
Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible, any of the other characters from that show, or those from any other media I may reference in my stories.
For those who didn't recognize them in the last chapter, those were all ten incarnations of the Doctor to date, weaving on the Loom.
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"So how is this supposed to work, if the Matrix's plan goes the way it wants, Doctor?" Wade asked the Time Lord as the two watched multiple monitors displaying various TV signals from within Go City, as well as a satellite view from orbit.
The Doctor delayed his answer while shaking his Slurpster cup, then peering down the straw, before tossing the empty container in the fairly substantial wastebin in one corner of the room. He then clapped his hands together, interlocking the fingers and dropping them into his lap as he began. "Well, what the Rani refers to as the 'containment field' is supposed to slow the unleashed explosion down until it is in sync with the mutagenic wave, otherwise it may disrupt it and ruin the plan. It's precisely calculated, with small margin for error. The blast will 'push' the mutagenic wave, in a sense, as well as empowering it, if the calculations are correct. The destructive force of the blast will be used up as it reaches the hundred mile point, but the wave will continue from there. I don't believe it will actually cover the entire globe, doing the figures in my own head, but it might manage to cover more than 85 percent of the occupied land masses. So, some people will be unaffected. I do wonder, however..." He broke off, forcing Wade to prod him verbally.
"What, Doctor?"
"Well, the surviving humans in that small area will outnumber those who will have been converted, and the converted will be scattered throughout the affected lands. I wonder how the Matrix believes it will have time to organize and teach the converted the science of Gallifrey, or whether it discounts interference from those not affected? Does it plan to 'enslave' them, or does it expect them to treat those changed as our own people treated us, when we first emerged? They welcomed the prospects of peace and prosperity which we promised. And did deliver, by the way. But in this case?" The Doctor trailed off again, brooding, and Wade decided to change the subject.
"When do you think the Matrix began to manipulate the Valeyard?"
The Time Lord sighed. "Well, the link between the Matrix and a Time Lord has to be established, or re-established, early in each regeneration. The Matrix never linked to the Valeyard on Gallifrey, because it snobbishly considered him a fraud. He escaped from Gallifrey in the form in which he became Manoff Yasler, so the Matrix never had a chance to link with him until he regenerated after his 'execution' following the failure of his first plan to exterminate mankind." He swiveled back and forth idly in his chair as he talked. "The Matrix was limited, as far as choice of agent. It couldn't have manipulated the Rani or myself, we would have been immediately aware of it, even though it has interfered to some extent with her memories from that alternate world. And there was no one else, it seems, until Charley linked with it, which I believe the Matrix deliberately initiated." He frowned. "I should say it didn't forcefully attempt anything, it did persuade me to bring Charley and her friends here the first time, with the results seen in that alternate world."
"And you had to break Charley's connection to the Matrix, along with the Ar'Ithane?"
The Doctor pursed his lips, indecision on his face, then nodded, "I broke it, yes. Anyway, the Valeyard had taken seven years to assemble his first plan, and I doubt he relished the thought of such a task again. I don't know how the Matrix presented the new plan to him so that he'd accept it, but the fact it was one he could accomplish in relatively short time had to be it's basic appeal, though what did he believe the source was? He wouldn't have trusted the Matrix. Pretty sure he wouldn't have believed that he'd thought of it himself, he was keenly aware of his shortcomings. Though...perhaps he could have believed his new incarnation had regained some of his original intelligence? His ego might have accepted that. Anyway, The Matrix gave him the plan necessary to accomplish it's own aims."
Wade nodded, "And then had to do something to stop him when he changed the plan, so it used Charley for that! But, it didn't put her directly in conflict with the Valeyard, didn't tell her her purpose, I wonder why?"
