Disclaimer: Kim Possible and all IP as it is presented in the canon animated television series is Copyright and Trademark by the Disney Company, using characters originally created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. This is a transformative fan fiction work.
The Specter of Death, Chapter Twenty-Six
Story Copyright © Dale W. Robbins (crimsonhawk)
Monkey Fist and Yori disembarked from the specialized personal jet in which they had just finished flying. They were inside of a techno-noir style hangar with plenty of glowing, light blue streamlines. The roof doors had just finished closing and the slight shudder that could be felt indicated that the hangar was now in motion. Yori knew from what she had just seen while flying into the lair that the hangar was now in the process of submerging back underwater.
"The middle of the Hudson Bay," Yori growled, looking around. "And Electronique simply allowed us to land and enter?"
"Of course she did," Monkey Fist smiled as he continued down a corridor with Yori by his side. "She is my partner, after all."
Yori stopped dead in her tracks, a look of betrayed astonishment on her face. Of course, she had already suspected the partnership to be true, after the evidence that Kim Possible had tried to point out to her. But she wasn't about to let Monkey Fist know that she had been onto him.
"Fiske-sama?" Yori breathed in shock.
Monkey Fist chuckled and glanced back at Yori with a smirk, pausing in his walk to enjoy the look on Yori's face. "How else did you think I knew where to find her? I didn't send my monkey ninjas out into the middle of the Hudson Bay unprotected to scout for her, I am certain."
Yori began to shake with emotion. While she was long past the feeling at betrayal of this news, the feelings she had for what she was about to face were still fresh. "You... you are in league with Ron-kun's murderer?"
"Indeed," Monkey Fist replied, approaching Yori. "Because of her, I was able to claim the entirety of the Mystical Monkey Power, the power that had been rightfully mine to begin with. Why would I not join forces with her?"
"She... she killed Ron-kun," Yori spat, glaring at Monkey Fist with absolute hatred. It was hatred that she had been feeling for quite some time, but now she could freely express it without blowing her cover. "I loved him! And... and by all rights, his life should have been yours to claim, not hers."
Monkey Fist shrugged. "Well, considering that I was a statue thanks to my ill-advised pact with the Yono, his death by my hands was not forthcoming anytime soon, wouldn't you agree? I consider myself something of a pragmatist. Certainly I would have enjoyed feeling his life drain from his body as my hands and feet pummeled it out of him, but I would call the current situation an acceptable alternative."
Yori seethed quietly, glaring at Monkey Fist with eyes that could kill instantly had they had been weapons. Monkey ninjas skittered about the pair of villains quietly, as if expecting hell to break loose. They could have certainly been forgiven for their caution.
"But, come," Monkey Fist said, turning and continuing down the corridor. "Let us not allow these revelations to sour our professional relationship. You are no longer a hero and I would like to continue to offer you sanctuary as my sidekick. You are an exceptional warrior, Miss Yori."
Yori growled softly and bit back her retort. As in-character as it would still have been had she attacked the maniacal villain at that point, pragmatism dictated caution. They were surrounded by at least a dozen monkey ninjas and they were all inside the lair of the woman who was currently considered by Global Justice to be the most dangerous villain on Earth. In the middle of Hudson Bay. With no way to escape. Attacking Monkey Fist now would lead to a no-win situation for Yori, no matter how one considered the situation.
Sucking in her anger and pride, Yori fell into step to the right and the rear of Monkey Fist as they continued down the corridor.
"Oh, and for both of our sakes, but especially yours," Monkey Fist added quietly, "you might consider not cluing Electronique in on the fact that you would like to kill her. It would be much wiser to wait and catch her unawares at a time when she is weakest."
In spite of herself, Yori nodded in the affirmative. If for nothing else, that advice was certainly sound, even if it was from Electronique's erstwhile partner.
Soon, the corridor ended at a set of large double-doors. Monkey Fist swung the doors open dramatically and strode into the room.
Inside was a gigantic observatory-style room with a raised dome ceiling. While there was room in which to move around, much of the floorspace was taken up by a large silo of missiles set upon a launching mechanism. A large electronic countdown timer on the silo gave just less then 24 hours before the missiles were set to launch.
Before the silo was a light gray skinned woman with spiky hair and goggles, wearing a dark gray catsuit with light gray flared gloves and boots. The woman turned and considered the two individuals.
