A/N: Fear not, for I have returned. Admittedly, this chapter is a bit shorter than the previous ones, but y'all have been waiting long enough.
shthar: Same, it's just damn unfortunate a lot of those seem to end up discontinued.
Guest: Thank you, I appreciate the kind words.
Smashingcrosses: I'm glad to hear that, I've got some big stuff planned for this one.
Capt'nOd3ssy: Not to worry, a wait like that, ideally, will be a rarity.
HairyLimey: I will do my best to be more frequent than that. Last year was a mess for everyone, but things seem to have at least settled in my life for now.
Gregonator: Thanks! Hope you enjoy.
III
"You know, if you keep this up, you just might get on my good side." Kim said as Dr. Hart once again sat in the now familiar chair across from her.
"Is that so? From what I hear, that's a rather prestigious position to achieve these days."
Kim smiled tiredly. "Seriously, though, thanks. It's nice to be treated like a person again instead of just an asset. I'd almost forgotten what a real bed felt like."
"Think nothing of it; getting you a few 'luxuries' is the least I can do."
"Well just know I appreciate it. Now where were we?"
Kim arrived at the bottom of the stairs to empty silence. A quick glance at a nearby clock told her it was almost eleven a.m, which was all she needed to figure out where her family was. She pulled aside the curtain of one of the front room windows enough to be able to see the street, noting with a bit of relief that it was devoid of any vehicles at the moment.
She considered her options for the day. Taking Shego out anywhere was obviously out of the question, and she didn't feel comfortable leaving her here alone for very long, which basically just left hanging out here all day.
"Could be worse, I suppose." She mused aloud. 'I wonder if Wade has something she could use to disguise herself...'
"What could be worse?" Shego's voice sounded from just inches away, startling Kim and prompting a reflexive punch to be swung her way, stopped short of actual impact by Shego's own hand. "Good morning to you, too, sunshine."
"Sorry." Kim lowered her hands. "Guess I'm a little jumpy from all this."
"Hate to see what you'd be like in my shoes, if that's the case." Shego tried to keep the atmosphere light, but Kim only sighed.
"I wish you'd take this a bit more seriously."
Shego crossed her arms. "Believe me, I'm well aware of the stakes here, Princess."
'Princess'. Of course, Shego had been calling her various nicknames for years now, and she had, for the most part, stopped noticing them, but recent developments shed a potentially new light on previously thought innocuous interactions. The words of her friend and older relatives echoed in her head as she tried to take in her closest female friend's appearance from the perspective of an admirer.
It came surprisingly more easily to her than she'd anticipated. It wasn't as if she simply hadn't noticed Shego's looks before now, you'd have to be dead not to, but the context with which she was looking now was... jarringly different.
The effect was likely more pronounced at least in part due to Shego's current attire. The set of pajamas she'd borrowed from Kim's mother looked a bit more form-fitting than was probably intended, seeming to strain on her more athletically gifted and... not unnoticeably endowed frame. Her thoughts went to her own chest, wondering how she'd compare if there were no layers between them.
A snapping in her ear shook her out of her less than subtle bout of staring.
"Earth to Kim. You good?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, just zoned out for a second."
"Have some pretty interesting daydreams, do you?" She asked more with curiosity than snark.
"That's one word for it..." Kim let herself fall uncermoniously onto the couch, hanging her head over the back. "I don't suppose you happen to have some method of drastically changing your entire appearance, do you? Otherwise, I'm not really sure how much there is to do in the house all day."
"Actually, it's funny you should ask."
Kim could feel her heart slamming against her ribcage. Though being nervous about breaking into a secure facility was probably not considered unusual, it was not the idea of getting caught that had her feeling this way, but rather the deed itself. Infiltration was one of the most common experiences under her belt, just under combat itself, but this would be the first time she'd be the one stealing from the scientists or engineers or whoever it was.
She hadn't been thrilled about Shego's plan once she found out she'd have to commit an actual crime, but she kept telling herself it was necessary, as getting this piece of holo-tech would do more than just let them hang out in public. It also helped that this was the last project Drakken had been working on. He'd been someone she could sort of consider a friend, at least by proxy, so it felt less like actual robbery, and more like one of her earlier missions, retrieving a top-secret invention from people who'd stolen it from its creator.
Looking out from her hiding spots as she moved unseen, however, she was reminded these were, in fact, the good guys. They weren't mad scientists, or supervillains, or even just criminals looking for a quick payday; these were just the guys who completed this project after Drakken stopped responding to their attempts to reach him, at least according to Shego.
An opportunity did present itself eventually, when the lab was down to its last two authorized occupants. Kim quickly bolted for the case containing her target, not terribly worried about being seen; the two men still in the lab were engrossed in something on the other side of the spacious room, and cameras were a woefully underfunded security measure this day and age. The last few months had seen a rise in extrahuman criminals and regular criminals who managed to get their hands on remnant alien technology, both of which granted either brute force or stealth enough to render normal surveilance essentially moot.
