Disclaimer: I do not own Kim Possible
Claimer: I do own any OC's in this fic
Okay, last chapter was good, one of the better; I'm hoping this one comes off just as well. I'm sorry for the delay on the last chapter, I was trying to get it up ASAP. Someone asked me a question about who he killed, well if you read it then you must have seen that he killed Senor Senior, Jr.; there was a small spelling error that might have confused you, sorry about that. Aleksandr Kerensky asked if Shego also has special powers like Nate does. Well she does and she doesn't, she has some of the same powers, but not all of them. Many of Nate's powers were obtained from possessing the pike. Think of the pike as you would think of the Anubis amulet, it's magic. Very strange happenings in this chapter.
" " speech
' ' thought
( ) author's notes
***** scene change
The Assassin
Chapter 8
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
Kim stood at her locker with Nate leaning against the wall on one side and Ron getting things in his locker on the other. Tara stood next to Ron, waiting. The small idea that maybe he should tell her had crossed Nate's mind repeatedly since the previous night, which seemed oddly right to him now. But knowing that it would set his mission back a few steps kept him from doing so.
"Hey guys," Wade said as his image appeared on the screen in Kim's locker.
"What's up Wade?" Kim asked grabbing the last piece of paper that was being printed.
"It's about Senor Senior, Senior's island, it's been completely destroyed," he said transferring pictures to a smaller window on the screen.
"And Senor Senior, Senior?"
"There was only one body found, and it wasn't Senor Senior, Senior; it was Senor Senior, Junior."
"So whoever it was only found one of them?" Nate asked looking over Kim's shoulder.
"Apparently."
'Good, so he was gone,' Nate thought.
"I really wish I knew who was doing this," Kim said hitting the locker.
"Some eluding the great Kim Possible, I would've never believed it," Nate joked absentmindedly.
"Okay, this is really starting to freak me out," Ron said rummaging through the mass of papers in his locker.
A slight green glow began to surround Nate's eyes, but it wasn't enough to attract attention. He quickly concentrated on it going away, which it slowly did. The changes were coming at random now, it used to be that he could control them. It he was in any kind of trouble, such as the other day when Shego attempted to claw his shoulder, he had armored himself out of pure instinct, not will power.
"Nate?" Kim asked waving her hand in front of her eyes.
"Huh?" he shook his head a little to bring himself back to reality.
"I asked if you could help Wade with looking for this person?"
"Oh, yeah sure, no problem," he said pushing a few strands of hair that had fallen in front of his face.
He felt a talon brush along his scalp as he did so. In a few seconds the feeling was gone, and he let out a sigh of relief. While he was sighing the bell to signal the end of school rang. Today there was no cheerleading practice, mainly because most of the squad had been up late the previous night at parties. Reaching down he lifted his bag off the floor and slung it over his shoulder.
"Well, I'll be going," he started walking down the hall away from them when Kim grabbed his shoulder.
"The rest of us are going to Bueno Nacho, why don't you come with us."
"Thanks, but pass, I've got some things to take care of," he pushed her hand off his shoulder and turned away.
The feeling of being watched crept into his mind again, and he continued to walk. Footsteps fell into pace behind him, so he stopped at a drinking fountain and got a drink. The footsteps stopped until he continued walking again. He walked out of the school and into the parking lot, there he stopped and turned around. Upon doing so he saw who was following him, Brick Flagg.
"And you want...what?" Nate asked running his fingers through his hair.
"Nothing really, I just wanted to tell you to lay off Bonnie," Brick said cracking his knuckles.
"Why, what did I do?"
"Well, I don't really know what you did, she just came up to me last night and said you were bothering her," he said stupidly.
'Great, Bonnie's got a little lapdog,' Nate thought as his face turned to a smile. "So what do you plan to do about it?"
"I plan on beating you till you leave her alone."
"Then tell her to leave Kim alone, unless you take orders from her, and not vice versa."
Brick didn't talk, he just threw a blind punch at Nate, who easily dodged.
