fooled me."
Kale raised his hand to stop his partner from mouthing off the response he knew was forthcoming "Introductions are in order I do believe. Everyone, this is Harli. He is a second generation fully sentient AI. He was built by Chel using some of the schematics Dr. Freeman used for Sadie with a lot of her own personal touches. His full designation is 'Hard Light Holographic Artificial Life Form Positronic Integrated Nano Technology 01'."
Shego chuckled as she worked out that the acronym for that would be H.L.H.A.L.F.P.I.N.T.
Kale just smiled at that "I presume from the snickering that Em here has figured out my nickname for Harli. He got his first name because he overheard Director Du while he was reading aloud from the paperwork needed to sign off on a newly created intelligence and misheard him."
"Halfpint, I would like to introduce to you some very special people." Kale stated and pointed to each person as he said their name "This is Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable, Shego, Betty Director, Isabel Gooding, Yori, and Will Du."
As Harli ran that list of names through his processors he began to become visibly paler, at least that was how it appeared to most of those gathered.
"Boss, if these people are who you say they are; WHAT IN HADES' MAGNET ARE WE DOING HERE?!?!" he all but screeched at Kale.
Kale smirked "Harli, slow your clock cycles for a tick and crunch a few facts. One, these are who you think they are. Two, I've been in direct contact with them for the stated almost three weeks. Three, we haven't been any attempted retrievals or even attempted contact by command in all that time."
Harli stopped his hyperventilation sub-routine and stared at Kale "That's not possible. We are in clear violation of several different protocols regarding past contact with relatives and..." he stopped as Kale raised his hand in a 'hold it' manner.
Kale nodded in agreement "Normally you would be right, however there are major extenuating circumstances of which you should be aware.. and now that I think about it I need you to run a diagnostic on our initial jump here. I want you to look for anything out of the ordinary. Later on that though, for whatever the reason the trip wasn't normal..or reversible. We were sent back twenty seven years like we were supposed to be, however that is where things go weird. According to Dr. Lode and Dr. Lipsky our quantum signature is different from everything else here."
Harli blinked as he processed the information "That would mean ... that we have shifted dimensions? So then we are not in our reality then, meaning that our being here can't affect our future because it isn't ours."
Kale nodded "Bingo, give the electronic gremlin a cookie."
This got him a swift glare and raspberry from his partner and snickers from both Kim and Shego.
After several moments a slight but bemused smile spread across Harli's face "Well I'll be, it looks like Dr. Baker might have been right after all."
Kale furrowed in thought for a moment as he tried to ascertain where he had heard that name before but came up blank "Dr. who?"
Rolling his eyes Harli smirked "Dr. Thomas Baker. He is..or should I say will be one of the leading theoretical quantum physicists in the T.E.A. Laboratories. You remember him, don't you? Anyway, he had theorized that an artificial tear in time/space could possibly lead to an alternate dimensional state if given a massive influx of energy at the exact moment of collapse. It looks like he may have been onto something."
As Harli was explaining this for everyone, recognition dawned on Kale as to who he meant and after he stopped "I know who you're talking about now. He was the one with that scarf fetish who always had a bag of gummy bears handy."
His face then fell back into a somewhat grim position "Getting back to that message, now that you've at least a basic grasp of what has occurred since our arrival here Harli, I want you to think about what it could mean given that new information to add to it."
His partner's face took on a far away appearance for a moment as he processed all the data before his eyes opened wide "If you're right, that would have to mean that someone else has made it here from home then, not only that but they would have had to have known about last our mission. But why would they want to kill your family....?"
He stopped and looked at Kale intensely "That would have gotten rid of you as well if you had gone through with it."
Kale nodded "Both times that Kim has been targeted since I arrived here I've been involved somehow. The first time I was used as the weapon and failing that the next time was on the island."
Shego looked at him questioningly "You think that the two are related?"
He grimaced "I have my suspicions. Think about it, they knew where she was the entire trip and yet didn't engage until after she had made it to the island. If it was just her they were after they could have taken that jet out at their choosing. No, I think that whoever is behind this may be where I hail from but they may or may not realize that we are no longer there."
