Kim Possible: The Sociopath Episode

Disclaimer: Mark and Bob made KP, Valia and Nev are mine.

Chapter 13: Truth
Kim is forced to defend herself against Valia. Meanwhile, Ron and Nev have a talk.

'So, that's what his weakness is,' Kim thought to herself, avoiding the debris from a smashed crate.

Valia was in pursuit, trying to smash her and anything in his path with his mech-arms. She thought she had seen a glimpse of someone else inside him, but he caught onto her attempts to dig into his mind.

"You can't run forever!" he yelled behind her, trying to hurl five metal poles at her, which she avoided by jumping over them and onto an eight-foot crate.

Some of the things he said were still making her think. Was she really so lucky to have a friend like Ron for fourteen years? It wasn't the perfect friendship, as they have had their disagreements, differences, fights, but to her, it was worth it. In a time like this, she wondered why they hadn't gotten together earlier.

She dodged the remains of a metal barrel that Valia split in half and tossed in her direction.

Then she realized something, they had been crushing on each other for some time, but weren't fully aware of it. He didn't particularly like Walter Nelson, and he didn't like Josh Mankey at all, primarily because of his last name, and of course, he hated Erik. And why would he dislike all of them? He was jealous. And then Kim remembered when Yori came around; she was completely jealous of the girl from Japan and acted completely weird, much like the time Ron dedicated most of his Kim-time to Felix Renton.

She grappled off of a huge crane, avoiding an entire 2-ton crate being tossed on her.

She had also remembered the time, shortly after she started dating Walter Nelson, that Ron was thinking of dating someone else, but he got hurt hard. If it weren't for Kim being there for him, he could have turned out like several of the villains they fought on occasion, namely, the one who was chasing her right now.

Valia tried not to allow Kim to grab her thoughts. Something inside of him just wanted to crush her, but he didn't know what it was, not that he cared, but he was far from close range. This gave Kim more time to react to his moves and the objects he hurled in her direction. It was clear to Kim that he was much more deadly in hand-to-hand combat.

"This is a victory I can't allow you to gain," his voice echoed as he grabbed and crushed two iron barrels in his mech-hands, hurling them at Kim.

She easily evaded onto the stairs as the flying objects crashed into the rails. "I thought you wanted me to come here so we could 'talk,' Val." she teased.

"Please, I find this to be oh so much more amusing." he retorted.

Nev had Ron in his lab, doing various things such as measuring, scanning his body for allergic reactions, blood pressure, reflexes, his brain and the like. Ron stood on a round platform in the middle of his lab, various laser beams shining through his body, scanning for anything that may interfere with the suit's creation, such as allergies to the material used to create the suit. On one end were various monitors showing every bit of information on Ron. Physical appearance, X-Ray, nervous system, infrared body display, any and all information on his body. On the opposite side of the lab were all of Nev's tools, including a video feed of Wade.

"Are you sure this is the right thing to do, Nev?" Wade asked through the feed.

"He's more than willing to risk it," Nev answered, "Besides, a battle suit isn't the same as handling tricky hi-tech weapons."

Ron intervened. "I don't know if Kim can handle him all alone. I know I can help her," straightening his arms out.

Wade was iffy, "I still don't now if this is the best idea. After all, Kim's own suit isn't finished and still has problems." For all Wade knew, Ron could probably find a way to trigger a nuclear explosion with the suit.

Nev replied calmly, "Wade, Ron is nothing compared to Jass, Brian, Mel, Kava, and Grig, and look how they turned out."

Ron raised an eye, completely unfamiliar with these names. "Who are they?"

Nev lightly chucked, "I'm guessing that Wade hasn't told you that you aren't alone in saving the world."

Wade whistled. "They haven't asked."

Ron blinked, "Are you for real?"

"Please. Surely it must have crossed your mind at least once that you and Kim weren't the only ones saving the world. There's more than one Global Justice, believe me. Redemption Corporation? The School of Law and Order? DNA? AVA, Anti-Villainy Association? Nugal Resistance? Constitutional Force?"

Ron didn't hear of any of these corporations other than GJ. It hit him like a brick.

Nev noticed his reaction, "Well, now that I mention it, these are people more behind the scenes and not known throughout the world. They're not the types to appear to the public or TV. They don't let the public know that they were involved. They don't leave a trace behind."

Ron nodded, "Oh."

Nev was looking for something, then remembered. "Wade, you got those blueprints?"

"Sending them your way," he responded with hesitation. If Ron could barely handle the toys that Kim had, how could he handle an enhanced battle suit any better?

Kim found herself running on the metal catwalks on the second story of the warehouse as Valia, still on the first level, was destroying everything with his mech-arms trying to crush her. Just how was it that his mech-arms could reach past 50 feet? She needed a plan.

That instant, a mechanical hand slammed into the wall an inch from her nose. She had to think fast. She grabbed the arm that was in front of her, and as the other arm was heading straight for her nose, she turned her open hand into a huge claw and caught it. She smirked as Valia tried to pull it back, but unable to. He didn't look surprised.

"So, we're starting to improve now. You've kept me waiting."

