A Glitch in Time

by Gary D. Snyder

Chapter 16:

All right, Drakken, the nearly-invisible tracker thought grimly. I know you're around here somewhere. Subtle, you are definitely not. Since leaving Kim and Jimmy, Shego had relied on her instinct and skills to locate her quarry and that had led her to the residential housing part of the University. She had correctly assumed that Drakken would not have proceeded with his plan alone, and had further deduced that the only person he could rely on in this time period was himself. Even without the dance scheduled for that evening there were any number of typical Saturday night diversions, both on and off campus, which would have made finding a particular college-aged student nearly impossible. Shego, however, had the advantage of knowing Drakken, and this convinced her that she would find him passing the evening alone in his room, doing whatever it was that social misfits like Drakken did on Saturday nights. She had briefly tried to think like Drakken and figure out exactly what he might be doing alone on a normal date night but quickly gave that up, as it started to give her a headache and as well as the creeping willies.

Having identified the most likely location of her prey, Shego next employed her tracking skills to zero in on the exact location. There were several large dormitories on campus and Drakken might have lived in any of them while attending Middelton University. Typically Shego would have taken the most straightforward approach, which would have been to extort the information she needed from the front desk personnel, but the situation demanded stealth, despite the delays inherent in this method. She was sure that Drakken would have ignored the many pathways criss-crossing campus to take the most direct route to his destination, and her sharp eyes quickly found prints in the grass that matched Drakken's feet. As she followed them, she found herself wondering, What is it with this guy's hand and feet, anyway? Did they stop growing when he was, like, ten years old or something?

Shego was gratified to find that the path she was following indeed confirmed her chain of reasoning and led to a specific dormitory. The next step was to find Drakken's old dormitory room. As good as her tracking skills were, Shego knew she could not reliably follow Drakken's trail through the building and there was no time to check all the rooms. A pay phone she spotted outside the building gave her an idea. She quickly located the dormitory's main phone number in the phone book and searched for some money to make the call, but was frustrated when she realized her form-fitting outfit had no pockets and she never carried change because the noise could potentially jeopardize her many covert missions. With an impatient snort she ripped open the cover to the coin repository in a shower of green sparks, extracted some change, and placed the call.

"Middelton University, Prentice Hall, front desk," a bored male voice answered.

"Yeah," Shego said, her voice filled with the impatience she actually felt. "This is Pizza Shack Pasta and Pizza Emporium. We have an order of three large mushroom and anchovy pizzas for a…" She paused, giving the impression that she was consulting something. "…Drew Lipsky at the dormitory but the room number we have down is 1307."

"That can't be right," the voice told her. "We don't have a thirteenth floor."

"That's my point. What's the real room number of this Lipsky guy?"

"I'm sorry," the voice answered. "That information is confidential."

"I'm aware of that," Shego snapped, "but it's a busy night and I have a dozen other orders I have to get out."

"I told you -" the voice began.

"And I'm telling you," Shego snarled, interrupting him, "that we have a thirty minutes or it's free guarantee, and if I'm late with any of my orders because I have to go to every room in that dormitory finding this Drew Lipsky then I'm coming over and getting the money out of you. Not only that, but I'll make sure that we and every other pizza place in town never deliver another pizza there again. You'll be calling Italy for take-out, Jack."

There was a pause before the front desk attendant asked hesistantly, "Even the front desk?"

"Especially the front desk!"

"All right. You win," the voice quickly assured her. "No need to be so testy. It's not like I owe that guy anything. In fact, the jerk still owes me five bucks. Okay, here's the room number. He's in room 719."

Shego smirked in triumph. "719. Got it. Thanks and have a pizzarific night." She hung up and checked the coin return slot from force of habit before remembering that the entire change depository was lying open. Heaving a sigh of self-reproach, she entered the dormitory and headed up the stairs to the seventh floor.

She encountered no one on her way up, just as she had expected for a Saturday night, but didn't relax her guard. Experience had taught her that overconfidence was the surest path to defeat, a lesson that Drakken's encounters with Kim Possible had driven home time and again. At the room she paused and listened carefully outside the room, and when she heard nothing she pressed her ear carefully against the door for a long moment. Still hearing nothing inside she tried the knob and found it unlocked. She mentally prepared herself to face anything and burst into the room.

As the silence had seemed to indicate, the room was unoccupied although the light was on. Shego frowned and considered her next move. She had been so intent on following Drakken to this building that it had not occurred to her to check for tracks leading away. Whatever Drakken had wanted with his past self he had gotten it and departed, apparently with his younger counterpart in tow. If so, they were probably on the way to the dance where Jimmy was waiting, or possibly to the hospital where Kim's mother-to-be was working and Possible was waiting. Shego felt that she should rendezvous with Kim or Jimmy but not knowing why Drakken would contact himself bothered her. She had studied Sun Tzu's The Art of War and his admonition "Know your enemy, and know yourself, and in a hundred battles you will be victorious a hundred times" had been one of her guiding principles in dealing with adversaries. Her every instinct told her that knowing the purpose of Drakken's visit to this room was essential to succeeding in this mission to the past.