"So, when you suddenly don't know what someone's saying, your only solution is to fight, how foolish," Nate said ramming himself into Brick's abdomen.
Using his shoulder he shoved Brick up into the air stepped out from under him, letting him fall flat on his face. Brick wasn't down long he got back up and charged Nate again. Nate slipped out of the way and thrust his fist into Brick's face, which was followed by a sickening crunch. The quarterback fell to the ground clutching a broken and bloody nose.
"Next time you try something like that I guarantee you won't be walking anytime soon," Nate said through gritted teeth.
He stood up straight and looked around at the crowd that had gathered.
"Who else wants some?" he asked looking at the members of the members of the football team in particular.
Seeing that no one was stepping forward he turned around and walked away, pushing people on his way through the crowd. Once on the outside of the circle he made his way to the sidewalk and waited. After a few minutes of standing there Shego pulled up. She wasn't wearing her usual costume, seeing as she was on vacation (I realize that I never told you what she was wearing). She had on a plain green t-shirt, and black leather pants. Her boots hadn't changed, though, one black, one green.
"Where to?" she asked reaching over and opening the door.
"Anywhere but here," he said dropping into the seat and fiddling with the radio.
*****
Kim got home and dropped onto the couch. The house was, once again, empty; her parents were at work and her brothers were at play practice, for their school. She went completely limp on the soft cushions, having nothing to do was really getting to her. Oh, how she wished for cheerleading practice, but was aware of the fact that halfway through most of them would be too tired to go on.
"Ah, man, this bites," she said reaching for the remote, but finding that she couldn't reach it. "Maybe I should call Ron...no, he's at Bueno Nacho, with Tara. He's out having fun while I'm here, alone. It's not fair."
*****
Nate sat in the backyard with Shego, playing poker. He looked up at her and checked her cards, a full house, jacks over tens. He placed down two cards and slid them over to her.
"I'll take two," he said looking back at his own hand, three aces so far.
"Here," she slid two over to him.
Lifting them to his hand he smiled, two kings. He slapped them down on the table, face up. Shego gulped looking at his cards. Smiling he winked at her.
"Full house, aces over kings."
"You cheated!' she leaped across the table at him.
He dodged to the side, grabbed her outstretched arm, and threw her past him. She fell onto her face and skidded across the grass. Standing up fully he reached into his belt and whipped out the pike. Raising it above his head he slammed it down into the ground, exactly where Shego had just been. He slashed to the side, barely missing her as she jumped up. Stopping the blade directly below her, he turned it upward, and simply waited for her to drop down onto it. When she was about to touch it, he pulled it back, allowing her to land on her ass. Laughing he retracted the pole and placed the handle and blade on his belt.
"Now do you understand?" he asked helping her up.
"Yeah, by attacking her first, I give the opening she needs to get the upper hand," she said rubbing her backside.
"Next time you know what to do."
"Mmhm," she winked at him. "But I'm wondering, won't you be upset if I beat the crap out of your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend, and I don't care what you do to her," he said in a firm tone. "Kill her...if you want."
Shego smiled at him, and held up one of her ungloved hands. From the bracelet on her wrist fabric began to sprout, weaving its way around her hand and fingers. By the time the threads had finished her hand was fully gloved and glowing. Nate placed his hand on the pike handle, and Shego's hand instantly began to be forced back. The threads retracted back into her bracelet, and the effect that two weapons had was cancelled.
"We have to figure out a way to make that stop," she said adjusting her hair.
"I agree," he said running his fingers through his own hair, "And one more thing, why haven't you used your powers yet?"
"What?" she asked looking suddenly worried.
"You know what I'm taking about, don't ever tell me you don't have psychokenisis," he said holding his hand up to his face, seeing the talons extending from his fingers.
"What's happening to you?" she asked inspecting the long, curved claws.
"Nothing you should be concerned with," he said willing the claws to retract, which they almost reluctantly did.
