=All-Purpose Disclaimer=
The 2004 Kim Possible comes standard with power locks, power window, anti-lock brakes, four wheel drive and electric seat warmers. Act now and get zero down and no profit for eighteen months after purchase! The 2004 Kim Possible: So the Drama…
=Response to Reviews=
Monica Lavender
You are the QUEEN of fanfiction! (You are a girl, right?) In any event, I LOVE this! You inspire me, you make want to try to write better. This fic is AWESOME! Drakken is awesome, the college theme is awesome! This last chapter was incredible.
Huh. Well, as you can imagine, I'm very flattered, but you put me in a bit of a pickle here. See, on the one hand, I'm male. But, on the other hand, I 'do' lust for power like a fat man lusts for a big ol' hot fudge sundae at a Weight Watcher's meeting. After much deliberation and consternation, I have reluctantly decided to accept the title you have graciously bestowed upon me. I vow to use my new powers as Queen of Fanfiction for good, or awesome, and not for personal gain.
Okay, maybe a little personal gain…
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Kim Possible
The Power of Love
by Cyberwraith9
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The world came back into focus slowly and painfully, fading in from the blackest of blacks. A dull throb pounded against her skull as her eyes fluttered open. With a groan, she tried to move, but found her arms and legs immobilized by something cold and solid. The same cool feeling was pressed against her back as she struggled uselessly against the metal shackles.
"Ah," Drakken's voice echoed from behind her. Frantically, she tried to twist her head. She could see a solid wall of featureless gray metal staring her in the face. "The hero awakens," Drakken's unseen, sinister sneer continued.
A sudden jolt rocked her as the X-shaped frame binding her began to rotate. As she spun, she saw Will hanging limply from an identical rig. "Drakken," she grumbled.
The rest of the room revealed itself, dropping Kim's jaw: They were in an enormous chamber filled with computer terminals, heavy machinery, and a large set of double doors leading to an even larger room. Armored glass fortifications allowed her a view of what lay inside, the stolen rocket they had been desperately searching for. It had been modified and repainted with black and blue, and possessed a quartet of bold letters running up the side. Kim's dizzy eyes couldn't quite focus the monogramming at the moment, so she concentrated her efforts elsewhere.
"So glad you could join us, Kim Possible!" Drakken threw his arms wide, welcoming his prisoners. Shego and Señor Senior Senior stood to his left, with Long and Lucre on his right. Killigan, Monkey Fist and Long's cronies flanked her shackles menacingly. "I do hope the accommodations are to your liking." Drakken smiled sarcastically.
"Can we skip the lame villain pleasantries, puh-lease?" Kim moaned, letting her head drop back against the binding rig. As much as she wanted Drakken to prattle on, giving her enough time to come up with an escape plan, she could only take 'so' many clichés. If there was one thing this room didn't need, it was more obnoxious bad guy posturing. "It's been a 'long' day, and I'm reeeealy tired."
"Oh, but you simply 'must' stay awake for what comes next, my old foe." Drakken danced gleefully, waving with a grand gesture to his pride and joy sitting behind heat-proof glass in the opposite room. "I'm sure you recognize the missile I and my comrades acquired in Siberia, yes?" Without waiting for a reply, he continued, "Well, combined with technology taken in Hong Kong, I assure you that it is no longer an 'ordinary' missile."
"Let me guess," Kim said in a bored tone. "You've managed to increase its destructive power tenfold, and will hold the world for ransom, blah blah blah…" she trailed off with a heavy sigh. "Don't you have 'any' imagination?"
"Ah, but you're wrong!" he admonished her. Drawing closer, his twisted smile grew with every step. "You see, I've actually reduced the explosive capacity of the rocket. Do you know why?"
"Because you're insane?"
"Not this time," he assured her with a laugh. The confused expression on her delicate features was too delicious to pass up, so he fed her curiosity further. "You see, the nuclear explosion will be merely another distraction. The real threat is…this!" He reached into his jacket, withdrawing a vial of greenish liquid.
Kim eyed the test tube skeptically. "And that is…what? A new shade of nail polish? I think it matches my eyes…"
He considered the two colors. "You know, I think you're…I mean, no!" He snapped his fingers impatiently. With a dejected sigh, Shego stepped forward, having produced a small flower in a pot. "Consider this rose, Kim Possible."
"Huh. It's pretty." she commented, examining the rose.
"Thank you, I grew it myself. Now," his tone grew hushed with glee, "Imagine that this flower represents all the crops in North America…And this beaker is Drak Force Five, equipped with the marvelous Pulson Detonator!" He unstopped the vial with a little difficulty, then poured its contents onto the rose. Kim watched with growing horror as the blossom shriveled and died almost immediately.
"You 'are' insane," she breathed, lunging at him. It was lucky for Drakken that his shackles were escape-proof, or she would have torn him apart with her bare hands then and there. "You can't destroy those crops, there'll be-"
"World-wide hunger?" Drakken smirked. "Not to worry. Thanks to our friends at Roddigan Industries, we'll soon have farms that can produce enough food to feed the globe-"
"Controlled by us." Long interjected, much to the annoyance of Drakken.
Kim sneered at the villains, renewing her struggle against the bonds that held her. "I'll stop you," she swore with fire in her green eyes. "I won't let you do this!"
Senior stepped forward, rapping his cane smartly on the deck plating. "Sassy as always, my adolescent, feisty foe. However, I fear your usual confidence is tragically misplaced in this instance. Global Justice is dealing with a major attack in England at the moment, courtesy of our generous host's Drak-Bots."
"We have you outnumbered and captured." Long informed her needlessly. He, unlike his other Roddigan comrades, was unarmed and unarmored. Though, given the circumstances, it wasn't necessarily a tactical blunder. "You have no chance."
Drakken's eye tweaked as the other two began stealing his thunder. "Excuse me," he growled, "But I thought 'I' was going to do the gloating."
"Ridiculous," Long scoffed, turning on Drakken with a deep scowl. "Why should you claim all the glory for yourself?"
"Yes" Senior was quick to agree. "We have all contributed substantially to this project. We should share in 'all' its benefits, including our requisite villainous gloating."
"My lair," Drakken stomped his foot childishly, "My rules! If you don't like it, you can take it outside. I hear that lantern fish are excellent listeners!"
"Um," Lucre cleared his throat, pulling a sheaf of papers from his vest. "When's it going to be my turn? I had a whole evil speech prepared." He shuffled the sheets, squinting at his atrocious handwriting. "Kim Pose-able," he began reading in a monotone version of his phony accent, "You have… fallen for our ingenious…tarp, and-"
"Hey!" Killigan shouted from his post next to the insensate Will, "Wha' aboot us?"
"We've been doing all the work around here." Monkey Fist added crossly. He folded his hairy arms across his gi. "When do 'we' get to gloat?"
"You?" Claymore shot from behind his armored mask.
"Preposterous!" Falchion added lightly.
"You want to test my mettle, Tin Can?" the monkey master bristled, stalking forward across the prisoners' view. "I'll turn you into a slot machine!"
Drakken saw the situation spiraling out of control, and stepped forward to salvage it. "Gentlemen, please!" he cried, waving his hands. "Drak Force Five won't be flight-worthy for several hours. All in the Legion of Villainous Evil will get a chance to gloat, I promise!"
As the other Legionnaires gathered with Drakken to discuss gloating rights, Kim noticed at last what the letters painted on the old Soviet missile were. "LoVE? Your evil alliance is called LoVE?"
Shego leaned against Kim's shackle rig, having extracted herself early from the loud, obnoxious argument before it could really take off. "Ye-ah," she groaned, "It's a little better if you say it all out loud."
Together, the two women watched the men of the organization bicker amongst one another in the shadow of the nuclear missile, which was crawling with red jumpsuits who carried tools and parts to complete the project. "So, this is your super-team?" Kim said sardonically.