The Doctor rose and began to drift around the room. "That might have been my fault, perhaps I didn't place them exactly where the Matrix anticipated? My own memories of that parallel world are suspect, I'm afraid! Well, I know it's future-or knew it, I should say. Anyway, Charley, Kim, and the others stopped him, but he escaped into the past. Though the Matrix undoubtedly linked with him again after he regenerated into Edward Dray, it had to wait for the Rani and the Valeyard to arrive on Earth seven years ago, with their TARDIS, before he could possibly obtain the Strange Matter, which I personally don't believe came from the Rani. How he explained his regeneration into Edward Dray to the Rani is a good question. Somehow, he..possibly with the aid of the Matrix, came up with a story to explain how he died as Manoff Yasler..of course, the Time Ring! Unless the Rani kept inventory of their TARDIS regularly, which I highly doubt, he just told her that he used it after dying as Yasler, and ended up in the past. All he needed to do then was find his actual previous incarnation and get it out of the way before it could contact the Rani."
Even though that caused an obvious question to pop into Wade's head, something on one TV screen pushed it to the back of his mind. He turned up the volume on that news feed. "...appeared in his carport this morning. The vehicle has the same license plate and VIN as the one parked outside in the driveway, the only differences he found were a cigarette burn in the upholstery of one seat, and signs the the left front fender had been damaged and repaired. Otherwise, it is the exact, same car! And this is not the only report of similar occurrences throughout the city. The most interesting is the apparent duplication of a rare Van Gogh at the Art Museum. Both are now being shipped to art experts outside the city under heavy guard..." Wade turned the sound back down and looked at the Doctor, who looked grim. "Is there any reason the Matrix hasn't already unleashed that explosion, Doctor?"
"Yes, there's a very good reason, Wade." the Doctor began to split his attention between the monitors and Wade's trophy shelves. "It needs the full force of that explosion to be concentrated in this time frame, because it's calculations are based on that premise. But currently, the blast exists here, and stretches a decade or three into the future of the parallel world. So, the Matrix first has to 'collapse' that world, so to speak! That's why all these items are appearing, crossing over from there. The ones from the past extend back to the point where history was altered by the Valeyard, but the ones from the future are from no farther ahead then 10 months, fortunately!"
"Do you know why?"
The Doctor nodded, straightening one of the trophies as he spoke, "Actually, it has to do with something my previous self did. The future isn't collapsing back to this point, because in a way, it's being propped up. But, the prop won't hold for long, and when it lets go...well, we have to stop the Matrix's plan before then, that's all! The ten month limit I'm not sure of, I originally thought that would coincide with the day of the explosion, but that isn't the case."
Wade nodded, even though he didn't know what the Doctor was referring to, by 'prop'. But another question was digging at him. "I'm not clear at what point the Valeyard 'changed' history?"
"Well, after he went back and started his new life, and his new plan, he had to account for his pre-existing self when he reached the date of his original arrival. He could avoid meeting himself easily enough, but in order to begin his new, improved, plan, he had to remove his other self, before that incarnation could arrange the attempt on Kim's life, where her plane was shot down, but after he died as Manoff Yasler. When he prevented that attempt, that's where history was actually changed, effectively. The things he changed as Edward Dray before that became part of history, it wasn't until he erased an event he originally caused that he truly changed things, and created the parallel world, unwittingly, I believe!"
"But, what did he do with his 'other' self? I take it he couldn't have killed him, could he? That would cause paradox, or something, right?" The Doctor didn't answer, but Wade saw a look of growing alarm on his face.
"I'm a fool!" The Time Lord shouted, "That's how the containment will be breached!" He snatched up his umbrella and hat, "I've got to go! Not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I've got to go do it!" He grabbed Wade's hand and pumped it. "Good to meet you, sorry to rush off, watch out for the Cybergrim!" Then he dashed out of the room. Wade heard him saying goodbye to his mom, then the sound of the back door slamming.
Faintly he heard the TARDIS begin to dematerialize. He frowned, then turned back to his computers, and ran a search for 'Cybergrim'. There were no results. "Yet!" he whispered confidently to himself, and went back to monitoring the situation in Go City as best he could.
