KP – One Oh One: Part XLV – The Fly in the Ointment
Bluish white fire crackled to life in the darkened corridor. It lit up Gemini's face briefly as he searched for a manual door release. While the electrical discharge function of his bionic hand was primarily intended as an offensive weapon, it gave off just enough light for him to see by. His mind was a trifle too busy at the moment to wonder why the emergency lighting had come on only in the command center and not in the escape tunnel. The two systems were supposed to be linked. He could only guess that whatever had cut the main power may have caused the blackout unintentionally.
He sensed rather than heard the person behind him. Whirling around, he grabbed the figure by his heavy jacket, spinning him around and pinning him to the wall with his real hand.
"I thought we agreed we would not install a self-destruct device in this facility?" His eyes narrowed.
In the bluish light afforded by the artificial limb, Dementor looked more sickly than ever. His jaundiced appearance sickened Gemini, but he put up with the stunted Professor simply because he needed him and his men while he put his organization back on its feet.
"I did no such thing. I thought you had it installed without my knowledge." Dementor pleaded.
Gemini tightened his grip, causing the short, blocky man to cringe. "What purpose would that serve? The whole point to building this base was to create a new hidden headquarters for WWEE. I did not want it destroyed the first time we had prisoners!"
The countdown sounded once more. Strange that, with the power off to the lighting and the controls that the public address system still seemed operational. Dementor flailed around with his tiny legs. "I would suggest we take this up at another time BEFORE WE ARE BLOWN TO BITS."
"ONE MINUTE, THIRTY SECONDS TO SELF DESTRUCT. ALL PERSONELL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
"You have a point." He simply released Dementor, letting him drop to the floor. He turned his attention back to the hidden manual controls, trying to release the door."
Rubbing her sore wrists, Kim surveyed the control center. The operators and Henchmen still able to had already beat a hasty retreat. She stepped over one of the gray clad men who had succumbed to the onslaught of her mystically powered fiancé, heading straight for the one console that had power.
Ron dropped down from the platform he had been standing on, rushing up to her. "KP, maybe we'd better get out of here!"
She tilted her head to a pair of guards slumped against each other. "Not while there are still people here. They may be the bad guys, but I'm not leaving them here!"
"Kim, I'm all about the noble, but we can be noble and we can be dead. Come on, there's nothing we can do here!"
"No. Don't forget, they've got the pilot in here too. I'm not leaving without trying to save everyone." She surveyed the console, trying to decipher its purpose. Considering there was a large, retro styled microphone set in its center, she figured it was either part of the public address system, or an external communications board. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be labeled save for a computer style keyboard set into it.
"ONE MINUTE, THIRTY SECONDS TO SELF DESTRUCT. ALL PERSONELL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
Ron grabbed her arm. "There's no time. KP, it's going to take us at least that long to find a way out of here!"
Kim shook him off and shot a glare at him. "Look, try to find something else in here that works!"
He looked at her for a few seconds, considering what may happen if he grabbed her around the waist and carried her out. She was incredibly strong for her size, but she was still a rather petite woman. Even before he had begun his physical training or started growing again, he had been able to sling her over his shoulder and swing down from the upper framework of the Tri-City convention center, though she had been unconscious at the time. Kicking and screaming, he didn't know if he would be able to handle her.
She apparently wasn't thinking clearly. It tore at his gut that they might not be able to save everyone, but it was really simple math. Two people alive at the end was better than nobody alive, and he didn't want to be blown up or buried in rubble.
Two people? Hadn't he heard Rufus during the melee? He quickly cast about, looking for his little buddy. If anyone was responsible for the blackout, it was him. In the dim red light he couldn't see him, though what he did see almost made him sick.
Standing not ten feet away from them was what had to be Gemini's chihuahua, though he looked more like a cartoon bulldog with a little tiny head than the little toy-sized dog he had seen previously. His fangs protruded from his mouth, much like that squirrel/rat thing in that CGI movie from a few years ago. Old fear kicked in, ranging from over-sized squirrels with an attitude at Camp Wannaweep, to the mutant dachshunds Dementor had employed in the past.
What had happened was immediately apparent, even to his slightly slower working mind. The same thing that had almost happened to him had apparently already been tested on Pepe. The animal had gone from being an odd combination of annoying and cute to just plain ugly and disgusting.
The strangest thing was, instead of standing there growling, or yapping as his breed was wont to do, he was just wagging his tail, apparently smiling at the two of them.