Junior entered from a hatch set up off to the side, carrying a magazine beneath his beefy arm. "Excuse me, Professor Drakken," he said as he motioned back the way he came, "But your toilet is with the clogging. Perhaps the hairy ninja or your very odd Scottish dress-wearing man could help?"
Grinding her teeth, Shego gripped the edges of Kim's rig to keep herself from going berserk. "Let me remind you which one of us is the prisoner here…" she growled.
"For the moment," Kim said with confidence she didn't really have. With the missile still in final development and the villains squabbling like children, they had at least a little time left. But Will was still out, and their bonds were too solid to break loose. Drakken had secured her hands and feet far away from any of her gadgets, but had wisely left the booby-trapped utility belt alone. He must have figured out it was rigged with a gas packet in case anyone tried to remove it improperly. For the first time ever, Kim Possible was helpless and with no hope of rescue.
'This is not good…' she thought with a heavy heart, gazing up at the rocket that would claim so many, many lives. 'Not good at all…'
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"Ron," Monique called as she hunted through his cupboards, "I don't see any cashews, and I have a major craving."
"I just got them yesterday," Ron grunted as he jerked his game controller, nearly tearing the cord from its console as his electronic car struggled with Rufus' for the lead. Behind their virtual duel, Jim and Tim were breathing down his neck, and all with half a lap to go. "Check down below," he called back distractedly.
As Monique bent down to look in the lower cabinets, she heard a strange, muffled beeping coming from her pants. It took her a second to recognize the musical, four-note pattern. "Oh, hey!" she exclaimed, pulling the Kimmunicator from her pocket. She held it up, calling out to Ron, "You've got a call!"
He barely afforded the affronting device a glance before turning back to his game. "I'm not here," he instructed her gruffly.
"Well, when 'are' you going to be back?" she huffed impatiently.
"That depends," he snapped back without turning around, "When's the Earth scheduled to explode?"
"Men." Monique rolled her eyes. Ignoring its incessant beeping, she examined the Kimmunicator's controls a moment before finding the right button. Wade's round, panicked face immediately filled the screen. "Hey cutie," Mon greeted him with a smile, "What's up?"
"Kimsdisappearedanddrakkensdestroyinglondon!" Wade cried frantically.
Ron's hands went limp as he heard Wade from all the way across the room. His digital car careened off of the track and barreled into a lamppost, exploding in a burst of pixilated flame.
"Whoa, slow down," Mon eased him off, wincing at his intensity. "Start over."
Taking a drag of soda and a deep breath, Wade tried again. "Kim's disappeared with Will on some secret mission a few hours ago. Their signal vanished somewhere over the Pacific. After that, Drakken's robots showed up in London and started tearing up the place! GJ is swamped, and I can't find Kim anywhere!"
Jim shut off the X-Cubestation as Tim turned the TV to an all-news channel. A balding man in an expensive blue suit and a cheap toupee stood in front of burning buildings and screaming masses, talking to his audience in a low, calm monotone. Every now and then, the camera's eye would catch a glimpse of a blood-red mechanoid strafing the London landscape with angry lasers, or screaming Brits running every which way.
"Heavy…" Monique breathed, clutching at her mouth in horror.
"I think Drakken's captured Kim and Will," Wade interrupted their shock. "I had to pull a few 'big' strings, but I've got supersonic transport lined up and ready to go. Ron, I can have you in London in-"
"Kim isn't there." Ron muttered, squinting at the news footage.
"Huh?" was the collective reply.
The former sidekick leaned forward, rubbing his chin. He saw plenty of GJ agents running about, chasing after Drakken's fearsome automated army…and that was all. Ron pulled back with a shake of his head. "Kim isn't there because Drakken isn't there."
"Um," Jim scratched his head.
"Did you notice the robot army?" Tim shouted.
"Look!" Ron growled, getting up from his futon and stalking back over to the kitchen. "I know Drakken. I've been fighting Drakken since High School. He's a gloater; he'd be right in the thick of things, hiding behind Shego and spouting off as loudly as possible."
Monique didn't seem convinced. "So?"
He gestured helplessly to the screen. "If Shego was in London, the camera couldn't miss her. No Shego, no Drakken, which means no Kim."
"Then this doesn't make sense…" Wade mumbled as he watched the scene unfold on the same news feed. "First Nebraska, and now this."
"Wade," Monique looked back into the Kimmunicator thoughtfully, "You said that Kim's signal disappeared over the Pacific?"
The techie's fingers danced across his keyboard. "I had some trouble breaking through their stealth cloak, but I'm pretty sure…"
"Hold on a sec," Tim broke in, leaning over the back of the couch. "What was that about Nebraska?"
"Yeah," Jim added, "I thought that was all farm country. What would a super villain want with corn?" He exchanged a look with his brother, but both could only shrug at the other.
"I don't know, I don't know!" Wade wailed and tugged at his hair. "We've got all the pieces, but I don't know how the puzzle fits together. Kim was always-"
"Kim's not here!" Monique exclaimed. What was it with these people? She liked Kim as much as any of them (with the possible exception of Ron), but were they totally helpless without her? "Kim's in trouble," she tried again, this time with an even head. "It's up to us to figure this out."
There was a beat before Wade and the twins looked at her expectantly, and said, "Well?"
She grew more exasperated. "What do you want from me?" she asked heatedly, "I don't know any more than you do!"
"What did it do?"
Ron had been silent since offering his opinion earlier, focusing his attention on pretending to find the nuts in the cupboard. When he spoke, the room grew silent with confusion before they all communally replied, "Huh?"
Stone faced, he walked over to Monique and took the Kimmunicator from her hands. His eyes were lifeless and cold as they drilled into Wade's image. "That thing they stole back in Hong Kong. What's it do?"
"The Pulson Detonator?" Wade shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not really sure. I mean, it's development was highly classified, and-"
"Wade…" Ron warned him humorlessly.
Sighing in defeat, Wade caved. "Okay, okay," he said as he brought up a series of schematics on the tiny screen. "The Detonator is the latest in biological warfare. It's designed with a cutting-edge gravimetric generator that-"
"Wade!" Ron snapped again.
"Basically," Wade said quickly, "It can spread a biological agent across hundreds, even thousands of square miles."
The teen considered this for a moment. His eyes darted back and forth as the rusted gears spun noisily in his skull. "You said something about Nebraska earlier." he recalled.
"Yeah, but-"
"That's the target." Ron said. He tossed the device back to Monique.
Mon fumbled with the Kimmunicator, then threw Ron's back a stare of disbelief as he returned to his lame excuse of a search for cashews. "You're kidding, right? Why would he-"
"Wait." Wade pounded his computer, frowning in confusion. He split the Kimmunicator's screen in half, showing Monique a map of the Midwest. There was a faint, pulsing light over the House of Corn, with a thin line leading away from it. "I'm detecting a faint, low-band signal coming from the attack site."
The twins rushed over, their interest stoked even further by the new clue. "Why didn't you detect it before?" Jim asked eagerly.
"It's a really uncommon frequency. Global Justice probably doesn't know about this yet."
"Can you trace it back?" The twins harmonized.
Wade grimaced uncertainly, typing like a man possessed. "It'll be tough," he warned them. "There's no telling how long…Got it!"
Monique raised an eyebrow. "That was it?"
"Hey," he shrugged, "I just make it 'look' easy." A new dot appeared on the map, overlapping the point where Kim's signal had disappeared. "Notice anything?"
"You rock, Wade." Monique grinned. She glanced up at Ron, but the boy had his head buried in the cabinet. "Ron, you'd better-"
"Not going." he called, rummaging through cans and packages of food.
Monique was stunned into silence at his blasé tone. She could only stare at him in disbelief. Luckily, the twins weren't under any such constraints.
"Ron, you gotta go!" Jim insisted.
"Yeah," Tim chimed in, "You gotta save Kim!"
"Even if she is a dork…"
"A major dork…"
Pulling himself out of the depths of his cupboard, Ron brushed the dust free of his clothes. "I'm sorry," he said brusquely, "You have me mistaken for Kim Possible's sidekick. I'm not." His voice was flat and final.
