A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 7:

Drakken was so notoriously predictable in his plots that Shego mentally divided them into three distinct phases. The first, which she called the "glee" phase, consisted of Drakken enthusiastically concocting some ridiculously complicated plan. The second, or "gloat", phase followed when, against all reason, his plan actually appeared to be succeeding. The final, or "gloom", phase inevitably followed when, again against all reason, Kim Possible and her buffoon of a sidekick succeeded in taking them - or rather, Drakken - down. Shego was always careful to exclude herself from the failures that always resulted from Drakken's plots, as they always seemed to follow from Drakken ignoring her advice.

At the moment Drakken was deep into his "gloat" phase. "Didn't I tell you, Shego?" he chortled, capering about the lab. "Just try to tell me that Dementor or Monkey Fist could have pulled this off any better."

"Yeah, yeah, great. You got hold of this temporal whatchamahooie like you wanted." Shego sighed and rolled her eyes. "Congratulations."

"Word that, Shegizzle," Drakken replied triumphantly.

Shego snarled in disgust. "Will you please stop that?"

"What? You don't think that I'm entitled to gloat?"

"Gloating I can take. You trying to come off like a 'gangsta', not so much."

Drakken drew himself up with great dignity. "But I deserve it. I finally one-upped that cheerleading pain in the gluteus maximus and that know-it-all whiz kid. And you thought I didn't know what I was doing."

"Well, I do have to admit you had most of it figured out pretty well," Shego admitted. "But how did you know that they'd get the device out of the lab so we could ambush them?"

"Oh, come now, Shego. What's Kim Possible's favorite phrase? She can do anything, remember?" He chuckled sinisterly at this. "I knew that if anyone could get the temporal complosion device out of there, it would be her. Once she did that, taking it for ourselves was like taking candy from a baby."

"So much I figured out," Shego replied with a yawn. "But 'Miss I-can-do-anything' nearly didn't make it. If it hadn't been for that kid's last minute rescue she'd be in jail and your precious gizmo would still be locked up tight."

Drakken looked mildly surprised at this. "I'm disappointed in you, Shego. That was all part of their plan."

"What?" Shego shook her head and waved her hands. "Wait a minute. You're saying that they wanted Possible to get caught?"

"Not caught. Detained." Drakken sighed at Shego's dumbfounded stare. "Think about it. Suppose they snagged the device and got away clean. Then what?"

Shego shrugged but couldn't resist baiting Drakken. "The eggheads call their insurance company and file a claim?"

Drakken raised an eyebrow but refused to be drawn in. "I'll ignore that. What they do is contact the law enforcement agencies. Everyone and his brother is out searching for it, and it's only a question of time before Possible and her half-pint partner in crime are fingered and apprehended."

"Fingered by who?" Drakken gave her a smug look and Shego was taken aback. "Oh, you are kidding me. You would have snitched on them?"

"It depends on how much the reward was for," Drakken replied. "And as a wise philosopher once said, 'If you can't beat them, have someone else do it for you.' But since they got away it's a moot point. As it is, they get the device and absolutely no one looks for them because everyone thinks they've already been caught." Drakken allowed himself a brief moment of admiration. "It's absolutely brilliant! And the best part," he concluded, "is that no one will be after us, now that we have it, either."

"Okay, so we have the device." Shego leaned forward. "But what does it do? And why did they want it?"

Drakken shrugged. "I'll figure it out eventually. For now, Dementor wanted one, so that's good enough for me. And this one is much better than his."

"How so?"

"Because," Drakken grinned, "mine comes with a cup holder." He pressed a button several times, causing a small shelf to extend and retract several times.

Shego watched, unimpressed. "Ye-a-ah," she drawled. "Listen, you suppose that maybe that's a tray for a removable disk? Like maybe a CD or DVD player?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Shego," Drakken scoffed. "Why would anyone put an entertainment system in a top-secret temporal complosion device?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe because it makes more sense than a cup holder?" Drakken just looked blank. "You realize that most software and data is stored on optical disks like CD and DVD now, don't you?"

"Uh…" Drakken fumbled for something to say. "I had heard a rumor to that effect. They actually do that now?"

"Only for the past dozen years or so. Kind of like the cable you just got has only been around for about thirty years."

Drakken absorbed that news. "Oh, I see. Basically a new and untried technology." He turned back to the temporal complosion device. "No matter. I'll figure out some way to make it work anyway."

Shego tossed herself on a recliner and reached for the TV remote. "What about our guests?"

"Our what?" Drakken muttered, absorbed in his study of the device before him.

"Guests. Possible and the buffoon's stand-in. What are you going to do about them?"

Drakken blinked. "Use them as guinea pigs, I suppose. I'm sure I'll need to run some tests with this thing before I try using it myself. Did you make them uncomfortable?"

"As much as possible. Whatever happened with your idea of installing a real torture chamber?"

"Too labor intensive. I prefer something more efficient that doesn't insist on time-and-a-half for overtime. You took away their toys before you locked them up?"

Shego nodded, faintly insulted by the question. "You think I'm some high school grad from a temp agency or something? Of course I did." She began flipping through channels. "There aren't going to be any repeats of last time w had them penned up." As she settled down to watch a televised martial arts competition she shook her head, feeling a twinge of regret. Pity, she thought. That Neutron kid might have come in useful around here. I wonder if he knows anything about satellite television hook-ups?

In another section of Drakken's lair, Kim and Jimmy hung on opposite walls of a small cell from restraints securing their wrists and ankles. Both had been conscious for some time, but had said little other than to reassure themselves that the other was all right. Whereas Jimmy felt mostly anger at their situation, Kim seemed more depressed.