Kim wanted to see if she could use her own force field to generate some electricity, hoping to send it through his arms and shock him. She took a few seconds to create a strong force field and then sent the electricity down through his arms.

To Kim's surprise, it looked like he merely absorbed it.

"An electrical charge? Didn't I tell you that you weren't the only one with upgrades?"

He then shook his mech-arms free from Kim's grasp and returned them to their original position. In retaliation, he charged up some of his own energy, which quickly became visible in both of his human hands in a spherical shape. Kim knew exactly what was coming up, looking across the warehouse, locating a catwalk on the second level. She launched her grappling hook from her wrists as he hurled the energy balls straight at her. She landed on the other side of the warehouse a second before the explosion which almost knocked her off.

Kim was hanging from the catwalk with one hand on the handle bar as she observed the damage on the other side. At least half of the wall and a quarter of the roof had been completely obliterated, letting the storm outside break in.

She pulled herself up, breathing heavily as she lay on the catwalk. Breathing heavily...? Realizing this, she noticed a quiet siren-like noise that only she could hear. It was her suit. Whatever energy she transferred into her electric attack, it drained a good portion of the suit's own energy. Worse, it weakened the adrenaline feature, unable to maintain her energy.

This was bad. She was already exhausted and Valia still hadn't broken a sweat. She needed to rest to catch her breath, but as always, the villain would track her down. Why was hiding an option?

Just then, a loud bell went off outside. The Middleton Museum was about three blocks away, well-known for its ancient clock. It was only 8 PM.

Most of her encounters with Shego and Monkey Fist didn't last for even ten minutes. She had been fighting Valia for little more than an hour.

Ron sneezed, nearly knocking himself over.

"You could probably use some more chicken soup," Wade's hologram analyzed.

"I'll be fine," Ron replied, blowing his nose.

Nev sighed as he worked on the suit. "I only hope Kim can take care of herself," pausing as his face mask absorbed the sparks, "I can handle things from here, Wade."

"Good, because dinner's ready. Call me if anything comes up."

The hologram of Wade vanished.

"Aye," Nev responded. He shook his arms a bit before removing his face mask. He walked towards the medicine cabinet opposite the side of his bookshelf, grabbing various containers, then tossing a pill in Ron's direction. "Think fast."

Ron caught it with no problem. "Shiny," looking at the shiny green pill. It looked like a marble with blue and green paint in it. "So... what is this?"

"Cure for the common cold."

Rufus was on Nev's desk behind Ron, also observing the pretty pill. Shrugging, Ron tossed it into his mouth, which started moving in all directions from the funky taste, especially the aftertaste. To his surprise, he felt his nose clear up in mere seconds.

"Whoa, that's awesome. Booyah!" Then realizing what he just ate, "But..."

He turned to Nev, who was back to work on the suit, "It doesn't work for everybody for a number of reasons. Basically, the pill gives your white blood cells a temporary powerful boost, just enough to cure the common cold. The problem is, is that the pill works only based on a person's specific blood type, blood pressure, white cell count, DNA structure and genes, and a ton of other things in the human body, and it's different for everyone. Lucky I had one that matched all the stuff in your body."

Having no idea what Nev said, Ron just felt grateful. "Thanks."

"No problem. I just want to hurry up and finish this so you can get back to Kim and help her out, but if I forget anything, the results could be disastrous. This said, it'll take more time, I'm sorry to say." Nev answered with a concerned look on his eyes through his helmet.

A minute passed with silence.

"Hey, um, Nev, can I ask ya something?" Ron asked to kill time.

"Shoot."

"Well, um, when KP and me were here last time, why did you ask us about our relationship?"

Nev cracked a sweat, "Oh, that. Well, you see, I myself almost got into a relationship one time with similar circumstances to yours; I had known a girl since the second grade. I started to get a crush on her, but I couldn't understand why at the time. Was she pretty? Yes, but there was more to her. She was nice, extremely intelligent, artistically talented, and an excellent cook to boot. Her problem? She couldn't walk in a straight line, probably the clumsiest person I ever knew. It turned off a lot of guys, since they wanted a girl who knew how to walk in style, but I thought it was a cute quality."

Ron chuckled nervously, "Uh, yeah, I've been there before," not to deny his own clumsiness. He couldn't sympathize on the pretty and smart qualities, at least in his mind.

Nev turned the suit over back onto the table. "This was a year before I turned my basement into a lab, a few months after graduation. Her post-high-school career was in the pits, her job being at some Asian food restaurant, her prime weakness with cooking. She didn't have the money to afford college, and she didn't have many dedicated friends, except for me. So we hung out a few times. I invited her to the movies every now and then, went out to eat, that stuff. It wasn't exactly dating, so to say. I hadn't been the ladies' man, so it would've been all new to me, and believe it or not, I'm still shy inside. A lot of people hinted that she may have crushed on me, but I had a hard time believing it. Then, it happened, she asked me out on a real date. Little did I know it was a setup."

"Ugh," Ron groaned.

"It was bad. It turned out that the date was a final test to become accepted into her real job, a pupil of some big name villain. Basically, she was to kill an important figure to prove her how dedicated she was to her new line of work, and I was her only friend at the time. Needless to say, she left me near dead that night."