"But Ron!" they whined in union.
Monique laid a hand on their shoulders, pushing them towards the door. "Give us a minute, boys," she told them. "We'll be right behind you." As soon as they were out in the hall, she whirled on Ron with hands on her hips. "What is your damage, boy?"
"Nothing," Ron snorted. He finally found his wayward cashews, and popped the lid. Pouring a generous amount into his mouth, he sneered dismissively at Monique's righteous anger. "Eh mot my mobmon eff Kmm's im twobl." he shrugged.
"Yes-it-is!" Monique shot back. She stalked over and snatched the snack from his hand before he could cram any more into his craw. "Kim is your friend…your 'BEST' friend. Those Justice guys are busy fighting robots in Europe, which means that there's only one person left-"
"MO!" he stamped his foot and spewed bits of nuts at her. "Mim mob goib!"
"Will you 'please' swallow before I'm forced to hurt you?"
He forced the jagged bits down his throat and then repeated, "I'm not going! I don't owe Kim anything except a swift kick in the butt." He folded his arms defiantly, turning his back on the exotic beauty with a 'harrumph'. "If you're so hot to trot, why don't you go fight Drakken?"
Monique hesitated uncertainly, feeling torn. Then she shouted, "Fine!" and stormed into Ron's bedroom, slamming the door. The pictures on the walls rattled with the sheer force of her anger, but Ron wasn't fazed.
A tugging down at Ron's pant leg drew him out of his mopey mood. Rufus sat on his shoe, staring up at him with big, sad eyes and a pleading expression. His lower lip trembled pathetically in a perfect impression of Kim's classic puppy-dog pout. Luckily for Ron, the rodent's mastery of the psychological weapon wasn't quite complete. "No, Rufus!" Ron said flat out.
"Ho, rescue…" Rufus whined, tugging again.
"I said-"
His bedroom door flew open again, revealing Monique in all her splendid anger. She was dressed in Kim's spare mission togs, an outfit she always kept with Ron in case a mission suddenly cropped up with no time to go home and change. The fashion queen tugged uncomfortably at the high-cut hem of the tight shirt, trying without success to cover her exposed belly. If he hadn't been so mad, Ron would have laughed out loud.
Wordlessly, she began stomping across the floor, shaking the dishes in his cupboard with each step. Rufus looked back up at Ron, then over at Monique. With one last sigh, the mole rat scampered over to Mon and climbed her pant leg. She stopped long enough for Rufus to climb into her cargo pocket before continuing on. Ron almost called his friend back, but thought better of it and remained silent.
'Traitor,' he thought contemptuously.
Monique stopped with her hand on the doorknob and looked over her shoulder at Ron's turned back. "Let me ask you one thing, Ron," she said in a low voice. He didn't even flinch as she said, "Even after all the horrible things Kim's done and said…No matter how much she doesn't deserve it…Does that really change how you feel about her?"
Ron didn't reply. He heard the door open and close a moment later, and knew that he was alone.
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"So we're in agreement," Drakken said tersely to the bunch gathered not too far from Kim Possible's shackles. A tiny notepad was clutched in his equally tiny claws, and filled with incomprehensible scrawling. "I start us out with a three-minute introductive rant. Then five minutes each for the Seniors, Monkey Fist, Killigan, the Knights, Lucre, and then I finish us off with a brief conclusion."
"Wait one moment, Professor Blue-Man," Junior butted in. He looked with open contempt at the two mercenaries and Lucre, asking, "There are only one of them each, but father and I are…" It took a moment for him to count, much to Senior's chagrin, but his figures were accurate in the end. "…two! We should get double the time!"
"The vapid Cro-Magnon has a point," Long agreed distastefully, as if the mere thought of acknowledging an idea from the younger Senior left a bitter tang on his tongue. "Our numbers should afford us more time."
"Logically." Falchion piped in.
"Quite." Claymore interjected.
Growling and quaking with frustration, Drakken exploded, "Look, flunkies and genetic accidents don't count! Every group gets five minutes!" He crushed the notepad in his anger, shaking it at the protesting groups. "If you don't like it, then you can just go suck lemons!"
The argument exploded anew and expanded into a full-fledged fistfight. Kim sighed, watching the orgy of blows with acute boredom. She noticed that Will, who had awoken several hours ago, seemed to share her sentiment. It was too bad she had found out what a lying little creep he really was; She could have used someone to talk to before the psychotic group of chest-beating apes did her in.
"Some legion," Will muttered.
Shego still guarded the prisoners, and afforded him a smug smile. "I wouldn't get impatient if I were you," she told him, igniting a fistful of green plasma beneath his chin. He flinched, craning his neck to escape the uncomfortable heat. "'Cause as soon as they're done…"
One of Drakken's henchmen cautiously approached the brawl and tapped his boss on the shoulder. "Doctor Drakken," he said meekly, "You wanted to know when the rocket…I mean, Drak Force Five was ready for launch."
Drakken removed his teeth impatiently from Killigan's thigh and looked back at the lowly peon. "…and?" he demanded.
"Um…Drak Force Five is ready for launch."
The fight broke up immediately. Former enemies began helping each other up as Drakken crowed, "Excellent!" Pushing and nudging, he drove his Legionnaires back over to stand before Kim Possible and Will Du. Upon a silent command, a small platform of controls rose from the floor, allowing Drakken access to the rocket's command functions and his prisoners at the same time.
"I think it best if we forgo the villainous gloating." Long offered humbly. "At least for the moment."
Kim felt her innards clench with fear as the rest of the nodded. Even Senior, the staunch traditionalist, seemed to accept it as best. 'No,' she thought, 'I need more time!' There had to be something she was missing, some way of getting free. She couldn't fail, she couldn't let it end like this! Everyone on the planet was counting on her, and with every keystroke that Drakken's needle-like fingers made, she could feel herself failing them again and again.
After a moment of typing, his scarred mug curled into a smirk. "With one push of a button, we end the old world and begin anew…as gods." His smile was unbearable as he brought the full force of it down upon Kim. "No heroes left. No one to stop us. Nothing to stand in our way!" he howled victoriously, thrusting his arms high into the air. "I can almost taste the victory!"
"Hey, Little Boy Blue!" a shrill, cocky shout echoed from above. Drakken looked up at the gantry system and saw a young girl about Kim's age, with dark chocolate skin and eyes, and long dreadlocks bunched together that flowed down her back. She hefted a wrench from an open toolkit nearby and hurled it with all her might.
The tool flew straight and true, striking Drakken full across the mouth. He went down hard as the blow snapped his head to the side and down onto the deck. "I didn't know victory tasted like pennies…" he drooled dizzily against the metal plating.
The rest of the Legion was in an instant uproar as Monkey Fist, Killigan, Shego, Falchion and Claymore led an armada of henchmen up the stairs and onto the criss-crossing catwalks. The metal walkways trembled and shook with their thunderous charge as they split their forces, coming at the intruder from all sides.
Monique gulped, unconsciously tugging at her revealing, stretchy shirt. 'So far so good, hero,' she thought to herself. Her hands scrambled as she reached for the grapple gun hooked to her large, heavy brown pack. Breathing a silent prayer, she launched the grapple with a violent jerk of the gun. Miraculously, the hook latched onto the gantry across from her. Just as the hoard of angry bad guys was about to converge on her, she leapt off of the railing and into free space, suspended only by the thin cable.
Kim couldn't believe her eyes or her ears as her fashion-conscious friend swung down to the floor with a piercing, terrified shriek. "Monique?" she breathed with a mixture of incredulity and sympathy as she watched Mon plow into the floor, landing in a heap not ten feet away from the rest of Kim's captors.
"Oh man," Mon groaned, pulling her own foot out of her face as she collapsed into a thousand aches and pains. "I do 'not' recommend that."
Drakken had mostly recovered with a little help from Senior as the rest of the villain's team flew back down the stairs. Shego and Fist simply jumped, landing and capturing Monique with ease. "So," Drakken slurred, still listing from side to side as he maintained a weak stance. "You thought you could defeat me, did you? Well…who are you, anyway?"