"I think it is something that concerns me, if there's something wrong with you then I think I should know what it is."
"There's nothing wrong with me, it's just a side effect of the pike," he looked her straight in the eye.
"Tell me the truth!" she grabbed his shoulders and dug her nails in, determined not to be thrown off.
"Fine!" he yelled, the force of it threw her off him and back a good ten feet.
She looked down at her hands, in them were bloody pieces of skin. Looking up she saw the skin rapidly healing on his shoulders. The grass around his feet was being blown about as if there was a wind, but there was none. His eyes flashed green, and the strands of hair that were too short for the braid began to look like spikes coming out of his head. The front of his boots tore open as three claws began to grow from his feet. From the base of his spine a long, green, scaly tail thrashed out; along its dorsal side were what appeared to be feathers.
"Happy?" he asked as a green aura hovered around his body.
Shego just stared at him, she had never seen anything like this in her entire life, and she had seen some weird stuff.
"What happened to you?" she asked standing up and walked towards him.
"None of your business," he said reverting back to "normal". "Now that I've shown you what you wanted, tell me why you haven't used your own powers."
"Because, I never thought I'd need them," she crossed her arms and turned away from him.
"You could have stopped her in her tracks; instead you chose to fight and lose, repeatedly."
She was silent for a few minutes, until he concluded that she wanted to know more.
"You know of Kukulkan, right?" he asked pulling the pike out again.
"Yeah, the Aztec snake-dragon god," she said turning around, interested.
"Yeah, this was his weapon, and when I removed it from the Temple of Tenchiohatan, all his power and knowledge was transferred to me. It was strange at first, to be a dragon, but I got used to it, and eventually gained control over it. But now the transformations are coming at random, I can't control them," he said sitting back down at the table and sipping his soda.
"So, something is wrong?" she asked sitting across from him.
"No, nothing is wrong, it's just...I think these changes are moving towards something; something that I can't stop," he crushed the empty can to a tiny ball in between his thumb and index finger. He laughed, "And to think, what I just showed you was only half of the transformation."
*****
One week later and Kim had finally gotten a call from Wade. He passed along the information that Drakken had stolen the Centurion Project, and this was an upgraded version of what she had used. It was stronger, faster, more armored, and had an almost endless array of weapons.
"Where is he now?" she asked.
"Well, there's a large energy signature in the desert just outside of Baghdad," Wade said and a map appeared on the kimmunicator screen.
Kim turned to Ron, who was sitting across the table, with his arm around Tara. They looked so happy together, so carefree and perfect; she was almost jealous...almost.
"Kim," Ron said, "do you think that Tara could come?"
"Yeah, can I?" Tara asked.
"I suppose, just this once," Kim agreed not really feeling like getting into an argument.
"It's a good thing that Bush signed that treaty with Saddam, or else we'd be in trouble if we went there," Ron looked across the cafeteria to where Nate usually sat, but he wasn't there.
It's true, Bush and Hussein had signed a peace treaty, and Iraq had been stripped of all weapon of mass destruction. But this agreement was only reached after Kuwait had rejoined its motherland. But that's besides the point.
"Do you think he's sick?" Tara asked following Ron's gaze.
Kim turned around and her heart sank just a little bit when she saw he wasn't there. She had been hoping to talk to him, maybe asked him out. And that weekend would have been the perfect time to do so. But he wasn't there and her entire plan had just gone down the drain.
"It's likely, but he didn't seem sick yesterday."
*****
Later that day, in the Baghdad marketplace, Kim, Ron, and Tara, walked looking at all the different shops, and the small food stands. Kim couldn't remember the last time she had been to this part of the world. Ron felt that they would have better luck gathering information if they spit up; Kim reluctantly agreed, and went off on her own, leaving Ron and Tara alone.
After pushing between two people Kim was in a small clear spot in the crowd. Ahead of her was a small fruit stand. The signs around it advertised fresh apples, oranges, pears, bananas, among many other fruits. But the stand wasn't important, what was important was who was standing in front of it. Even though the person's back was turned, Kim was sure it was Nate. He was wearing some robes, and an almost beret-style hat. What made him stand out, you might ask, the ring on the end of his long green braid, I would answer.
