Note: Please see the Foreword for updated Author's Notes
Chapter 3: Mirage
True to his word, the ride that Wade had secured landed in front of Bueno Nacho a short time after he finished speaking to Kim. It turned out that a Global Justice jet was in the area and, given the close relationship between them and the military, it was simply a matter of a quick phone call to reroute the jet to Kim and Ron's location. It hovered briefly in midair over the parking lot ("And a little close to my car," Ron thought) before making its landing.
The pilot lowered the entrance ramp to allow the two members of Team Possible to board the jet. Ron always felt a secret thrill whenever they boarded some jet or helicopter that would whisk them away to the mission at hand. He looked around at the bystanders who were gazing at the sleek, black jet and Ron imagined that they were wondering just who was so important that they rated a jet. For just a brief snippet of time, it made Ron feel like a movie star.
But the moment quickly passed as he and Kim ran up into the waiting jet. Kim went forward to check in with the pilot and confirm the location of the research lab while Ron settled into one of the seats in the rear of the jet in preparation for take-off. She was back a few seconds later and, taking the seat next to Ron, felt the jet begin to rise.
Once the pilot had leveled off the jet and began their approach towards the research firm, Kim got up and began to head towards the rear of the plane. "We should be there in a few minutes, Ron, so I'm going to get changed into my mission gear. I suggest you do the same," Kim told her partner while slipping into business mode. They really had become partners in their little crime-fighting venture, but Kim still had more operational experience than Ron and he was content to simply follow her lead most of the time.
Ron heeded her advice and as soon as Kim had disappeared into the back of the plane, he grabbed his backpack and silently changed. A few minutes later, Kim reappeared dressed in her standard black turtleneck and green cargo pants. Ron was dressed similarly, although his cargos were gray.
The redhead sat down next to Ron and pulled out the Kimmunicator from her pocket. "Do we have any intel from the scene?" Ron asked her.
"I'm having Wade send everything he's got up to us right now." Then, pressing the button to complete the link to her tech guy, Kim switched her attention from Ron to the small screen. "Wade, we're in route and geared up. Now, what can you tell us about what's going on down there?"
Wade began typing on his computer as he brought up all the information that he had. "Unfortunately, not much. The research facility has the tightest security system that I've ever seen. I have a feed from the security cameras and the location of where the silent alarm was tripped, but that's about it. And I only have that because the military is granting me access to it."
"Alright, then, let's start by patching the security feed up to us."
The image of Wade on the Kimmunicator was replaced by a black and white but very clear picture of what appeared to be a generic lobby in an office building. "Let's start cycling through the various shots that the military is giving us access to. Maybe we can catch something," Kim told Wade.
The images on the screen began to change every few seconds as Wade gave Kim and Ron a view of all the areas that they had access. But neither the two heroes in the field nor the super genius back at home could spot anything amiss with what they were being shown.
"Well, that was a waste of time," Ron complained from his vantage point of looking over Kim's shoulder. They were watching the images cycle through for a second time when an idea struck Ron. "Hey, Wade, you said that you only had access to the security cameras because the military was giving you access to them. Are there any cameras that the military isn't giving you access to?"
Wade's image appeared once again on the Kimmunicator. "Good idea, Ron. Let me see…" he responded as he began to type furiously on his keyboard. "Ah, yes, there is an entire section of the research lab that I don't have the feed from. And in that section, there is a block of labs that have no security cameras in them at all."
"So, based on where the silent alarm was tripped, can you extrapolate where the intruders were headed? Like toward that section of the complex?" Kim asked.
Wade shook his head. "Sorry, Kim, but with only one reference point it's impossible to tell where they were headed. But," Wade continued while bringing up a map of the entire facility on the Kimmunicator screen, "the alarm is located in the same wing as the restricted areas."
On the screen, Kim and Ron could see the outline of all the areas of the complex, with the northern wing enhanced. The restricted area of labs was drawn in grey, instead of the white that defined the rest of the complex. On the map, perhaps a hundred yards from the gray zone Kim estimated, was a single red dot where the alarm was tripped.
"That's awfully close to the gray area, Kim," Ron said to his partner. "I'd bet you anything that whatever it is that the intruders came for, it's in there."
"I wouldn't doubt it," Kim replied. Then, turning her attention once again to Wade, she asked him, "What information do you have on that area of the lab?"
"Sorry guys, no luck there either. The military didn't release that information to me." Kim gave him one of her 'are-you-kidding' looks while Ron simply rolled his eyes.
"Come on, Wade, they must have given you something to work with! KP and I usually get a little bit more to work with than this, like the enemy's location, their size, their target. I mean, just what do they expect us to do, go in blind into a dangerous situation?"
Kim couldn't suppress the smile that crept onto her lips. "Since when does Ron care this much about operational details?" she thought. "I guess he's taking this whole 'no-longer-a-sidekick-but-a-partner' thing seriously."
But while Kim was amused, Wade was sweating. He knew that the military hadn't given him a lot to work with but his job as part of Team Possible was to get answers to his friends in the field, and he was failing at it on this mission. "Sorry, Ron. All they gave me was the partial security camera feed, the layout of the building, a roster of the personnel..." The boy genius suddenly stopped, lost in thought. "I've got an idea, hold on a sec," he told them and began to type away on his computer.
Kim and Ron just stared at the tiny screen on the Kimmunicator watching Wade work his magic. After a minute or two, he turned away from his computer screen with a smile on his face. "I've got something. I was able to cross-reference the list of personnel with the building's layout. I matched every scientist to a lab in the building except a Dr. Marcus Fedor, so it's pretty likely that it's his lab in the gray zone." Wade's image was replaced by a short bio and recent picture of the doctor.