"Ah, Lord Fiske," the woman cooed in an exotic European accent. "You have finally returned from your quest for mystical artifacts. And you brought your new charge with you? How lovely."
"Indeed," Monkey Fist smiled. "Electronique, I would like you to meet Yori, the rogue Yamanouchi ninja of whom I have spoken fondly."
Yori tried to meet Electronique's eyes with an impassive expression, despite the fact that she wanted nothing more than to launch herself at the villainess and pummel the life out of her body.
"A pleasure, I'm sure, my dear Yori," Electronique smiled, stepping down off of the platform that the silo sat upon. "In fact, your timely arrival could not have been more perfect. Would you be a doll and summon Kim Possible and Shego for me, please?"
Yori narrowed her eyes at that. "Excuse me, Electronique-sama?"
The question was answered with a deft snap of Electronique's fingers. A large viewscreen lowered from the ceiling towards the floor near Electronique. Another snap of the villainess' fingers caused the viewscreen to light up and a video to start playing.
The video caught Yori completely off guard.
The video showed Yori sneaking up on a lone figure in the jungles surrounding Monkey Fist's lair. Drawing her ninja-to swords, Yori snuck up behind the lone figure and placed the sword to the figure's neck. Yori leaned in and whispered something into the figure's ear.
Most damning to Yori was that the video captured the whisper perfectly.
"Du-san, let us discuss how Load-san wants to handle this."
In Electronique's lair, Yori bowed her head in defeat. She'd been found out.
"You do understand how much I do not appreciate being played like a fool, Miss Yori," Monkey Fist said pointedly, looking at Yori with a rather cross look on his face.
Yori rose a brow to that. "Who was playing at it, Fiske-sama?"
The question was answered with a blast of lightning to Yori's torso. The force lifted Yori up off of the ground and sent her hurtling back into the wall behind her. After Yori crumpled onto the floor in a heap, gasping for breath, she lifted her head and was not surprised that Monkey Fist stood passively by, a smirk etched on his face.
"Do not think to play games with us, Yori!" Electronique growled loudly, threateningly, her palm still outstretched from having delivered the attack. She then turned to Monkey Fist. "Do you have the tracking device?"
Monkey Fist displayed a small metallic dot between his thumb and forefinger. "I lifted it off of her uniform not even five minutes ago."
Yori's eyes went wide at that. How had he done that without her noticing?
"Excellent," Electronique purred, accepting the tracking bug from Monkey Fist. She then turned and paced the floor thoughtfully, considering the tracking bug as one might consider a found penny. Her eyes then lit up with an eerie electric blue glow. "Wade. Oh, Wade. Wade Load! Yes, my dear boy genius, I am speaking directly to you. I have your precocious rogue ninja and her darling lapdog boyfriend. You might want to consider passing that on to your lords and masters. You know, the ones who are supposedly dead. You have my location now. I will be waiting."
With that, Electronique fried the bug in a spectacular display of electricity.
Yori was already on her feet, her two ninja-to swords in her hands. She took a battle stance warily. "You have me and my what?"
Electronique smiled humorless at Yori and snapped her fingers once more. A doorway on an upper balcony, across the room from where Yori stood, opened and five figures emerged. Two of the figures were humanoid in the vaguest sense of the word; they had metallic chestplates, bracers, greaves, loinplates, and helmets but had pure electricity where flesh should have been. Two other figures were dog-like in appearance, but had a similar metal and electricity anatomy.
The fifth figure was Special Agent Will Du, badly beaten and bruised.
"Will-kun!" Yori screamed.
"Y... Yori?" Will Du muttered, lifting his head painfully so that his dark eyes met Yori's chocolate-kissed eyes. "Don't... don't worry about me. Take care... of... of Electronique."
"With two of my lightning hounds and two of my lightning henchmen ready to kill you in an instant?" Electronique laughed. "I think not, Special Agent Du."
"You see, my dear Miss Yori," Monkey Fist smiled, "Electronique and I have been onto your game ever since she caught that surveillance footage. You may have thought you outsmarted me with that photographed evidence, but Electronique is quite talented with electronic devices. Also, I am fully aware that whatever Yamanouchi techniques Ron Stoppable learned had assuredly been passed on to Kim Possible as well. I too am learned in the techniques of stopping one's pulse and appearing to be dead."