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"Okay, nine of the helicopters have tried getting through that wall, guys." Thundagirl announced, "Six made it, and these last two probably aren't going to try it. They've both overheated an engine in that race they ran, and if three with two working engines have crashed, they don't have much chance on one. The three ships that failed to get through are in the water, no explosions, but they all hit hard. Boats moving in to help all three. The successful ones are evenly divided between the Air Force and UNIT."
Ron glanced at Charley, expecting her to be agitated at not being able to help with the rescue, but he instead saw she was lost in her own thoughts.
"What vexes me," T-Girl continued, "Is not being able to see through that 'wall'! I mean, I can see the island, and the building on it, but the helicopters vanished as soon as they passed through the wall, I can't see if they made it to the ground or not."
Charley suddenly spoke up,"I wonder if we should investigate that underwater structure?" As everyone turned to look at her, she suddenly frowned, and shook her head, "Sorry, just doubting myself, ignore me!" She then began studying her bracer. JJ frowned, and the Reeders began to look wary. Charley punched some of the controls on her bracer, watched it a moment, and then blew up. "Damn all Time Lords, and their works!" Everyone recoiled at her vehement declaration. "We don't have long, my Bracer's rebooting, we need to make some quick decisions, now!"
"What!?" Shego asked querulously, "What's wrong..." then comprehension appeared on her face, "The Matrix?"
Charley nodded vigorously, "Yes! I was armored when Roy 'accidentally' linked me with the damn thing! So, I had my bracer on. It linked to me, it linked to the boys, so of course, it linked with the computer in my bracer! It's been monitoring us, whenever I've had it on at the very least! It's also been trying to influence my actions. I think it could read my thoughts, when I was directly linked with it, but now it can only try to influence me in more subtle ways! When I asked that question just now, I immediately felt foolish, in a way that's not me!"
"So, it's worried about our checking that place out?" Doctor Director asked.
"Yes!" Charley kept her eye on the bracer, monitoring the progress of it's reboot. "I hope this reboot is keeping it from hearing us! We need to send someone down there. Thundagirl, can you give us more of a description of the place?"
"Well, it looks as if a natural cave exists down there, about midway between the islands, but technically, it's in the base of Go West. Someone forced a large steel pipe into the cave, then the concrete and steel structure, which appears to be a pre-fabricated airlock, must have been lowered down, and welded to the pipe. Then they pumped out the cave, which is currently dry."
"How much room in the airlock?" Charley asked.
"Room for two divers, prone. The hatches are barely large enough for a diver with full tanks to negotiate. Hmm, there's a ventilation shaft, about eight inches in diameter, drilled upwards at a sharp angle to just above the water level on Go West, then a connecting vertical shaft goes up to the island, but it comes out somewhere inside the pillar of fire. No sign of that stuff spreading downwards, though."
"Who goes?" JJ asked, beating several others to the punch.
Charley grimaced. "I should, if there's alien tech inside!"
"You going to dog-paddle down there?" her friend asked. Charley made a face, but her reply was cut off by T-Girl.
"Boss, I think someone's been playing with my brain again. Something is trying to tell me that as many members of Team Possible as possible should be involved in confronting the Valeyard, including me!"
Charley was really scowling now. "The Doctor! I'll bet he knew about this link!" she rapped on her bracer, "And he's been using us to divert the Matrix's attention, while he does something clever behind it's back!" She calmed down, still watching her bracer's readouts. "But if he isn't, we need to. T-Girl, after you drop us off, pretend to follow the orders I give you, when the Matrix can 'hear' me again. Show Mego and Doctor Director, if they're willing, where the diving gear is, and send them down there with one of your drones then rejoin us, with a suitable excuse. Time's up, any objections? Quickly!" Betty and Mego both shook their heads, and then everyone tried to look normal. Charley suddenly smiled, "Diagnosis complete, everything's running normally." she said, for the Matrix's benefit, hopefully.
"Passing through in thirty seconds, everyone!" T-Girl announced.
