They ain't mine, I don't make any money of 'em, and it sucks.
The Lazarus Factor
Chapter 4 - A Simple Equation
"In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin
The next day passed rather uneventfully, with Kim doing her best not to let Ron out of her sight. They went about their normal school day and Ron seemed to be his old self again. He laughed and joked as if nothing was wrong, but Kim couldn't help feeling that it was all an act. When she watched him carefully his eyes seemed to look hollow, they didn't light up when he laughed like eyes are supposed to. She prayed for something to do that would take both their minds off of their troubles. After school she decided to call Wade and see if he had any leads on Drakken's base. Wade had needed to start from scratch after the first base turned out to be a fake. The escape trail from NASA was almost two days old by that point. Kim slipped into the kitchen leaving Ron on the couch watching TV. Pulling out her communicator, she hit the button to signal Wade.
"Hey Kim," Wade greeted her, "feeling better?"
"Yeah, I'm fine Wade. Listen, have you made any progress in finding Drakken?"
"I found him yesterday night," Wade answered.
"WHAT?" Kim couldn't believe it, "Why didn't you call me?" Wade shrugged.
"Kim, you're still injured. The Feds are handling this one."
"No way Wade. This is mine!"
"But Kim, your arm." Wade protested.
"It's FINE Wade. Now tell me where the base is." Wade sighed, looking defeated.
"All right, it's about 4 miles south of Middleton. I'll send you the latitude and longitude."
"Not much out there but mountains." came a voice from behind Kim, making her jump. Ron stood looking over her shoulder at the satellite map of the area.
"Yeah, looks like Drakken's really gone all out for this one," Wade continued, "It's actually built into the side of a mountain. Lots of high tech stuff. I also read some big energy readings from there. It's got to be from the stolen space engine."
"Okay," Kim turned towards her room, "I'm going."
"Right behind you KP," Ron started to follow her. Kim suddenly stopped, turning to look guiltily at Ron.
"Um, I don't know Ron," she said, looking down at her feet, "It might be really dangerous."
"Uh, when has it NOT been dangerous," Ron countered, "I'm going with you."
"He's right Kim," came Wade's voice from the communicator, "with your arm you may need his help even more this time." Kim chewed her bottom lip. Recent events, not least of which was her dream last night, had made her extra concerned about Ron's safety. But, then again, leaving him here would mean leaving him alone, and she definitely didn't want to do that. And who knew, maybe another mission was just what he needed. Maybe it would get his confidence back.
"All right Ron," she smiled, "let's go." Ron grinned and hurried to change into the set of mission clothes he kept at Kim's house. But in the back of his mind he screamed at himself for what he was doing.
"Why are you going?" he thought, "You'll just end up screwing the pooch again, and you'll get Kim killed." Ron clenched his fists in determination. He WOULDN'T get Kim hurt again. It didn't matter what happened, he would keep her safe.
Wade arranged for a helicopter to meet them outside and they were soon making a pass over Drakken's lair. Looking around they noticed the remains of another helicopter smoking on the ground far below.
"They must have tried to land and got caught by one of the defenses," Kim mused. She knew that landing on the ground would be impossible. They would have to parachute onto the mountain and work their way in from the top. The helicopter flew in a wide arc around the perimeter of the base and at about the halfway point Ron and Kim jumped. Deploying their chutes, they steered towards a small patch of trees just next to where the base receded into the mountainside. Kim clenched her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut in pain. The sudden jolt from deploying her chute had sent a searing pain through her healing shoulder, but she kept her back turned to Ron, determined not to show it. They were unstrapping the parachutes when Kim's communicator beeped.
"We've landed Wade," Kim said, answering the device.
"Okay, you're going have to be real careful," Wade tapped busily on his keyboard, "Drakken's really put a lot into this. Security cameras, laser trip wires, and the whole roof is wired with pressure sensors."
"Well, how do we get in?" Ron peered out of the trees at the metallic structure before them.
"I can send an electronic signal through your communicator that will create a sort of electric dead zone around you. That will keep the pressure sensors off you, but the lasers and cameras are on a grounded hardwire connected directly to the control room, so you're on your own with them."
"Don't worry Wade," Kim carefully started forward, "we can handle it." They cautiously approached the roof of the base.
"Okay, now just keep the communicator on and stay within four feet of each other."
"Got it, Wade." Kim and Ron carefully slid down the incline to the metal roof below. They slowly made their way across the roof with Kim holding the slightly buzzing communicator in her hand. There were indeed trip wires and automated security cameras along with a few guards, and the two were grateful for the numerous exhaust stacks and storage structures that littered the roof. Using them as cover they were able to sneak past unnoticed.