Yori merely growled at Monkey Fist.
"You probably were not aware that I had one of my monkey ninjas plant a tracking bug on Kim Possible during your fight," Monkey Fist continued. "So that we could be assured of the destination of the corpse, of course. From the movement of the bug, Electronique and I surmised that they were indeed still alive. Sadly, the bug ceased functioning shortly after entering Vancouver airspace. So, we fell to Plan B."
"You counted on the fact that I was in contact with Team Possible and now intend to use Will-kun and I to lure them into a trap," Yori guessed. She knew she was right. It was too painfully obvious.
"That's right," Electronique laughed. "When Team Possible comes to rescue you, they will be walking into the most devilishly planned trap ever devised by man or woman. It will be glorious."
As Yori considered her options, a couple dozen more lightning hounds strode in from doorways off to the side. They surrounded Yori and glared at her, growling in a hollow, electronic voice, daring her to do something stupid, just to give them an excuse.
Yori sighed. The ball was now in Kim and Shego's court. She could only hope that the women knew what they would be getting themselves into.
Monique stirred slightly from her sleep, her long curly black hair splayed in a haphazard mess across her face and head. Opening her eyes, she smiled at the sight of the sleeping Wego twin in front of her, snuggled up against the front of her body. By the subtle, barely noticeable scars along his chin and forehead, Monique could tell that this one was Edward. That meant that William was the one spooning her affectionately from behind. William's scars were more pronounced but were more along his arms and back; William had always been the more adventurous of the two, being the elder by ten minutes.
Monique sighed happily as she pulled Edward closer to her. Edward didn't wake up, but he did subconsciously smile in his sleep. At the same time, Monique snuggled back into the warm arms of William, who responded in his sleep by nuzzling Monique's back gently with his face.
Monique couldn't help but feel warm, loved, and protected at that moment. Maybe it had been her abject loneliness that had compelled her to reach out to the Wego twins after the mission against Hego. She had just lost contact with her parents at that point, after all, and she had been the only member of Team Possible without a romantic counterpart on the team. But, in hindsight, Monique was very glad she had reached out to the twins. They were the most well-adjusted members of Team Go. They were adventurous and mischievous, yet polite and considerate at the same time. And they shared so much in common, from their artistic inclinations (she was a fashion designer while they were aspiring models) to their tastes in food, music, and television. She had fun with the twins, in or out of bed.
Through most of her high school career, Monique had always wondered what men's obsession was with twins. Hot blonde twins had been a favorite fantasy of the men that she had dated; which was sad, all things considered, when they confessed such fantasies to their African-American date. But now Monique understood the fantasy. She was living it now. Hot redheaded twins.
Monique chuckled softly at that thought. Maybe Monique was now uniquely qualified to understand what Shego saw in Monique's best friend and soon-to-be sister-in-law, Kim Possible.
At the though of Kim being her sister-in-law, Monique rose her hand and studied the ring that was on her finger. It was a beautiful white gold wedding band with a large onyx stone flanked by two smaller ruby stones. It was the mark of the consensual union into which Monique, Edward, and William had chosen to privately enter. All three of them were cautious about it, considering the current controversy in Canada over polygamous marriages. It was rather silly in Monique's mind; Kim and Shego were going to be able to get married in Canada since theirs was a same-sex union, but Monique couldn't marry her two boyfriends because it was a polygamous union. So the three of them had decided to not formalize their union. If anyone outside of Team Possible asked, they were still simply dating. But as far as the three of them were concerned, they were husbands and wife.
When Kim had found out about the faux union about a week ago, the redheaded hero had made a much bigger deal out of it than Monique had expected. But she had done it in a positive way. Kim had insisted on holding a mock wedding for the three of them. Shego had rolled her eyes, but played along, since it made her Princess happy. Mego, being the current leader of Team Possible, officiated the wedding, while Kim served as maid of honor and the Tweebs served as best men. Wade's mother, Khianna Load, gave Monique away while the rest of Team Possible and their families witnessed the wedding. Fortunately, Monique already had several wedding gown designs she had made to choose from and she, Kim, Shego, Zita, and Kris were all dressed to turn heads. The reception was wonderful, with Zita and Kris going above and beyond the call of duty on the dinner served. Everyone laughed at the Tweebs' attempt at being cute with their toast. And Monique had enjoyed her first dance with her "husbands"; the three of them had deliberately chosen a particularly seductive salsa tune so that each Wego could have their turns in the spotlight without crowding each other out. And the honeymoon was especially cute; Wade made some quick adjustments to one of the mission training programs so that the three of them could enjoy a romantic evening in a portion of Paris.