"Fashion Police," Monique spat at him, held at bay by Shego and Monkey Fist. "And honey, maybe nobody told you, but blue is out."
Shego shot Kim a contemptuous glare. "Does this belong to you?" she snarled.
Kim was still open-mouthed with utter shock. On a list of things she had been expecting, this rated somewhere between Bonnie acting nice and the Tweebs becoming Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Monique, what are you doing here?" she called out.
Her friend shrugged. "I'm here to rescue you," she said, then added, "Though the scuba diving alone was worth it. What a rush!" Her eyes danced with the excitement from her descent down into the cold, deep waters.
"Well, 'Monique'," Senior raised a brow, smirking at their third captured teen of the day, "I'd say you have failed miserably."
"Oh no," she retorted coolly, "I didn't."
"You must be joking." Long insisted.
"Aye," Killigan snapped with a twitch in his eye, "In a few moments, we'll be rulers of th' world!"
"Mm-hmm," Monique hummed, examining her nails. "All part of the plan."
She cried out as Shego spun her in place, planting her face in her captive's. "You want to start making sense," Shego said with poisoned honey dripping from her voice. Her hand caught fire with a deadly green glow, which she brought dangerously close to Monique's face. "Now."
"It's simple, really." Mon shrugged again, smiling despite the grim situation. "See, since I can't really fight, we figured I'd make a bon-diggity distraction."
Drakken's eyes shot open as the words forced sensibility to flood back into his battered brain. His head snapped over to the security console on the far side of the room. No one was close enough to reach it in time…no one, that is, except for the familiar figure already operating its controls.
Kim's heart stopped at the flash of corn-blonde hair, the familiar clothes and mysterious backpack, and pale freckled skin as the figure looked back their way. It couldn't be…could it? "Ron?" she breathed.
"Nooooooooo!" Drakken howled as Ron threw an enormous switch in the center of the console. Kim and Will's bonds snapped open immediately, releasing the two GJ agents from incarceration. They wasted no time; Kim sprang forward and leapt up in a double-snap kick that caught Shego and Fist beneath their chins. As they flew back, the heroine landed gracefully in a crouch, then burst forward, pausing only long enough to grab Monique and drag her along. Will was right behind her as they joined Ron across the room.
"The Buffoon?" Long snarled, even as his comrades drew their fiery swords.
"Ron Stoppable?" Senior shook his cane at the new addition to their battlefield. "This cannot go unanswered!"
A chill seemed to emanate off of Ron's very spirit as he stared down the entire Legion. "So not the drama." he said.
"Boo-yah," Kim grinned. Her smile soon faltered; Try as she might, she couldn't catch Ron's eye. Wit ha grim face frozen on his features, he seemed intent on not looking at her. He visibly bristled just at the sound of her voice.
"GET THEM!"
A wall of villainy roared at the teens, cutting out any time for Kim to dwell on Ron's attitude towards her. Ron snared Kim and Will by the shoulders and shoved them hard towards the open double doors that led to the launch silo. On a hunch, he slapped a large red button on the other side that was set into the wall, and was rewarded with a sharp grinding of gears as the heavy blast doors trundled shut. Monique waved and smiled at Drakken's looming, irate face just before the seam slammed closed.
Standing in the shadow of the doomsday weapon, the teens enjoyed a brief respite. Fearsome pounding echoed against the armored door, but the kill switch Ron triggered would keep them out for at least a moment. The towering room stretched high above them before ending in a circular iris hatch at the top. Several gantries criss-crossed above them, much like in the other room, to allow access to different points on the rocket.
"We need a plan," Will panted. His eyes darted about with panic as he took the room's sparse features into account. "We need back-up. I'll-"
"You," Ron stabbed his finger into Will's chest, tapping at it callously. "Stop talking." He glanced between the GJ agents, then back at the door. "We have a plan. It's already started."
"What do you think is keeping them?" Monique asked, oblivious to Kim and Will's confused looks. "We should have-"
"We'll have to buy them more time." Ron stated flatly. "Mon, take Will. Try to stall them. I think I saw another access hatch above. Kim and I will-"
"Hold on," Will sneered, butting in and shoving Ron back. He ignored the look of fearsome hatred that flashed in Ron's eyes as he stared the amateur down. "Who put you in charge? I'm the senior agent here, and I demand to know-"
"Shut UP, Will!" Kim snapped. Will looked shocked, as if she had punched him in the stomach, but she pointedly ignored him. Turning to Ron, she forced aside her other feelings and put herself into the business at hand. "What about us?"
Though his face didn't change, Ron nodded in appreciation. "You and I will disarm this firecracker," he told her grimly. To Monique, he added, "Don't forget to seal the hatch behind you."
Monique nodded and ran for the ladder that would take her up a level. Will shot Ron one last look of disbelief, but the former sidekick's resolve did not break, so he quickly followed his new partner and grumbled with every step.
"So," Kim sighed, gazing up at the rocket, "Any idea on how to disarm this thing? I don't know how to do it, and unless you've been taking night classes, I'm pretty sure you don't either."
"I don't." Ron uttered, digging through his pocket. He pulled out a small, smooth piece of nostalgia that almost brought tears of joy to Kim's eyes. "But I know someone who does." He looked up, spotting Mon and Will as they clanked across the catwalk. "We need to-"
A dark blur of green and black dropped from the sky, landing soundlessly behind Ron. Kim's mouth opened in warning a moment too late as a black glove wrapped around his throat, and a strong arm pinned him back.
"Hi," Shego sneered over Ron's shoulder. Her hand released Ron's throat, but hovered nearby with a faint green glow about it. "Why don't we head back in so we can all get a front row seat to Drakken's fireworks, m'kay?"
"Put him down, Shego," Kim said with velvet steel lining her tone. She took several steps forward, but stopped cold as the blaze from Shego's hand grew stronger. "You can't stop both of us."
"I don't' have to, Kimmie." Shego smiled. "You wouldn't let anything happen to your little friend here."
Kim's eyes darted between their faces. Ron was seized with a new apprehension as Shego's power nipped at his neck, but he didn't cry out. "Kim," he said slowly, "Pick up the Kimmunicator and run."
"Ron, I'm not-"
"For once in your stupid, perfect life, will you just LISTEN to me?" he exploded. Ron tried to struggle free, but Shego's grip was firm. Small, painful welts swelled on his neck as her deadly fingers brushed against the sensitive skin. He winced, but made no sound.
"Aw," Shego cooed, running a free (unlit) finger up and down Ron's cheek. He trembled at her touch, aching to do something, wanting to shout at Kim again before it was too late, but he didn't dare. "How cute. A little lover's spat, huh?"
"What are you talking about?" Kim demanded with narrowed eyes. Shego wasn't usually the kind to play mind games with her…maybe she was getting desperate. Or maybe she was just supremely confident; Will and Monique had already disappeared through the hatch above. She could hear the sounds of the battle coming through the thick door, and had to suppress a stab of fear for her other friends as they fought impossible odds.
"Oh, don't play games, Kimmie. It doesn't suit you." Shego snorted. Then she paused a moment, examining Kim's confused, frightened features. A realization suddenly hit the villainess, bringing with it a wave of mirth. Her shoulders began shaking in a soft chuckle, which jiggled her arm enough to give Ron a few more painful burns across his throat. "You really don't know, do you?" Shego asked between laughs.
"Know what?" Kim shot. Hostage or no hostage, she wasn't about to take crap from the likes of Shego. She never had, and she didn't plan on starting. "What are you babbling-"
"I thought you knew," Shego laughed, gripping Ron even tighter. His brown pack pressed into her stomach as her iron muscles kept him in place. She let her burning hand trace a line down his chest, burning a red streak into his skin and ruining his shirt. This time, he couldn't stop the hiss of agony that escaped between his teeth. Shego caught sight of Kim's helpless anger and sympathy for her friend, which made her next words all the more delicious.