Charley nodded, and started giving orders, "Okay, I'll start checking for casualties among those chopper crews, while Roy works on gaining access to the building! T-Girl, we may need more medical people, so after you drop us off, head for the City and see if you can round some up. Doctor Director, you go, too, and try and find out what other help we may receive, please, and Mego? You too, since you might get faster cooperation from the local officials." Both humans acknowledged with nods, T-Girl with a sharp "You got it, Boss!" Then she added, "And we...are...through!"
Everyone was surprised, they didn't feel a thing, but then the sights visible on the monitors drove such thoughts from their minds, as they gazed in shock and horror at what was going on below.
"Oh...God...No!" Shego murmured.
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Kim sat on the bunk, studying her disguised hands. She ran the fingers of her right hand across the palm of the left, pressing down at a certain spot, with a slight wince. "Left the scars out of my disguise, not that there's much left that's visible. But I can still feel them, they still hurt with pressure, maybe they always will. Macheles...no, he didn't personally use the hammer, I actually can't remember the face of the man who drove the nails in, I wonder why?" A small noise drew her attention. Amy and Milly were dividing their attention between each other and a small mobile Kim had fashioned from various things, and suspended above them. Right now, both were trying to get a grip on each other's hand, but they couldn't quite make the connection.
Kim smiled, a tear forming in the corner of one eye. "What a summer! So many changes, in so short a time! I know everything is supposed to change after High School, but did I have to overdo it, as usual?" She snorted in amusement, and two pairs of eyes focused on her face. She smiled widely as she reached for them, but the sound of the door into the cell area opening stopped her. She waited apprehensively until the Master came into view, and didn't relax much then, either.
She rose and walked to the bars. The Master didn't look very well, his skin was acquiring a gray tone. "Are you all right?" she asked, with sincere concern.
He responded with a wan smile. "Not really, my life is running short, I think, and I've exhausted all my options, I'm afraid."
"I'm...sorry to hear that, I guess." Kim said quietly. Then her look sharpened. "What about foiling the Valeyard? If you're running out of time, are you planning something, to take him with you?"
"Trying to, I'll admit! However, there is very little here I can use, to be honest! The remaining weapons in his arsenal can't be subjugated to my control. In fact, he hasn't taken the time to put them all under his control, either! He just collected them from various planets, or the means to make them, without a plan as to how he'd use them!" He shook his head, "I can't excuse his actions entirely by citing his multiple personae as the cause, there's something involved I haven't discovered yet."
Kim scowled, not sure where to direct the conversation. Then an inspiration struck her. "I had an odd dream." She found herself saying.
The Master regarded her with interest. "Indeed?" She described the dream in as much detail as she could. Her description of the Doctors around the loom caused him to chuckle, but the message that followed drove all humor from his face.
"You met another version of yourself, which told you that you mustn't let the same thing happen to him? 'Him' has to mean the Valeyard, but how could such an event occur? And even then, while not a full Time Lord, meeting another incarnation of himself would cause no difficulties."
Kim made the logic jump quickly enough. "But, what if it's another copy of the same incarnation?"
"Hmph! Well, then you'd have a problem! But, I don't see how...wait! You told me...he went back in time, and apparently regenerated. But then, when he reached the point where he intended to change history, what did he do with his pre-existing self? He couldn't eliminate him, he had to trap..." he snapped his fingers, "Perhaps the same trap that holds the Ar'Ithane? But that doesn't make sense, they're physical nature is entirely dissimilar to ours, what kind of trap could hold them both?"
Kim certainly didn't know the answer, and was frustrated that the Master didn't, either. "How could they have altered your DNA, to deprive you of your scientific knowledge, anyway?"
"DNA? My dear girl, I 'm not a clone! No, this body was created using..." he trailed off, eyes widening. Turning away, he began to vigorously pace back and forth. "It would have taken a...call it a biometric/psychometric imprint for simplicity's sake, which could only have come from one source! But, it's a source that should have been destroyed, with Gallifrey!" He stopped, shaking his head. "I don't understand..."