A quick peek inside confirmed the device's presence; what looked like a metallic green wristwatch sat nestled in the soft foam indentation of the case's interior. The case itself was rather conspicuous, and definitely not compact, and after a quick wire check, she removed the surprisingly weighty accessory. No alarms went off, and she started to make her way back out the way she came in, but a ringing cellphone had one doctor excusing himself to his colleague as he stepped away from their station toward Kim.
Hiding herself from the somewhat inattentive scientist wasn't a challenge, but he was leaning on a desk now, facing the machine of unknown purpose that she'd chosen for her place of concealment. She patted around her head a few times to make sure her hair was all still within her hood and mask while listening in as best she could.
"What? What do you mean?" The man suddenly exclaimed. "I told them already, they can't just buy us out! We're not contractors, we're scientists, and I for one intend to finish the project at hand." He was quiet for a few seconds, and when he responded again, it was much quieter than before. "Oh. That... that much, huh?" He swallowed once, before clearing his throat, now down to nearly a whisper. "And this is... We'd be within their borders, yes? If you want me and my team involved in something of this nature, I expect a certain degree of legal protection." More silence as he listened again. "Okay, I'll let them know."
Kim could hear his footsteps retreating back across the room, and though she was admittedly curious about his suspicious sounding phone call, it wouldn't do to get caught when she had other priorities.
The entire escapade from Shego's explanation to arriving back on her doorstep took just under three hours, and Kim took another calming breath before walking inside.
"That you, Kim?" Shego called from the kitchen, her voice accompanied by the click of a stove dial and the smell of cooked meat. She walked out a moment later carrying a plate with three impressive looking burgers.
"Hungry much?" Kim raised a brow.
"You'd be surprised how much energy you burn when you can create plasma with your mind." Shego said as she took a seat at the dining table.
"Well, it's plasma, so, maybe not?"
"Fair point. You get the thing?"
"Yup." Kim held up the device to show her.
"So, how was it?" Shego asked, taking it to examine.
"Uh, pretty easy, I guess? It wasn't exactly the most advanced lab in the world, or even in Colorado."
"Not that." Shego rolled her eyes. "How'd it feel?"
"Well, I, uh, I suppose I can see why you enjoyed doing what you did all those years. It was..." She cleared her throat. "I can't say it wasn't exciting."
"Well, well, who'd have thought goodie-two-shoes Kim Possible would ever admit to enjoying playing for the other team."
There was silence for almost a whole minute as they both realized what she'd just said.
"That was, uh... I could have phrased that better..." Shego faced away from her, drumming her fingers on the table and looking uncharacteristically embarrassed.
Kim was about to agree with her; it would have been the easy thing to do, but there was an opportunity here that she wasn't inclined to pass up. She was Kim Possible, dang it! She'd faced down the end of the world with zero hesitation on multiple occasions, she refused to let her own feelings be the thing to best her.
She took a calming breath before speaking. "Hey, do you wanna... do something tonight, ya know, since you'll be able to walk around in public without fear of arrest or sniper fire?"
"Are you asking me out?"
"I... Yes, I am. Do you want to go on a date with me, Shego?" Kim did her best to ignore how hot the room suddenly felt, and tried to force her blush down while keeping her gaze level.
"Uh, okay. What did you want to do?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure 'dinner and a movie' isn't really your style, and honestly, it sounds a little mundane to me, too, considering who'll be with me, so I thought we could do something a bit more thrilling. That is, so long as you don't mind Wade helping me pick the venue."
"Sounds good to me." Shego smiled.
"Awesome." Kim activated her wristbound Kimmunicator. "Hey Wade."
"Oh, Kim, good timing, I was just about to hit you up; got a report for a piece of stolen tech from a lab in Upperton."
"Pfft." Shego tried to hold in a laugh, paying no heed to the mock glare Kim was giving her.
"Eh, actually, I'm gonna have to decline this one. I was kinda hoping you could find me something semi-specific."
"It's your website." He shrugged. "What were you looking for?"
"How ya doin?" Kim asked as they neared their destination. "Any weird bugs?"
"Uh, no?" Shego said with mild confusion, looking down at herself. "Should there be?"
"Not ideally, but I've been subjected to the effects of a lot of experimental technology over the years, so I tend to get a little paranoid about this kinda stuff."
"To be fair, a lot of those inventions were designed and built by one or two people at most; this thing had a whole team working on it." She held up her phone to get a better look at herself, and a simultaneously foreign yet familiar face stared back out at her. Her hair and skin had seemingly had all traces of their signature green tint removed, and her general facial structure had been altered just enough to fool the average recognition software.
