Shocked
Disclaimer: I own stuff, just not Kim Possible, really I actually own stuff… stop looking at me!
Chapter Sixteen: Settling things: Part I
Kim's POV
Kim turned off the Kimmunicator and before it had powered down she was already sprinting to her room. Hitting a few more buttons on the device she called Wade as she started dashing up to the 2nd floor. "Wade," Kim said, "is the supersuit good to go?"
"Yeah," several crackles of broken electronics accompanied Wade's voice, "but we stopped testing that before you started dating Josh, it's still entirely experimental Kim."
"It's about to get a road test," Kim turned off the Kimmunicator and pulled aside several pairs of jeans revealing a door in the back of her closet, placing her hand on a panel it beeped in recognition and then opened up revealing a blue and white jumpsuit.
"Kim!" Bonnie's voice sounded along with footsteps up to her room followed shortly by the brunette herself. "Kim what do you think you're doing? Running into Drakken's trap isn't going to help Tara, or Eric for that matter."
"I'm not running into anything," Kim whipped around with the supersuit in hand, "I'm going to spring it." Reaching back into the tube Kim pulled out what looked like a toy gun and tossed it to Bonnie. "That's an Electromagnetic Scrambler, the Diablo's only activated in Middleton according to Wade so Drakken probably has another control tower, hit it with this and his plan is done for. He's got Eric at the Bueno Nacho world headquarters so the control tower is there."
"And where are you going to be?" Bonnie sounded a bit skeptical. Clenching the supersuit in her fist Kim glared at Bonnie, "Drakken said that Shego has Tara 'where Ron and I started,' that can only mean one place. Besides, it's about time I settled things with Shego once and for all, now if you don't mind I need to change into this."
Bonnie gave her one last look and then descended through the trap door. Kim briefly looked at the closed door, much as she hated to admit it Bonnie had proven more than competent at missions though she'd die before admitting it aloud. Drakken and Shego had gone too far this time Kim thought as she hurriedly changed into the supersuit. Kidnapping Eric was low enough, but when she had heard Tara had also been taken it struck a chord in Kim that terrified her more than anything ever had.
Just as she finished putting on the supersuit, Kim heard the roar of the rockets her dad had attached to Ron's scooter as her best friend pulled into her driveway.
She ran out of her room and down the stairs to see Ron dash through where her front door had been till earlier tonight and straight over to wrap Bonnie in his arms. "I thought I told you never to scare me like that again." Bonnie buried her head into Ron's shoulder. "I had it under control, gonna take more than a few giant killer robots to do the Ronster in." Ron clutched Bonnie to him tighter.
Kim felt it finally settle in on her that things were never going to be normal like she wanted them to be again, Ron and Bonnie were not a passing phenomenon. And if that was true than it meant that the pleasant tingle she had felt when she'd kissed Tara that one day or when they made that plan to go to prom together wasn't a passing thing either.
And then to make matters worse for Kim she had ended up dragging a nice guy like Eric into this whole mess because of her inability to come to grips with how she really felt about Tara. Ron had obviously seen it, all his dropped hints that they'd been friends for far too long for anything new to come between them. Kim had passed that off as Ron trying to reassure her that Bonnie wasn't going to come between them, but now she realized that he had only started dropping them after the cafeteria incident.
Clenching her fists so tightly her knuckles cracked Kim resolved to go kick Shego's ass like it had never been kicked before. Then she'd drag Tara back to prom, split her time between her and Eric and then came the hard part, sorting out how she felt about each of them.
"Hey guys," she said stepping down the stairs to the living room her every step practically radiating kimness. Kim felt as strong as she ever had in her entire life, Drakken and Shego were going down hard this time, and knowing now that her friends wouldn't abandon her she'd make sure that she picked who she wanted to be with because she wanted it not because she was scared of what others might think.
"Hey KP," Ron turned to her then gaped as he took in what she was wearing, "Whoa, what's with the new get up Kim?"
Kim walked over to where Ron and Bonnie had separated, but were still holding hands in a sweaty tux and completely ruined prom dress. "I'm going to impart on Shego in the bluntest fashion imaginable that kidnapping my friends is a very bad idea, and I trust you two will do the same to Dr. Drakken while you foil his plan."
"Oh we will," Bonnie's eyes lit up, "his robots ruined my prom dress and I'm going to make very sure that he knows just how much I appreciate that."
"You know," Ron said, "I'm getting the impression I could just sit back and chill, maybe go raid Bueno Nacho and see if I can make a few Nacos."