Kim's mind was racing, trying to keep up, and interpret what she was hearing, compared to what she knew. Then, a connection was made. "The Gallifreyan Matrix?" she ventured.
The Master's head snapped up, and he focused on Kim a stare so intense, it made her shift uneasily. "What do you know about that?"
"I—I know that the people who took care of it made a copy, in-in case what they thought was unthinkable actually happened, and Charley found it on another planet, and was linked to it, for a while." Kim stammered all this out in a rush, like a student caught by surprise by a teacher's question.
"Indeed?" The Master clenched and unclenched the fingers of one hand convulsively, while tapping himself on the chin with the other, mind racing.
Kim stepped back from the bars, turning to check on the babies, who were again engrossed with each other. Then she sensed, rather then heard, the Master burst into motion. She turned to see him striding towards the door, and she thought he was leaving, but she sensed him stopping. Moments later, the cell door abruptly slid open, and he came back into sight, his intense stare burning into her. "We have to stop whatever is being planned! This is no accident, any of it! Not the temporal distortion, the appearance of that 'pillar of fire' of yours, none of it! Whatever is about to happen will be on a large scale, of that I have no doubt! Come along, I'll close the cell doors, nothing will get to your children!"
Kim shook her head. "The Doctor, and Charley, both told me to stay with them, for me and Shego to stay with them, otherwise they may vanish! I may need to sustain them, keep them real, please understand!"
Anger warred with other emotions on the Master's face, but then his expression softened. "Miss Possible, two of you could sustain the two of them, possibly! But you cannot keep them both alive alone, you'd only die with them, believe me! And I don't think you want to choose between them, do you? The only way to save them is to stop whatever is being planned by the Valeyard, or his master!"
Kim actually believed him, but that didn't make it an easy decision. She bit her lip, shuffling her feet, knowing she looked like an indecisive teenager, but unable to help herself. After all, that was what she was. "I have to make sure they don't fall off the bed, they're pretty mobile for their age." She said, then went back into the cell. She used all the bedding to make a little 'nest' for the babies on the floor.
Placing them gently in it, she tried to keep her smile warm, because she felt certain they'd sense it if she was disturbed. She kissed them both, trying to fight back tears, and left the cell. "Let's go."
When the Master worked the keypad to close the cell door, Kim spoke up again. "Show me how to open it, in case I have to do it myself." The Master nodded. "Very well. You see this key in the lower right hand corner? Just press it, and the door will open." When this drew a deeply suspicious look from Kim, he smirked. "I may not remember the secrets of time and space, but my knowledge of how to rewire a simple device is fully intact, I assure you." He punched the key, and the door opened again. "You see? Now, let's get moving, I don't know how much longer we have before things get beyond our ability to effect them!"
Kim nodded, but took his arm to halt him as he turned to go. "I wondered, would it help at all, if we could get the Valeyard to revert to his original self, when he was a clone of the Doctor?"
The Master seemed surprised, then nodded as if impressed. "Very good thinking! Unfortunately, I have no idea what would trigger such a change! And how long it would be sustained. So, we'd better not plan on that happening, agreed?" Kim reluctantly nodded, and they left the cell room, passed up the short corridor, and entered the Monitor room. And found a nasty shock waiting for them.
GoGore was leaning back against one console, arms crossed. "Why, what have we here?" he asked mockingly, "Kim Possible, in my lair? And dressed so brazenly! However did you get in here?" He looked back and forth between the Master and Kim. "And what's going on here?" He asked warily.
"He doesn't remember what his later selves experience, so he doesn't know about the babies!" Kim thought. "But, how to take advantage of his ignorance of other things?"
The Master smiled disarmingly in response to the question. "Miss Possible is our prisoner! You sent me to bring her here for interrogation, but you obviously can't remember that! She's drugged with that wonderful mixture you stole from the Aldeans, that suppresses violent impulses and dulls reactions!" Kim took the cue, hoping she hadn't already discredited it with her initial reaction.
