Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I've been busy with my Morrowind story, "The Twin Nerevarines". You should check it out, if you're into that kind of thing.
Gijinka Renamon, this chapter was written for you.
Nope. Don't own anybody.
Chapter Six
Dr. Drakken stared meticulously at the computer screen in his new hideout. "Hmm. This is weird."
"What?" Shego saked, without even looking up from the newspaper.
"The microchip that I implanted in Project IAGO has been found, and it's showing all his vital signs at zero."
"Really?" Shego said, filling in one of the answers in the Jumble. "That's fascinating. I'll let you know when I care."
Shego's concentration was cut short by a large explosion, which blew a large hole in the side of the hideout. When the smoke cleared, the figure of Ron Stoppable was clearly visible in the hole, a bandaged Rufus on his shoulder, surrounded by at least thirty of Global Justice's top agents.
"It's you!" Drakken shouted, pointing at Ron. "It's Don…something, isn't it?"
"It's Ron," Ron said darkly. "Ron Stoppable. And I'm here regarding what that monstrosity of yours did to Kim."
"Oh no!" Shego cried in mock concern. "Little Kimmie isn't dead, is she?"
"Well…no, actually, she isn't. But she won't be able to walk for several months!"
Drakken raised an eyebrow. "So, you brought thirty armed guards here because we crippled her?"
"Your abomination nearly killed her!"
"So? I've nearly killed her at least a hundred times, and I'm always the one plotting revenge."
"You've never gotten away with it any of those times. I just wanted to make sure you didn't break your trend. IAGO nearly killed Kim, made me think he had killed Rufus, and cut off Steve's hand and ate it in front of him."
Shego gasped. "And I missed it?" This time, there was no sarcasm in her voice whatsoever.
Drakken's eyebrow never changed position. "Steve? Who's Steve?"
At that moment, Drakken felt something close around the back of his neck. Steve grabbed him with his new robotic hand.
"I'm Steve. I'm Project IAGO's fourth-cousin-once-removed's brother's nephew's son. I figured, since you were responsible for my new robot hand, I should probably thank you." When he said the word "thank", he tightened his grip. Drakken gritted his teeth, and his arms went rigid.
"Shego!" he managed to squeak.
"What? You're expecting me to fight them off and save your butt?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, all right, fine," she said, setting her hands alight. "Who wants a piece of this?"
"There are no words for how wrong that just sounded." Steve said.
Shego turned slowly to Steve. "Just for that, you're going first!"
Shego slashed at Steve with her glowing claws, while Steve jumped backwards to avoid her, using Drakken as a shield. Finally, Shego saw an opening and took out Steve's legs with a sweeping kick. Steve went down, hard, and Drakken landed right on top of him.
"Okay," Drakken said, "this is uncomfortable."
"Says the guy who doesn't have a fully-grown man laying on top of him!" Steve grunted.
Shego held her claw up to Steve's throat. She didn't feel like making a taunt: it took too much time, and she didn't have a pre-prepared taunt ready anyway. But at that moment, one of the GJ agents placed a small device that looked like a cross between a TV remote and a miniature fighter plane to the back of Shego's head and pulled the trigger.
"Oh…" Shego managed to gasp, before swaying on the spot for a few seconds, and then passing out.
With Shego disabled, the GJ crew had no trouble rounding up Drakken and escorting the two to prison. Steve exchanged a hi-five with Ron and Rufus before following them out through the hole through which they entered.
* * *
The next day, Steve wandered into an old, derelict shed. Kim had told him to meet her there, but he wasn't sure why. Upon entering the shed, he saw a single light shining down on the Kimmunicator, propped against a stack of books. On a whim, Steve tentatively pressed a button on the mini-computer.
Kim's logo vanished, and was replaced by Wade, typing furiously at his keyboard. After a few seconds, he noticed Steve.
"Oh good," he said. "You're here."
"Yeah," Steve said, unsure of what was going on "I'm here. But…why am I here?"
Steve's questions were answered as the lights snapped on, revealing Kim and Ron standing in the corners.
"What's going on!?" Steve demanded.
Kim hobbled over to him (she was still using crutches, and had to keep all weight off of her left leg for quite some time). "Congratulations. You're being initiated."
Steve raised an eyebrow. "Initiated into what?"
"The team, my man!" Ron said. "I told KP how you helped us take on Drakken and IAGO, and we decided to make you an official member of the team!"
And so, Steve was officially sworn in before almost the entire Global Justice team, as well as quite a few ambassadors. In exchange for always serving his planet and his species, he was granted diplomatic immunity against missing school, as long as it was for a save-the-world reason, and VIP access to almost all of the most restricted zones in the world, except of course for Area 51 (which, as Ron was keen to point out, made "absolutely no sense whatsoever, seeing as everybody already knows what's there!")
Afterwards, there was a party. Large amounts of cake were eaten. The guys took turns seeing who did the best Drakken impersonation (surprisingly enough, Rufus won). There was dancing (or, in Kim's case, rhythmically moving her head to the beat). Finally, Kim managed to catch Steve, alone.
"So, I never asked you before…why did you do it?"
"Why did I choose to do what?"
"Ron told me that you volunteered to fight Project IAGO. Why?"
"Well," Steve said, turning slightly pink, "Ron was going on about how he'd never really saved the world by himself, and I figured somebody had to do it, and no one else was there, so…"
His thought was cut short as Kim kissed him quickly on the cheek, and then hobbled off to rejoin the party. Steve simply stood there for a while, not moving, not speaking, his fingers hovering over the place where she had kissed him.
Yes, I know, kind of a sappy ending for such a creepy, suspenseful story. But I didn't have any other ideas. For more by me, check out "The Twin Nerevarines" in the Morrowind section (Morrowind is a game, for those of you who don't know). I would particularly recommend reading chapter twelve (Poker Night), but you should read the other chapters first, to get a basic idea of what's going on.
Until some other time, this is Nakraf, saying "Good night, Milky Way Galaxy!"