She watched him toss two coins on the table and was handed an apple. He turned the other way, and walked off, calmly eating his apple. Kim was stuck in her tracks, just the mere act of him being here was sending her brain into overdrive. Several questions popped into her head at once, many of them should be obvious. But her brain hadn't been completely redirected to him, she still had enough sense to go and try to find Ron and Tara.
When she stumbled upon them, in a back alley, they were locked together in a make out session. Ron looked over Tara's shoulder and saw Kim there, and they instantly stopped. She looked like she was about to explode.
"I gave you one small job, and I find you doing this," Kim said through gritted teeth as she stomped over to them.
"What, we couldn't help ourselves," Ron protested.
"I doubt that," she retorted but stopped from saying anymore when she saw that neither of them were looking at her, they were looking over her shoulder. "What?"
Ron and Tara pointed and Kim turned around. There, in the alley, cutting off their escape, was Shego and a few of Drakken's men. Shego was wearing, over her usual costume, a tan cloak, and hood, with a place cut out of the back for her hair. Behind them, from the rooftops, dropped three more men. Having been taken by surprise it was easy for one of the henchmen to jab Kim with the his electric lance, knocking her unconscious.
"What do we do?" Tara asked in a panic.
"You go up," Ron said grabbing her waist and hoisting her up onto the ladder of a fire escape.
Another henchman jabbed Ron from behind, knocking him out as well.
"Well, grab 'em and let's go, Drakken wants an audience for some reason," Shego said turning around sending the cloak billowing out behind her.
"What about the girl?" one of them asked as he grabbed Kim.
"Forget her, what do you think a cheerleader can do all alone," she responded then thought about. "On, second though, bring her too. You, go after her."
"Yes ma'am," said the one she pointed to, and he jumped onto the ladder, climbing up after her.
Tara had just reached the roof when he started, and she was now running across it to the other side. She figured that if she could jump the next alley, then she'd be home free. But, upon reaching it, she found that it wasn't an alley, it was street. She turned around to see that the henchman sent to get her just reaching the rooftop. Looking left and right, she tried to find a way out.
A shadow from above covered her, and she looked up just in time to see a figure, cloaked in a desert colored robe, drop down next to her. He grabbed her and jumped again, soaring across the street to the building on the other side. While in the air Tara couldn't help but feel as if she had been in this situation before, it felt so familiar. Upon landing he set her on her feet and stood up.
"Thank you?" Tara asked looking up at the emptiness under the hood.
"No thanks necessary," he said in a low, hoarse voice. "Why are you here, little girl, and why was he after you?"
"It was horrible, I was here with two friends of mine and...wait, you're the one Kim is looking for," she said taking a step back.
"So what if I am?" he asked starting to walk away, not really needing her to tell him why she was here, her agitated mind had spilled out everything he needed to know. "Would you rather he caught you? You don't want to know what would have happened if he did."
"Who are you?" she asked sounding her best to sound brave, but was scared senseless.
"If I wanted people to know who I was, do you think I'd wear a cloak and hood?" he asked as she sat down on the rooftop.
"Well, no, but how do I know I can trust you if I can't see your face?" she countered.
He sighed and reached up, placing his hands on either side of the hood, and pushed it back off his had. Tara gasped and skidded herself back a few feet. Nate looked down at her, the look on her face was wide-eyed like a little child.
"Now, do you think you can trust me?" he asked extending his hand to help her to her feet.
TBC
There, the beginning of the end. Since Drakken is the most evil of all the villains, this conflict will continue for a few chapters, with plot twists and stuff like that. It will all spiral down to one decision, but you'll have to wait for that to come. How do you like the chapter; good or bad? Please do not hesitate to review, and any ideas you have to change the story, or questions you want answered do not keep quiet. Thank you.