Dr. director chose this time to speak "That is an interesting ... and somewhat disturbing hypothesis you have there. If it holds true we may have a real problem dealing with someone else with your level of technology and no qualms of using it for nefarious purposes."
Everyone agreed with that assessment and the room fell into a momentary quiet as they thought of some of the implications of what had just been discussed.
Harli moved over to Kale "Hey boss, how did you do that green fire thing? It surprised the heck out of me there."
Kale smirked and nodded at Shego "That would be courtesy of the beautiful lady there. Somehow when she struck me during our first encounter she helped reactivate something in me and that in turn copied her plasma ability. We also figured out that I can do this." he finished this by briefly summoning his shield.
The effect on his partner wasn't what Kale expected as Halfpint grew very serious "You've been able to do that for almost three weeks then? How have you been feeling? Any unusual aches or pains that cannot be accounted for? Blackouts, dizziness, or hot flashes?"
Kale blinked several times at the sudden onslaught of questioning from his partner before something clicked for him, something he had only semi remembered after waking up; the conversation with Liam.
"You knew I could do this didn't you? Have you known about this capability all this time and didn't say anything." He started in on Harli, growing more agitated as he pulled pieces from his past into a cohesive pattern. "How long Harli? Liam told me about Rage. Did my breakdown have something to do with this? You've been active for the better part of seven years which would mean you have the whole thing in that massive hard drive you call a brain. Why did you never tell me?! Better yet, why did I never think to ask you about any of this before now?"
With the very air around them getting tenser by the moment Kim, Shego and the rest took a few steps back as Ron asked a very reasonable question "Who are Liam and Rage?"
Kale looked at him as Harli moved slowly away from his friend before speaking "Well um, I guess you could call Liam a kind of mental simulacrum of Kale. A sort of memory storage bookmark that would be activated only under certain conditions. It looks like those conditions have been met. Rage is a bit more complicated in nature and I will only go into detail on that with the director as it is still labeled as need to know only."
Kale ground his teeth "I don't have clearance to know about my own memories? Halfpint, you're treading on dangerous ground."
Harli held himself back from firing off with the retort he felt building "Boss, I'm afraid that knowing everything right now might trigger a relapse and I don't think you want that do you? Please trust my judgment on this for the moment."
Kale, still visibly shaking with anger just gave a short jerk of his head as answer and stalked out of the lab followed shortly by Shego.
Harli turned towards Dr. Director and Will Du " Just so I'm clear on the matter, which of you is the director here?"
Will pointed to Betty and Harli noting this turned to the others "I apologize for this so soon after we've met but this is something which the director and I must discuss ASAP."
Kim cocked her head to the side for a moment as though listening to something before speaking "In other words we need to vacate the area. Come on Ron, let's go see if we can find Kale before he puts a hole in something. I've seen that look in Shego's eyes before and the training equipment didn't fair well."
With that she, Ron,Yori, Isabel and Will all made their way from the lab, leaving Betty alone with Harli.
Outside in the hall Shego caught up with Kale as he looked ready to put a very sizable and expensive dent into the wall "Sparky are you okay? Stupid question I know but you get what I mean."
He stopped and looked at her, both pain and anger vying for control evident in his emerald eyes "I've been told that I can't even know what my real memories of my past are Bri. Do you even realize how messed up that is?"
She shook her head "I can't say I understand exactly what you're going through right now but I do know that whatever is in your past, it is just that; your past. What you may or may not remember or have or have not done has no bearing on how I or Kim or the others see you."
"Or how I feel about you." She whispered, so quietly that he was not sure if she meant for him to hear it.
By this time the others had caught up with them and Shego looked to Kim who smiled warmly "She's right you know. We've all seen how you beat yourself up about how we first met and how hard you've tried since then to protect us as if we were your actual family. That goes a long way to telling us what kind of person you really are."
As he looked to everyone they all were gently smiling at him and again thought that the mishap that landed him here had to be the best thing to happen to him in a very long time.