"Ron!" Kim and Bonnie shouted at the same time turning to glare at the hapless blonde.
"What?" Ron looked honestly perplexed, "I was just kidding, only stop Bonnie and I are going to have to make is at one of our houses to pick up some mission clothes."
"Actually you shouldn't need to," Kim said, "I never got rid of the spare set you've got in my closet. And Bonnie, you can wear a set of mine right?"
Bonnie quickly looked Kim up and down, "I think so. I'm a bit bigger than you so the shirt might ride a little bit higher but other than that we should wear the exact same stuff."
"Alright then," Kim walked over and hugged Ron, "Good luck you two, Shego's got Tara at the old preschool, it's only a mile and a half from here so running should warm me up." Ron grabbed her just as tight and whispered to her, "You can do this KP, we all believe in you." Then she let go of Ron, turned to Bonnie and before the brunette knew what was going on Kim hugged her too as she whispered, "Bring Ron back safe." Bonnie hugged back then and whispered, "Bring Tara back safe."
The two girls pulled back and Kim waved to the two as Kim walked out the front door, her family was standing in the driveway, her parents already trying to work out how to explain giant robot attack to the insurance company.
"Mom, Dad, Tweebs," Kim walked over to them, "I'll be back in a little bit. Ron, Bonnie, and I still have to go put Drakken and Shego behind bars or they'll do what they did to Middleton to the rest of the world."
"Stay safe Kimmie," her mom looked actually worried, "And good luck," her dad looked like he wanted to go out himself and launch Drakken and Shego into a black hole. "Good luck sis," the Tweebs chimed in actually looking like real brothers for once.
"Thanks everyone," Kim started towards the preschool at a slow trot, "I'll be back before you know it." She broke into a run and didn't look back.
Kim could have easily run a mile and a half in 7 or so minutes but took closer to 10, she needed this run to loosen her up and get her ready for the fight to come not exhaust her and make Shego's job any easier than it absolutely had to be.
Kim got to the preschool and slowed to a walk, she started looking around trying to see where Shego might be hiding, Kim was under no illusions the villain was going to play fair and she wanted to cut all the advantages she could.
Ominously, the gate and front doors hung open. Kim started walking towards them ready to spring into any number of moves as soon as she saw a sign of attack. It wasn't a long wait as two synthodrones came rushing out of the shadow filled corridor beyond the front door. Kim flicked her wrists causing the fingers on the supersuit to elongate slightly and become razor sharp. Jumping into a spin she made quick work of them while silently thanking the supersuit for making quick work of what could have been a real fight if they were some of Drakken's newer models.
Peering into the darkness Kim felt her stomach drop with relief Tara was standing there obviously waiting for her, Kim spared only a thought for the fact that Tara wasn't tied up, she couldn't pose a threat to Shego or the synthodrones and it probably wouldn't have been worth the effort.
"Tara!" Kim shouted with joy as she started jogging towards the blonde. "Kim!" Tara shouted as she started sprinting towards Kim. Kim threw her arms open ready to throw all her fears aside in relief at finding Tara unhurt.
With absolutely no warning, Tara took to the air and slammed into Kim with a flying kick that might have broken bones had it not been for the supersuit. Kim flew back several feet before skidding onto the ground, propping herself up on one elbow Kim stared at Tara in disbelief, "What?" Kim groaned out in disbelief.
"I really didn't think much of them at first," Shego stepped out of the shadows to stand beside Tara, "but I think they've grown on me. Isn't it just wonderful what you can do with a mind-control chip?"
"Mind-control chip?" Kim staggered to her feet, "How the heck did you get one of those, Ron and I destroyed both of them."
"You did," Shego's smile made Kim shudder slightly, "but Dr. D actually thought that one through, he made blueprints before he built his, and you didn't destroy those."
"Ron and Bonnie…" Kim whispered feeling the blood drain from her face, "you put one of those on Eric too." She said louder.
"Not quite," Shego chuckled, "I'm actually quite impressed how much you've managed to figure out on your own. You figured out why we tried to nab Nakasumi, why Dr. D wanted a little chat with your dad, and even though you needed some help from your girlfriend here you figured out our little business venture. But you missed one question, what did we do with that syntho-goo we stole?"