"Alright, that's a start," Ron replied. "What do we know about this Dr. Fedor?"
It took a second as Wade pulled up the information before he responded, "Dr. Fedor specializes in holographics, which shouldn't comes as a surprise. He earned two Ph.D.'s from M.I.T. for optics and theoretical physics and has published numerous articles in his field starting as far back as the 70's. He was considered the top mind in the country in optics."
"Was?" Kim asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah, about two years ago he was on the cutting edge in his field giving lectures and writing articles and then, all of a sudden, it was like he fell of the face of the planet. Not that he disappeared, but he signed a contract to work at the Photonic Imaging and Concealment Lab. After that, all lectures stopped and he hasn't published since."
"So, we have no idea what he's working on, do we, Wade?" Kim asked.
"Sorry, all it says in the personnel roster is that his area of specialty is optics, but I could have gotten that off the web."
"Then, for all we know, it could be a weapons lab down there. Great." Ron liked it much better when the bad guys went after something incredibly valuable instead of something incredibly dangerous.
"Doubt it. They specialize in holographics, Ron, remember? I don't think a conjured up image can do much harm to anybody," Kim said, trying to allay Ron's fears.
It seemed to do the trick. Ron was suddenly reminded of his first run in with Lord Monkey Fist. He had gone to the Fisk castle to question the villain with what he thought was Kim. It turned out to be Wade's now-defunct holo-Kim and he remembered that it wasn't able to harm so much as a single simian hair on Monkey Fist, leaving poor Ron to do all the fighting. "But, I did come out of it with Mystical Monkey Power," he thought, "so it wasn't all bad."
He was still not entirely convinced, but the smile that had formed on his face at the memory of his infusion with the simian power caused Kim to draw the wrong conclusion and think that her partner was settled on the idea that it was not a weapons lab. Yet Kim couldn't help wondering what could be so enticing to a criminal in a heavily guarded holographics lab? Maybe it was just the fact that it was military had caught their attention and that was why they were after it, whatever it was.
"Well, thanks, Wade," Kim said to her friend, concluding that that was all the intel that they were going to get before landing on-site, "we'll let you know if we need anything else." And with that, she turned off the Kimmunicator and put it into one of the pockets in her cargo pants.
Ron moved out from behind her to the seat next to Kim. "Well, what do you think?" he asked her.
"Tough to say. The military really did give us very little to work with."
Ron shook his head. "Kim, I'm still not sure about this. I mean, what if the whole thing is just a cover for something more deadly that the military just wants to keep hidden? We could be walking into some serious trouble down there, and not just from the bad guys."
Kim contemplated this for a second before replying, "No, I don't think so. It's not like Dr. Fedor doesn't actually do optics instead of something else. He was in that field for a while before doing military work. What I can't figure out is, what could they possibly want from a holographics lab?"
Ron wasn't about to let the issue drop and was about to saying something in response when the pilot cut in. "Ms. Possible, we're approaching the landing site. E.T.A is one minute."
This ended all discussion on the topic as they got ready to disembark. "So, KP, do we repel down ropes out of the jet or just a simple parachute jump?" he asked his girlfriend casually. Not that he was looking forward to either of these options; Ron, for all his training, was still not comfortable with heights.
In response, Kim simply smiled at him. "Nope, I've got something better in mind."
"Oh, great," Ron thought, his anxiety showing for the first time, "what could she possibly have planned instead of those two wonderful options. Rocket boards that we ride all the way down? Although that would be pretty cool…"
Kim, who knew Ron better than anyone else, knew exactly what was going through his mind right then and flashed him another enigmatic smile as she gathered up her gear. He just kept looking at her with an expectant look, but she stayed silent. "Well…" he tried to coax it out of her.
"Oh, didn't I mention?" she said in her most innocent voice. "The pilot is landing on the ground. We're walking out."
It took Ron, who had run through ever conceivable terrifying way of exiting this plane, a second to process what she had told him. When he did, he began laughing from a combination of the trick Kim had played on him and his relief at being able to get off the jet in a normal fashion. His laughter was infectious, and in no time Kim was laughing right along with him.
Meanwhile, the jet had made its final approach to the research lab and the pilot, a seasoned Global Justice veteran of 26 years, found a safe landing spot in the parking lot in front of the building. He brought the jet right over the spot he had picked out and switched the jet to hover mode, much like the Harrier jets that the Marines use. With ease that comes only with experience, he expertly guided the jet to the ground, switched off the engines, and lowered the entrance ramp.
The building that housed the Photonic Imaging and Concealment Lab was fairly non-descript. It was four stories tall in a roughly rectangular shape with beige stucco for an exterior. The windows in the building were tinted to protect the employees from the sun (and prevent anyone from looking in) and the landscaping was modest but neat. In fact, it was possible to think that this was just a regular office building and not a military research lab if it wasn't for the nearly three dozen security cameras that covered every square inch of the parking lot. And when the Global Justice jet landed, there was quite a bit for the cameras to pick up
The main parking lot in front of the building was in a state of high activity. To an observer at the scene, it looked like all of Middleton's police force and half of Lowerton's had responded to the silent alarm. The officers who had responded to the scene, who were simply too numerous to count, were out in full riot gear. No one had bothered to tell the police anything except that someone was breaking into a high security military research facility. That was enough to cause the commanding officer on duty that night, Lt. Daniel Riverez, to take every precaution in this situation.
The Lieutenant was generally considered the best cop on the force in Middleton. He was a veteran of over twenty years, and had risen quickly through the ranks due to his stellar record. He was still young for his position, a few months shy of his fortieth birthday, and had carried the last twenty years well. The only thing he would have changed was his height (he was exactly five foot six inches according to his service jacket), but he was well liked by the rank and file. Many people believed that when the last chief of police was picked that the mayor had made a huge mistake in passing on the Lieutenant.