"All right Kim, there should be a security shed to your left," Wade whispered over the communicator, "There's probably a guard inside, but there are no cameras." Kim crept over to the shed and motioned to Ron. Ron nodded and positioned himself in front of the door. Kneeling down he suddenly threw the door open. The startled guard whirled around, looking down at the intruder. While his attention was on floor, Kim jumped over Ron, driving her foot into the guard's head. The guard slammed into the wall and slid, unconscious, to the floor.
"Okay Wade, we're in."
"There should be a ventilation grate in the floor," Wade studied his computer screen, "You can get into the base's system from there. Once you're in you should have no problem finding the engine, just follow the noise."
"Ah man," Ron moaned, "the vent system again?"
"Thanks Wade," Kim smiled, "we'll call you again when we reach the prototype." Tying up the guard they then pried the grate off the floor and jumped down into the maze of shafts. Wade had been right, the noise made by the engine was easy to follow and it wasn't long before they had reached a grate that led into a large room. Carefully looking out of the grating they saw their goal.
The prototype engine had been designed to fasten onto the sides of space shuttles. After lift-off, the engines would provide up to now, unheard of speed and maneuverability. It had even been theorized that they were powerful enough to control re-entry and land a shuttle as easily as an airplane. The engine also operated on a revolutionary electrical power source that re-charged itself using the turning of special turbines. The turning of the turbines created electricity, giving the engines a presumably inexhaustible energy supply.
Kim and Ron could see the engine in the center of the room surrounded by guards and technicians. The engine consisted of four pylons, each as long as a space shuttle. They were positioned upright in a circle. The turbine emerged near the bottom on the outside of the pylon, while prongs ran along the inside. The prongs, which should have been connected to special ports in the shuttle to help run it's systems, were instead left bare; shooting the electricity generated by the pylons between themselves. Above the four pylons there was a network of catwalks, all leading to a device suspended directly above the web of electricity in the center of the pylons.
Looking around Kim and Ron spotted Drakken and Shego standing in front of one of the many consoles around the room. Pulling out her communicator, Kim activated the camera function, zooming in on Drakken and Shego, using the boom mike to eavesdrop on their conversation.
".... should be doing that?" Shego was saying.
"It's fine, Shego." Drakken sighed, "It's running fine. The sonic amplifier is increasing the power of the engine ten-fold. Imagine, with an unlimited power source of this magnitude, I could power an army of robot warriors for a whole year with just the back-up supply."
"But Doc," Shego shook his arm, "isn't it supposed to slow down when it gets near full capacity?" She pointed at a read-out on a screen.
"Hmmm," Drakken scratched his head, "the turbines DO seem to be going rather fast for the current power levels. Still I'm sure it's nothing."
"If you say so Doc," Shego shrugged, but suddenly felt odd. Shego never much believed in fate or luck, but she could never explain what made her look over at the wall behind them. But look she did, and her gaze fell on a ventilation grating. Kim froze when Shego turned to look directly at their hiding place. Not daring to move a muscle Kim waited until Shego slowly turned away. Kim and Ron breathed a sigh of relief.
Shego was sure she had seen something, so as she turned she suddenly grabbed a nearby wrench, whipped around, and hurled it at the grate. Kim and Ron jumped as the wrench slammed into the grate right in front of them. It bounced harmlessly off, but the damage was already done. Shego had heard them.
"We've got intruders!" Shego pointed towards the grating.
"Uh, Kim?" Ron said, watching as the guards began to converge on their hiding place, "You remember that saying about discretion being the better part of valor?"
"Ron, you read my mind." Turning around, they crawled down the vent shaft as fast as they could. Shego watched as the guards began prying off the grating.
"Leave it," she shouted, "you'll never catch them that way. Fools. I've got a better idea." Running over to one of the consoles Shego quickly activated the manual control on one of the flying spy cams. Drakken had come up with these about a year ago. He had decided that his path to world domination needed to be documented, and the small hovering robots could give him some dynamic camera angles. Steering it into the grate she slowly moved it forward until she could see the retreating intruders.
"Oh, THAT'S a nice angle," Drakken said sarcastically.
"Just as I thought," Shego grinned, "Possible."
"Yes, you'd recognize that rump anywhere," he chuckled. Shego shot Drakken a venomous glare. Turning back to the console, she called up a layout of the base's vent system, checking it against where Kim and Ron were.
"There," she suddenly exclaimed, "Now, just a little farther." She waited until Kim was a couple feet more down the vent and then hit a control on the console. In the vent, the floor under Kim suddenly opened and she dropped from view.
"KIM!" Ron tried to turn around, but the panel had already closed. "I've failed again!" Ron thought angrily, "I've let her down." Ron slammed his fist on the floor. Meanwhile, Drakken was looking confused.