Kim's eyes widened and she winced as she gasped at the obvious answer of what Shego had just told her. "Eric's a… a…"
"Yep," Shego said almost jovially, "the last part of Dr. D's master plan, which I'm actually pretty proud of this time, is one made to order syntho-hottie. And now that you're as low as you can get, Tara attack, but don't kill her that's going to be my pleasure."
"Yes lady Shego," Tara said in the same voice Kim had used when she'd been subjected to the mind-control chip. Then the glassy eyed blonde started running towards the still shocked Kim.
Shego just laughed, "It's still a little weird, but I need to start getting used to being addressed like someone running the world."
Kim barely managed to dodge the punch Tara threw, and had to ungracefully throw herself to the ground as Tara flawlessly pivoted into a kick, a technique Kim had taken almost a year to get down to what Tara had just done.
"Oh yes," Shego was still laughing as she watched Kim struggle, "I forgot to tell you another thing. That chip contains all my fighting moves and every one you've ever used against me. So you're really on the bad end of this lovers spat, blondie here knows both our moves."
Kim was getting very annoyed at Shego's continued mocking, but she couldn't manage to even get a real defense against Tara's relentless assault, much less get the time she'd need to wipe that smile off Shego's face.
All thoughts of attacking Shego were wiped from Kim's mind as Tara grabbed a wayward arm and hurled Kim over her shoulder. Kim flipped several times to steady herself and try to buy herself some breathing space. Kim landed in a crouched fighting position, Shego had been right saying that Tara knew everything the two of them knew. The blonde seemed to know what Kim was doing as she did it and Kim couldn't decide if she had to defend against something she would do or something Shego would do.
"Tara I don't want to hurt you, but if it's the only way to save you…" Kim shifted her stance to an offensive one. Tara's only response was a mechanical, "Kim Possible must be apprehended, lady Shego wishes to destroy her."
Springing forward Kim caught Tara off guard with a tumble into a kick that she'd never used but Bonnie had a few times. Tara flew back through the air like Kim had and landed quite hard. Gasping Kim said, "Oh God, Tara are you alright?"
Kim never heard Tara's answer, bright electrical shocks arced around her as Shego stood behind her holding a taser. "And that's why you should never turn your back on a supervillain," Kim heard as her world descended into darkness.
Kim's first thoughts on returning to consciousness were somewhat along the lines of being tasered was a really bad idea and something she could go a long while without and never miss. Gradually her head cleared and Kim started looking around at her surroundings, she'd been placed in a classroom and tied rather well to a chair that was far too small to even mimic comfort.
Finally achieving a state at least resembling her normal self, Kim finally noticed she wasn't alone Tara had also been tied to one of the small chairs and was still unconscious. "Tara! Tara!" Kim tried to wake the blonde without alerting Shego that she was awake.
"Hmm… what?" Tara groggily moaned as she started the journey back to awareness. Bright blue eyes still glazed over from the mind-control chip and however Shego had knocked her out started traversing the room taking in where the two were being held. Tara finally noticed Kim and shook her head in an effort to clear it, when her eyes opened again Kim stifled a sigh of relief at seeing all Tara in the gaze.
"Kim!" Tara said in a mix of excitement and sadness, "I'm so sorry, I didn't want to do any of that, but I couldn't do anything, Shego told me to do something and my body just started moving."
"I've had one of those on me before," Kim tried to put up a brave face, "it's not your fault."
Tara's demeanor changed from one of shame to eager if still laced with caution. "Alright then, how are we getting out of this?"
"I don't know." Kim's brave front collapsed like a French army, "Drakken and Shego played me like an orchestra with this. Ron and Bonnie are walking into a trap, and I've just proved again that I can't pick my relationships at all. Tara I…I got nothing."
Tara looked downright angry as she said, "That's my line Kim, I don't know anything about this. Even worse that's quitter talk, that's not the Kim I know."
"Tara," Kim paused, "This is it, Drakken finally won. I should have stuck to babysitting."
"Hey," Tara bristled, "Drakken has not won, Ron and Bonnie know what they're doing, they'll take out whatever Drakken has planned. Shego, well she may have won the first round, but it's payback time now. And you know, there's better out there than Josh and Eric, Josh turned out to be a complete jerk and Eric wasn't even real."
A modicum of nervous hope found its way into Kim's voice, "Do you really think there's a…" Kim paused, "Do you really think there's someone out there for me?"
The same sort of nervous hope seemed to infuse Tara's voice as she shyly looked up at Kim and said, "Sure, out there… in here…"
"Oh… Really?" Kim hoped her voice didn't betray the raging storm of emotions going on inside her as she struggled to process all of what Tara had said.
