The two stood opposite each other for what seemed like an eternity, their gazes meeting one another with equal resolve. Their dueling stares never broke, even as Slade reset his broken arm with one swift movement, prompting a loud crunching sound. This was it. Win or loose, this would be their final battle.
"So, after all this, here we are. Just the two of us, as it was meant to be. No help, no sidekicks, no more tricks or surprises. You're all alone Kim, just as you were always meant to be."
"Yeah, you're in real trouble alright." Kim spoke with utter conviction in her voice. As she stood there, in that moment in time, she finally understood what it had been about Slade that made him so scary, so fearsome, over all the other madmen and deranged crackpots that she had met in her life.
Nothing.
Whatever she had seen in him that made him so scary, that had forced her fears to the surface, was within her own mind, and nowhere else. He was a villain, just like any other. But she was Kim Possible, and there was only one thing left for her to do, just like with any other villain.
"I'm going to beat you." Kim reached quickly into her suits belt to retrieve a small number of pellets, which she quickly hurled at Slade's feet. As they landed, they lightly exploded, releasing a cloud of smoke that completely consumed Slade's entire figure.
Slade took a moment to try and scan through the smoke only to see Kim leap out at him with a kick straight to the face. Slade was knocked back, only to recover and launch a counter attack with his right palm. His blow landed hard on Kim's cheek, and Slade pressed his attack with a sweep that knocked her off her feet.
Slade threatened to bring his fist down right on top of Kim's ribs, but Kim rolled away, causing Slade's fist to impact and dent the concrete floor beneath. Slade looked over to Kim's form just as she kicked out again at his face.
Slade was taken aback momentarily, but recovered almost immediately. As Kim leapt to her feet, Slade leapt over her, grabbing her from behind in a steel like grip with his arms around her in a bear hug. Kim could feel his inhuman grip tightening around her, his breath sending shivers down her spine as it blew harshly over her neck.
"I should have known you were too blind to see the truth, even when it was right in front of you the whole time." Slade berated directly into her ear.
"Yeah, I'm kinda rebellious like that." Kim brought her feet together, and with all her flexibility, kicked them both up together at an almost impossible angle right into Slade's face. Slade's grip loosened as Kim fell to her feet. "It's a teen thing. But then you should know all about that, right? You know everything else about me."
Slade and Kim traded blows. Attack. Block. Counter attack. Deflect. Back and forth, the two moved in a stalemate. "You show up out of nowhere, read my website, talk to my least favorite villain in the world, and you think you know everything there is to know about me right?"
Kim took an opening in Slade's defense to land a blow right to his mask again. "You follow me around, try to pick apart at my life like some kind of sick and twisted game."
Kim followed through with a swipe that picked Slade clean off of his feet.
"You do everything you can to pick and poke at me, trying to tear away at my layers till you get to what's lying underneath. Well you want to know what's underneath the teen, and the super hero, and the cheer leader, and the girlfriend?" Slade leapt back to his feet only to be on the receiving end of another round house.
"Me."
Slade seemed to be reeling back from the pain. It was obvious that even he was not completely immune to the battering he was taking.
"Of course sometimes, even I forget that. That's why I have the most wonderful guy in the whole world to remind me. He's always there for me, keeping the hero, and cheer leader and everyone else from getting caught up in everything else. And you knew that. That's why you tried to separate us, why you tried to get me to do your dirty work and hurt him for you. Well keep dreaming, you sick…"
Kim punched out again, but this time, her fist was caught squarely in Slade's palm.
"How disappointing." Slade snapped Kim's fist back, causing more bone to crack. Kim was taken aback by the sharp pain in her wrist, and didn't have time to react as Slade's fist crashed right into her stomach, uplifting her an inch off the ground before dropping her back down, leaving her hunched over, gasping for air.
"I offered you the world, Kim Possible; a greatness that few in their lives can ever even dream of achieving, and you would rather remain a cheerleader?" Slade grabbed Kim by her hair, forcing her face down into the ground, his words burning into her ears.
"So not the drama." Kim responded weakly as he raised her face up momentarily. At this, Slade roared in anger. His grip on her scalp still firm, Slade lifted her into the air, only to hurl her straight into the side of the lair wall. Kim's body landed with a painful thud that echoed throughout the entire chamber.