Claimer: I do own any OC's in this fic
Okay, last chapter was good, one of the better; I'm hoping this one comes off just as well. I'm sorry for the delay on the last chapter, I was trying to get it up ASAP. Someone asked me a question about who he killed, well if you read it then you must have seen that he killed Senor Senior, Jr.; there was a small spelling error that might have confused you, sorry about that. Aleksandr Kerensky asked if Shego also has special powers like Nate does. Well she does and she doesn't, she has some of the same powers, but not all of them. Many of Nate's powers were obtained from possessing the pike. Think of the pike as you would think of the Anubis amulet, it's magic. Very strange happenings in this chapter.
" " speech
' ' thought
( ) author's notes
***** scene change
The Assassin
Chapter 8
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ *~*~*~*
Kim stood at her locker with Nate leaning against the wall on one side and Ron getting things in his locker on the other. Tara stood next to Ron, waiting. The small idea that maybe he should tell her had crossed Nate's mind repeatedly since the previous night, which seemed oddly right to him now. But knowing that it would set his mission back a few steps kept him from doing so.
"Hey guys," Wade said as his image appeared on the screen in Kim's locker.
"What's up Wade?" Kim asked grabbing the last piece of paper that was being printed.
"It's about Senor Senior, Senior's island, it's been completely destroyed," he said transferring pictures to a smaller window on the screen.
"And Senor Senior, Senior?"
"There was only one body found, and it wasn't Senor Senior, Senior; it was Senor Senior, Junior."
"So whoever it was only found one of them?" Nate asked looking over Kim's shoulder.
"Apparently."
'Good, so he was gone,' Nate thought.
"I really wish I knew who was doing this," Kim said hitting the locker.
"Some eluding the great Kim Possible, I would've never believed it," Nate joked absentmindedly.
"Okay, this is really starting to freak me out," Ron said rummaging through the mass of papers in his locker.
A slight green glow began to surround Nate's eyes, but it wasn't enough to attract attention. He quickly concentrated on it going away, which it slowly did. The changes were coming at random now, it used to be that he could control them. It he was in any kind of trouble, such as the other day when Shego attempted to claw his shoulder, he had armored himself out of pure instinct, not will power.
"Nate?" Kim asked waving her hand in front of her eyes.
"Huh?" he shook his head a little to bring himself back to reality.
"I asked if you could help Wade with looking for this person?"
"Oh, yeah sure, no problem," he said pushing a few strands of hair that had fallen in front of his face.
He felt a talon brush along his scalp as he did so. In a few seconds the feeling was gone, and he let out a sigh of relief. While he was sighing the bell to signal the end of school rang. Today there was no cheerleading practice, mainly because most of the squad had been up late the previous night at parties. Reaching down he lifted his bag off the floor and slung it over his shoulder.
"Well, I'll be going," he started walking down the hall away from them when Kim grabbed his shoulder.
"The rest of us are going to Bueno Nacho, why don't you come with us."
"Thanks, but pass, I've got some things to take care of," he pushed her hand off his shoulder and turned away.
The feeling of being watched crept into his mind again, and he continued to walk. Footsteps fell into pace behind him, so he stopped at a drinking fountain and got a drink. The footsteps stopped until he continued walking again. He walked out of the school and into the parking lot, there he stopped and turned around. Upon doing so he saw who was following him, Brick Flagg.
"And you want...what?" Nate asked running his fingers through his hair.
"Nothing really, I just wanted to tell you to lay off Bonnie," Brick said cracking his knuckles.
"Why, what did I do?"
"Well, I don't really know what you did, she just came up to me last night and said you were bothering her," he said stupidly.
'Great, Bonnie's got a little lapdog,' Nate thought as his face turned to a smile. "So what do you plan to do about it?"
"I plan on beating you till you leave her alone."
"Then tell her to leave Kim alone, unless you take orders from her, and not vice versa."
Brick didn't talk, he just threw a blind punch at Nate, who easily dodged.