Shego prowled about the vacant room like a restless cat, searching for something that might give her a clue. The room was littered with technical books, papers, mechanical and electronic assemblies, discarded fast food wrappings and containers, and other paraphernalia Shego expected a wonk like Drakken to have, but nothing that gave her any insight as to Drakken's purpose here. She decided that purely passive inspection was ineffective and started opening drawers and doors to conduct a more thorough search. None of the drawers she searched turned up anything useful or even interesting, but when she opened one of the closet doors a heavy object fell from an upper shelf and caused her to leap back instinctively. She eyed the object, wary of a trap. Then, not quite believing what she saw, Shego picked it up for a closer examination.

It was a mechanical head. By 21st-century standards it was crude and primitive in construction, but from what Shego could see it appeared to be complete. For as long as Shego had known Drakken he had exhibited a penchant for humanoid constructs, be they robots, drones, or clones. Robotics would be in keeping with Drakken's interests and Shego could believe that he had dabbled with it back in college.

"B-be-e-e…" the head said.

Startled, Shego dropped the device, which hit the floor with a thud. She prodded the head with her foot and stepped back when the head spoke again.

"Be-be..." it said. "Bebe."

Bebe? Shego thought. "Hello?" she said. It was a ridiculous thing to say, but she didn't know what else to say to a talking mechanical head.

"H-h-hello," the head replied. "Are you b-b-boys ready for o-o-ur d-d-date?"

Boys? Date? Shego tried to understand what the head was talking about. "What date?"

"D-d-didn't Drew t-t-tell you, tell y-y-you? We're the d-dates you w-w-ant-ed-d-d for tonight."

Shego sat down on an untidy heap that was, under the piles of rumpled clothes and pizza boxes, probably a bed and tried to think. She knew that Drakken had once been friends with Possible's father and several other now-prominent scientists while in college, but that he had parted company with them when they had ridiculed him about something. She couldn't recall the details, but she knew that it had something to do with some primitive robots he had built. It would have been just like Drakken to have built robots as dates for himself and his geek friends since his social skills were essentially non-existent. It would also be like Drakken to visit the sins of the father upon the daughter, and use those same robots to exact his ultimate revenge on Kim Possible and her father. Without another thought Shego dashed from the room, leaving the head talking to an empty room.

"W-wait!" it was saying. "D-d-on't you want a g-g-good-night k-kiss-s-s?"

At that moment Dr. Drakken and Drew Lipsky, accompanied by three robots, were on their way to the university hospital. "So the only real problem was a timing issue in the cognitive motivator circuit?" Drew asked.

"Precisely," was Drakken's reply. "As you saw, there was a race condition in the primary feedback circuit causing spurious restarts in the behavioral sequencing state machine. Fortunately it was a fairly simple fix. It's too bad we didn't have parts to fix all of the Bebes."

"Well, I needed the parts to construct a data interface module to connect my programmable calculator to my Commodore 64. I tell you, that company will change the world!"

"Yeah, well don't put all your life savings in their stock," advised Drakken.

Drew was still thinking about the Bebes. "I can't believe I didn't catch that timing problem. I don't think I would ever have found it if you hadn't helped me."

Drakken brushed it off. "Trust me, you would have, on Wednesday. But that would have been a little late."

Drew smiled at that. "True enough. So, my Bebes weren't good enough for those so-called friends to take to the dance? Well, if they don't take my Bebes, they don't take anyone! Even those soft…warm…nice-smelling…cuddly…"

Drakken growled impatiently. "Are you through?"

"What?" Drew started. "Oh. Yes. You know," he said, giving the blue man next to him a curious look, "you never did tell me why you're helping me like this."

"Trust me," Drakken grinned. "As long as you wreck this night for Possible, helping you is reward enough for me as well. It will be like killing two birds with one stone. In more ways than one," he chortled evilly.

"Are you sure that he'll be picking up his date at the hospital? I mean, what if she's still not well enough to go?"

"She's not a patient there, you dolt," Drakken grunted. "She's in residency there as a brain surgeon. If she and Possible get through this date they'll get married and have a teen-aged cheerleading crime-fighting heroine of a daughter who…" He broke off as he became conscious of Drew's odd look. "Anyway, she's too good for him."

Drew gave Drakken a doubtful look. "You seem to know a lot about Possible."

"Oh, yes," Drakken replied. "I've spent a good deal of time researching the would-be Dr. Possible. And nothing would please me more than ruining his life, especially when it helps mine so much more."

By this time they had arrived at the employee entrance to the hospital on the edge of the parking area and quickly found a concealed place from which to observe. "I don't see Possible," Drew whispered.