But the fact that he wasn't chosen as chief was far from the mind of Lt. Riverez at the moment. He was having a heated argument with a man who looked like he was twice the size of the Lieutenant. The eagle, globe, and anchor on his military uniform signaled that the other man was a United States Marine, and the double bars on his collar announced him as a Captain. The Captain was John Millar, the commanding officer of the complex's small security force, and he was trying to explain to the Lieutenant, as calmly as he could, just why he wasn't being allowed into the building. But he was beginning to lose his grip on his temper; the Captain looked like a bulldog on a tight leash, and the leash was slipping.
"Look, Lieutenant, as I have already explained to you, your men simply do not have clearance to enter the building."
"So, we're informed that someone is breaking into a covert military research lab, stealing God knows what, and you want us to just stand around and do nothing?" The Lieutenant demanded to know.
The captain took a deep breath and counted to ten. He knew that a good relationship between the military and the surrounding civilian population was important, but he wasn't sure just how much more of this he was going to take. "Listen to me and listen good," he said with a slight snarl in his voice, "not even my men can get into the location, it is that highly classified. What makes you think that they would ever let you into such a place?"
"Well then, Captain, what exactly are you planning on doing? Letting them walk out of there? Maybe give them a ride to wherever they need to go? How about a full pardon and a million dollars why we're at it!"
At that moment, the Global Justice jet had appeared on the horizon, as if in response to the Lieutenant's question. Both men forgot their argument for the time being and watched as the jet landed a few hundred yards away in a clear section of the parking lot. Even from their distance from the jet, they could still feel the jet wash.
"You wanted to know what we're going to do?" The Captain yelled over the roar of the jet engines. "Global Justice has sent in a team of specialists to handle the situation. They are highly trained and have the necessary security clearance to be allowed to enter the restricted areas of the lab."
The Lieutenant turned to see just what this cracker-jack team of experts looked like. He heard the engines shut off and gear down, saw the entrance ramp to the jet lower, and was expecting to see a platoon of forty men with many years of special ops experience begin to file out. What he saw instead was a pair of teenagers, who looked like they belonged in a movie theater not a combat zone, falling all over each other with laughter.
The Captain, despite his earlier anger with the Lieutenant, couldn't help but be amused at the reaction the Lieutenant was having to Team Possible. He could see how someone who hadn't been involved with them before could mistake them for some kind of ridiculous joke, and in fact the Captain had had the same reaction as the Lieutenant was having now the first time he saw the team.
But Captain Millar knew better now. Before his current assignment, he was a First Lieutenant in charge of a platoon of special ops guys. They had been called in to retrieve a Global Justice spy satellite that had unexpectedly crashed into a remote location in the Libyan desert. The brass over at GJ had insisted that two of their field agents accompany them on the mission, something that then Lieutenant Millar wasn't very happy about, and he was even less happy when he found out that it was two seventeen-year-olds.
As it turned out, by the time his men had gotten into Libya to get the satellite, the Libyan Defense Ministry had already taken possession of it. There was no way that such a small group of men were going to be able to make a full assault to retrieve it, so Kim and Ron ended up infiltrating the base and securing the satellite. The mission went so well that the entire team was resting on the USS Eisenhower before the Libyans even knew that the satellite was gone and after that, Lieutenant, now Captain, Millar had a healthy dose of respect for the abilities of Team Possible.
Which is why he knew, despite their appearance, that the two teens who were walking over to them were the pro's who could handle the job. He saw them stop one of the officers at the scene and say something to him, then the officer pointed in the Lieutenant and Captain's direction, and he watched as Kim and Ron crossed the distance between them.
"Kim. Ron," the Captain said as he extended his hand in greeting.
"Lieutenant Millar, it's been awhile," Kim said with a smile, shaking his hand. Then she pointed at the surrounded building. "So, anything to add that we didn't get in the briefing?"
"It Captain Millar now," he said with a smile while tapping his double bars. "And, unfortunately, no, I don't have anything to add. I've been given strict orders not to enter the restricted zone under any circumstances and to wait for your arrival. Me and my men are at you disposal."
Up until this time, Lieutenant Riverez hadn't said a word, having been shocked into silence by the sight of the two teens. But upon hearing that a Marine Captain was placing his men under the control of these two children was just too much. "Excuse me, but we're just supposed to let these two go in there? What happened to your special Global Justice team? This can't be it."
Kim and Ron turned to face the Lieutenant. Ron simply looked pissed off by the comment while Kim was giving him her 'just-who-the-hell-are-you' look. "Hi. Kim Possible. This is Ron Stoppable. And you are?"
"Someone who would like to know just what is going on."
Kim and Ron just turned from the Lieutenant back to Captain Millar. The Marine explained, "This is Lieutenant Riverez, and he's site commander of the police you see here. Before you guys landed, I was explaining to the Lieutenant why he couldn't go in the building and how we were awaiting your arrival."
"Oh. Sorry, Lieutenant," Kim said pleasantly but a little condescendingly. "Global Justice gave us a call about the 'sitch and so here we are." She smiled, trying to disarm an already bad situation, but failed as the Lieutenant was even angrier than before.
Ron sensed this and quickly stepped in. "Ah, Lieutenant, I'm Ron. Listen, Kim and I are going to need some support so I was wondering if we could talk about how to best utilize your fine men…" He gave Kim a quick wink and began to slowly lead the Lieutenant away from her and Captain Millar.
"God, what's his problem?" Kim asked Millar as soon as the Lieutenant was out of earshot.
"Well, he's not happy about being shut out and then with GJ sending you two in, he kinda lost it." Kim had experienced every conceivable reaction to Team Possible by local law enforcement, and understood where they were coming from, but that didn't mean she wasn't tired of it.