Her outfit for their "date" was, once again, lifted from Ann's closet, in the form of the mission clothes the older red head had worn herself in the past. Similar to the pajamas, it was a slight struggle to pull the uniform on, and she resolved to get something properly fitted for her at the first opportunity.
"Speaking of potentially buggy gear," Shego eyed Kim's own attire. "what are the odds that suit will wig out and fry you? Ya know, considering it was made by a ten-year-old."
"A ten-year-old supergenius." Kim pointed out. "Also, this battlesuit is an entirely new model, so it was technically made by a thirteen-year-old."
"Ah, yes, what a massive world of difference that makes." Shego rolled her eyes. "Well, as long as you're not gonna explode, I guess that works for me."
"How romantic of you." Kim smiled despite her sarcasm. "For real, though, I trust Wade, and his inventions, with my life. We have nothing to worry about."
"If you say so." Shego turned to look out the side window with a shrug. "This is the place, right?"
"Looks to be." Kim said as she stopped the roth. "Illegal dealings on the docks, how original."
"Least we mostly know what to expect."
"True. How do you wanna do this? Stealth approach or go in loud?"
"Depends; you're not gonna freeze up if someone points a gun at you again, are you?"
"No." She shook her head. "That... was a mistake on my part. I guess I'm so used to fighting these Bond villain types, I've never really been in a situation where the plan to off me was as simple as pulling the trigger."
"So you're good to go, then?"
"I'm fine." She said as they both exited the car. "Like I said, I've been in life-or-death circumstances before, just never that straightforward. And anyway, my suit is bulletproof, to a point."
"Good to know, though I have a feeling bullets won't be the only thing we have to deal with in there."
"Wade said it was likely alien tech; think it's weapons?"
"Would make sense. That's what I would prioritize if I was in a gang, anyway."
"Good point, let's get up top and I'll see if Wade can give us some cover." Shego nodded, and the two of them silently made their way around the outside of the target building, wasting no time in finding a suitable area to scale up to the roof. A quick call to Wade, and the lights all winked out below them, while the electronic locks on the doors all activated before shorting out to keep them sealed.
Getting to the ground was a simple matter of gravity, at which point the confused murmuring of the gangsters turned to sounds of frenzied battle as Kim and Shego got to work incapacitating them. No guns were fired; apparently no one was willing to take a shot in the dark.
The wonders of nanotech continued to impress Kim as her suit adapted to her needs, having formed a nightvision visor almost instantly. Shego had no issue keeping up in the darkened environment, thanks to her own naturally adept eyes.
Kim felt what was likely a wooden bat splinter apart as it broke across her back, and she swiftly dealt with the literal last man standing. She smiled as she surveyed her work, but her expression turned to one of confusion as the sound of metal groaning could be heard from the entrance.
The door visibly warped as they watched, being torn off completely in just a few seconds. Two new adversaries stepped through the gap, both very much different from the other goons lying around the room.
They were bigger, for one; at least three times the size of any of their unconscious brethren. They were also robotic, from what Kim could tell, given the shining black metal plating and glowing red joints and eyes. Twin halberds were leveled at the two women just before the bots charged.
Being apparently fashioned from the same material, neither the weapons nor their wielders had any trouble going through pillars, flooring, or anything else in the room as they tried to take out the intruders.
Their strength was matched closely by their speed, making it difficult to strike back, and what few hits Kim managed seemed to have almost no effect. Shego seemed to be doing about as well as she was, both of them losing ground fast to whatever these things were.
She realized the mistake she'd made by taking her eyes off her own opponent a half second too late as a fist the size of her head and coated in red energy crashed into her chest, sending her through two concrete pillars and embedding her in the wall of the building. If she had to describe what the sensation had actually felt like, her best comparison would have been a thirty megaton bomb being set off inside her ribcage.
The last thing she noticed before passing out was the room becoming very warm, and very green.
"So, yeah, not exactly my best first date..." Kim said awkwardly.
"I feel you'd be hard pressed to come up with a worse ending to one."
"I didn't die." Kim shrugged. "Not for more than a couple of seconds, anyway."
"That was... quite the extensive injury, it sounds like. Or injuries? Is that what-"
"Nah, that's coming later, or going, I guess."
"Well, for now, I suppose it's time I got going. Did you need anything from me for next time?"
"Just one more thing. Could you check on Shego for me? I wanna know if she's okay. I mean, they told me she is, but..."
"But I'm not them. I'll have them arrange a meeting for me tommorow." Kim gave a nod, and Dr. Hart felt something that hadn't occupied her mood in quite a long time: frustration. Every new piece of information she was given only added to her slowly growing disdain for an organization that was lauded for being genuinely neutral peacekeepers, but it was becoming clear that the closets here were filled with just as many skeletons as any other.