"He's in love with you."
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The 2004 Kim Possible comes standard with power locks, power window, anti-lock brakes, four wheel drive and electric seat warmers. Act now and get zero down and no profit for eighteen months after purchase! The 2004 Kim Possible: So the Drama…
=Response to Reviews=
Monica Lavender
You are the QUEEN of fanfiction! (You are a girl, right?) In any event, I LOVE this! You inspire me, you make want to try to write better. This fic is AWESOME! Drakken is awesome, the college theme is awesome! This last chapter was incredible.
Huh. Well, as you can imagine, I'm very flattered, but you put me in a bit of a pickle here. See, on the one hand, I'm male. But, on the other hand, I 'do' lust for power like a fat man lusts for a big ol' hot fudge sundae at a Weight Watcher's meeting. After much deliberation and consternation, I have reluctantly decided to accept the title you have graciously bestowed upon me. I vow to use my new powers as Queen of Fanfiction for good, or awesome, and not for personal gain.
Okay, maybe a little personal gain…
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Kim Possible
The Power of Love
by Cyberwraith9
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The world came back into focus slowly and painfully, fading in from the blackest of blacks. A dull throb pounded against her skull as her eyes fluttered open. With a groan, she tried to move, but found her arms and legs immobilized by something cold and solid. The same cool feeling was pressed against her back as she struggled uselessly against the metal shackles.
"Ah," Drakken's voice echoed from behind her. Frantically, she tried to twist her head. She could see a solid wall of featureless gray metal staring her in the face. "The hero awakens," Drakken's unseen, sinister sneer continued.
A sudden jolt rocked her as the X-shaped frame binding her began to rotate. As she spun, she saw Will hanging limply from an identical rig. "Drakken," she grumbled.
The rest of the room revealed itself, dropping Kim's jaw: They were in an enormous chamber filled with computer terminals, heavy machinery, and a large set of double doors leading to an even larger room. Armored glass fortifications allowed her a view of what lay inside, the stolen rocket they had been desperately searching for. It had been modified and repainted with black and blue, and possessed a quartet of bold letters running up the side. Kim's dizzy eyes couldn't quite focus the monogramming at the moment, so she concentrated her efforts elsewhere.
"So glad you could join us, Kim Possible!" Drakken threw his arms wide, welcoming his prisoners. Shego and Señor Senior Senior stood to his left, with Long and Lucre on his right. Killigan, Monkey Fist and Long's cronies flanked her shackles menacingly. "I do hope the accommodations are to your liking." Drakken smiled sarcastically.
"Can we skip the lame villain pleasantries, puh-lease?" Kim moaned, letting her head drop back against the binding rig. As much as she wanted Drakken to prattle on, giving her enough time to come up with an escape plan, she could only take 'so' many clichés. If there was one thing this room didn't need, it was more obnoxious bad guy posturing. "It's been a 'long' day, and I'm reeeealy tired."
"Oh, but you simply 'must' stay awake for what comes next, my old foe." Drakken danced gleefully, waving with a grand gesture to his pride and joy sitting behind heat-proof glass in the opposite room. "I'm sure you recognize the missile I and my comrades acquired in Siberia, yes?" Without waiting for a reply, he continued, "Well, combined with technology taken in Hong Kong, I assure you that it is no longer an 'ordinary' missile."
"Let me guess," Kim said in a bored tone. "You've managed to increase its destructive power tenfold, and will hold the world for ransom, blah blah blah…" she trailed off with a heavy sigh. "Don't you have 'any' imagination?"
"Ah, but you're wrong!" he admonished her. Drawing closer, his twisted smile grew with every step. "You see, I've actually reduced the explosive capacity of the rocket. Do you know why?"
"Because you're insane?"
"Not this time," he assured her with a laugh. The confused expression on her delicate features was too delicious to pass up, so he fed her curiosity further. "You see, the nuclear explosion will be merely another distraction. The real threat is…this!" He reached into his jacket, withdrawing a vial of greenish liquid.
Kim eyed the test tube skeptically. "And that is…what? A new shade of nail polish? I think it matches my eyes…"
He considered the two colors. "You know, I think you're…I mean, no!" He snapped his fingers impatiently. With a dejected sigh, Shego stepped forward, having produced a small flower in a pot. "Consider this rose, Kim Possible."
"Huh. It's pretty." she commented, examining the rose.
"Thank you, I grew it myself. Now," his tone grew hushed with glee, "Imagine that this flower represents all the crops in North America…And this beaker is Drak Force Five, equipped with the marvelous Pulson Detonator!" He unstopped the vial with a little difficulty, then poured its contents onto the rose. Kim watched with growing horror as the blossom shriveled and died almost immediately.
"You 'are' insane," she breathed, lunging at him. It was lucky for Drakken that his shackles were escape-proof, or she would have torn him apart with her bare hands then and there. "You can't destroy those crops, there'll be-"
"World-wide hunger?" Drakken smirked. "Not to worry. Thanks to our friends at Roddigan Industries, we'll soon have farms that can produce enough food to feed the globe-"
"Controlled by us." Long interjected, much to the annoyance of Drakken.
Kim sneered at the villains, renewing her struggle against the bonds that held her. "I'll stop you," she swore with fire in her green eyes. "I won't let you do this!"
Senior stepped forward, rapping his cane smartly on the deck plating. "Sassy as always, my adolescent, feisty foe. However, I fear your usual confidence is tragically misplaced in this instance. Global Justice is dealing with a major attack in England at the moment, courtesy of our generous host's Drak-Bots."
"We have you outnumbered and captured." Long informed her needlessly. He, unlike his other Roddigan comrades, was unarmed and unarmored. Though, given the circumstances, it wasn't necessarily a tactical blunder. "You have no chance."
Drakken's eye tweaked as the other two began stealing his thunder. "Excuse me," he growled, "But I thought 'I' was going to do the gloating."
"Ridiculous," Long scoffed, turning on Drakken with a deep scowl. "Why should you claim all the glory for yourself?"
"Yes" Senior was quick to agree. "We have all contributed substantially to this project. We should share in 'all' its benefits, including our requisite villainous gloating."
"My lair," Drakken stomped his foot childishly, "My rules! If you don't like it, you can take it outside. I hear that lantern fish are excellent listeners!"
"Um," Lucre cleared his throat, pulling a sheaf of papers from his vest. "When's it going to be my turn? I had a whole evil speech prepared." He shuffled the sheets, squinting at his atrocious handwriting. "Kim Pose-able," he began reading in a monotone version of his phony accent, "You have… fallen for our ingenious…tarp, and-"
"Hey!" Killigan shouted from his post next to the insensate Will, "Wha' aboot us?"
"We've been doing all the work around here." Monkey Fist added crossly. He folded his hairy arms across his gi. "When do 'we' get to gloat?"
"You?" Claymore shot from behind his armored mask.
"Preposterous!" Falchion added lightly.
"You want to test my mettle, Tin Can?" the monkey master bristled, stalking forward across the prisoners' view. "I'll turn you into a slot machine!"
Drakken saw the situation spiraling out of control, and stepped forward to salvage it. "Gentlemen, please!" he cried, waving his hands. "Drak Force Five won't be flight-worthy for several hours. All in the Legion of Villainous Evil will get a chance to gloat, I promise!"
As the other Legionnaires gathered with Drakken to discuss gloating rights, Kim noticed at last what the letters painted on the old Soviet missile were. "LoVE? Your evil alliance is called LoVE?"
Shego leaned against Kim's shackle rig, having extracted herself early from the loud, obnoxious argument before it could really take off. "Ye-ah," she groaned, "It's a little better if you say it all out loud."
Together, the two women watched the men of the organization bicker amongst one another in the shadow of the nuclear missile, which was crawling with red jumpsuits who carried tools and parts to complete the project. "So, this is your super-team?" Kim said sardonically.
Junior entered from a hatch set up off to the side, carrying a magazine beneath his beefy arm. "Excuse me, Professor Drakken," he said as he motioned back the way he came, "But your toilet is with the clogging. Perhaps the hairy ninja or your very odd Scottish dress-wearing man could help?"