"Alright, Ron's got that covered. Seriously, now that the Lieutenant's gone, what can you tell me that I don't already know?"
"Only that the good doctor was working on project Mirage. No idea what it does, however. Once the silent alarm is tripped in that area of the building, the entire place is to be evacuated and we're to await further instructions. But, we have determined the best access point into the building for the two of you to enter."
He pulled out a schematic of the entire northern wing. For the next five minutes, he went over with Kim where to enter the complex and the best route to take, and planning contingency scenarios in case something went wrong. Ron was able to calm the Lieutenant down and occupy him with a task before rejoining Kim and Millar.
When they were finished, Millar put the map of the complex away and turned to look at Kim and Ron. "You better get going. By now, they must know that we are putting a plan in place to stop them. And, be careful. I'm still under orders not to enter the lab, even if you guys get into trouble."
Kim couldn't help but think that this was a lot like their little Libyan adventure as she shook Millar's hand. Ron did the same and the two of them began making their way towards the rear of the building.
It took a little searching but they quickly found the location they were looking for. Kim reached into her side pocket and pulled out a gadget that looked like a hair dryer but, on closer inspection, one could tell that it was in fact a grappling gun. The redhead took aim at a spot on the roof where she felt she could get a solid grip and launched the grappling hook, which shot out of sight over the top of the building in a fraction of a second.
Once she saw the rope that was attached to the hook go slack, Kim gave it a few hard tugs to make sure it was secure before motioning to Ron. Taking his cue, he stepped over to her and placed his arms tightly around her neck. She put her arm around his waist, gave him a quick wink, and pressed the recall button on the gun. In one quick, fluid motion, the pair of crime fighters were whisked up the four stories to the roof of the building.
After a graceful landing, the team split up in search of their target, a small ventilation shaft that would lead them into the complex. Ron was able to find it first and he called Kim over to where it was. As Kim was walking over to him, Ron began to inspect the grating that covered the shaft.
"No good, KP," he said to his partner, "It looks like the military spent no expense in safeguarding this facility." He rapped his knuckles on the grate. "Reinforced titanium. We'll never get through it."
"We might not be able to, but I think I know someone who can," Kim pointed to one of the pockets in his pants.
Ron looked down at his cargo pants and came to the same conclusion that Kim had. He reached into the pocket that she had pointed to and pulled out Rufus. He had been sleeping in the warm, dark spot (his job had really cut into his nap time) and it took the little guy a minute to realize where he was and slip into mission mode.
"Rufus, we need you to open the air shaft so that we can get in," his owner told him.
The naked mole rat gave a quick look at the ventilation shaft then, after snapping off a quick salute to Ron, he scurried down the teenager's leg and onto the rooftop. Given his small size, Rufus was able to shimmy in between the slots in the grate so that he could get inside the shaft. Once there, he was able to unscrew the grate, giving Team Possible access to the building.
Ron reached down and, with one hand, he picked up Rufus, putting him in his familiar pocket and, with the other hand, removed the now loose grate. "Ladies first," he said with a motion indicating to Kim that she should lead the way.
Kim nodded and stepped towards the ventilation shaft. She took a quick look down into its inky abyss and pulled out a flashlight from her backpack, which she turned on and pointed it down into the building. The small, but powerful, beam of light quickly found the shaft bottom and Kim estimated that it was about ten or twelve feet below the rooftop.
"Just a tad too far to simply jump down," she thought and grabbed once more for the grappling gun. She took aim at a nearby steam pipe that was running along the roof and fired. The heroine hit her mark and the grappling hook took purchase on the other side of the pipe. Giving a quick tug to make sure that it was in place, she turned her back to the dark hole in the building and bent her knees in preparation for the repel down.
Ron, who had been watching Kim secure the rope line, took his cue. He placed the grate on the ground and walked over to a point between Kim and the steam pipe. He grabbed hold of the repel line and, looping it around his arms several times, braced himself for Kim's weight and signaled to her that he was ready. She took a small bounce off the edge of the roof and fell silently into the complex.
Ron had to wait only a moment before her heard her land inside the airshaft. "Ron, I'm in. Your turn," Kim whisper-shouted up to her partner. Ron let go of the rope and positioned himself much like Kim had done earlier and jumped himself, joining her in the air shaft a few seconds later.
"Now which way?" Ron asked her. In response, Kim got down on her hands and knees, pointed further into the ventilation system, and started to crawl forward. The shaft itself was very narrow, giving the teen heroes barely enough room to maneuver in the dark space and forcing them to proceed single file. Kim was in front with the flashlight so she was able to see the incredibly dusty and moldy metal surface that made up the air duct; Ron, however, was completely blind and was forced to keep reaching out for Kim's leg just to make sure he knew where he was going.
After what seemed like an eternity to Ron, he could begin to make out a light source coming from up ahead. "This must be the access point that Captain Millar was talking about," Ron thought with a sigh of relief. He was right and the closer they got to the air vent, the more Ron was able to discern about his surroundings.
Once they were close enough to the opening to see, Kim turned off her flashlight and pocketed it. She crawled over the grating that covered the opening and, using a bit of contortion that even Ron could've sworn she wasn't capable of doing, turned around to face him, thus giving both of them the opportunity to see what was below them.
Turns out, it wasn't really necessary. When Team Possible looked down from their vantage point, they were treated to a view of what could have been a typical hallway in any building in the world. It had beige walls with generic office artwork on them. It had white linoleum flooring that looked like it needed a serious scrubbing. It had standard brown wooden doors that were spaced the same distance apart. In fact, the only extraordinary thing about it was that it was bathed in twilight, as the main lights were off and the emergency lighting was the only illumination.