"I'm sorry, Jimmy," she finally said. "I should have reacted faster."

"It's not your fault. I was stupid not to realize that Drakken and Shego would have been laying for us."

"Hey, I'm the one who should have guessed what they'd try. I've gone up against both of them a lot more times than you have." She hung her head and her voice became bitter. "I should have realized that they knew they couldn't pull it off and that getting it from us was their best bet. I must really be slipping up. Maybe it's time for me to retire."

"Don't talk like that," Jimmy objected. "We've had setbacks before. When we get out of this -"

Kim couldn't hold the bitter words back. "What are you talking about, Jimmy? There is no way out of this. There's a temporal singularity that's going to wipe out everything unless we can stop it. Drakken has the temporal complosion device that we need to stop it. Wade is gone and can't help us. No one has any idea where we are, and we're locked up in a cell without anything to get us out of here."

"Even so –" Jimmy tried again.

"Don't you get it?" Kim had not intended to direct her fury at Jimmy, but she needed to vent the emotions she was feeling and he was the only person to do so. He voice shook from frustration and anger. "Are you too stupid to see that it's over? I thought you were supposed to be some kind of genius!" As soon as she said the words she regretted it. Jimmy simply stared at her, saying nothing, and his hurt silence stung more than any angry words he might have returned. She hung her head in shame and regret. "I'm sorry, Jimmy," she whispered hoarsely. "I didn't mean that."

Jimmy didn't answer right away. "I know that things don't look good, Kim," he said. "Logic tells me that there's no hope, too. But that's the point. Hope isn't based on logic. There have been times when I knew I had no chance of succeeding but something always told me to try anyway. For a long time I thought that it was just ego, or stubbornness, or that maybe Cindy was right about my always needing to win. But for some time now I've believed that there's something more to it than that."

"And what's that?"

"That the bad guys aren't supposed to win."

Puzzled, Kim said, "Well, no, I don't think that they should win either, but -"

Jimmy shook his head. "No. I don't mean that we don't think that it's right that they should win. I mean that they aren't supposed to win. That there's something on our side that will give us the edge we need if we just don't give up. There's always been evil in this world, and after all this time it hasn't beaten us yet. I used to wonder about that, but I think I understand why now."

Kim had wondered about this at times as well, and had never come up with a satisfactory answer. "Why?"

"Because evil will always be alone," Jimmy replied. "It cares only about itself. When the chips are down and the odds are against it has no one to turn to. By looking only to itself it can only grow inward and never outward. It's the nature of evil to fail, because it's very nature dooms it to extinction. But the nature of good is to care about others. When things look hopeless there will always be someone there, because that's the nature of good."

"Always someone there," Kim repeated to herself. "Like Ron…"

"And Cindy…"

"And Wade…" She caught herself. "No. Not Wade. Not this time."

"I couldn't say. But I know that there are people out there who feel that we matter and have devoted themselves to that end. And I believe that will be what will save us this time. I can't say how…or where…or when…or ever prove it…but I believe it just the same."

Kim thought about it. Was it possible? Anything is possible for a Possible, she told herself. Her heart lifted somewhat at the memory of her father's familiar phrase. It was true there were people out there who cared about them. As long as that was true, perhaps there was still hope.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by a familiar sound and she listened intently. Had she really heard it? Or just imagined it? She looked at Jimmy, who was staring towards the entrance to the cell. Apparently he had heard something, but was it what she thought she had heard? A few seconds later she again heard the faint sound, and this time there was no mistake.

It was familiar four-tone chime of the Kim-municator. Someone was trying to call.

A chill went down Kim's spine. Only Wade would or could call the Kim-municator. It used a private scrambled satellite frequency that only Wade knew and used. Even the few times Ron had called her on the Kim-municator he had been patched through by Wade. But Wade was gone now. Wasn't he? And even if he wasn't, how could she or Jimmy get hold of him? The Kim-municator chimed once again, and then fell silent. Despite that, Kim felt hope returning.

Someone, somewhere, was looking for them.

At the Candy Bar in Retroville Ron and Cindy were preparing to leave when Ron's phone shrilled. He still had no clear idea what to do at this point, other than to return to Middleton and confront Kim's family, and he flipped the phone open indifferently. "Ron Stoppable here. Failed relationships a specialty."

"Ron?" a familiar voice asked.

"Wade? What's up?"

"Is Kim there with you?"

Ron shook his head. "No. I haven't really seen her in days. I was kind of hoping you'd know where she was. I have some things I need to discuss with her."

There was a brief pause before the voice replied. "That's not good. Listen carefully…"

For the next few minutes Ron listened silently, his jaw alternately dropping open and clenching shut as his expression changed from indifference to blank astonishment to bewilderment to worry to grim determination. Cindy watched this show with growing impatience, her interest piqued by Ron's silence. By the time Ron disconnected without a word she was literally hopping with curiosity.

"Well?" she demanded.

Ron pocketed the phone. "Kim's in trouble," was his terse reply.

"What? Where? How?"

"You left out when, why, and who," Ron pointed out. "I'm not sure. But I have to go."

"Then I'm coming, too," Cindy announced.

Ron looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. "What?"

"You heard me. If Kim's in trouble, then Neutron is too, and more than likely Neutron got her into the mess in the first place and I'm not going to just wait around to find out what that knothead did this time." She paused to catch her breath. "Why didn't Wade just tell you what the trouble was?"

"Two reasons," Ron answered as they headed for the door. "First, he didn't know what the trouble was."

"And second?"

Ron seemed to take an unusually long time to reply. "It wasn't Wade."

End of Chapter 7

Author's Notes:

Cliffhangers and plot twists. Gotta love 'em.