"Why didn't you activate the vent flush door earlier?" he asked Shego, "You could have got them both."
"I don't care about the weakling," Shego started running towards the elevator, "I want Possible alone." She ran to the elevator, hitting the button for the floor she had dropped Kim to. "No distractions this time. I WILL win." The elevator stopped and the doors opened to a room that was split in two. The room was the waste recycle center. The trap doors in the vents were flush doors used in combination with the automated cleaning system that dropped any debris in the vents into the recycle room. Down the middle of the room there was a deep chasm. When enough debris had been collected, water jets in the walls would wash it all into the chasm where it would be incinerated in the furnace.
As Shego stepped out of the elevator, however, she found she had made a slight miscalculation. Kim had been dropped on the other side of the chasm, where she was busy trying to get the door open.
"It won't open Kimmy," Shego smirked as Kim turned to face her, "it's on lockdown. This elevator, however, DOES work. All you have to do is get by me." Kim and Shego surveyed the room carefully. The chasm was too wide to jump and the only way across was a bridge on the other side of the room. The room was criss-crossed with grooves and arches used for filtering the vent waste. The two girls looked at the room before them and then at each other. Once again Shego had a hard time not believing in fate. The filter system was identical on each half of the room, and looking at it creatively, it wasn't hard to see it as two identical obstacle courses. Shego felt an odd sense of finality. This would settle everything. They both had the same path and whoever reached the bridge first would have the advantage. It was the final comparison. Two tracks, two people, one winner. A simple equation.
They both turned and started running at the same time. Neither one looked at the other. They knew that to do their best they had to be focused on the path ahead. They ducked and vaulted, slid and ran, neither seeming to gain any ground. Shego could see the bridge ahead of her and with all her strength she leapt over the last hole. She cleared the hole and the bridge railing and kicking off the back wall, aimed for where Kim should have been. But Kim wasn't there. Shego caught a brief glimpse of Kim overhead. Upon reaching the hole before the bridge, Kim had jumped it and the railing just as Shego had. But, controlling her jump, she had hit the wall at an angle and back flipped off, sending her over Shego. Kim glanced down as Shego sailed underneath her, kicking down with all her might onto the back of Shego's head.
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Drakken watched as Ron tried to open the panel in the vent, wondering what he should do. Looking at the flush door he suddenly smiled. He switched on an intercom on the console.
"Control room?" he said, "Activate the vent cleaners." In the vent Ron was suddenly buffeted by incredibly strong winds. He was pushed down the vent until he reached a point where it went straight up. Ron slammed into the vent wall and was sucked up the shaft. He flew up until he reached another grating, slamming into it and popping out of the vent system. As he flew through the air, the room below spun beneath him, but luckily he didn't fall all the way. Looking down he realized he was in the same room, now high above on the catwalks.
Drakken had found Ron's dilemma quite amusing, but his laughter was suddenly cut short by an urgent beeping from another console. Rushing over, Drakken quickly examined the read-out.
"Shego was right," he gasped, "the engine; it's not stopping." Then the whole room started to shake.
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Shego dropped like a stone, slamming into the ground. Kim landed clutching her shoulder, which had started to hurt again because of her running. Walking up to Shego as she tried to rise, Kim angrily kicked Shego in the stomach, flipping her onto her back. Kim jumped forward onto her knees, straddling Shego's stomach, and pulled back her good arm, ready to finish her off. But, suddenly, the look in Shego's eyes made her pause. It was a strange mix of defeat and realization.
"You're.... better," Shego said softly in a surprised tone.
"What?" Kim slowly lowered her arm.
"Better than me," Shego closed her eyes, looking away from Kim, "Better at everything." Kim slowly got up, looking down at Shego. She didn't understand what was going on, but suddenly she felt sorry for the villain. Shego actually looked like she might cry. Before Kim could react though, a tremor suddenly ran through the entire base. The walls seemed to start shaking and they could hear a roaring noise that seemed to be growing in volume.
"The engine," Kim looked down to see Shego looking up at the ceiling. "I knew there was something wrong."
"How do we...?" Kim started.
"The elevator," Shego cut her off. They both ran for the elevator, their personal quarrels momentarily forgotten. As they ran inside, Shego hit the button for the hanger and the elevator began to rise.
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The hangar was shaking and vibrating as if tearing itself apart. Ron suddenly heard a metallic snap and looked back to see a section of the catwalk fall away. The rivets holding the catwalk up were being shaken loose. Ron looked around frantically for a way down, but catwalks were collapsing everywhere. Taking the only possible path, Ron ran towards the center of the room. The catwalk under him creaked and groaned as more rivets shook loose. Ron ran right to the edge of the walk, jumping off just as it fell, and grabbing onto the amplifier hanging above the space engine. Pulling himself on top of it, he looked down to see Kim and Shego emerge from an elevator and run across the room.