Enlightenment appeared a little too brightly on GoGore's face, and Kim tensed. "Oh, I see! Then she shouldn't react at all when I do this!" He suddenly uncrossed his arms, and pointed an odd device at Kim, before switching his aim suddenly to the Master. There was a flash of light, and a high pitched buzz, and the Master was slammed back against the wall, a large hole blasted straight through his torso. Kim couldn't suppress her shock and horror at the act, and GoGore smirked.
"I thought so!" He lazily shifted his aim to Kim, who's mind raced as she tried to think of a course of action. Her best choice was to dodge back through the door, but before she could, GoGore frowned. "One shot weapon, too bad!" He tossed it over his shoulder to bounce off one of the big monitor screens. They now showed the carnage outside, and as Kim's eyes followed the discarded weapon, they locked on to the screens, and her eyes widened in greater horror. "No!" she whispered.
"Yes! The first one turned out so well, I made four more. Had them for weeks, you understand, waiting for a good opportunity. Wish I'd taken all of them to Go City, all of your precious team would probably be dead now! But I only took the original. These have much more sophisticated thought processes, my kind of thought processes! See how they toy with their prey? No quick and easy deaths when they have time to play, and they do, nothing out there can harm..." He broke off as a familiar shape suddenly burst into sight through the defensive wall.
Kim's heart began to pound, and her spirits lifted as she saw Thundagirl. Four DoomGos or not, she suddenly felt a great deal more confident. Then her gaze shifted back to GoGore, who was still staring angrily at the screen. Kim smiled grimly. "I want to thank you." she said.
"Damn! How did they-what?" he spun around to face her, and became wary when he saw the look on her face. "Thank me?"
"Yes! You see, since this started, I've been poisoned, tortured, bombed, put through childbirth, forced to run, and be constantly scared for my friends' and family's safety! I've been building up a lot of frustration that I need to get out! So, Thank You for providing someone to take it out on!" And the flare of emerald fire in her eyes made GoGore actually take a step back.
But then his ego took control, and he squared off. "Very well, Miss Possible! But I warn you, this 'me' has been trained to fight nasty!" And he came at her.
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"Are they what the Monkey Masters offered me the power to fight? Can I beat four of them that way?" Even as he asked himself the question, Ron felt a surge of confidence that he could, indeed, triumph in such a battle. "Well, if that's what I have to do!" He turned to look at Charley, and saw that she didn't look the least bit worried. "Huh?"
"Four of them! How the hell are we going to beat four of them at once!" Shego's mind raced as she sought a solution. She turned to look at her brothers, and saw grim determination of their faces. "No! Not losing them too, not to those..."
"Forget them!" Charley snapped, "Just stick to the plan!" Shego noticed that Charley's teammates seemed to take her word as fact, the twins relaxing, and JJ looking mildly disappointed. "Forget them! Are you nuts?!" Shego snapped.
"Charley, what are you talking about!" Ron added. Charley looked at him and gave him a tight smile. "Ron, I love you too, now trust me, please!"
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Lieutenant Doyle, the pilot from the second helicopter to make it through, was wondering when her turn would come. She was trying to staunch the bleeding of a female UNIT trooper with one hand, while reloading her automatic with the other. Minutes before, both of them had been pumping bullets into one of the monsters, the UNIT girl with an assault rifle. To their horror, the beast had actually stood there with bullets bouncing off it, tapping it's chin with one talon, as if deciding which of them to kill first. Then it had stepped forward with incredible speed to impale the UNIT trooper, right through her armor. It then withdrew it's talon, and turned away to pursue other prey.
But Doyle saw it as a temporary reprieve at best. The quartet of horrors was methodically working their way through the men and women who had made it to the island intact. Two of the helicopters were burning, piled on top of each other.
The bottom one, a UNIT bird, had barely touched down when two of the monsters had physically lifted one of the Air Force ships, which was missing it's tail and rotors, and thrown it at the UNIT ship. Coincidently or not, they managed to destroy the heaviest weapons UNIT had brought in the process.
