A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 13:

Jimmy woke from a sleep he had never intended to take, wondering what it was that had woken him. Both Shego and Kim seemed to be sleeping, although Shego seemed to be alert even while asleep. Jimmy recalled that she had had ninja training and didn't doubt that she slept only when she wanted to. As he looked around, wondering vaguely what time it was, a gleeful shout echoed faintly in the distance.

"Oh, will you give it a rest already?" Shego mumbled drowsily.

"Shego!" Jimmy hissed.

Shego opened her eyes and gave Jimmy a cranky look. "What?"

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"That noise," Jimmy answered, gesturing vaguely with his head. "It sounded like someone shouting."

"Oh, that." Shego yawned and stretched as best she could, secured as she was to the wall. "That was just Drakken. Something probably filtered into that pea brain of his and he just had to jump for joy a few times." She closed her eyes and prepared to doze off again. "Just ignore it. He'll probably settle down in a few minutes."

Jimmy looked worried. "I don't think I should. If he's figured out anything it's probably something about that temporal complosion device. If he's figuring out how to operate it…"

"…we could be in big trouble. As if we weren't in big trouble already." Shego looked expectantly at Jimmy. "You figure out how we're going to get out of here yet?"

Jimmy shook his head, feeling irritated with himself with sleeping when he should have been working on a solution. "Not yet, but I'm sure there must be a way. There's a way out of any cage."

"Yes," agreed Shego. "It's called a door and it needs a key."

Jimmy's retort was interrupted by Kim, who had been awakened by their conversation. "You're always the ray of sunshine. Right, Shego?"

Shego shrugged. "I calls them as I sees them."

Jimmy twisted uncomfortably, as much as from his frustration as hanging from the wall for hours. "I wish I knew what time it was."

"It's about 2:30 in the morning," Drakken's voice replied. He entered the chamber with a wicked chortle and tapped his watch. "I know because I made a special point of noting the time for my posterity."

"I'd say your posterior is a lot more substantial than your posterity will ever be," Shego snorted.

Drakken emitted a low grunt but refused to be baited. "I shall overlook that," he stated, "because of the momentous occasion of this day." He paused expectantly but no one spoke or even seemed interested. "Well?" Drakken urged. "Aren't you wondering what makes this day so momentous an occasion?"

Kim looked at Jimmy and Shego and gave an indifferent shrug. "Not really."

"Been there, done that," put in Shego.

"I think I'll just wait for the movie," added Jimmy.

If Drakken had a particularly pronounced weakness among his many other shortcomings it was his craving for attention. "You'll wait for the – as if I'd ever let you see it," he spluttered. "For your information, I have succeeded in discovering the secrets of the temporal complosion device's operation."

"You know how to work it?" Kim blurted out.

"Even better," Drakken preened. "I've improved on it. I have connected it to my own augmentation devices so that it has more power than before."

Shego didn't sound very impressed. "And just how much power would that have been?"

Drakken's hands made motions like squeezing a large cushion. "Powerful enough to…if you compared it with…the amount of energy is…" He gave up on the attempt. "Very, very powerful, okay? And now it's powerfuller. More powerfuller. Stronger."

"And just what is this more powerful temporal complosion device supposed to do?" Jimmy asked.

Drakken teeth showed in an broad and evil grin. "It's going to let me do the one thing I could never do before," he said. "I'm going to eliminate something that's been a thorn in my side for longer than I care to remember. And you want to know what the most wonderful thing about all this will be?" He whirled and pointed at Kim, who was taking Drakken's ranting with cool skepticism. "There won't be any Kim Possible around to stop me this time!" He burst into diabolical laughter and left them to think over what he had said.

"I don't like the way he said that," Jimmy ventured after Drakken's guffaws had faded into the distance.

"I don't like the way he says anything," Kim returned, "but I've gotten used to it."

Shego looked uncertain. "I think the kid may be right. For a total goof he can make some pretty sinister contraptions. It's possible that whatever he's cobbled together may actually work. And it sounds as though he has a personal grudge against you, Princess."

"And even if his contraption doesn't work," Jimmy went on, "the time stream has been pretty badly messed up. Activating his device now might throw us all into that singularity. We've got to do something!"

Kim racked her brain but came up empty. "Okay, I'm open to suggestions."

"Same here," was Shego's response.

Jimmy closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing his thoughts in the special way that was his peculiar gift.. "Come on," he muttered to himself. "Think. Think! Think!"

…Lead to a disaster if we don't change what's going to happen…

…Time amplifies the perturbing effects of personal actions…

If she knew then what she knows now…

"Brain blast!" he cried. "It's been right in front of me! To change the way things are now, we have to change what's already happened!"