"It won't stop," Drakken shouted as Kim and Shego ran up to him. "The pylons are fully charged and it's still absorbing power. The whole thing will explode."
"We've got to get out of here," Kim shouted above the roaring, "where's Ron?
"You don't understand," Drakken yelled back, "the amplifier increased the pylons' power supply which means the resulting explosion will also be amplified."
"How big?" Shego asked. Drakken sat down with a sigh.
"About the size of a small nuke. We'd never be able to get far enough." Kim felt her heart sink.
"Where's Ron?" she asked again. Drakken motioned absent-mindedly at the ceiling. Looking up Kim saw him perched on top of the amplifier. Ron was looking down wondering what they were talking about, but when Kim looked up at him the expression on her face was easy to read. They weren't going to make it.
"Isn't there anyway to stop it?" Shego asked.
"No," Drakken answered sadly, "the pylons will keep absorbing power until they blow out, causing a nuclear reaction. To stop it you'd have to destroy the connecting hardware at the bottom. But that's in the middle of the electric field. You'd be dead before you got anywhere near them." By this time Drakken had to shout at the top of his lungs in order to be heard and Ron was able to pick up the last bit of conversation.
Suddenly, everything became clear to him. Why he always came along with Kim, even when he was no help. It all made sense. Kim couldn't die, and he was here to make sure she wouldn't. His path seemed so easy now. A simple equation.
Kim stood below, feeling like she should be doing something, even though she knew there was nothing she could do.
"KIM, CATCH!" Ron's shout made her look up just in time to catch Rufus. Ron had tied a handkerchief to his arms as a makeshift parachute and tossed him down to Kim. Puzzled, Kim looked up at Ron just as he released the fastenings on the amplifier.
"NO!!" The world suddenly seemed to slow down at Kim's shout. The rumbling and explosions seemed to fade away. She watched in horror as the amplifier began to fall towards the pylons below. As it reached the tips, the electricity inside seemed to leap up to meet it. Kim caught a brief sight of Ron as the electricity snapped and twisted around him, and then the world was suddenly back up to speed again, and the amplifier bearing Ron crashed down between the four pylons, destroying the hardware underneath. Explosions started to appear up and down the engine as Kim watched. Suddenly a hand was on her arm, dragging her away.
"Move it," Shego shouted, pulling Kim with her, "the whole things going to go!" Drakken quickly activated the hangar's main doors leading to the outside. Shego dragged Kim along, and all three of them jumped for the edge as the pylons exploded. They tumbled down the slope outside, with the explosion roaring above them, finally coming to rest at the bottom. For awhile they all just stood there, dirty and bruised, staring up at the smoke billowing out of the hangar. Soon they heard helicopters, signaling the approach of the military.
"Well, looks like we've got to go," Shego said finally, "looks like you get off easy this time Possible." Turning to leave she was suddenly stopped by a hand on her arm. Still staring at the smoke, Kim had reached behind her and grabbed Shego's wrist.
"What did you mean?" Kim asked softly, letting her hand fall.
"Huh?" Shego seemed confused.
"When you said...I was better than you."
"Hey, I had just been kicked in the head," Shego put her hands on her hips, "I could have said anything, I was delirious." Kim glanced over her shoulder with an expression that said they both knew that wasn't the reason. Shego's shoulders slumped slightly and she continued quietly. "You beat me over and over. No matter what the situation, you always win. You're.... happy. All the stuff you've been through.... it hasn't really changed you. You're still nice, still happy. I always blamed everyone else for how my life turned out, but you've faced the same kind of stuff and still kept your humanity. I've lost mine. You were stronger......you ARE better than me."
Shego turned, walking away into the trees with Drakken following after her. Kim stayed, her eyes still fixed on the hangar door, as if by some miracle, Ron would walk out. But he didn't come. Kim looked down at Rufus, still clutched in her hand. She suddenly felt very heavy. She fell to her knees and began to cry.
I had a dream once. I saw my life laid out before me, like a jigsaw puzzle on a table. Each memory, each experience fit together perfectly to form my life. Suddenly the table fell. The puzzle slid off the edge. I tried to catch it, to hold it together, but I couldn't. The pieces broke apart, slipping through my fingers. And as they fell, I saw different images underneath. Hidden truths I didn't know, or didn't want to know. The pieces tumbled to the floor, rolling and bouncing. I knelt amidst the pieces of my life, and realized that I would never be able to put it back together.
This ain't the end. Next: A funeral with strangers.