Grinding her teeth, Shego gripped the edges of Kim's rig to keep herself from going berserk. "Let me remind you which one of us is the prisoner here…" she growled.
"For the moment," Kim said with confidence she didn't really have. With the missile still in final development and the villains squabbling like children, they had at least a little time left. But Will was still out, and their bonds were too solid to break loose. Drakken had secured her hands and feet far away from any of her gadgets, but had wisely left the booby-trapped utility belt alone. He must have figured out it was rigged with a gas packet in case anyone tried to remove it improperly. For the first time ever, Kim Possible was helpless and with no hope of rescue.
'This is not good…' she thought with a heavy heart, gazing up at the rocket that would claim so many, many lives. 'Not good at all…'
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"Ron," Monique called as she hunted through his cupboards, "I don't see any cashews, and I have a major craving."
"I just got them yesterday," Ron grunted as he jerked his game controller, nearly tearing the cord from its console as his electronic car struggled with Rufus' for the lead. Behind their virtual duel, Jim and Tim were breathing down his neck, and all with half a lap to go. "Check down below," he called back distractedly.
As Monique bent down to look in the lower cabinets, she heard a strange, muffled beeping coming from her pants. It took her a second to recognize the musical, four-note pattern. "Oh, hey!" she exclaimed, pulling the Kimmunicator from her pocket. She held it up, calling out to Ron, "You've got a call!"
He barely afforded the affronting device a glance before turning back to his game. "I'm not here," he instructed her gruffly.
"Well, when 'are' you going to be back?" she huffed impatiently.
"That depends," he snapped back without turning around, "When's the Earth scheduled to explode?"
"Men." Monique rolled her eyes. Ignoring its incessant beeping, she examined the Kimmunicator's controls a moment before finding the right button. Wade's round, panicked face immediately filled the screen. "Hey cutie," Mon greeted him with a smile, "What's up?"
"Kimsdisappearedanddrakkensdestroyinglondon!" Wade cried frantically.
Ron's hands went limp as he heard Wade from all the way across the room. His digital car careened off of the track and barreled into a lamppost, exploding in a burst of pixilated flame.
"Whoa, slow down," Mon eased him off, wincing at his intensity. "Start over."
Taking a drag of soda and a deep breath, Wade tried again. "Kim's disappeared with Will on some secret mission a few hours ago. Their signal vanished somewhere over the Pacific. After that, Drakken's robots showed up in London and started tearing up the place! GJ is swamped, and I can't find Kim anywhere!"
Jim shut off the X-Cubestation as Tim turned the TV to an all-news channel. A balding man in an expensive blue suit and a cheap toupee stood in front of burning buildings and screaming masses, talking to his audience in a low, calm monotone. Every now and then, the camera's eye would catch a glimpse of a blood-red mechanoid strafing the London landscape with angry lasers, or screaming Brits running every which way.
"Heavy…" Monique breathed, clutching at her mouth in horror.
"I think Drakken's captured Kim and Will," Wade interrupted their shock. "I had to pull a few 'big' strings, but I've got supersonic transport lined up and ready to go. Ron, I can have you in London in-"
"Kim isn't there." Ron muttered, squinting at the news footage.
"Huh?" was the collective reply.
The former sidekick leaned forward, rubbing his chin. He saw plenty of GJ agents running about, chasing after Drakken's fearsome automated army…and that was all. Ron pulled back with a shake of his head. "Kim isn't there because Drakken isn't there."
"Um," Jim scratched his head.
"Did you notice the robot army?" Tim shouted.
"Look!" Ron growled, getting up from his futon and stalking back over to the kitchen. "I know Drakken. I've been fighting Drakken since High School. He's a gloater; he'd be right in the thick of things, hiding behind Shego and spouting off as loudly as possible."
Monique didn't seem convinced. "So?"
He gestured helplessly to the screen. "If Shego was in London, the camera couldn't miss her. No Shego, no Drakken, which means no Kim."
"Then this doesn't make sense…" Wade mumbled as he watched the scene unfold on the same news feed. "First Nebraska, and now this."
"Wade," Monique looked back into the Kimmunicator thoughtfully, "You said that Kim's signal disappeared over the Pacific?"
The techie's fingers danced across his keyboard. "I had some trouble breaking through their stealth cloak, but I'm pretty sure…"
"Hold on a sec," Tim broke in, leaning over the back of the couch. "What was that about Nebraska?"
"Yeah," Jim added, "I thought that was all farm country. What would a super villain want with corn?" He exchanged a look with his brother, but both could only shrug at the other.
"I don't know, I don't know!" Wade wailed and tugged at his hair. "We've got all the pieces, but I don't know how the puzzle fits together. Kim was always-"
"Kim's not here!" Monique exclaimed. What was it with these people? She liked Kim as much as any of them (with the possible exception of Ron), but were they totally helpless without her? "Kim's in trouble," she tried again, this time with an even head. "It's up to us to figure this out."
There was a beat before Wade and the twins looked at her expectantly, and said, "Well?"
She grew more exasperated. "What do you want from me?" she asked heatedly, "I don't know any more than you do!"
"What did it do?"
Ron had been silent since offering his opinion earlier, focusing his attention on pretending to find the nuts in the cupboard. When he spoke, the room grew silent with confusion before they all communally replied, "Huh?"
Stone faced, he walked over to Monique and took the Kimmunicator from her hands. His eyes were lifeless and cold as they drilled into Wade's image. "That thing they stole back in Hong Kong. What's it do?"
"The Pulson Detonator?" Wade shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not really sure. I mean, it's development was highly classified, and-"
"Wade…" Ron warned him humorlessly.
Sighing in defeat, Wade caved. "Okay, okay," he said as he brought up a series of schematics on the tiny screen. "The Detonator is the latest in biological warfare. It's designed with a cutting-edge gravimetric generator that-"
"Wade!" Ron snapped again.
"Basically," Wade said quickly, "It can spread a biological agent across hundreds, even thousands of square miles."
The teen considered this for a moment. His eyes darted back and forth as the rusted gears spun noisily in his skull. "You said something about Nebraska earlier." he recalled.
"Yeah, but-"
"That's the target." Ron said. He tossed the device back to Monique.
Mon fumbled with the Kimmunicator, then threw Ron's back a stare of disbelief as he returned to his lame excuse of a search for cashews. "You're kidding, right? Why would he-"
"Wait." Wade pounded his computer, frowning in confusion. He split the Kimmunicator's screen in half, showing Monique a map of the Midwest. There was a faint, pulsing light over the House of Corn, with a thin line leading away from it. "I'm detecting a faint, low-band signal coming from the attack site."
The twins rushed over, their interest stoked even further by the new clue. "Why didn't you detect it before?" Jim asked eagerly.
"It's a really uncommon frequency. Global Justice probably doesn't know about this yet."
"Can you trace it back?" The twins harmonized.
Wade grimaced uncertainly, typing like a man possessed. "It'll be tough," he warned them. "There's no telling how long…Got it!"
Monique raised an eyebrow. "That was it?"
"Hey," he shrugged, "I just make it 'look' easy." A new dot appeared on the map, overlapping the point where Kim's signal had disappeared. "Notice anything?"
"You rock, Wade." Monique grinned. She glanced up at Ron, but the boy had his head buried in the cabinet. "Ron, you'd better-"
"Not going." he called, rummaging through cans and packages of food.
Monique was stunned into silence at his blasé tone. She could only stare at him in disbelief. Luckily, the twins weren't under any such constraints.
"Ron, you gotta go!" Jim insisted.
"Yeah," Tim chimed in, "You gotta save Kim!"
"Even if she is a dork…"
"A major dork…"
Pulling himself out of the depths of his cupboard, Ron brushed the dust free of his clothes. "I'm sorry," he said brusquely, "You have me mistaken for Kim Possible's sidekick. I'm not." His voice was flat and final.