Monique sighed happily about her memories of that night. There were probably very few people outside of Team Possible who would understand the relationship she had with the Wego twins. But that didn't matter to Monique anymore. She had her "husbands" and her friends in Team Possible. That was all that she really needed.
"Good morning, sunshine," Edward suddenly whispered.
Monique blinked from her reverie and glanced from her ring to Edward's ruby eyes. Despite their deep red color, his eyes somehow came off like beautiful gemstones rather than unnatural demon-like eyes. William's eyes were the same way, Monique already knew.
Monique smiled. "Good morning, gorgeous," she whispered back, kissing Edward lightly on the lips. She then reached around behind her, found William's hand, and squeezed it lovingly. Monique knew that if Edward was awake, then William was awake, too. The two men's mind link was almost scary in its completeness. Almost.
"We better get up and get showered and dressed," William said, leaning up and kissing Monique on the side of the neck. Tingles trickled pleasantly through Monique's body at the feeling of William's soft lips against her skin. "I promised Sis I'd clean out the hot spring today and Eddie's supposed to power clean the commissary."
"Don't remind me," Edward grumbled. "Even though each of us can duplicate ourselves a hundred times, I'm still not looking forward to the work."
"I've got monitor duty," Monique gloated, enjoying the groans she got out of her husbands.
Suddenly, alarm klaxons began to rip through the entire lair, nearly deafening the three lovers.
"Don't tell me we're in trouble...," William started.
"...because 'Nique's late for her shift," Edward finished.
"No," Monique said, rolling deftly over Edward off of the bed and sprinting, naked, to the closet. "This is different. Something's come up. Something bad."
As if on queue, the klaxons died down just enough so that Mego's voice could be heard clearly over them. "This isn't a drill, ladies and gentlemen. I need everyone geared up and in the briefing room in five minutes."
"Oh, shit...," William muttered, rolling out on his side of the bed.
"...it's on," Edward finished, rolling out on the other side of the bed.
Monique and the Wego twins ran into the briefing room. Mego, Kris, Kim, Shego, and Rufus were there already. Shego, as had become tradition, was standing to one side, adjusting her gloves. Rufus was curled up on Shego's shoulders, dozing lightly. The head of the briefing table, where Monique was used to Kim standing, was currently occupied by Mego. Kim sat in a chair just to Mego's right. Mego's wife, Kris, was in the chair to his left. Monique walked over to the chair next to Kim and sat down. The Wego twins sat down in the two chairs to the right of Monique. Shortly thereafter, Felix and Zita came into the room, taking the two places to the left of Kris. As Zita sat down, Wade Load's image shimmered into being at the center of the table.
"Okay, Wade," Mego said, a no-nonsense look on his face. "What have we got?"
"We've got this, Mego," Wade replied. His image typed at a what everyone assumed was a keyboard in front of him. Suddenly, a recording filled the room.
"Wade. Oh, Wade. Wade Load! Yes, my dear boy genius, I am speaking directly to you. I have your precocious rogue ninja and her darling lapdog boyfriend. You might want to consider passing that on to your lords and masters. You know, the ones who are supposedly dead. You have my location now. I will be waiting."
Kim's eyes went wide upon hearing that. Shego stopped adjusting her gloves to look at Wade in disbelief.
"Electronique destroyed the tracking bug we had planted on Yori immediately after allowing that to be transmitted," Wade confirmed grimly. "And I've confirmed that Will Du has been captured as well. He failed to report back to Dr. Director after he submitted Yori's report to me."
"So much for the element of surprise," Shego growled, turning her head away.
"We're going to be walking into a trap if we do this," Zita pointed out. It was fairly obvious to everyone in the room, but hearing it from the veteran gamer made it that much more real.
"We have no choice in the matter," Mego countered, looking at Zita. "Yori's one of ours. I'll no sooner leave her behind than I'd leave you behind."