"So, when you suddenly don't know what someone's saying, your only solution is to fight, how foolish," Nate said ramming himself into Brick's abdomen.
Using his shoulder he shoved Brick up into the air stepped out from under him, letting him fall flat on his face. Brick wasn't down long he got back up and charged Nate again. Nate slipped out of the way and thrust his fist into Brick's face, which was followed by a sickening crunch. The quarterback fell to the ground clutching a broken and bloody nose.
"Next time you try something like that I guarantee you won't be walking anytime soon," Nate said through gritted teeth.
He stood up straight and looked around at the crowd that had gathered.
"Who else wants some?" he asked looking at the members of the members of the football team in particular.
Seeing that no one was stepping forward he turned around and walked away, pushing people on his way through the crowd. Once on the outside of the circle he made his way to the sidewalk and waited. After a few minutes of standing there Shego pulled up. She wasn't wearing her usual costume, seeing as she was on vacation (I realize that I never told you what she was wearing). She had on a plain green t-shirt, and black leather pants. Her boots hadn't changed, though, one black, one green.
"Where to?" she asked reaching over and opening the door.
"Anywhere but here," he said dropping into the seat and fiddling with the radio.
*****
Kim got home and dropped onto the couch. The house was, once again, empty; her parents were at work and her brothers were at play practice, for their school. She went completely limp on the soft cushions, having nothing to do was really getting to her. Oh, how she wished for cheerleading practice, but was aware of the fact that halfway through most of them would be too tired to go on.
"Ah, man, this bites," she said reaching for the remote, but finding that she couldn't reach it. "Maybe I should call Ron...no, he's at Bueno Nacho, with Tara. He's out having fun while I'm here, alone. It's not fair."
*****
Nate sat in the backyard with Shego, playing poker. He looked up at her and checked her cards, a full house, jacks over tens. He placed down two cards and slid them over to her.
"I'll take two," he said looking back at his own hand, three aces so far.
"Here," she slid two over to him.
Lifting them to his hand he smiled, two kings. He slapped them down on the table, face up. Shego gulped looking at his cards. Smiling he winked at her.
"Full house, aces over kings."
"You cheated!' she leaped across the table at him.
He dodged to the side, grabbed her outstretched arm, and threw her past him. She fell onto her face and skidded across the grass. Standing up fully he reached into his belt and whipped out the pike. Raising it above his head he slammed it down into the ground, exactly where Shego had just been. He slashed to the side, barely missing her as she jumped up. Stopping the blade directly below her, he turned it upward, and simply waited for her to drop down onto it. When she was about to touch it, he pulled it back, allowing her to land on her ass. Laughing he retracted the pole and placed the handle and blade on his belt.
"Now do you understand?" he asked helping her up.
"Yeah, by attacking her first, I give the opening she needs to get the upper hand," she said rubbing her backside.
"Next time you know what to do."
"Mmhm," she winked at him. "But I'm wondering, won't you be upset if I beat the crap out of your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend, and I don't care what you do to her," he said in a firm tone. "Kill her...if you want."
Shego smiled at him, and held up one of her ungloved hands. From the bracelet on her wrist fabric began to sprout, weaving its way around her hand and fingers. By the time the threads had finished her hand was fully gloved and glowing. Nate placed his hand on the pike handle, and Shego's hand instantly began to be forced back. The threads retracted back into her bracelet, and the effect that two weapons had was cancelled.
"We have to figure out a way to make that stop," she said adjusting her hair.
"I agree," he said running his fingers through his own hair, "And one more thing, why haven't you used your powers yet?"
"What?" she asked looking suddenly worried.
"You know what I'm taking about, don't ever tell me you don't have psychokenisis," he said holding his hand up to his face, seeing the talons extending from his fingers.
"What's happening to you?" she asked inspecting the long, curved claws.
"Nothing you should be concerned with," he said willing the claws to retract, which they almost reluctantly did.
"I think it is something that concerns me, if there's something wrong with you then I think I should know what it is."