"Great idea, kid," Shego said. "But as it happens only Drakken has a time machine, remember? No way back for us."

"Yes, we can't go back into the past," Jimmy agreed. "But remember, the past is coming to us through those temporal interphases that we've been experiencing. When the next one hits, we can take that opportunity to make a difference in the past that could help us now."

Kim nodded slowly. "I think I see. If we could stop that comploder from being damaged this whole thing might never occur."

"In theory," Jimmy nodded, "but I doubt that that's not going to happen. For one thing, we'll be experiencing a specific moment in time that has nothing to do with when the comploder was damaged. For another, we'll only be interphased for a short time and we'll be disoriented like we've been before and not be able to think of or do anything too complicated. But somehow, when it happens, we'll need to try doing something that will help us get out of here."

"Okay, let me get this straight," Shego said. "We don't know just when this will happen, we won't have any control over what will be happening, and we won't really know what we should do, but we have to do it anyway to get us out of here?"

Jimmy sighed. "I know, I know. It's a slim chance, but it's our only one."

Shego's voice sounded oddly cheerful, and neither Jimmy nor Kim knew if she was being serious or not. "No, no, don't get me wrong. Let's do this thing. Bring on the interphase." Then, like a switch being thrown, her voice took on its usual sarcastic edge. "You can bring it on, right?"

"You know I can't."

"Then why get so hyped about it? We could be here for minutes, or hours, or days. Or possibly forever, waiting for something that might never happen before that singularity thing swallows us whole." Shego's voice was an odd mix of both triumph and defeat, but Jimmy refused to give up.

"Possibly," he said, "but I don't think so. Based on when the time fluxes that I know about happened and how far apart the interphases have occurred I'd say that the next one should be along pretty soon now." He thought a bit before adding, "Of course, that assumes square law time contraction based upon a constant rate of temporal acceleration of the time segments towards the singularity, but I don't have enough data to attempt a higher-order approximation right now."

Kim simply stared at him and nodded. "Right," was all she said.

"Just remember," Jimmy went on, "we have to think of some way that will get us out of this predicament and act fast, because we won't have a lot of time to -"

"A hovercar? What the rootie-toot's a hovercar?" a quavering voice interrupted him.

Jimmy looked around, suddenly aware that he was in front of the time pincher in his lab with Thomas Edison. What's going on? he wondered. He had come here to bring Thomas Edison from the past to show up that know-nothing Cindy and her erroneous report about Guglielmo Marconi. But there was something else he had to do, something that he couldn't quite remember. He felt that it was something about another lab, and danger, and time running out but it was just beyond conscious thought. If he had just a few more moments he was sure he could remember it, but as he tried to focus on them the confusing thoughts faded and were gone. With a resigned shrug he started towards his hovercraft. "Right this way, Mr. Edison," he said. "I'm sure that you'll find it interesting." Whatever it was that he was trying to think of couldn't have been all that important, he decided. And if it was, he would probably remember it later.

In Middleton Ron and Kim were heading home from school for the day just as a wave of dizzying pain hit them. "Whoa-oh," Ron moaned. "Brain freeze!" Rufus also groaned in pain.

"The…future?" Kim asked, confused.

"What was that, K. P.?"

Kim tried to think, looking troubled. "Something…something about the future."

Ron thought as well and his face brightened. "Uh…yeah, right, right. I was saying that the future was bright."

"Yeah, Ron, yeah. It really is," Kim smiled, but something inside told her that there was something else that she couldn't quite remember. Something important about the future. But what?

"And I hate meat cakes," Ron declared as they marched on.

Kim, trying hard to think of what it was she couldn't remember, was only half-listening. "Huh?"

"No idea why I said that," Ron replied, oblivious to Kim's fretful expression.

As they walked Kim fought to recall what it was that she was supposed to remember about the future and lost as the last troubling half-thoughts vanished beyond recall. Oh well, she thought, it's the first day of school and I have Latin homework to worry about. Whatever it was that she couldn't remember could wait. After all, it wasn't as though the world depended on it.

"Shego!"

Shego started at the call. "What?"

"We haven't got all day!" Drakken complained. "Have you finished welding that superstructure to the chassis yet?"

Shego considered the welding torch in her hand and then shifted her gaze to Doctor Drakken far below. "Welding?" She snapped off the torch and surveyed the metal framework adjacent to the scaffolding upon which she stood. "Yeah. Finished."