Taking a calming breath he smiled back "You guys are impossible. I suppose if you can take me at face value I can do no less then wait to see what occurs with what Halfpint is telling Dr Director and hope for the best."
Shego pulled him into a tight hug and looked to the others with a 'say anything and I'll fry you' air about her and he felt a familiar warmth creep up on his face as he returned the hug before several small flashes stunned them both as cameras seemingly appeared from out of nowhere into the hands of both Kim and Isabel.
Isabel had a full on smirk "You two are just too cute together. I figured it was getting too morose and this is just what the doctor ordered. You two should have seen your faces. Oh wait; you can." she finished by swinging the camera around so that they could see the screen.
They both just stared for several seconds before their brains dropped back into gear as they scrambled after the two now retreating women "Mommy! You are going to erase those photos this instant!" Shego bellowed while Kale just laughed at the sight of it all with Kim and Ron staying ahead of him with big grins and Yori pulled up the rear of the procession with Will.
A little over an hour later Betty Director left the lab that she had been in with Harli visibly shaken with what she had learned of the man she had seen risk life and limb for Kim and the others.
"If what he stated is true, and after hearing and seeing what he showed me I'm inclined to believe it is, I will need to keep a very close eye on our bi-spectrum headed friend from now on." she surmised to herself as she made her way back to her on site apartment to rest.
Harli was now off attempting to verify that all he had told the director was accurate and what he might be able to do to detect if and when the things he stated would in fact come to pass. He knew that the best place to do this was in the labs of Drs. Lode and Lipsky and so he made his way to them.
After making it back to the on site apartments of Kim and her family Shego spent almost thirty minutes unsuccessfully attempting to retrieve Isabel's camera from her to delete the incriminating photos while the rest, including Kale watched the spectacle with amusement.
Finally resigned to the fact that her mother was still (barely) better then her she made her way over to her best friend and Kale and sat while giving him a mild glare "Some boyfriend you are. Wouldn't even help me with my own mother."
He grinned, both at her actually calling him her boyfriend as well as the reason for it "We both know that she isn't human and that it would more then likely take all of us to pin her for long enough to wrangle that thing away from her. Even if we did Kim has one too and I'm sure she would take more pictures while we were indisposed trying to wrestle with Isabel."
He then leaned close enough that he was almost certain that even motherly super hearing wouldn't make out what he whispered to Brianna "We will just have to get them back at some point and make sure that it is good enough that they will not use those pictures against us." as he finished speaking he kissed her quickly on the cheek and shot Kim a wary glance as he saw the camera in motion.
After the major ruckus calmed down Anne and James came in bringing little Kale back to be with his parents so that they might spend some quiet time together after all the recent commotion and retired to their room.
Will bade them all a good evening and then offered to escort Yori to an apartment adjacent to his own, Yori surprised almost everyone by taking him up on the offer and the two left, light conversation on their lips.
Kim and Ron exchanged knowing looks as Shego looked to Kale who just shrugged.
Isabel stood and explained that she still needed to check in on Shego's brothers and torment them for a while before she retired to bed and was off.
Once it was just the five of them Kim and Ron's focus shifted to their son with Kale and Shego watching while being content with just being close to each other, Shego letting herself be held close knowing that the people in the room would never speak about it elsewhere.
A while later with a great yawn Kim looked to her guests and found that sometime during her trying to tucker her son out both Kale and Shego had fallen into a light slumber.
Smiling at the sight and not wanting to wake them just yet she nudged Ron with her elbow and pointed towards the duo.
It took an amazing amount of willpower on his part to not laugh at the fact that Shego had a small patch of drool where she had settled her head against Kale's shoulder while Kale had tucked his head on top of hers, still holding the raven headed woman in a light but secure embrace.
Sighing whimsically at the sight again Kim gently picked her son up off of the floor where he had finally succumbed to the enticements of the sand man and took him into the bedroom that his crib shared with his parents bed.
When she emerged several minutes later Ron was in the middle of a fit of mostly silent laughter that she could not understand until she looked to the couch.