"Trust me, he'll be here," Drakken replied. "Are the Bebes ready?"

"Bebes are functioning per-r-rfectly," they robots replied smoothly at Drew's inquiry.

Drew nodded. "Good. When I give the word, carry out your instructions."

"Understood," the Bebes answered in unison.

As the group watched a somewhat stiff young man in a suit and tie approached the entrance, glanced at his watch, and began to pace nervously. From time to time he would stop, adjust his tie or smooth his hair, and glance at the door. This went on for a couple minutes when the door opened and an attractive young woman in a dress emerged.

"You remembered," the woman said.

"Could I possible forget? Doctor's orders, you know," the man replied with a laugh.

The woman giggled. "You know, I never knew that scientists had a sense of humor," she told him, smoothing the lapels of his jacket.

"Well, don't trust stereotypes," the man replied. "After all, people don't think brain surgeons are young and beautiful, either." He brought his arm, which he had kept out of sight, from behind his back to proffer a small bouquet of flowers to the delighted young woman. "I got this from the hospital gift shop," he explained.

"Hypo-allergenic flowers! How sweet!" the woman gushed.

"Okay, that's it," Drakken muttered. "Let's do this before I'm violently ill."

Drew had been scribbling something in a notepad. "Flowers…compliments…suit and tie…humor…" he mumbled to himself.

Drakken glared at him. "This isn't a field trip on successful dating techniques," Drakken snapped. "It's a carefully planned operation. Now let's move it!"

"Right, whatever," Drew answered as he tucked the notepad into his pocket. Before he could say anything else, however, he heard a strangled gasp.

"No!" Drakken whispered hoarsely. "It can't be! Not her! Not here!" Drew followed Drakken's gaze to a young girl, perhaps 16 or 17, who had come through the employee's entrance. "Initiate Operation Double Strike! Now!"

Not sure why the appearance of the girl had upset the older man so, Drew simply ordered, "Bebes! Carry out your instructions!"

"Bebes will obey," the robots announced and dashed towards their target.

Kim, distracted by finding her mother and father, only became aware of the Bebes when they were almost upon her. She attempted to dive clear but was unable to entirely avoid a savage blow from one of the robots and went sprawling. The other two Bebes closed in on the other woman, who backed away from her inhuman assailants. James Possible instinctively moved to interpose himself between the threat and the woman.

"Just what do you think -" he began, but got no further. One of the Bebes lifted him up and flung him bodily away to land with a heavy thud on the parking lot surface. The other Bebe seized the woman and prepared to return its struggling captive to its master but was stopped in its tracks by a well-time drop kick that spun it about, forcing it to release the woman in order to retain its balance. Kim landed lightly in a crouch to confront the robots as they regrouped.

"I think the lady already has a date," Kim told them.

"Bebes will tolerate no interference," the Bebes announced together. "Bebes – attack!"

The robots moved to assail Kim and although they were not as sophisticated as the future Bebes she had fought, they were still fast, strong and relentless. Kim faced the impossible task of fending off her attackers while simultaneously keeping an eye on both of her future parents. Her mother, torn between helping Kim, going to her date's assistance, and running, stood rooted with indecision. As she stood there a pair of powerful hands seized her and turned her about. She stared in confusion and fear at the unfamiliar, scarred blue face.

"Hello," he said. "It's so nice to finally meet you."

"Drakken!" Kim shouted, pausing for an instant to take in her mother's plight. It was a costly mistake. A powerful blow from behind struck her head, causing her to collapse on the ground. The world spun about her and she lost consciousness. From far away she could hear a voice shouting for the Bebes to withdraw and then for a long time there was nothing. She became aware of someone cradling her head and and speaking.

"Are you all right?" a voice asked.

Kim opened her eyes to see a concerned face looking down at her. "What? How…how long…"

Her assistant carefully helped her to her feet. "They just left. I'm sorry you got hurt. But thanks for trying."

"You're bleeding," was all Kim could say.

The man touched his forehead and examined the blood on his fingers. "I've had worse. There was this one time when I was working with an ultracentrifuge and…" He stopped, aware of what he was saying. "Sorry. Not the time or place, is it?" He sighed and shook his head. "I have to admit that I never really thought that a first date would end like this. I'd better call the police."

Kim shook her head. "No time. We have to find her. We have to…" A wave of dizzying pain swept over her and she nearly collapsed again.

The man was at her side in an instant, supporting her. "Hey, are you sure you're all right? Maybe we'd better get inside and have a doctor take a look at you. You look kind of pale."

Kim wanted to assure him that she was all right, but couldn't summon the strength to answer. She started to lift her hand to her head, but stopped when she saw it. In the yellowish glow cast by the parking area's lights her hand was wan and indistinct. But it was not just pale. It was translucent, like a faded photographic slide. With her parents' first date in peril, Kim was ceasing to exist.

End of Chapter 16