Ron observed Nev. If anything, he looked perfectly healthy and normal for a guy his age. Not realizing it wasn't the smartest thing to say, he said it, "You look like you've recovered. I never would've guessed."

Nev quietly scoffed, "I've been known to hide some things quite well."

Unenthusiastically, he turned around to face Ron and then lifted up his shirt, instantly turning Ron and Rufus' faces green and blue. He was basically a cyborg; he was missing half of his upper body, replaced by cybertronic technology. In the areas of his chest and stomach that had skin, you could see wires and metallic organs push against the skin from inside. On the areas with missing skin, you could see several tiny wires push blood throughout his body. Several mechanical parts replaced nerves and skeletal bones, especially where the arms connected to the chest. Worse on the eyesight, most of it was like looking inside a human with an internal mechanical body and seeing how everything worked. The one mechanical organ that freaked them out the most was a working half-mechanical, half-human heart.

"Dude, never show me that again, ever." Ron cried with a disgusted and scared look on his face, looking away and placing his hands over his eyes.

Nev lowered his shirt and continued his work. "Sorry, but jumping to conclusions is not the way of the wise, Ron." He took a second to sigh for breath, then continued, "To be quite honest, I don't have any memories regarding how I survived, but I only remember the most important thing; that she killed me that night. Our friendship wasn't important, but to her, her work was. I found out after waking from a seven-month coma that she wanted to become a villain, just like Shego."

Ron raised an eyebrow, "Did she know who Shego in person? That doesn't sound like her style."

"Not at all. It was just looking at her through all the news reports and internet news. To her, Shego was cool, sexy, and lived on the wild side of life. So, after trying to train in Shego's style thanks to some underground training video on the internet, she was shortly recruited by the Relationship of New Assassins, or RNA. Basically, they set out to hire new assassins or assassins who wish to become big-time villains, young and old. She never succeeded, however. I also learned something when I woke from my coma, that she had been long dead. She was gunned down on her final training mission, to not only break out the former leader from prison, but to kill him. She lost her life. Closed casket at the funeral from too many gunshot and laser wounds. From the reports I got from her family, I was in a much better condition than she was. That's saying quite a bit."

Ron felt cold inside. "Wow, dude, I don't know what to say. I'm sorry to hear that."

"So, to answer your question, I asked you and Kim about your relationship to see if I could find out where I went wrong in helping Christie. In a way, that's kind of how I met Valia in the first place. He got crushed by his girl, and I was betrayed by the one person I thought was my best friend."

Ron felt guilty inside for feeling bitter about Nev earlier. "That's terrible."

Nev sighed, "So, now you know. The whole thing had been haunting me for some time, so I was curious as how you two settled out your problems and how you got this far in your relationship. I didn't explain my reasons for asking you two at the time, since it wasn't the time or place to say such a thing. After all, you two haven't been dating too long, and it would've been rude for me to throw a pity party and let you two think of possibilities of betrayal against one another."

"So, it wasn't because you liked Kim?" Ron accidentally slipped from his mouth.

"Like Kim? Um, I think I might have to scan your brain again before I continue." was Nev's answer.

"Um, no man, that was an accident, I mean it slipping from my mouth, no, wait, I mean, uh, and… and I'll just stay quiet now."

Nev laughed, "Gather your thoughts for a second."

Ron let out a sigh that lasted five seconds, "Okay, it was just that, well, when we first came here, I noticed there was a look in Kim's eyes. It was the same look she gave Erik when they first met, except she kinda freaked out and acted weird."

Nev rolled his hand over his face. "Don't tell me it was one of those, 'Hottie coming through' looks."

"It was."

Nev's face turned blue, "I told you I was bad at seeing this stuff, but it happens from time to time, I suppose. Well... I'm not sure what to say, to each their own, I suppose. But if you're worried about her jumping off your train and onto mine, while I'm sure she's Triple-A girlfriend material, I don't hit on girls when they have boyfriends. Personal policy. Besides, with all of these visible mechanics fueling my body? I don't think I'm going to be on the cover of some bodybuilding magazine anytime soon. You can put your fears to rest, Spider-Man. And even if she did want to jump the welcome wagon, I couldn't accept. You're like the coolest couple I know." substituting the word 'coolest' from his real thoughts.

Ron could tell that he was being honest. Kim had denied that she had a thing for Nev, but just thinking about her, Ron only hoped that she was okay. She hadn't called Wade or anything, and it had been over an hour already.

She was running as fast as she could, trying to avoid everything Val was throwing at her. Nothing on the platforms of the second floor could protect her from him, nor anything on the first level. She needed a moment to catch her breath, but Valia refused to allow it.

Observing that all of the things he threw at her were landing long past their destined target, Val did a little math, retiming his attack. As he predicted, the time it took Kim to run and the time it took for the barrel to fly, Kim and the barrel were on a collision course. Valia didn't even notice the windows.

Much to his delight, the barrel not only crashed into her, but it crushed her between itself and the window, cracking the glass.

She wasn't the only one tired.

"I suppose we'll just get to the point," Valia sighed, cracking his knuckles.