"There's nothing wrong with me, it's just a side effect of the pike," he looked her straight in the eye.
"Tell me the truth!" she grabbed his shoulders and dug her nails in, determined not to be thrown off.
"Fine!" he yelled, the force of it threw her off him and back a good ten feet.
She looked down at her hands, in them were bloody pieces of skin. Looking up she saw the skin rapidly healing on his shoulders. The grass around his feet was being blown about as if there was a wind, but there was none. His eyes flashed green, and the strands of hair that were too short for the braid began to look like spikes coming out of his head. The front of his boots tore open as three claws began to grow from his feet. From the base of his spine a long, green, scaly tail thrashed out; along its dorsal side were what appeared to be feathers.
"Happy?" he asked as a green aura hovered around his body.
Shego just stared at him, she had never seen anything like this in her entire life, and she had seen some weird stuff.
"What happened to you?" she asked standing up and walked towards him.
"None of your business," he said reverting back to "normal". "Now that I've shown you what you wanted, tell me why you haven't used your own powers."
"Because, I never thought I'd need them," she crossed her arms and turned away from him.
"You could have stopped her in her tracks; instead you chose to fight and lose, repeatedly."
She was silent for a few minutes, until he concluded that she wanted to know more.
"You know of Kukulkan, right?" he asked pulling the pike out again.
"Yeah, the Aztec snake-dragon god," she said turning around, interested.
"Yeah, this was his weapon, and when I removed it from the Temple of Tenchiohatan, all his power and knowledge was transferred to me. It was strange at first, to be a dragon, but I got used to it, and eventually gained control over it. But now the transformations are coming at random, I can't control them," he said sitting back down at the table and sipping his soda.
"So, something is wrong?" she asked sitting across from him.
"No, nothing is wrong, it's just...I think these changes are moving towards something; something that I can't stop," he crushed the empty can to a tiny ball in between his thumb and index finger. He laughed, "And to think, what I just showed you was only half of the transformation."
*****
One week later and Kim had finally gotten a call from Wade. He passed along the information that Drakken had stolen the Centurion Project, and this was an upgraded version of what she had used. It was stronger, faster, more armored, and had an almost endless array of weapons.
"Where is he now?" she asked.
"Well, there's a large energy signature in the desert just outside of Baghdad," Wade said and a map appeared on the kimmunicator screen.
Kim turned to Ron, who was sitting across the table, with his arm around Tara. They looked so happy together, so carefree and perfect; she was almost jealous...almost.
"Kim," Ron said, "do you think that Tara could come?"
"Yeah, can I?" Tara asked.
"I suppose, just this once," Kim agreed not really feeling like getting into an argument.
"It's a good thing that Bush signed that treaty with Saddam, or else we'd be in trouble if we went there," Ron looked across the cafeteria to where Nate usually sat, but he wasn't there.
It's true, Bush and Hussein had signed a peace treaty, and Iraq had been stripped of all weapon of mass destruction. But this agreement was only reached after Kuwait had rejoined its motherland. But that's besides the point.
"Do you think he's sick?" Tara asked following Ron's gaze.
Kim turned around and her heart sank just a little bit when she saw he wasn't there. She had been hoping to talk to him, maybe asked him out. And that weekend would have been the perfect time to do so. But he wasn't there and her entire plan had just gone down the drain.
"It's likely, but he didn't seem sick yesterday."
*****
Later that day, in the Baghdad marketplace, Kim, Ron, and Tara, walked looking at all the different shops, and the small food stands. Kim couldn't remember the last time she had been to this part of the world. Ron felt that they would have better luck gathering information if they spit up; Kim reluctantly agreed, and went off on her own, leaving Ron and Tara alone.
After pushing between two people Kim was in a small clear spot in the crowd. Ahead of her was a small fruit stand. The signs around it advertised fresh apples, oranges, pears, bananas, among many other fruits. But the stand wasn't important, what was important was who was standing in front of it. Even though the person's back was turned, Kim was sure it was Nate. He was wearing some robes, and an almost beret-style hat. What made him stand out, you might ask, the ring on the end of his long green braid, I would answer.
She watched him toss two coins on the table and was handed an apple. He turned the other way, and walked off, calmly eating his apple. Kim was stuck in her tracks, just the mere act of him being here was sending her brain into overdrive. Several questions popped into her head at once, many of them should be obvious. But her brain hadn't been completely redirected to him, she still had enough sense to go and try to find Ron and Tara.
When she stumbled upon them, in a back alley, they were locked together in a make out session. Ron looked over Tara's shoulder and saw Kim there, and they instantly stopped. She looked like she was about to explode.
"I gave you one small job, and I find you doing this," Kim said through gritted teeth as she stomped over to them.
"What, we couldn't help ourselves," Ron protested.
"I doubt that," she retorted but stopped from saying anymore when she saw that neither of them were looking at her, they were looking over her shoulder. "What?"
Ron and Tara pointed and Kim turned around. There, in the alley, cutting off their escape, was Shego and a few of Drakken's men. Shego was wearing, over her usual costume, a tan cloak, and hood, with a place cut out of the back for her hair. Behind them, from the rooftops, dropped three more men. Having been taken by surprise it was easy for one of the henchmen to jab Kim with the his electric lance, knocking her unconscious.
"What do we do?" Tara asked in a panic.
"You go up," Ron said grabbing her waist and hoisting her up onto the ladder of a fire escape.
Another henchman jabbed Ron from behind, knocking him out as well.
"Well, grab 'em and let's go, Drakken wants an audience for some reason," Shego said turning around sending the cloak billowing out behind her.
"What about the girl?" one of them asked as he grabbed Kim.
"Forget her, what do you think a cheerleader can do all alone," she responded then thought about. "On, second though, bring her too. You, go after her."
"Yes ma'am," said the one she pointed to, and he jumped onto the ladder, climbing up after her.
Tara had just reached the roof when he started, and she was now running across it to the other side. She figured that if she could jump the next alley, then she'd be home free. But, upon reaching it, she found that it wasn't an alley, it was street. She turned around to see that the henchman sent to get her just reaching the rooftop. Looking left and right, she tried to find a way out.
A shadow from above covered her, and she looked up just in time to see a figure, cloaked in a desert colored robe, drop down next to her. He grabbed her and jumped again, soaring across the street to the building on the other side. While in the air Tara couldn't help but feel as if she had been in this situation before, it felt so familiar. Upon landing he set her on her feet and stood up.
"Thank you?" Tara asked looking up at the emptiness under the hood.
"No thanks necessary," he said in a low, hoarse voice. "Why are you here, little girl, and why was he after you?"
"It was horrible, I was here with two friends of mine and...wait, you're the one Kim is looking for," she said taking a step back.
"So what if I am?" he asked starting to walk away, not really needing her to tell him why she was here, her agitated mind had spilled out everything he needed to know. "Would you rather he caught you? You don't want to know what would have happened if he did."
"Who are you?" she asked sounding her best to sound brave, but was scared senseless.
"If I wanted people to know who I was, do you think I'd wear a cloak and hood?" he asked as she sat down on the rooftop.
"Well, no, but how do I know I can trust you if I can't see your face?" she countered.
He sighed and reached up, placing his hands on either side of the hood, and pushed it back off his had. Tara gasped and skidded herself back a few feet. Nate looked down at her, the look on her face was wide-eyed like a little child.
"Now, do you think you can trust me?" he asked extending his hand to help her to her feet.
TBC
There, the beginning of the end. Since Drakken is the most evil of all the villains, this conflict will continue for a few chapters, with plot twists and stuff like that. It will all spiral down to one decision, but you'll have to wait for that to come. How do you like the chapter; good or bad? Please do not hesitate to review, and any ideas you have to change the story, or questions you want answered do not keep quiet. Thank you.