After examining the hallway below for a few moments, Ron looked up at Kim with a raised eyebrow. "KP, are you sure we're in the right place?" he asked her quietly.
"This is exactly the spot on the ventilation schematic that Millar said would put us closest to where the alarm was tripped," she said, but her look told Ron that she wasn't a hundred percent convinced. "Better make sure, though." Kim pulled the Kimmunicator from her pocket and called Wade up on the screen. "Wade, give me an overlay of the location of the alarm and our current position."
The computer genius made a few quick keystrokes and his image was replaced by the same map that the two of them had seen earlier in the jet. Only this time, there was a red dot for the alarm and a blue dot for Team Possible, and they were right on top of each other. "You're right where you need to be, Kim," Wade told her. "Now that you're actually inside the place, I can use the Kimmunicator to gather more data on what's going on."
"Alright, just give us a sec to get down out of this air duct." Kim then tossed the Kimmunicator to Ron and began to unscrew this grate with a new little gizmo that Wade had whipped up. When that was done, she pulled it up into the shaft and set it down behind her. The cheerleader then grabbed the edge of the duct, pulled her knees up to her chest, and thrust her legs out from underneath her and down into the waiting hallway where she landed with the gracefulness of a cat. Ron was not about to be so bold, and after tossing the Kimmunicator back to Kim, he simply lowered himself down the opening, hung by his hands for a moment, and then dropped to the floor below.
As he landed, Ron noticed that Kim was already sweeping the area with the Kimmunicator, feeding Wade all the information that they could gather from the scan. Wade once again went to work and after a little bit, he had good news. "Kim, Ron, the Kimmunicator has detected sounds coming from up ahead. Computer analysis shows that there is a 79% change of the sounds being voices, so that's probably where your thieves are."
"Right into the restricted zone," Kim thought. "Thanks, Wade, we'll keep you up to date." She was just about to kill the line and put the Kimmunicator away when she added, "Oh, and Wade? You rock, as usual," which earned her a smile and thumbs-up from her tech guy before she slipped the small device back in her pocket.
Kim looked over to her boyfriend whom, she could tell, was mentally gearing up for whatever they were about to run into. "Ready?" she asked him, getting a quick nod in return. "Ok, silent mode from here on out." She then began to make her way down the nondescript hallway into a section of the lab for which they had no information.
They followed the hallway for only a short while before they came upon what they were sure was Dr. Fedor's lab. In front of them were two metal doors that looked like they belonged on an armored car. They were thick (about three inches) and had some of the most sophisticated locking mechanisms that Kim had ever seen. Next to the door was a simple wooden desk that looked like it might have belonged to a receptionist but, upon further inspection, the teens realized it had a secret attachment underneath to hold a shotgun. There were also a bit too many security cameras trained on the doors for it to be simply another lab and the universal radiation warning symbol that was attached to door all but confirmed it for Kim.
But while Kim was more interested in security placed around this lab, Ron was interested in what that security had failed to prevent. It was evident to the hero that a struggle had taken place here. The security cameras, while intact, had their feed lines cut. The desk that was beside the doors looked like someone had simply punched through it to get at the shotgun underneath. And the doors to the lab took the worst beating. One was hanging loosely by a hinge, its once smooth surface now twisted and mangled, while the other door had simply given up and fallen to the floor.
Kim noticed Ron taking his time examining the doors and came over to see what he was looking at. She was giving the door on the ground a once over when something struck her as odd. "There's no soot on these doors. That means that they weren't blown off their hinges; they were ripped off. But who could do such a thing?" This last thought instantly raised her caution level up an extra notch. Yet she couldn't crouch by this door all night wondering who had done it when the thieves were still in the complex, so she rose, and with a motion to Ron to follow, headed off into the lab.
Every lab that Team Possible had entered over the years had fallen into two categories. The first was the classic lab with its rows and rows of beakers and test tubes and chemicals. The other type was the electronics lab, where benches would be covered with computer chips and soldering irons and various electrical equipment. But the lab that they found themselves in now fit into neither category.
It looked more like a Hollywood sound stage than anything else. With a touch of fun house mirror room thrown in for good measure. The good doctor had every type of lighting source imaginable from spotlights to lasers to good old fashioned incandescent. And he had them in every color that the human eye could discern. But what really caught Kim and Ron's eye was the way in which the light interacted with each other as it was bounced, redirected, and manipulated off the hundreds of specialized mirrors and prisms that were around the lab. "This would put every rock concert's lighting effects to shame," Ron thought while the two of them simply stood there for a moment. Then he realized that they were not alone.
He quickly moved into a fighting stance in preparation for what was surely to be fight when he noticed that the men who were in the room with him hadn't noticed Team Possible yet. He looked over at Kim, who was noticing their company as well, and motioned for them to get behind one of the workbenches that was in the lab.
From their hiding place, they were able to get their first look at just who had masterminded the break-in into the holographics lab. They were six to eight men, all over six foot two, all rather muscular, and there was something familiar about the red jumpsuits that they were wearing. But what really caught them off guard was the fact that the men seemed to be memorized by the exotic lighting that filled the lab.
"These guys cannot be the brains behind this operation," Kim thought. "They have to be the dumbest looking henchmen that I've ever seen. No one uses guys this dumb except…" Her eyes widen a touch as she put the pieces together and realized just who it was behind the theft.
She looked over at Ron, for whom it took a little longer to come to the same conclusion, but when he returned the look, she could see the understanding in his eyes. "Where are they?" she mouthed to Ron. Ron gave her a slight shrug, but then his face brightened and he stuck his index finger in the air to indicate that he had an idea. He reached into his pocket and pulled out Rufus, who went to squeak a question to his owner but was hushed when Ron put a finger to his lips. He brought the naked mole-rat up close to his face and whispered as softly as his could "Find them."