Shego smiled softly at her older brother as he pronounced that. He truly had grown up in the nearly twelve years since Sidestep's death.
"But we're going to do this as a team and we're going to do this on our terms, not Electronique's," Mego added. "Wade, can you get a schematic of Electronique's lair?"
"Already have it," Wade replied, pulling up a map. "The firewalls Electronique had blocking me from her systems were practically insulting. It's as if she wanted me to get all the information we needed."
"The fucking bitch is baiting us and gloating over our taking it," Shego growled.
"Well, we're not going to take the bait," Mego replied, studying the map. "We have some surprises of our own to spring on Electronique." He then turned to Monique. "Don't we?"
Monique smiled and nodded. She knew to what Mego was referring. "Yep!"
"Okay," Mego said, turning back to the map. "Looks like there are two ways into the lair. One is through the retractable hangar that rises above the water. If Electronique is playing her game as fully as I think she is, she's going to have that hangar rose and ready for us to invade. Monique, Weegs, that's your theater. You're going to storm that hangar with everything you've got."
"Right," Monique, William, and Edward all said at once.
"Felix and Zita are going to remain on board the Firebird to provide mission control support and air support," Mego continued. "The air support is going to be especially important, since Global Justice is going to be covering the seafront around the hangar tower. Any henchmen who try to engage us from outside of the tower are going to be greeted by two companies of Global Justice agents fully trained in SEAL-style combat. Dr. Director is already en route with those two companies."
"Right," Felix nodded, taking Zita's hand and squeezing it reassuringly.
"Kim, Sis, Rufus, and I will sneak into the lair through the second way, the waste vents at the bottom of the lair," Mego added. "Once inside, we'll split into two teams. Rufus and I will form the stealth recon team; we're to find whatever doomsday device Electronique has and disable it."
Rufus, who had woke up for the meeting, stood to attention on Shego's shoulder and saluted the Team Possible leader. "Uh-huh!"
"Kim, Sis," Mego said, eyeing his soon-to-be sister-in-law and his sister in turn. "You two already know what you're going to be doing."
"Finding Monkey Fist and Electronique...," Kim started, looking at Shego with a fire in her eyes.
Shego smiled wickedly at the fire in Kim's olive eyes, matching that fire with equal fire in her own emerald eyes. "...and kicking their fucking asses," Shego growled delightedly to finish.
"I'll be providing primary mission control from here in our lair," Wade added, looking at each of the Team Possible members in turn. "Each of you, including Rufus, has a tracking device on his or her person. If I lose track of any of you, I'll contact Dr. Director, who will crack that lair open like an eggshell. With all due prejudice."
"Okay," Mego said, looking around the room. "Monique, how's our surprise going?"
Monique looked up from her cell phone, which she had apparently been texting on, and nodded. "All set up and ready to roll as we speak," she replied. The Wego twins, who had been watching Monique texting, nodded in the affirmative.
Mego smiled and looked back at the rest of the team. "Okay, then. We all know our assignments, then. Let's go kick that shocking bitch's ass!"
As the rest of the team stood and proceeded to exit the briefing room, Kris stood up and gently placed her hands on her husband's chest.
"Myron," Kris whispered softly. "Please. Please be careful. She's proven already that she's willing to kill for what she wants. I don't want to lose you. I don't want to be without a husband." Then Kris then placed a hand on her nine-month-along belly. "And little Jesse doesn't want to be without a father."
Mego smiled softly, placing a gentle hand on his wife's belly. They had settled on their son's name several months ago. It was deliciously ironic that the son of one of the greatest heroes of the twenty-first century would bear the name of one of the most notorious villains of the nineteenth century. Jesse James Goldberg.
"I will be back, I promise," Mego replied softly. "I want to be here to help raise JayJay. He's going to grow up to be an even bigger hero than his father, if that can honestly be achieved."
Kris rolled her eyes and laughed. "Oh, you." She then leaned in and kissed Mego soundly.
"Now, you," Mego smiled as they finally broke the kiss. "You keep Wade out of trouble. I need our resident genius in case the training room goes on the fritz."
"Go lead your team, you numbskull," Kris laughed, swatting Mego on the butt as he strode past her to the door.
[END CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX]