The Trinity Sitch - Book 1: They Say Everyone Has a Twin
Kim Possible and related characters are the property of Disney. Jimmy Argus, Dona (pronounced like Donna) Argus, Murky Bedarest, Tinker Peterson and Gary Garrett and other characters and situations from Intergalax are my property.
There is now a prequel to this story - It Finally Happened starting from the moment at the prom right after Bonnie said those words. It's not necessary to read it first, but you might find it fun!
Dona Argus was now certain…
…this was most definitely not her Earth.
Oh, it certainly looked like the Earth she was familiar with, or at least had been when she was a teenager. That was a world she had last seen at the end of the twentieth century, a world that had been taken away from her in the fall of 1999 when, along with the man who would soon be her husband and another who would become their best friend, she stumbled onto a small but powerful starship. Quite by accident, they managed to reactivate the craft and it executed its last instructions; return home. That didn't mean another world, it meant another time, whisking the trio almost five centuries into the future.
The three of them eventually went on with their lives in that distant future. Dona soon married Jimmy and they made that world, that time their home as it was supposed to be impossible to return. Over many years they had come to accept that.
Yet here she was back in a world that looked amazingly like the one she had left behind.
Something had happened when they tried to telewarp from the colony world of Firestone to Earth. Sure, Earth was there when they emerged, but something was definitely wrong. For starters, where were all the ships? There should have been thousands of ships in orbit, either parked there or awaiting clearance to land or depart. They simply were not there! Well, it didn't take the ship's computer long to figure out, based on the relative position of the stars, that it was in fact not the late Twenty-Fifth Century but in fact the early Twenty-First. The odd thing is, the ship insisted they had not back-timed, an accident that happened very occasionally in the early days of Telewarp travel. No, something else had happened.
That was just the beginning. The details were completely out of whack. Cities that were supposed to be there simply weren't, while other population centers appeared where nothing should have been. The vast memory of their ship's computer contained records from the apparent time period and they appeared to be completely wrong. After some discussion they decided it would be better to land rather than risk being detected. There wasn't supposed to be any technology that could spot them, but they weren't willing to take that chance. A random selection of a medium sized town led them here.
Murky Bedarest, the other man who had been with them from the past, hovered nearby almost protectively. "We're definitely not in Kansas any more." He said with mock gravity. "Apparently this place is called Middleton." He said, scanning a map taped in the window of a gas station. "I've never heard of it. You'd think a place this size would have been on our maps, not to mention I've never heard of there being any kind of space travel research going on in this part of the country."
"I never heard of a space center in Colorado myself, but that's where Tinker picked up the landing transponder signal." Dona said, studying the map herself. "I still don't get it, if the Valkyrie doesn't think we went back in time, how the heck did we happen to end up in 2005?"
"Well, Tinker did say something about crossing a dimensional barrier or some mumbo-jumbo like that." He said. "Huh, this map was printed in 1998, so I guess there's no pretending this is a new city." That theory had already been pretty much discounted, as most of the building looked far too old to have been built after 1999.
About then one of their other companions reappeared. Tinker, a wiry engineer who had been born in the future returned, carrying something rolled up in his hands. "Money problem solved!" he announced, handing out the loot.
"How did you get your hands on the cash?" Murky asked.
"Tied into the computer network and accessed some accounts. It was a simple enough job getting one of the cash dispensing machines to cough it up."
"Tinker, that's stealing" Dona admonished, a shocked expression on her face.
Tinker just grinned at her. "Actually, no. Think of it as getting some money back you thought you'd lost."
"I don't understand?" she said, now looking perplexed.
"Well, I got to looking around in some bank accounts. No harm, since I wasn't going to do anything with the info, but I ran across a couple old accounts I think the bank missed. That money literally belongs to one James Neil Argus of Charlotte, North Carolina. There was several thousand in the account and I pulled out a couple hundred." Tinker looked like the cat who had swallowed the canary.
Murky scratched his head. "Okay, so we disappeared in 1999…it's now 2005. So, for almost six years Jimmy's money sat in a bank account and it didn't go to his parents or his brother?"
"You want me to clean the rest of it out?" Tinker asked, still thinking it was just a forgotten account.
"No, I don't." Dona answered him. "I'm somehow getting the really strong impression this isn't out Earth at all and who's to say whether we even disappeared from this world. You said it yourself, we crossed some kind of dimensional barrier into another version of Earth, one where it's still 2005 and not 2490. You may have just stolen money from a completely different Jimmy Argus!"
"Darn it. I didn't even consider that." That counted as high profanity from the gentle mechanic. He turned his attention to his portable computer screen. "You're right, Dona. I didn't even think to look at the account history. Seems he's putting money in and taking it out all the time. It's a checking account!"
"Well, if this version of Jimmy is as much my soul-mate as mine, he's not going to miss a couple hundred dollars. We need it badly enough…" She trailed off, watching Murky check himself out in the reflection of a store-front.
"Dona, you know, nobody really knows who we are here. Why don't we drop the disguises, at least for a little bit?"
That caught her by surprise. All three of them were older than they looked. A casual observer would assume they were somewhere in their forties or maybe in their early fifties, but even that was a carefully constructed disguise. Without it they would all look like they were in their mid twenties. Eight years earlier Dona had been injured terribly and Jimmy had to draw on his healing powers to save her life. What he didn't realize at the time was that he had tapped directly into the source of his powers, generating such a powerful healing force he healed everyone around him to the point their bodies all regressed back to their respective primes. The effect on Jimmy and Dona had been permanent. From then on they didn't seem to age, despite the fact they were both actually in their late fifties.
Somehow Dona had gained some of her husband's powers. Whether that was through their psychic link or the healing itself, she had no idea, but she was able to change their appearance very slightly, just enough to keep from attracting the wrong kind of attention.
Just a bit of concentration was all it took. The effect was quite subtle, but unmistakable. Fine lines slowly melted away from their features. A faint streak of darker gray hair in her waist length mane turned shiny black. The two men changed as well, though they looked slightly older than Dona since they had aged normally in the intervening years.
Dona was slender and pretty, with very fair skin and large brown eyes. Her most striking feature was her hair. With the exception of her early career as a military lawyer she had always worn it long and full, using just the barest touch of her power to give it attractive waves and a full bodied bounce.
It had been a long time since she had worn a military uniform, so despite traveling in a military ship she was dressed fully as a civilian, in a loose fitting emerald green blouse and black slacks. She was thankful she hadn't chosen shorts as the other men had as the weather was quite pleasant bordering on cool despite apparently being a mid-August evening.
They turned to go, hoping to find some place to eat when they were confronted by a young woman in her late teens. She was wearing a black crop top mock turtleneck and loose fitting cargo pants. If it wasn't for the belly-baring crop, Dona would have thought the combo was a UFSA duty uniform.
The redhead fixed her green eyes right on Dona. "I don't know how you got out, but you're going right back to prison, Shego."
"Huh?" was all she could say as the redhead charged.
Earlier that afternoon Wade had been playing Thundercrash on his computer when one of his secondary monitor beeped, instantly getting his attention. The system had been automatically scanning for illicit transactions when it ran across somebody deducting money from a very particular account. A few touches of the keyboard and he was patched in to the security camera of the ATM the thief was using. He was about to summon the Middleton Polices when the man crossed the street and started talking to some other people. The image was fuzzy but he had the wherewithal to fix that. The image jumped into focus and all intentions of calling the police went right out the window. Instead he hit a single button on his keyboard that would instantly connect him with the Kimmunicator.
Kim Possible leaned on her elbows, content to watch as her boyfriend, her nearly life-long best friend, the man who she had given her heart, the man who had pledged his undying love for her in return, proceeded to do things to himself that had the potential to cut his life short. She knew better than to try keeping Ron Stoppable from eating a tray full of Nacos.
Kim and Ron were in their favorite booth at Bueno Nacho, enjoying the Americanized "Mexican" food. Well, at least Ron was. How any human could put that much away, help from his naked mole rat, Rufus, notwithstanding, and not be a big as one side of the house was beyond her. Ron was a self-professed gourmet, capable of not only enjoying fine foods but preparing them as well. When school started in a few weeks he was going to focus on that very thing, hoping to get into a culinary arts program at Middleton College.
How the same person could gorge himself on cheap pseudo food like this was beyond her.
She slurped the last of her diet pop as her Kimmunicator went off. "Hey Wade! What's the sitch?"
"Kim, there's been and ATM heist not two blocks away from you, and you're not going to believe who's in on it." His image disappeared, replaced by the security footage he had just recorded.
Kim's eyes narrowed as she watched. "We're on it." She said, nodding to her boyfriend.
Ron understood and just gave a big thumbs-up, his mouth too full for speech. They both dashed into the restrooms and emerged moments later in their mission gear. Kim ran out the door at a dead run, knowing their target was so close by.
Ron was not so fortunate. Everyone in the fast-food joint was staring at him. In moments he realized why. His pants had snagged on the bathroom door and there they remained. He was about to run down the street in silk paisley boxers. He didn't know whether to die of embarrassment or slap his forehead since Kim was too far ahead to see he'd worn his birthday present from her!
With Ron held up trying to put his pants back on, Kim reached them first. There they were, just standing off the side of the street talking. How odd! Usually the henchmen were mountains of faceless, brainless muscle. With the exception of one being very tall there was nothing to make either one stand out in a crowd. None of that mattered, however. Only days ago she had seen this very woman led away from a courtroom, supposedly to spend the rest of her life in a special prison designed to keep the likes of her incarcerated.
"I don't know how you got out, but you're going right back to prison, Shego." She growled as she moved to attack.
It didn't go exactly as she figured. These are so not the usual disposable henchmen, Kim Possible thought to herself. In one moment she had been moving to attack Shego before she could use her plasma powers. The very next she found herself pinned to the wall by the taller man. His speed was astonishing! She literally didn't see him coming. Of course, it was certainly possible she was so focused on Shego that she totally forgot the minions. Oops. Then it started to dawn on her. Shego was supposed to be the minion and was always the first to attack. Instead she just stood her ground wide eyed at the attack as if she was shocked by the attack itself.
Despite the pain of having her arm pinned behind her back by the taller man her mind was already analyzing the scene. Her nemesis was obviously disguising her normally pale green skin but why do that here, in the one place she was bound to be recognized, at least by somebody if not by Kim herself?
Murky's head was still spinning. Training had taken over as he moved to intercept the attacking redhead. Instinct told him to use non-injuring force against what he assumed was just a teenaged girl. Hah, he thought to himself, once girls this age would have found their way into the Starforce to fight the decades long War with Arkonia.
But here in a mid-western town in the 21st century? She couldn't be more than seventeen, eighteen at the outside.
Before he could ask "Okay, darlin', what's your problem here?" he felt a shooting pain in his foot. Looking down he could see some kind of little pink animal actually biting through a thick leather boot!
Even though she wasn't in a position to see exactly what had happened, the distraction was just what she needed. Kim felt her attackers grip loosen just enough. Using the wall she ran upwards, levering her body out of his grasp. She vaulted up over his head, landing nimbly on her feet. The man may have had some training, but he wasn't ready for such an unorthodox move. Instinct took over and that meant concentrating on the most dangerous person here.
She turned to face her dark haired adversary, who for some odd reason just stood there with a shocked expression on her face. Her first assumption was the woman was surprised she had been recognized in her disguise, as if applying makeup over her mint colored skin would be enough. She squared off with the older woman, waiting to for her attack. Then she locked eyes with Shego…
…Why were her eyes brown? No, that could just be contacts, though she had never known the woman to cover her bright green eyes in the past. No, something else was wrong.
Was this even Shego?
A/N – Chapter revised 2-24-06