Kale had apparently shifted and now had his face squarely in Shego's cleavage, the blush that was extending to his extremities proof enough that he was now quite awake, the fact that he had yet to move spoke of a possible conflict with his flight response.
Shego herself was in no better condition, now awake she was fairly shaking with both embarrassment and quiet laughter oddly enough.
It was obvious that if they had not been in front of others this would not have been a problem but since they were in Kim and Ron's apartment Kale had all but frozen in mortification at the presence of his parents.
Several moments later Kale began to extricate himself (sadly) from Shego's chest sheepishly looking at Ron who had yet to completely stop grinning like a fool and Kim who still had her hand covering her mouth which didn't hide her grin in the least.
Shego shook her head in bemusement as he hastily whispered "Sorry." before she looked to Kim "I think it's probably time for all of us to grab some shut eye."
Standing up she helped Kale gain his footing, turned him towards the door and not looking at her best friend "Kim, I'd better not find any pictures of this anywhere, got it? Come on Sparky, let's go and get you settled." she finished exiting the door.
After waiting to make sure that they were gone Ron looked to Kim "Well what do you think about all these recent developments?"
Kim, her grin now gone sat down on the recently vacated sofa "I don't know if I trust this 'Harli' yet. He was too ready with certain information and then stopped that flow when Kale asked him what sounded like a perfectly reasonable question. That and the whole upper echelon need to know only sitch really didn't sit well with me. We need to get a hold of Wade."
Sitting next to his wife he nodded "Yeah, he might be able to get some answers but that wasn't the only thing I was referring to and you know it. I mean the 'Kale and Shego' thing. I know that you still look out for her and we really don't know all that much about him."
She shot him a raised eyebrow "Are you saying you don't trust him?"
He shook his head "No, actually I trust him almost completely. He has proven that he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect those he cares about and even save those who are his enemies, it is just that we know so little about him. Heck even he is having a hard time with it apparently. The funny thing to me is the fact that Shego might be the stabilizing factor in regards to Kale. He is, for the most part, calmer around her from what we've seen and that just strikes me as irony in the first degree."
Kim sat there for a moment "It's true in reverse too if you think about it. All the times she been fairly calm lately, he's been present in one way or another. I don't know if I've ever seen her so concerned about anyone the way she was around him after she saw him on the island."
Ron smirked "I have. She was the same way when you got pretty hurt on a couple of our missions. She didn't show it as openly I'll admit but it was there. As for Harli I think that we should have both Wade and Drew look into it. Enough about all this for now though, I do believe I hear a bed calling our names." he finished while wriggling his eyebrows.
Kim smiled at her obviously damaged husband "Well Mr. Stoppable I do believe you are right, the only question I have is can you get there before I take the good side of the mattress." with that she vaulted over the back of the sofa Ron hot on her heels towards the bedroom.
Several hours later a shadowy figure made it's was towards a door, the sounds of someone using the restroom reaching it's ears.
Slowly opening the hinged barrier the back side of a male came into view, a very naked male with both red and green hair.
Moving into the room the figure, still unnoticed by the room's other occupant, set up for the strike and then enacted it's attack.
As Kale was just finishing up his late night emergency call of nature he was startled as a pair of arms wrapped around him and reacted with his years of training, his would be assailant found themselves being pulled over his shoulder and flung towards the wall.
Finishing his maneuver he looked up to see Shego complete her flip and come to a stop in front of him wearing her trademark smirk and nothing else. "Jumpy there Blaze?" she cooed, sending shivers down his back.
He smirked back "I told you I'd be right back. You're lucky you are you. That would have broken most people."
She sauntered up to him and placed a kiss square on his lips "I'm not most people hot stuff. Hurry up now, the bed is getting cold." with that she seemingly vanished from the room back into the darkness of the bedroom.
He finished washing his hands and as he reached for the light switch his smirk grew "Well then we should remedy that." darkness took the room as he killed the light.
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Please Review if you liked it, heck even if you didn't. I'd like to know if people are still reading this.
Yes I was being silly during part of this I'm sure that most of you will get where.