"But Ron!" they whined in union.
Monique laid a hand on their shoulders, pushing them towards the door. "Give us a minute, boys," she told them. "We'll be right behind you." As soon as they were out in the hall, she whirled on Ron with hands on her hips. "What is your damage, boy?"
"Nothing," Ron snorted. He finally found his wayward cashews, and popped the lid. Pouring a generous amount into his mouth, he sneered dismissively at Monique's righteous anger. "Eh mot my mobmon eff Kmm's im twobl." he shrugged.
"Yes-it-is!" Monique shot back. She stalked over and snatched the snack from his hand before he could cram any more into his craw. "Kim is your friend…your 'BEST' friend. Those Justice guys are busy fighting robots in Europe, which means that there's only one person left-"
"MO!" he stamped his foot and spewed bits of nuts at her. "Mim mob goib!"
"Will you 'please' swallow before I'm forced to hurt you?"
He forced the jagged bits down his throat and then repeated, "I'm not going! I don't owe Kim anything except a swift kick in the butt." He folded his arms defiantly, turning his back on the exotic beauty with a 'harrumph'. "If you're so hot to trot, why don't you go fight Drakken?"
Monique hesitated uncertainly, feeling torn. Then she shouted, "Fine!" and stormed into Ron's bedroom, slamming the door. The pictures on the walls rattled with the sheer force of her anger, but Ron wasn't fazed.
A tugging down at Ron's pant leg drew him out of his mopey mood. Rufus sat on his shoe, staring up at him with big, sad eyes and a pleading expression. His lower lip trembled pathetically in a perfect impression of Kim's classic puppy-dog pout. Luckily for Ron, the rodent's mastery of the psychological weapon wasn't quite complete. "No, Rufus!" Ron said flat out.
"Ho, rescue…" Rufus whined, tugging again.
"I said-"
His bedroom door flew open again, revealing Monique in all her splendid anger. She was dressed in Kim's spare mission togs, an outfit she always kept with Ron in case a mission suddenly cropped up with no time to go home and change. The fashion queen tugged uncomfortably at the high-cut hem of the tight shirt, trying without success to cover her exposed belly. If he hadn't been so mad, Ron would have laughed out loud.
Wordlessly, she began stomping across the floor, shaking the dishes in his cupboard with each step. Rufus looked back up at Ron, then over at Monique. With one last sigh, the mole rat scampered over to Mon and climbed her pant leg. She stopped long enough for Rufus to climb into her cargo pocket before continuing on. Ron almost called his friend back, but thought better of it and remained silent.
'Traitor,' he thought contemptuously.
Monique stopped with her hand on the doorknob and looked over her shoulder at Ron's turned back. "Let me ask you one thing, Ron," she said in a low voice. He didn't even flinch as she said, "Even after all the horrible things Kim's done and said…No matter how much she doesn't deserve it…Does that really change how you feel about her?"
Ron didn't reply. He heard the door open and close a moment later, and knew that he was alone.
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"So we're in agreement," Drakken said tersely to the bunch gathered not too far from Kim Possible's shackles. A tiny notepad was clutched in his equally tiny claws, and filled with incomprehensible scrawling. "I start us out with a three-minute introductive rant. Then five minutes each for the Seniors, Monkey Fist, Killigan, the Knights, Lucre, and then I finish us off with a brief conclusion."
"Wait one moment, Professor Blue-Man," Junior butted in. He looked with open contempt at the two mercenaries and Lucre, asking, "There are only one of them each, but father and I are…" It took a moment for him to count, much to Senior's chagrin, but his figures were accurate in the end. "…two! We should get double the time!"
"The vapid Cro-Magnon has a point," Long agreed distastefully, as if the mere thought of acknowledging an idea from the younger Senior left a bitter tang on his tongue. "Our numbers should afford us more time."
"Logically." Falchion piped in.
"Quite." Claymore interjected.
Growling and quaking with frustration, Drakken exploded, "Look, flunkies and genetic accidents don't count! Every group gets five minutes!" He crushed the notepad in his anger, shaking it at the protesting groups. "If you don't like it, then you can just go suck lemons!"
The argument exploded anew and expanded into a full-fledged fistfight. Kim sighed, watching the orgy of blows with acute boredom. She noticed that Will, who had awoken several hours ago, seemed to share her sentiment. It was too bad she had found out what a lying little creep he really was; She could have used someone to talk to before the psychotic group of chest-beating apes did her in.
"Some legion," Will muttered.
Shego still guarded the prisoners, and afforded him a smug smile. "I wouldn't get impatient if I were you," she told him, igniting a fistful of green plasma beneath his chin. He flinched, craning his neck to escape the uncomfortable heat. "'Cause as soon as they're done…"
One of Drakken's henchmen cautiously approached the brawl and tapped his boss on the shoulder. "Doctor Drakken," he said meekly, "You wanted to know when the rocket…I mean, Drak Force Five was ready for launch."
Drakken removed his teeth impatiently from Killigan's thigh and looked back at the lowly peon. "…and?" he demanded.
"Um…Drak Force Five is ready for launch."
The fight broke up immediately. Former enemies began helping each other up as Drakken crowed, "Excellent!" Pushing and nudging, he drove his Legionnaires back over to stand before Kim Possible and Will Du. Upon a silent command, a small platform of controls rose from the floor, allowing Drakken access to the rocket's command functions and his prisoners at the same time.
"I think it best if we forgo the villainous gloating." Long offered humbly. "At least for the moment."
Kim felt her innards clench with fear as the rest of the nodded. Even Senior, the staunch traditionalist, seemed to accept it as best. 'No,' she thought, 'I need more time!' There had to be something she was missing, some way of getting free. She couldn't fail, she couldn't let it end like this! Everyone on the planet was counting on her, and with every keystroke that Drakken's needle-like fingers made, she could feel herself failing them again and again.
After a moment of typing, his scarred mug curled into a smirk. "With one push of a button, we end the old world and begin anew…as gods." His smile was unbearable as he brought the full force of it down upon Kim. "No heroes left. No one to stop us. Nothing to stand in our way!" he howled victoriously, thrusting his arms high into the air. "I can almost taste the victory!"
"Hey, Little Boy Blue!" a shrill, cocky shout echoed from above. Drakken looked up at the gantry system and saw a young girl about Kim's age, with dark chocolate skin and eyes, and long dreadlocks bunched together that flowed down her back. She hefted a wrench from an open toolkit nearby and hurled it with all her might.
The tool flew straight and true, striking Drakken full across the mouth. He went down hard as the blow snapped his head to the side and down onto the deck. "I didn't know victory tasted like pennies…" he drooled dizzily against the metal plating.
The rest of the Legion was in an instant uproar as Monkey Fist, Killigan, Shego, Falchion and Claymore led an armada of henchmen up the stairs and onto the criss-crossing catwalks. The metal walkways trembled and shook with their thunderous charge as they split their forces, coming at the intruder from all sides.
Monique gulped, unconsciously tugging at her revealing, stretchy shirt. 'So far so good, hero,' she thought to herself. Her hands scrambled as she reached for the grapple gun hooked to her large, heavy brown pack. Breathing a silent prayer, she launched the grapple with a violent jerk of the gun. Miraculously, the hook latched onto the gantry across from her. Just as the hoard of angry bad guys was about to converge on her, she leapt off of the railing and into free space, suspended only by the thin cable.
Kim couldn't believe her eyes or her ears as her fashion-conscious friend swung down to the floor with a piercing, terrified shriek. "Monique?" she breathed with a mixture of incredulity and sympathy as she watched Mon plow into the floor, landing in a heap not ten feet away from the rest of Kim's captors.
"Oh man," Mon groaned, pulling her own foot out of her face as she collapsed into a thousand aches and pains. "I do 'not' recommend that."
Drakken had mostly recovered with a little help from Senior as the rest of the villain's team flew back down the stairs. Shego and Fist simply jumped, landing and capturing Monique with ease. "So," Drakken slurred, still listing from side to side as he maintained a weak stance. "You thought you could defeat me, did you? Well…who are you, anyway?"