Suddenly, all four monsters froze, then turned to look at something behind Doyle. She twisted around to see Thundagirl almost overhead. A surge of hope went through her, as the sentient ship began descending. She looked back at the monsters, and saw that they'd grouped up, surrounded by still-living victims. She didn't know that this was to prevent Thundagirl pancaking one or more of them.
As she heard T-Girl crunch down behind her, the four monsters began to work themselves up to a frenzy, ending when they all reared back and opened their mouths as if to roar defiance...and their heads exploded. Doyle was so shocked that she didn't flinch when a piece of jawbone ricocheted off rock near her. Then through the misty remnants of the monsters' heads, she vaguely made out four small shapes, hovering behind the collapsing monsters. A high-pitched giggle emanated from one, and then they scattered.
"Cortical Bombs." Doyle looked up at Charley standing over her, who continued calmly, "Wise precaution on their creator's part, but a bit of a two-edged sword in this case."
She looked around. "Roy! Get on that door! The rest of you help me establish Triage! Anyone who can, help with the wounded!" She barked out. She then knelt next to Doyle, and began to inspect the wounded UNIT trooper. She pulled out her cutter, and began to slice through the woman's armor and clothes as if they were tissue paper. Belle knelt beside her, and offered a dressing for her use.
As soon as Team Possible and the Wegos were off her, Thundagirl lifted off again, and headed back out. "There are four of Wade's rebreathers in locker seven, Doctor Director, with integral masks. No wet suits, though!" T-Girl informed her passengers.
Betty rolled her eye, and began unbuttoning her blouse, as Mego piped up, "No problemo, my costume is waterproof!"
"At least I'm not wearing my 'Hot Date' underwear!" Betty thought ruefully.
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Kim studied GoGore's stance as he advanced quickly and launched a spin kick.
Even before he started his spin, Kim dropped and executed a leg sweep. But, not to her front, where GoGore 'appeared' to be, but to her right front, instead. She had remembered about the 'displacement' effect of his tattoos. Currently, he had only his face exposed, so he couldn't be too far displaced. And from his choice of attack, he couldn't have been to her left, or he'd have missed her entirely, or landed a weak or glancing blow, at best.
She'd guessed right. Her scything leg impacted what felt like the back of the knee on his plant leg, and he fell hard. As his body hit the floor, his displaced image briefly merged with his actual location, and Kim launched a second attack to take advantage. But GoGore twisted away, managing to reduce Kim's hit to a glancing blow. He lunged to his feet, and tore open his shirt, while retreating on unsteady legs, gasping for breath.
Kim closed again, lidding her eyes and trying to locate his heavy breathing to target her next attack. She was on target enough to force GoGore to block and take a hard hit to one forearm from her foot. He realized too late she was forcing him into a corner. She was operating under the assumption that his displaced image maintained the same facing as his actual body, and was displaced to his flank. And as he backed into the corner, his image wavered, and seemed to move too quickly to the center of the corner. She jabbed, drawing a block, and connected right where she saw his arm, confirming her assumptions.
He countered with a kick, forcing her to block, and trying to force her back from the corner. But she blocked him wide, and slipped inside the kick, and tried a stiff-fingered jab to the nerve cluster in his right shoulder. He deflected it high with his right, and swept his left across her exposed abdomen, fingers extended.
Kim jumped back in shock as pain ripped across her belly. She quickly checked and saw three parallel red marks, her skin abraded as if by contact with a rough surface. She returned to the attack, but when she blocked a kick from her right, she actually gave GoGore some leverage to force himself past her. She tried to keep him pinned, but had to recoil at a strike at her eyes, delivered even as she blocked a jab at her solar plexus. And he got past, and threw himself into a forward roll away from her, coming up back in the clear, and tearing off what was left of his shirt.
Even with her eyes on him, Kim found herself unsure which way his image had shifted away from his body. "Snap! How does this work? Now I've lost any element of surprise!"