"Well, it's about time," Drakken fussed. "The sooner we're finished with this the sooner we can put my greatest evil scheme ever into operation. There'll be no way for Kim Possible to stop us this time. Just think, Shego. The future is nearly within my grasp!"

Kim Possible? Shego thought. The future?

Drakken continued to fume. "When I consider all the times that girl has ruined my plans, I could just…"

Just think…the future…

"…but this time," Drakken continued, "I've considered everything. There's no way I can fail!"

"Uh-huh," Shego murmured absently, not hearing a word that her boss was saying. She set the torch down and started to strip off the insulated gloves she was wearing, but stopped short to stare at them. Not really sure why she was doing so, she left the thick gloves on and pulled her usual green and black pair over them before descending from the scaffolding. By the time she reached the bottom her mind was again clear and focused on the job at hand. "Okay, Doc," she said. "What's next?"

Back in the cell Jimmy, Kim, and Shego became aware of their surroundings again. Kim was the first to speak. "Well?"

Jimmy shook his head. "Nothing. I tried to remember what was going on but the temporal distortion from my time pincher garbled my thoughts too much. I wasn't able to do anything."

Kim looked defeated. "Same here. But I don't know why. I just had this case of brain freeze or something and by the time I could think clearly again I was back here." She looked over at Shego. "I guess you're our only hope, Shego. Did you manage to do anything?"

Shego looked up at her shackled wrists. "Lets find out." A look of intense concentration came over her face and a green glow surrounded her gloved hands. Slowly, knowing that too much power could ruin everything and leave her injured or dead, she willed the almost living energy to envelope the coverings on her hands. It was not enough to affect the metal restraints, but was sufficient to gradually burn the fabric off her hands, layer by anxious layer. At last both of her hands and wrists were bare.

"Okay, you got you gloves off." Jimmy conceded. "Now what?"

"Watch and learn, Poindexter," replied Shego. "I was wearing two pair." She folded the fingers of one hand together into a crude lobster claw and began rotating it. "If I'm right, I think that the inner pair were thick enough to leave enough of a gap for me to work my hands free of this." The others watched silently as Shego laboriously twisted and pulled her hand against the restraint. For anxious moments Kim and Jimmy watched until suddenly, with a wrench that left skin on the manacle, Shego succeeded in pulling one hand free of the shackle. Not bothering to try the same thing with the other manacle, she pointed the index finger of her free hand and burnt the other restraint open. Next, she freed her feet and leapt down to the floor, pacing back and forth for a few seconds to get the circulation in her feet moving again before freeing the others.

"Good job," congratulated Jimmy once he was down. "I guess we both owe you one."

"Unfortunately," was Kim's unenthusiastic comment.

"Save it," Shego answered. "I'm not really in this hero business by choice, you know."

Kim was about to reply when Jimmy spoke up. "She's right," he said. "We don't have time to go into that stuff now. We have to find Drakken and stop him from using whatever it is that he's cooked up. You two think you can handle his syntha-drones and henchmen if we meet any?"

"You just watch me," Kim assured him.

"And you just stay out of my way, Princess," Shego put in. "I have a couple things to settle with Drakken and no one had better get in my way."

"I assume that means yes," Jimmy said. "Okay, then, let's go."

Both Shego and Jimmy had been out of the cell before and knew the way to Drakken's lab, so they took the lead with Kim bringing up the rear guard. Jimmy and Kim expected to find guards and more drones awaiting them, but were surprised to encounter none. "What gives?" Kim asked quietly as they moved stealthily towards the lab.

"Hey, it's 3:00 AM in the morning and we're supposed to be locked up," Shego pointed out. "You really think that Drakken is going to unpocket to pay for guards working overtime?"

"I suppose not," Kim admitted, familiar as she was with Drakken's reknowned parsimony. She suddenly stopped. "What was that?" she whispered.

"What was what?" Jimmy asked, instinctively lowering his voice.

Kim peered ahead. "I thought I heard something just ahead."

Jimmy listened hard and shook his head. "I don't hear anything."

Shego, who had also been listening, said softly, "Kimmie is right. Someone is coming this way down that one corridor up ahead."

"Guards?" asked Jimmy.

"Doubt it. Guards wouldn't try to be quiet in here. Whoever is up there is trying to, and not doing too good a job of it." Shego crept forward and motioned the others to follow. "When I give the signal, we all charge them. Ready…one…two…" Her body tensed and she sprang forward, crying, "Now!" Both Kim and Jimmy leapt forward an instant behind her, and froze in amazement at the sight of their would-be antagonists. They were, in turn, staring in surprise at them.

It was Ron and Cindy. The cavalry had arrived, if just a little too late.

End of Chapter 13