"What a waste." Slade commented to himself. However, his victory was shattered by an inhuman cry that tore through the room.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Ron Stoppable flew through the air with power and fury unlike any ever seen in his life, his right leg crashing into the side of Slade's head, knocking him to the ground.
Slade had had all the surprises that he could stand for one day, which made the sight of his former, living weapon, standing in front of him with murderous intent, more than he was willing to put up with. "You ungrateful little whelp." Slade's voice dripped bloody murder as he rose to face this last little nuisance. "I made you what you are."
"That's funny, 'cause I'm going to take you apart."
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Drakken looked on at the theatre of events unfolding before him with awe. Now the buffoon was fighting? This was definitely the eleventh hour. Kim was down for the count, and Shego was being torn apart from within on the other side of the room.
Drakken took in his situation, assessing his assets, which were none. His robot was completely trashed. Spare sparks and billows of smoke continued to leap up from its damaged frame. Drakken thought for a moment, examining the robots remains. The power core he had gotten from Dementor might still be intact, but there was nothing left for it to power.
It was obvious that Slade had cleared out most of Drakken's other weapons and devices. He remembered he had a spare weapons closet hidden within his lair that even Shego didn't know about. It was possible that Slade might have missed it as well, but there was nothing in there any more devastating or powerful than the armored behemoth that Slade had already reduced to scrape metal. Nothing that he wouldn't easily be able to disarm or disable without consequence.
Dismissing his weapons, Drakken attempted to concentrate on Shego's predicament. It seemed obvious that their best chance for victory lay in bringing her back into the fight, but how?
Suddenly an idea came to him. Hoping that it wasn't already too late, and praying that Slade had been too absorbed in his obsession with Kim to find the closet, Drakken tore off into the depths of his layer.
"Just hope that buffoon can hold his own."
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Ron circled Slade wearily until finally coming between him and Kim's laying form. Never once taking his gaze from Slade's unmoving figure, Ron knelt down to check on Kim. Kim gave only a slight moan in response to Ron's touch. That was enough.
"How touching, but do you honestly believe you could really stop me from hurting her if I wanted, little man?"
"Last time I checked, those are my bike's tire treads you're wearing."
Slade dropped his stance and came forward, running at Ron with a fast right. Ron dodged the attack then returned with an uppercut, but Slade was too fast and Ron's attack went wide, giving Slade an opening to deal a solid blow into Ron's side. As Ron doubled over in pain, Slade grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt and lifted him up to meet his gaze, face to face.
"When I found you, you were worthless. A pathetic specimen. I made you into something formidable, and I know my own handiwork. I know all your limitations better than you do."
Ron's hand tensed forward again, adopting the same strength and pose that he had back in the woods. "A dagger" he reminded himself. This time his hand shot out squarely at Slade's throat, causing the villain to spit blood through his mask as he dropped Ron to his feet.
"There's something new for you." Ron's fist connected squarely with Slade's jaw, even as he attempted to keep his broken arm unexposed. Ron allowed himself to open his mind again to the thoughts that Slade had placed in him. Instincts and reflexes not his own. They were Slade's; Ron was just going to give them back.
Ron leapt backwards, bringing his feet up and into Slade's face as he did. As he landed, Ron brought his broken arm up, resetting it in one loud, painful movement as he did. Testing his arm's strength, he delivered another blow to Slade's masked face, drawing more blood in the process.
"I can still hear you, Slade. All those dark whispers, those inner voices you put inside my head, telling me to fight, to kill. I can still hear them. I can still hear you. So now you're going to hear me. First, I'm going to hurt you." Ron spun around with a savage roundhouse. Slade stumbled back and Ron leapt forward with a dropkick of his own, knocking Slade to the ground.
"This could go on for some time by the way." Ron added. "Then, one way or another, whether or I have to enforce it or not, you are never going to go near Kim ever again because if you do, I'll hurt you again." Tears streamed out of Ron's eyes as rage dripped from his voice. Slade rose and countered with a punch to Ron's face but the young man merely caught the attack between his two hands, snapping Slade's wrist downward, eliciting another loud crack.
"You can't give back what you've taken from me, but so help me, if you ever try to do to Kim what you've done to me…" Ron left this threat unfinished as he delivered one final crushing kick that sent Slade flying.
The masked madman landed hard on the ground, and did not rise. For a moment, there was nothing. Stillness, pure silence filled the room, save for Shego's restrained cries of agony off to the side.
Ron took no notice of this. Instead, slowly, cautiously, he walked over to Slade's still form, lightly taping the villain's side with his own foot, expecting movement of some kind. Yet Slade lay completely unmoving. For a moment, a horrific thought entered his mind.
But Ron was spared the guilt of murder as Slade snapped to, leaping up and slamming his fist hard across Ron's face. The young man was caught completely off guard, and could do nothing to stave off the tidal wave of pain that over took him as he was sent back, crumbling to the floor.
It was unreal. Slade was inhuman. In spite of it all, how could he continue to fight? His will was unnatural. Ron could speculate at the kind of cruelty needed to keep someone going after all this.
"Ronald, perhaps I misjudged you. It seems you have more of a backbone that I gave you credit for. I think I'll use it to strangle your girlfriend with." But as Slade reached out for Ron's bruised and helpless form, an irritatingly familiar voice shouted from across the room.
"Hey Slade," Drakken stood across the room, holding a large device in hand, with various cords running from its side into the body of the mechanical goliath Drakken had broken in with earlier. "Guess who found their spare EMP generator just gathering dust?"
Drakken didn't wait for a response as he activated the controls. The machine hummed loudly, vibrating in increasing intensity and volume, the charge within building and building until discharge.
Though the loud shriek from the device suggested a horrific explosion of some kind was about to occur, the effect was rather anticlimactic at first. The lights throughout the lair fell into darkness, leaving the entire room to be illuminated only by the sunlight that leaked in through Drakken's earlier incursion.
"Guess you're in trouble now." Ron spoke weakly as he unsteadily rose to his feet.
"A battered buffoon and a worthless insect are hardly a grave concern of mine." Slade spoke, unconcerned with this latest development. "And I don't need any toys to deal with you."
"Wasn't talking about me, ugly." As Ron spoke, his words were punctuated by a sight that Ron never expected to be happy to see in his entire life. A familiar emerald energy burned into Slade's side, sending him stumbling over.
Standing up tall and proud was a disturbingly pleasant sight.
"What do you know? Guess the doctor knew what he was doing after all." Even as Shego spoke, Slade struggled to stand up, but failed horribly. For all his strength, his will, even his body had its limits. Yet he still refused to submit. Rolling onto his hands, he slowly moved to crawl away, desperate to escape Shego, until a familiar red head in a blue and white jump suit moved to block his pitiful escape.
"Going my way?" Kim asked as she kicked out, sending Slade reeling over, back to the floor.
Slade was out of options. Nothing left, his body was spent, save for one last simple trick. Reaching quickly into his belt, Slade produced an object unmistakably recognized by all present.
"A grenade, get clear!" Kim spoke in a general warning, even as she moved to clear Ron away, pushing him to safety, even as Shego moved of her own power out of range.
But the grenade did not release the explosion expected. Even as it went off in Slade's hand, an enormous billow of smoke rose out, spreading at alarming speed through the room. Fortunately, the draft created by the enormous hole in the ceiling acted quickly to vent the smoke, yet even as it cleared, everyone looked on to see no Slade.
"Damn it!" Shego growled in frustration, her eyes flying up in aggravation before finally settling on Ron and Kim. "Well now, at least there's a nice consolation prize." Shego grinned as her hands began glowing again.
"Nice nose." Kim spoke with iron resolve. Shego growled in response, but the two were cut off as Drakken interrupted them.
"Forget it. Come on Shego, we've got some hunting to do." Drakken didn't bother to wait for Shego's acknowledgement as he turned and ran deeper into his lair.
Kim and Shego never once broke their stand off, until finally Shego relented. "Next time princess, we finish it."
"Get lost." Kim managed to spit out. Shego just turned and chased after Drakken.
Letting out a breath of relief, Kim turned to Ron, the young man's face covered in his own blood, his lips unnaturally discolored from some swelling as assorted bruises decorated his entire body.
Kim herself was no better off. She spit an unsettling amount of blood from her mouth, her hand moving to smooth a bump of her own just over her left eye.
The pair never said a word. They just collapsed from exhaustion in each other's arm, lying out on the cold hard floor in each other's warm embrace, keeping each other safe as they slept.