Rufus took his cue and scurried off into the lab to gather as much information as he could. It took the smallest member of Team Possible only a few moments to find what he was looking for and he was back relaying what he had found to Ron. He smiled and gave his pet a high five, although without the usual 'boo-yah'. When Kim gave him a quizzical look, he motioned for her to peek over the top of the bench that they were behind. She raised herself as carefully as she could and when she had a clear view of the lab, looked over at Ron who was pointing to something on their right.
Kim looked and noticed for the first time that a door was set into the wall of the lab. It was a simple gray metal door with a window in it; unfortunately, the drawn blinds obscured the view into the other room. As she trained her focus on the door, she was able to pick up what sounded like voices coming from beyond the door, but was unable to discern any specific words. She was pretty sure she knew whom it was that lay beyond the door but needed to get a closer look just to make sure.
She once again slipped down behind the bench and began crawling towards the door. Ron, who was concentrating hard on the voices coming from the door, finally picked up on what Kim was doing and followed her. In order to get close enough, they were going to have to leave their hiding place behind the bench and expose themselves to the henchmen in the middle of the lab. Kim silently prayed that they would continue to be dazzled by the lights until Team Possible was ready to take them down.
Their crawling was exposing them for a lot longer than Ron would have liked but he knew that moving any faster would attract unwanted attention. Fortunately, they were able to traverse the ten yards or so over to the door without detection. Once there, Kim positioned herself on the left side of the door so that Ron could position himself on the right side, giving both of them a change to hear what was going on inside.
Kim was still having a hard time making out specific words and went to put her ear on the door when she realized that the door wasn't actually closed. The door was ajar but had been pushed so that the pin in the door handle was resting against the door jam, giving the appearance of a closed door. The teen heroine cautiously placed her hand on the door and, with a look to Ron, gave it a slight push. The door began to give way under the pressure and, thankfully, it was well oiled and didn't make a sound. But it didn't matter if the door had squeaked; the occupants of the room were so involved with what they were doing that it was possible a dump truck wouldn't have caught their attention.
"Look, Doc, I'm not going to ask you again," came the unmistakable feminine voice. "You can either tell me where the Mirage system is, or I can rip you lab apart, find it, and then show you levels of pain that you thought only existed in nightmares." She wasn't yelling but the seriousness in her voice told the heroes that she meant every word she said.
"As I have told you before, I have no idea what it is that you are talking about. There is no 'Mirage' system, as you put it, here. We do simple optical research, peaceful optical research." Kim and Ron could only assume that this was Dr. Fedor, as the exhausted male voice, that had a trace of fear in it, was unrecognizable to them.
"Grrrrr!" The two heroes, upon hearing that particular growl, knew that the woman had finally lost her temper. Their assumption was confirmed a split second later when something came crashing through the window in the door, showering both Kim and Ron in glass.
The commotion was enough to snap the henchmen out of their daze and look in the direction of Kim and Ron and, in spite of their low intelligence, they could tell that the two people who were hunched down over by their employers did not belong there. At this point, it was easier for Kim to tell that her earlier assessment of six to eight henchmen was correct; unfortunately, it turned out to be eight and not six. The one closest to Kim and Ron, whom they assumed was the lead henchman, took a step towards them and shouted, "Hey! Stop right there!"
Kim was still wincing from the glass shards that were stuck in her long, auburn hair but she was looking in the direction of the henchman that had shouted so she wasn't as surprised at what happened next. Ron, however, still had his arms up over his head in an attempt to protect himself and was caught off guard when the door that had been there just a moment ago was violently ripped from its hinges and thrown aside. And standing in the doorway was none other than Shego.
"What is going on out here?" she demanded to know. She was yelling at the henchmen because she had not yet noticed the two teenagers that were at her feet. The lead henchmen, the one who had shouted earlier, suddenly became timid in the presence of a furious Shego. The 28-year-old woman, who normally had a bad temperament, seemed to be dripping with rage. She was dressed in her standard black and green cat suit that accentuated her curves quite nicely and usually presented such a sight that it commanded the attention of most people in the room. This time, however, her most defining feature was the cold fire that was burning behind her jade eyes, announcing to the world that she was not to be messed with just then.
"Well?" she spat, focusing her entire attention on the henchmen. His momentary pause coupled with the fact that Shego hadn't looked down yet gave both Kim and Ron the chance to take a step back, away from the enraged woman. But the lead henchman's fear of Shego was quickly outweighed by his fear of what she would do if he didn't answer her. Still too frightened to speak, he simply pointed at her feet to the location of where Ron was a second ago.
Shego looked down at her feet and, for the moment, her rage was replaced by confusion. She caught a quick glance of Ron's foot as he disappeared once again behind the bench. She wasn't entirely sure what she had seen and, her instincts kicking in, she quickly scanned the rest of the lab of anything amiss. Kim, unfortunately, had no bench to hide behind and, when Shego's gaze shifted from Ron on her left over to her right, she was able to spot Kim. "Kim Possible? What are you doing here?"
Kim knew that her cover was blown and stopped crawling away from the older woman. She quickly leapt to her feet and spun to face her arch-foe's 'sidekick', falling instantly into a fighting stance. Shego was about to advance on Kim when she felt a small, delicate hand on her shoulder. The blue skinned mad genius that owned the hand stuck his head over Shego's shoulder to get a better look at what was going on. "Kim Possible?" Dr. Draken asked no one in particular. "Shego, what's she doing here?"