"ONE MINUTE, TO SELF DESTRUCT. ALL PERSONELL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
He came to a decision. Even if they went back the way they had been brought in, it would take at least that long at a dead run. They were past the point of no return. It was either disable the device somehow or die trying. He scanned the other consoles, racing from one to another trying buttons and switches. Nothing seemed to be happening. The only board with any kind of power at all was the one Kim was trying to work.
Something else was tickling the back of his mind. Something seemed familiar. Of course, he had been held captive at WWEE's Atlantic headquarters for a time, but this place was built much more along the lines of Dementor's usual lairs, although he either hadn't had time to erect statues and busts of himself, or hadn't been allowed in his partnership with Gemini.
Lacking any means of controlling it, Ron set out to find the explosive devices themselves. Maybe if he could disable enough of them they would be protected from the main blast. They would likely still be trapped underground, but that was better than being dead.
The only problem was he didn't know what he was looking for. In all the times they had fled bases about to go up in smoke he had never seen the devices themselves. Certainly it wasn't as simple as a bundle of dynamite strapped to a support beam or something similar.
Kim had hit just about every button on the console. So far all she had managed to do was make a few lights on it change color. A clock was ticking away in her mind's eye, running quickly toward the end. The longer it took, the more she realized Ron had been right, but now it was too late to do anything besides what she was trying to do. She said a silent prayer, half in her familiar language, half in the little bit of Hebrew she had been learning at Ron's temple. Kim didn't plan it that way, but that's how it came out.
"THIRTY SECONDS TO SELF DESTRUCT. ALL PERSONELL EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
Thirty seconds to live. Thirty seconds to find a way to shut the self destruct system off and save themselves and the dozen or so unconscious guards, as well as the pilot whose location remained unknown. Thirty seconds left with Ron, the man she loved with all her heart. Suddenly, with only perhaps ten seconds to go, she slumped down in the seat, apparently giving up. Closing her eyes, she waited for the inevitable to come. A pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders as the voice started the final countdown. She put her hands over Ron's, squeezing them tight.
"TEN…NINE…EIGHT…"
Wait! There was something familiar about that voice! Could it be?
"…SEVEN…SIX…FIVE…"
Kim started laughing, relief flooding through her and she had to catch herself from letting another kind of relief happen."
"…ONE…"
She felt Ron's arms tense up around her, his body engulfing hers as if there was some way he could shield her from the blast. It never came.
"CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE JUST BEEN BLOWN UP BY THE KIMSPLOSIVE THREE THOUSAND. HICK-A-BICK-A-BOO?"
"HOO-SHA!" Echoed another, very similar voice.
Kim twisted around slightly so she could see Ron's face. He cracked one eye open, looking from side to side. "Where's the boom?" He asked, as if he couldn't believe they were still alive.
"Ronnie, we're okay. It's the Tweebs! They're here!"
He opened both eyes, but otherwise didn't move a muscle. "What? How?"
"Don't know, don't care. Come on, new plan. Time to go after the bad guys."
He slowly unwrapped his arms from her shoulders, standing up straight. He looked a little wobbly, which was fine considering what he had just gone and what he expected to happen to them.
A small weight landed on his shoulders. Rufus was absolutely beaming, pointing at the altered pooch wagging his tail nearby.
"Way to go Rufus. Guess that mutant wiener dog call works on those mutant rat-dogs too."
"Uh huh." He squeaked.
Kim dropped down to the main floor, trying to figure out which way the two villains had gone. That was proving almost impossible, as there were half a dozen identical looking passages leading away from the main chamber.
One of the nearby operatives moaned. He was wearing the green uniform now favored by the WWEE agents and there was a Greek letter Beta on his lapels. Kim turned him over and grabbed him by those lapels. "Which way would Gemini go to escape?"
"Don't know." He gasped, slowly coming to.
Another set of emergency lights came to life, along with several more consoles. Ron examined what he could, but still couldn't quite make heads or tails of the whole arrangement. "Which one is the jamming device?" He shouted toward them.
"It would have been disabled when the main power was cut. Same with communications."
Kim let him go and climbed back up to the console she had been attempting to operate. The only thing she could see was the set of red tell tales she made come to life earlier. She tried the same sequence of buttons again, with no effect. Whatever she had done before couldn't be undone unless somebody knew how the thing actually worked.
Ron spotted something, heading toward what looked just like any other computer bank in the control center. He dropped to one knee and picked something up off the floor, staring at the console. When the main emergency power had come online, it remained dark, while all around the rest at least had blinking red lights on them.
"Find something?" Kim approached, not in as big a hurry as they weren't about to be blown up.
"Here." He pushed a small silver item into her hands. It was his Kimmunicator, apparently dropped by Gemini as he fled.
Kim spotted the same thing about the dead computer console. She walked right up to it and started pushing and pulling on it. Right under the lip of the desk-like work top something clicked softly and the whole thing slid silently aside.
The passage beyond was completely dark, though from the dim red lights of the operations center she could tell it went gradually upwards, at least where they could see. Working the controls on the Kimmunicator, she made the main screen emit a steady, powerful beam of light. Using it like a flashlight, they crept up the tunnel.
It ended in a steel door, much like one would expect to find on a naval ship, only there was no great wheel in the middle of it. Again she started searching for a hidden lever. Ron came up beside her, watching what she was doing, though the beam was just slightly too concentrated to allow him to perform his own search.
As the effects of adrenaline and the monkey power faded, his bruised and battered body was starting to complain again. One ankle didn't completely want to support his weight, so he put and arm out and leaned on the outer edge of the door. Once more there was a soft clicking sound and the door swung inwards.
Kim turned to him and smiled. "Should have let you try first, you and your 'dumb skills.'"
Outside light spilled in as the door opened. They were still deep in the forest, but compared to the darkness they had been in, it took their eyes a moment to adjust. There was just enough of a gap in the trees for them to figure something had been hidden there, perhaps an escape pod much like the one they had used to flee WWEE's original headquarters.
"They're gone, again." Kim said disgustedly. She leaned her back against the doorway and hit the call button on the Kimmunicator, shutting off the light. Wade's stricken face immediately appeared.
"Kim! What's going on? We've been worried sick since we lost contact with the hoverjet!"
"Long story. See if you can track a small vehicle that might have left here in the last ten minutes. We're heading back inside to see if we can find the pilot."
"I'm on it. Kim, keep an eye out. I lost contact with your brothers too. They were supposed to be shadowing you in the new flyer."
"I think they just helped save us. Any word from GJ what all this was supposed to be about?"
"Nada. They clammed up the moment they lost contact. I'll let you know, Wade out."
By the time they got back into the main chamber, Tim and Jim were already in there. Jim was busy using zip ties they had salvaged from one of the guard's gear to bind the unconscious and semi-conscious personnel until more help could arrive. Tim was busy chattering away with somebody over his wrist Kimmunicator, though they couldn't tell if it was Wade or somebody at GJ.
"I could kill the two of you for doing that." Kim said before sweeping the two of them into a hug.
"It's all we could think of…" Jim started.
"When we hacked into their systems, the only thing that was working was the PA system." Tim finished.
"Yeah, worked great too. You should have seen all those guys running out of here, just like roaches when the lights get turned on."
Kim nodded. "We need to be careful. Some of these guys are pretty heavily armed."
"We noticed." Jim said, struggling free of his sister's arms. "Come on, we've got to get out of here before some of them notice the place didn't go up."
"Wade said you came in his flyer. I didn't think it was ready yet." Ron said as he surveyed a console that looked as if it were displaying a map.
"It's not the greatest." Jim explained
"But it's pretty fast. Just needs those new engines he's working on." Tim finished.
"KP, I think I've found where they might be keeping the pilot." Ron pointed to a spot on the map labeled 'infirmary.'
"We were trying to follow you, but that hoverjet was faster than we expected."
"When we fell behind, we missed it getting shot down."
"And when we lost communications, we realized they were being jammed."
"Good thing we had Wade's stealth systems running. They didn't even see us."
"Yeah. We circled back and spotted the wreckage."
"So we landed and started looking for you."
"Stupid patrols led us right into the place."
Ron clamped his hands to the sides of his head. "Gah, can't the two of you every speak at one time? You're giving me a headache."
"Sorry." They said in unison.
"Okay, let's just get the pilot and get out of here before the guys with the guns come back." Kim said, starting off toward the infirmary.
Sherry let herself down slowly on the narrow bed she had been using. She missed her large, soft bed at her cabin terribly, but at least it was better than possibly being captured by Global Justice, or any one of a dozen official entities that still wanted her. She was still thankful that Kimmie had seen fit to protect her from Doctor Director that day, though she couldn't quite fathom why.
That wouldn't have helped her if they had shown up on her doorstep after her former nemesis had left, however. She grabbed what she could and headed to one of her safe houses in Middleton. In the past she would have been loath to reveal its location, even to Drakken, but now he was in the same boat as she was, and in her current condition he was really the only thing protecting them if something were to happen.
Cold comfort that was. Without his gear, or the time to do anything with it, he wasn't really much more than an untrained civilian. About the only time she had ever seen him personally lift a finger during a fight was to start kicking Stoppable, or to get into a slap-fight with him as his schemes crumbled around them. On the other hand, his attitude about her had changed somewhat. Despite his lack of skill, he seemed almost like a pit bull any more. They would sit for hours sometimes in their hideout, just staring at each other. The looks he gave her when they knew they were alone were melancholy and almost tender.
Her mind was so clouded any more she didn't know what to think of it. Logically, she knew that her hormones were raging out of control as she got closer to giving birth. Her heart ached that she had not been able to see Kimmie's mother since right after she was freed from WWEE's clutches. Once Amethyst was born and she had her strength back, she was going to pay that bearded jackass a personal visit, and despite the fact the authorities were able to track her when she did so, she was going to be at full power. Gemini was going to eat one of her fists as it blazed with her green glow, and that was the least of what she was considering doing to him.
She hated being like she was. It was like she weighed three times what she normally did. It didn't help that she often didn't even feel like getting out of bed. The food they had on hand didn't help matters any either, but that was the best they could come up with since they didn't want to be spotted. Sometimes her mouth watered thinking there was a small grocery store only about half an hour's walk away, though with her being the size of an elephant, it might as well have been a hundred miles away.
Drakken was no help there himself. Without access to any makeup, he was just as blue as he ever was. His looks just called too much attention to him. It would be so simple if he had the same ability to shut off his power and appear normal, but his skin color wasn't actually tied to anything. Her skin was normal when it wasn't glowing with her power. His skin was just plain baby blue. It struck her as slightly odd that he actually was kind of cute that way. Made up to look normal he was just that, completely normal and average looking.
She shook her head, trying to clear it. Must be the hormones talking, she thought. Her idea of a good looking man was a tall, strong specimen of the male species, with pale blue eyes and soft brown hair. That's what Amethyst's late father had looked like. Oh well, no sense pining after the dead. He main focus in life was giving birth to his child and trying to put that life back together for her sake. Sherry had no idea how she would accomplish that, but somehow or another she would succeed.
Amethyst was not going to be raised as a villain. She would do anything in her power to make that so.
She leaned over as much as her swollen body would allow. For the past couple days she had been nauseous, though nothing had come up. There wasn't that much in her stomach anyhow. It amazed her she could be hungry and feel like throwing up at the same time.
Drakken started awake on his nearby cot, looking at her in the half-light of the abandoned warehouse they were living in. He looked like a little boy, lost in a world he could no longer control. He opened his mouth to say something but she shot him a glare that caused those words to die on his tongue.
"Something's wrong." She croaked quietly. Her arms wrapped around her midsection and she would have doubled over. He was with her instantly, kneeling in front of her, trying to take her hands.
"Shego, maybe you should have gone to the bathroom if you needed to go."
She glanced down, following his eyes. Her black jeans were indeed soaked. "I didn't…oh God no. Not now! Not yet! I'm not due for two more weeks."
"What are you talking about?" He asked, confusion evident on his face.
"Drakken...Drew, I think my water broke!" The look on her face was so anguished he almost broke down.
Instead, he put his arms under hers and hauled her to her feet. "Come on, we're getting you to a doctor."
Him saying that seemed sort of odd to her. "I thought that's what you were, Doctor Drakken." She smiled slightly, making her wonder if she had such a good hold on her sanity at that moment.
"Not that kind of doctor."
"No. They'll take me away. They'll take her from me."
"Shut up, Shego. Right now that's not important. Besides, I'm taking you to the one doctor I think we can trust, not that we have any choice. That's is, just walk with me. I'll help you. I promise you, nobody is ever going to take her away from you."
"Drew…I'm scared."
"Shego, I'm about to wet my pants as well, but it's going to be okay. Let's just get you to Dr. Possible."
He slowly led her away, not noticing the fly that left it's perch halfway up the wall, following them out to the shabby panel van they were using as a vehicle.
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