GoGore regarded her warily. "How are you doing this? Where are you getting the energy, in your condition?" Kim had actually forgotten her disguise in the excitement, and couldn't prevent an involuntary move of her hand towards the pendant. GoGore's eyes narrowed as he caught it. "Great, he thinks I'm drawing strength from it! Hmm, if it means he has a specific focus for his attacks, though, it might help me!" She set herself in the most flexible stance she knew, and tried to discern a clue as to his true position. She had no idea how much his image was currently displaced. She thought his voice originated to the left of the image, though. She knew only her eyes were being tricked, and wished she was better at blind-fighting. But then again, he had to cooperate by making noise for that to work, and as he came forwards again, it was without a sound.
He came straight on, and then launched what appeared to be a left cross, but from his apparent position, it was too easy to avoid. Logically, if he meant it too land in the usual way, he had to be to her right, swinging to hit her behind the ear. But some instinct told Kim otherwise. She brought both hands up to her left, as he stopped his swinging motion and reversed it to deliver a forearm shiver to the left side of her face. She recoiled, but took a reduced blow on her cheek. But both of her hands made contact with his unseen arm, and she grabbed hold.
Her left hand felt like it had his wrist, her right gripped just below his elbow, and she twisted the arm hard, aborting his attempt to snatch the pendant with his right hand as a follow up. But as she tried to twist more, while shifting her grip, a sudden shimmer of light seemed to flicker across his tattoos, and pain exploded in her hands, centered right in the middle of each palm.
She tried to keep her grip regardless, but he tore free, and took advantage of her pain-blurred vision to land a solid hit to her jaw, which spun her around. She launched a blind mule kick to try and hold him off, but failed to connect. Then he caught hold of her hair, and slammed her forehead into one of the computer consoles. Then taking a two-handed grip on her right arm, he spun her around and twisted, flipping her over and onto her back, dislocating her shoulder in the bargain. She tried to scream as she was slammed down on her back, which helped drive the breath from her body. But ironically, the angle of her impact knocked her shoulder right back into place, though possibly at the cost of some muscle damage.
GoGore himself actually staggered away before steadying himself, and regarding her with contempt. "Those poor hands of yours..." He stopped and frowned at the breathlessness of his speech. He waited a moment to steady his breathing before continuing. "One of the neat abilities one gains with these markings is the ability to awaken the memory of pain in another, by making contact with any previously injured area! In this case, of course, you initiated the contact, but the effect is the same. Usually it's used for purposes of torture, but I did warn you, I was trained to fight nasty!"
"And now, let's see what removing that pendant of yours does to your vigor, shall we?" Kim tried to twist away and rise as he approached her, and he helped her, lifting and shoving her face first into the wall, then spinning her around, one forearm across her throat, as he took the pendant, and ripped it away as he stepped way back, studying his prize.
And then Kim's eyes narrowed, and she summoned up all her reserves to override the pain. GoGore looked up at her, and saw the change in her appearance. "Is that all? Just a disguise? Then how..." And then Kim attacked.
Reflexively gripping the pendant, GoGore blocked a high strike from his right, but that was a feint, as Kim's foot slammed square into his ribs. As his right arm dropped in response, she delivered a right hand palm strike to his left cheek, which was nearly as painful to her as to him. She followed with another palm strike with her left, which caught him flush on the jaw, and snapped his head to his left. She repeated the strike, but nearly staggered into her foe. Not that he would have noticed. He looked out on his feet, but Kim didn't take any chances. She centered herself, and launched the most powerful spin kick she could. He didn't dodge at all, and she nailed him square on the left side of his jaw. And down he went, completely out cold.
Kim staggered and fell against the wall, studying her fallen opponent. He currently looked like an emaciated version of himself, with his tattoos concealed under the cloak of the disguise amulet. "Well, not quite according to plan.." Kim gasped, "But I can live with it!" She then looked at the corpse of the Master. "But now what do I do?"
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