Shego never stopped looking at Kim and said, to both Draken and Kim, "Getting Hurt." She now had a malevolent and slightly crazed smile on and took a step towards Kim. By this time, Ron had also realized that they had been discovered. He stood up from his hiding spot and stepped around the bench to face Shego and Draken. When Shego took a step away from the doorway, he was able to get a good look at laid beyond.
What he saw was a typical office, with a simple wooden desk and bookshelves that lined the walls. Well, it was typical except for the man that was tied to the chair behind the desk. Ron recognized the man as Dr. Fedor from the picture he saw earlier on the Kimmunicator. The Doctor was wearing a standard white lab coat, much like the ones that Mrs. Dr. Possible wore at the Middleton Trauma Center. He was wearing a defiant look that told Ron that the Doctor wasn't about to give Draken anything, but he also saw the fear that the man had in his eyes.
But Ron couldn't worry about the Doctor just then. Shego was advancing on his girlfriend and there were still eight henchmen to deal with. Ron had gotten into a fighting stance as well, but Shego was taking no notice of him. "Kim?" he asked the teen heroine.
"Ron, I'll take Shego. You get the henchmen."
"So, you get one bad guy and I get eight? Not fair, KP," he joked.
She smiled slightly and decided to play along. "Fine then. You take Shego and I'll get the henchmen."
Ron thought about this for a moment. "You know what, I think I like the first arrangement better. But who's going to get Draken?"
This earned a round of laughter from Kim and Ron, but also from Shego. Draken, who had been watching the entire scene unfold, was not as amused by Ron's comment as the other occupants of the lab. "Shego, just forget about the buffoon and get Kim Possible! My henchmen can take care of him."
Shego, having recovered from her fit of laughter, looked at Kim again. "Well, Kimmie, you heard the Doc," she shrugged. Then the raven-haired vixen called forth her own 'super-power' and ran right at Kim with her glowing green claws. Kim, who had been fighting Shego for years, was well acquainted with her fighting style and knew exactly what to expect.
The villainess closed the gap between her and Kim in a heartbeat. Her earlier confusion and amusement were gone and the woman was all business as she prepared to make mince meat of the girl who had been a thorn in her side for many years. Fueled by anger and instinct, she swiped at Kim's head with her right claw.
Kim knew that Shego preferred to attacked with this maneuver first and moved her torso just ever so slightly back causing Shego to miss her completely. The attempted punch had left Shego off balance, but she quickly recovered and followed her body's momentum to the ground. She placed both hands on the floor of the lab and spun her legs around in a leg sweep to knock Kim to the floor as well.
Our heroine saw what Shego was doing with enough time to avoid the attack. In a move that would leave even Bonnie impressed, she used the fact that she was already bending backwards to avoid Shego's strike to her advantage. Instead of fighting her body's movement backwards, she went with it and was able to spring into a flip in time to miss Shego's outstretched legs.
Kim landed about a foot away from where Shego was and saw that the brunette was still on the ground. As Shego recovered from her leg sweep and sprang up to face Kim, the cheerleader rushed the other woman. When she was close enough, Kim threw a right jab at Shego but her attack was blocked. Kim pressed her offensive and countered with a left cross an instant after her right jab. Shego was once again able to block Kim's attack but it left Shego off balance and vulnerable. Kim realized this and, using the momentum of the last block that Shego made, spun her body around and landed a sidekick right into Shego's solar plexus.
Draken's assistant went flying back from the force of Kim's kick. She was thrown about five feet in the air and then, after landing in a heap on the floor, skidded for another three feet. Kim's naiveté surfaced for a brief moment in the hope that Shego was knocked out, but her reason got back in the driver's seat and she prepared for another round with the black haired beauty.
Shego, who was lying on her back after coming to a stop, raised both her legs into the air and then thrust them out away from her body. She preformed her movement with sufficient force that her torso was able to follow her legs and she was once again standing. Now, she was enraged but also not quite a hundred percent; the kick that Kim had landed had taken some of the wind out of her. But she wasn't about to show any sign of weakness in a fight, especially one with Kim Possible, and she charged at her foe with renewed determination.
While the two women were engaged in what Ron, in one of his naughtier moments (but never around Kim), would call a 'catfight', the other member of Team Possible was busy with his own problem. As much as he wanted too, he couldn't focus his attention on Kim just then as the eight henchmen began advancing on him. He could tell by the confidence they had in the way they moved on him and the smiles on their faces that Draken's henchmen thought of him in the same manner as their employer, a buffoon.
"Alright boys," he thought with a smirk, "if that's what you think, then fine. I'll just have to educate you in the ways of Ti Shing Peck Quar." And with that thought, he rolled his neck, shrugged his shoulders, and slipped into fighting mode. For a moment, he considered waving them on, but thought better of it. Master Sensei did not teach Ron Stoppable how to fight like he was in the movies but to fight in real life.
The first henchmen to reach Ron turned out to be the lead henchmen. He was big and slow and had no fighting skills whatsoever. His first move was to throw a punch at Ron's head with all the might he could muster. Ron simply sidestepped this clumsy move and let the henchman's momentum carry him off balance. Then, Ron stepped back to the other man and landed an unblocked hit to the man's stomach, causing him to double over. This was exactly what Ron knew would happen and as he saw the man grip his midsection and bring his chest down, Ron grabbed hold of his back and brought his knee up into the lead henchman's face, knocking him out cold.
But he was only one of eight and Ron knew that despite his skill, it was still seven on one and he could not afford to let his guard down. He spun around in order to check his six and saw that henchman #2 was charging at him. This one knew even less about fighting than the first one, if that was possible, and it was a simple matter for Ron to plant a roundhouse kick into the #2's chest. This sent #2 flying back into henchman #3 and both of them into a workbench, knocking both of them out of commission.