"Fashion Police," Monique spat at him, held at bay by Shego and Monkey Fist. "And honey, maybe nobody told you, but blue is out."
Shego shot Kim a contemptuous glare. "Does this belong to you?" she snarled.
Kim was still open-mouthed with utter shock. On a list of things she had been expecting, this rated somewhere between Bonnie acting nice and the Tweebs becoming Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Monique, what are you doing here?" she called out.
Her friend shrugged. "I'm here to rescue you," she said, then added, "Though the scuba diving alone was worth it. What a rush!" Her eyes danced with the excitement from her descent down into the cold, deep waters.
"Well, 'Monique'," Senior raised a brow, smirking at their third captured teen of the day, "I'd say you have failed miserably."
"Oh no," she retorted coolly, "I didn't."
"You must be joking." Long insisted.
"Aye," Killigan snapped with a twitch in his eye, "In a few moments, we'll be rulers of th' world!"
"Mm-hmm," Monique hummed, examining her nails. "All part of the plan."
She cried out as Shego spun her in place, planting her face in her captive's. "You want to start making sense," Shego said with poisoned honey dripping from her voice. Her hand caught fire with a deadly green glow, which she brought dangerously close to Monique's face. "Now."
"It's simple, really." Mon shrugged again, smiling despite the grim situation. "See, since I can't really fight, we figured I'd make a bon-diggity distraction."
Drakken's eyes shot open as the words forced sensibility to flood back into his battered brain. His head snapped over to the security console on the far side of the room. No one was close enough to reach it in time…no one, that is, except for the familiar figure already operating its controls.
Kim's heart stopped at the flash of corn-blonde hair, the familiar clothes and mysterious backpack, and pale freckled skin as the figure looked back their way. It couldn't be…could it? "Ron?" she breathed.
"Nooooooooo!" Drakken howled as Ron threw an enormous switch in the center of the console. Kim and Will's bonds snapped open immediately, releasing the two GJ agents from incarceration. They wasted no time; Kim sprang forward and leapt up in a double-snap kick that caught Shego and Fist beneath their chins. As they flew back, the heroine landed gracefully in a crouch, then burst forward, pausing only long enough to grab Monique and drag her along. Will was right behind her as they joined Ron across the room.
"The Buffoon?" Long snarled, even as his comrades drew their fiery swords.
"Ron Stoppable?" Senior shook his cane at the new addition to their battlefield. "This cannot go unanswered!"
A chill seemed to emanate off of Ron's very spirit as he stared down the entire Legion. "So not the drama." he said.
"Boo-yah," Kim grinned. Her smile soon faltered; Try as she might, she couldn't catch Ron's eye. Wit ha grim face frozen on his features, he seemed intent on not looking at her. He visibly bristled just at the sound of her voice.
"GET THEM!"
A wall of villainy roared at the teens, cutting out any time for Kim to dwell on Ron's attitude towards her. Ron snared Kim and Will by the shoulders and shoved them hard towards the open double doors that led to the launch silo. On a hunch, he slapped a large red button on the other side that was set into the wall, and was rewarded with a sharp grinding of gears as the heavy blast doors trundled shut. Monique waved and smiled at Drakken's looming, irate face just before the seam slammed closed.
Standing in the shadow of the doomsday weapon, the teens enjoyed a brief respite. Fearsome pounding echoed against the armored door, but the kill switch Ron triggered would keep them out for at least a moment. The towering room stretched high above them before ending in a circular iris hatch at the top. Several gantries criss-crossed above them, much like in the other room, to allow access to different points on the rocket.
"We need a plan," Will panted. His eyes darted about with panic as he took the room's sparse features into account. "We need back-up. I'll-"
"You," Ron stabbed his finger into Will's chest, tapping at it callously. "Stop talking." He glanced between the GJ agents, then back at the door. "We have a plan. It's already started."
"What do you think is keeping them?" Monique asked, oblivious to Kim and Will's confused looks. "We should have-"
"We'll have to buy them more time." Ron stated flatly. "Mon, take Will. Try to stall them. I think I saw another access hatch above. Kim and I will-"
"Hold on," Will sneered, butting in and shoving Ron back. He ignored the look of fearsome hatred that flashed in Ron's eyes as he stared the amateur down. "Who put you in charge? I'm the senior agent here, and I demand to know-"
"Shut UP, Will!" Kim snapped. Will looked shocked, as if she had punched him in the stomach, but she pointedly ignored him. Turning to Ron, she forced aside her other feelings and put herself into the business at hand. "What about us?"
Though his face didn't change, Ron nodded in appreciation. "You and I will disarm this firecracker," he told her grimly. To Monique, he added, "Don't forget to seal the hatch behind you."
Monique nodded and ran for the ladder that would take her up a level. Will shot Ron one last look of disbelief, but the former sidekick's resolve did not break, so he quickly followed his new partner and grumbled with every step.
"So," Kim sighed, gazing up at the rocket, "Any idea on how to disarm this thing? I don't know how to do it, and unless you've been taking night classes, I'm pretty sure you don't either."
"I don't." Ron uttered, digging through his pocket. He pulled out a small, smooth piece of nostalgia that almost brought tears of joy to Kim's eyes. "But I know someone who does." He looked up, spotting Mon and Will as they clanked across the catwalk. "We need to-"
A dark blur of green and black dropped from the sky, landing soundlessly behind Ron. Kim's mouth opened in warning a moment too late as a black glove wrapped around his throat, and a strong arm pinned him back.
"Hi," Shego sneered over Ron's shoulder. Her hand released Ron's throat, but hovered nearby with a faint green glow about it. "Why don't we head back in so we can all get a front row seat to Drakken's fireworks, m'kay?"
"Put him down, Shego," Kim said with velvet steel lining her tone. She took several steps forward, but stopped cold as the blaze from Shego's hand grew stronger. "You can't stop both of us."
"I don't' have to, Kimmie." Shego smiled. "You wouldn't let anything happen to your little friend here."
Kim's eyes darted between their faces. Ron was seized with a new apprehension as Shego's power nipped at his neck, but he didn't cry out. "Kim," he said slowly, "Pick up the Kimmunicator and run."
"Ron, I'm not-"
"For once in your stupid, perfect life, will you just LISTEN to me?" he exploded. Ron tried to struggle free, but Shego's grip was firm. Small, painful welts swelled on his neck as her deadly fingers brushed against the sensitive skin. He winced, but made no sound.
"Aw," Shego cooed, running a free (unlit) finger up and down Ron's cheek. He trembled at her touch, aching to do something, wanting to shout at Kim again before it was too late, but he didn't dare. "How cute. A little lover's spat, huh?"
"What are you talking about?" Kim demanded with narrowed eyes. Shego wasn't usually the kind to play mind games with her…maybe she was getting desperate. Or maybe she was just supremely confident; Will and Monique had already disappeared through the hatch above. She could hear the sounds of the battle coming through the thick door, and had to suppress a stab of fear for her other friends as they fought impossible odds.
"Oh, don't play games, Kimmie. It doesn't suit you." Shego snorted. Then she paused a moment, examining Kim's confused, frightened features. A realization suddenly hit the villainess, bringing with it a wave of mirth. Her shoulders began shaking in a soft chuckle, which jiggled her arm enough to give Ron a few more painful burns across his throat. "You really don't know, do you?" Shego asked between laughs.
"Know what?" Kim shot. Hostage or no hostage, she wasn't about to take crap from the likes of Shego. She never had, and she didn't plan on starting. "What are you babbling-"
"I thought you knew," Shego laughed, gripping Ron even tighter. His brown pack pressed into her stomach as her iron muscles kept him in place. She let her burning hand trace a line down his chest, burning a red streak into his skin and ruining his shirt. This time, he couldn't stop the hiss of agony that escaped between his teeth. Shego caught sight of Kim's helpless anger and sympathy for her friend, which made her next words all the more delicious.
"He's in love with you."
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