Kim woke slowly. She was lying in the remains of her office, with something digging into her back. She groaned and rolled away from it. The battle suit had protected her. She was a little sore, but otherwise intact.
She sat up and looked around, trying to recover her bearings. There were small fires dancing in odd places. The CeCes were gone.
She stood and moved away from the building to get a better idea of the damage. As feared, it was extensive. The entire front of the building was destroyed by green plasma balls.
Just then, Ron, Bonnie, Tara, and Yori appeared through what was left of the entrance to the the back of the building.
"KIM!" shouted Ron, and ran to her, enveloping her in a hug. "Thank goodness! I was afraid..."
"I'm okay, Ron. How's everyone else?" Kim answered.
"They're all okay too. The Situation Room did its job and protected us. But most of the equipment is down," he answered.
The Kimmunicator beeped.
"What's the sitch, Wade?" she asked.
"Kim, you and Ron better head home! There are CeCes there!" he answered.
The couple looked at each other. "What about everyone else's homes?"
"They're okay, at least for now. GO!" he said.
She put away the Kimmunicator, and they hit the button activating the speed boots. Within seconds they were at the intersection where they separated to their own homes.
As Kim approached the house, she saw two CeCes standing in front, each holding a plasma ball, and aiming for the house.
"NO!" she screamed, and ran faster.
The plasma balls disappeared as the robots turned to her. "Intruder identified as Kim Possible," said one, but that was the last thing it would ever say.
The battle suit enhanced her strength, but nowhere near that of the CeCes. Nevertheless she slammed into them at top speed. But instead of just knocking them over, she picked them up and carried them down the hill to the duck pond near the house. Once there she let them go, and momentum carried them to the deepest part.
She turned off the boots, and watched them fall into the water. Then she was rewarded by the sounds and sight of them shorting out. She grinned. This bit of intelligence would make it possible to defeat Drakken's plan.
"A valiant effort, Kim Possible, but doomed to failure," said the voice of a CeCe behind her.
She turned quickly, just in time to see a third robot throw a plasma ball through a window.
Into Jim and Tim's room.
Where they kept their homemade rockets.
And the fuel for them.
Kim reached for the button to turn on the boots. She hoped to be able to get everyone out of the house before an explosion went off.
But fate was not kind to the young heroine. Almost instantly there was a blindingly white fireball that engulfed the house, even as the walls and roof were blown away.
The shockwave picked her up and threw her across the duck pond, where she landed in some brush and was stunned.
When she sat up, she saw the house was gone. Fires raged all over the top of the hill. Flaming debris had fallen on nearby houses, and was spreading the fire.
"MOM! DAD! JIM! TIM!" she shouted, running up as close as she could. The intense heat kept her back, despite the battle suit.
"WHERE ARE YOU?" she shouted.
There was no reply; just the sound of debris falling back down.
'Maybe they weren't home,' she thought. Just then she caught sight of the family car, what was left of it, where the garage had been.
She looked around and found the CeCe that had thrown the plasma ball half-melted and on fire. She gave it no more thought, and pulled out the Kimmunicator just before it beeped.
"Kim! I've--" Wade started.
"WADE! Is my family in there?" she interrupted, pointing the camera at the raging conflagration.
"I-- I don't..." she heard the click of keys. "I can't tell, there's nothing left! Let me check something... The last internal security scan I did was an hour ago, and everyone was home then."
She dropped the Kimmunicator, fell to her knees, crying, and the world went dark.
kpkpkp
"Kim!" said a familiar voice, breaking through the darkness of misery and despair. She felt familiar hands on her shoulders, lifting her up. Arms found their way around her, and she took comfort in them.
"Ron... my family... everybody..." she said, choking to hold back tears.
"I know, Kim, I know. My parents too," he said, hugging her even tighter.
The tears flowed freely from the young lovers, even as fire and rescue workers appeared on the scene. EMTs came up to them, and Ron assured them they were okay. The members of Kim's family had been inside, he told them.
"Was it one of those robots?" asked a policeman, gently leading them away from the remains of the house as firemen swarmed over it and the other houses on fire.
Suddenly Kim looked up at the officer, face calm. "Yes. Listen, this is very important. The CeCe robots are very strong, very fast, and very smart. But they are not waterproof. I've beaten three with water."
The policeman nodded. I'll spread the word," he assured them.
They gave their statements, and accepted a ride back to Team Possible Headquarters. Kim sat, calm and collected. Ron watched her carefully.
Leaving the police car, they approached the building, studying the damage. It seemed to be confined to the front, where the offices were. The rest of the field team came out to greet them, expressing relief they were okay.
"Our families are dead, and our houses destroyed," Kim told them in an emotionless voice.
The others reached for her, but she stopped them with a raised hand. "I'll grieve later. Right now we have a job to do."
Stunned, everyone watched her walk into the building. Then they turned to Ron.
"I've seen her do this before," he told them. "Because of my training, I can suspend my emotions, but I'll have to deal with them sooner or later."
Yori nodded knowingly.
"But she turns hergrief to ice, and herrage to determination. God help Drakken when she finds him, and anybody who even thinks of getting in her way," he said.
They caught up with Kim just as she stepped into the Situation Room. Monique and Adrena were at the console, but the screens had nothing but static.
"What's the sitch?" Kim asked.
"We're trying to get back on line," answered Monique.
Just then Francis stuck his head in the door. He was dirty, and carrying some tools. "Okay, I've spliced the broken cables. Try it now," he said.
Several switches were flipped, and the monitors cleared up. There were cheers all around.
One of the monitors was set to the Middleton News Network.
"...I'm Tricia Lebowski. Word has just come in that the women dressed in green who are resposible for the destruction and killing are robots named 'CeCe'. We have also been told that they are succeptable to water. I repeat, water."
Kim smiled grimly. The policeman had passed the word.
A piece of paper was handed to Tricia. "This just in. The worldwide death toll is now estimated to be..." her eyes got big, and she looked at someone off-camera. "Is this right?" she asked.
She didn't like whatever the answer was, and turned back to the viewers. "The worldwide death toll is estimated to be eight hundred thousand people, and it has only been three hours since the first reported attack."