It seemed that the beating the first three guys took had an effect on the other five and they had wised up, as two of them were now advancing on Ron instead of taking him on one-on-one. Number 4 and #5 thought it best to come at Ron from opposite directions in the hope that if one of them was taken out, then the teen hero's attention would be away from the other henchman and he would be able to take the 'buffoon' down.
"Not a bad tactic," Ron thought, "but it's not going to work." He waited until just the right moment when #4 and #5 were close enough and then struck. He leaped high into the air, bringing his pelvis up to the henchmen's head level, and snapped both his legs out at both henchmen. He landed both kicks to the jaws of both #4 and #5, and they dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.
Meanwhile, Kim was having a little more difficulty handling Shego than Ron was handling the henchmen. Having sprung to her feet and charged at Kim, Shego launched a flurry of punches and kicks that Kim was able to block but which pushed the heroine backwards. Shego, desperately wanting to return the favor for the earlier hit she took, once again preformed a leg sweep causing Kim to once again perform a back flip out of harm's way. But this time, instead of getting up, Shego pumped her legs and went flying towards Kim. Just as Kim was landing, Shego arrived to land a flying kick to the teen heroine's chest.
Her kick sent Kim backwards in much the way the same way that Shego had. But, instead of waiting for her foe to recover from her attack, the villainess rushed Kim. She noticed that Kim hadn't moved yet and was hoping to put the finishing blow to her while the other girl was down. Unfortunately, she had miscalculated. Kim had not been knocked out or was even seriously injured. She was simply waiting for Shego to become impatient and come after her, which the other woman was only happy to do.
The redhead waited until the last possible second, bringing Shego in as close as she possibly could, before letting Shego know that she was still around and kicking. The cheerleader brought her legs up and kicked Shego once again in the midsection. But instead of kicking her back, Kim dug her feet into Shego and, using the other girl's momentum, was able to carry the brunette over her head. Once she had launched Shego, Kim quickly rolled over onto her stomach just in time to she Shego smash into the wall behind her.
But there was no crash that would surely have knocked Shego out as she never actually hit the wall. Instead, much to Kim's amazement, Shego simply went through the wall and disappeared behind it. "Wha…?" Kim murmured as she pushed herself up off the ground. She walked quickly over to the exact spot where Shego had disappeared. It looked like a solid wall, but Kim knew better. She placed her hand on the 'wall' and instead of feeling the resistance from the drywall, her hand simply passed through it and out of sight.
Then, it suddenly occurred by Kim what was going on. "Oh course!" she thought, "The doc is a holographics expert. If he wanted to hide something really important, he would hide it using deception, using a hologram." Then her eyes widened a bit when she realized another terrifying thought. "And now Shego now knows where he was hiding the 'Mirage' and has probably got it!" And, with that, she stepped through the wall.
While Kim was coming to her conclusions, Shego had landed once again on the ground. She was a little shaken up but mostly confused. She knew that Kim had thrown her into a wall and was expecting to wake up in a prison hospital ward. But she never hit the wall and, when she looked around, she realized that she was in a room that she had not seen before.
It was a very sparse and plain room. As she looked around, she noticed three walls and a table in the middle of the room. Then she turned around, expecting to see the fourth wall of the room behind her. Instead, she was treated to a view of the entire lab. She could see the fight between the henchmen and the sidekick (as a sidekick herself, she wasn't thrilled with the fact that Draken called Stoppable a buffoon, even if he was one). She also noticed that Kim Possible was walking over to where she was standing.
Shego slipped right back into a fighting stance, preparing to fend off any attack that Kim was about to launch. But Kim wasn't running over to Shego and actually stopped right were the fourth wall was supposed to be. The brunette went right up to face the heroine wondering what the girl was doing. She was still standing there, confused by Kim's actions, when she saw Kim reach out with her hand as if to touch something.
"Come on, Kimmie," the villainess thought, "You haven't hit your head. Playing dumb just isn't your style. Wait, it really isn't her style. Then why…?" And suddenly, the truth of the situation hit home for Shego. Kim actually thought there was a wall in between her and Shego. "Hologram…" Shego thought. The older girl looked once again at Kim and saw that she was coming to the same conclusion that she had just arrived at. Shego guessed that that meant that Kim was going to step forward and enter the hidden room and a devilish smile crossed her lips as she readied herself to take Kim Possible out for good.
Just as Shego had guessed, Kim did take a step forward and, just like her hand, passed through it without any resistance. She was only able to catch a quick glimpse of what laid beyond the fake wall when she felt a pair of hands grab a hold of her with a vice-like grip. The next thing Kim knew, she was flying through the air towards another wall. She had just enough time to think, "I hope that this one is hologram too," before she slammed into the very real wall at the other end of the room and fell to the floor, out cold.
"Sorry Kimmie," Shego gloated, "next time try using a real wall to take me out. It works a lot better than a holographic one. But you know that now, don't you?" The villainess began to laugh in a cold, humorless way. She was advancing on the redhead to put the final blow on the only person that had ever defeated her in battle when something else caught her eye.
It was what was lying on the table in the center of the room. It was so small that she hadn't noticed it at first, but the shinny, reflective surface of the object had caught the light just so and had alerted Shego to it presence. Shego walked over to the table, placed both hands on its surface, and took a good look at the device.
It was about the size of a credit card, but was a quarter inch thick. It was made of a highly polished metal that gave it a sleek, futuristic look. There were no markings on it of any kind, but, upon closer inspection, Shego could make out a single button, a hook-up jack, and an infrared sensor on the side of the device. She picked it up and it began to hum quietly. She was about to give up on it and begin to look once again for the Mirage system, when she thought to turn it over and get a look at the underside of the object. And there, etched into the metal casing, was exactly what she was looking for.
It said 'Mirage'.