"Yeah," Tara seemed both excited and nervous at the same time, "maybe someone like…"
Then the building shook with the impact of something, Kim's chair fell over and the ropes binding her to the chair sliced on some edge of metal Kim hadn't noticed when she was shuffling around earlier.
"Tara!" Kim shouted, "are you all right?"
"Yeah," Tara answered, "what was that?"
"The Diablo's must have started up again," Kim slowly got to her feet, "but it got me out of these ropes, I'll untie you and then we make Shego pay for using a mind-control chip on you."
Kim walked over to Tara, who hadn't tipped over during the shaking, and extending the fingers of the supersuit again simply sliced through the ropes. Tara got to her feet rubbing at where the ropes had scratched her wrists. "Now what?" The blonde asked as they started walking towards the door.
Kim felt a surge of confidence and her walk took on a bit of a strut as she said, "Well Shego doesn't know we're even awake, much less that we just escaped. Let's go let her know in the most unpleasant way possible."
The two girls crept down the hallways looking for any sign of Shego. Kim's mind was racing as she poked her head into a deserted classroom. The anticipation of what she hoped was a final showdown with Shego and trying to come to terms with the conversation she'd just had with Tara.
Tara had all but said what Kim had been too afraid to even think for awhile, and now with Eric a proven fake Kim had nothing standing between her and the question of if she liked Tara as more than a friend. Ever since she'd realized there were differences between boys and girls Kim had always thought that someday she'd end up with Ron, the history between them was such that something had to happen.
Then came Josh, in retrospect Kim realized that had been so many hormonally charged teenage dreams gone wrong. And the experience had simply reinforced in Kim that she needed someone like Ron in her life, and with Ron himself around that had seemed an easy enough question to Kim, but now that she thought about it Tara had to Kim all the things she liked about Ron and none of the things she didn't.
And to top it off there was that blasted cafeteria incident, Kim could see even then how Ron and the changed Bonnie she'd seen since she and Josh broke up fit together nearly as well as she and him did as friends and far better on the levels that led Ron to ask the brunette to prom. Not to mention that the fireworks she'd felt when she kissed Tara put to shame what she'd felt when she cornered Ron in front of her locker, and she'd had a moodulator helping her along then.
All her friends had seemed to know something was going on between her and Tara, however much she denied it to them and herself. And looking back all their hints had been positive, even Bonnie had given what Kim now recognized as tacit approval for her to date Tara. But Kim hadn't been thinking straight right then faced with the prospect that she might like another girl. So when Eric had come along Kim had jumped into that fiasco without a second thought that it would shelter her when Ron and Bonnie finally got their act together.
Now though Ron and Bonnie were together, Eric was a certified syntho-flop, and Kim was left with only her own confused feelings and Tara's declaration hanging over her. Looking over at the blonde Kim felt a sense of calm settle over her, she might not know exactly what she felt for Tara. But all her friends were entirely fine with the prospect of Kim and Tara being a couple, and they certainly deserved a chance to see where they went.
Kim relished in the internal calm she felt as she glanced into the teachers lounge to see Shego hurriedly packing several bags with cash, clothes, and what looked to be everything a person on the run from the law would need. Stepping into the room channeling every bit of 'Kim' she could muster Kim said, "Going somewhere Shego?"
Shego turned towards Kim, and though Kim knew she must have been surprised the villainess gave no outer sign of it, she just cocked her hip and snarked back, "Actually yes princess. Dr. D's plan went south as usual, I've got to give credit to your friends, we really had this one set up and they pulled it off. Now if you'll excuse me I need to make my exit, if this is his new kind of plan it might be worth it breaking the blue skinned freak out in a hurry this time."
"I don't think so," Kim stalked over so they were staring each other down over the length of a conference table, "you'll be making an exit but it's going to be in the back of a squad car."
"Oh that's cute princess," Shego grimaced, then looking at Tara standing in the doorway she said, "And I see you two lovebirds finally got over your spat, I'd feel touched in the atmosphere of love but I just don't care." At Kim's taken aback look she went on, "Hey I don't care who you do what with, as long as we're clear I don't swing that way and as long as I can still fight you."
"Great," Kim muttered under her breath, "even my enemies are endorsing me going out with Tara."
"But," Shego pulled her attention back to the moment, "I hope you two said anything that needs saying because I'm not going to hold back anything Kimmie, you're going down and this time you're not getting back up."
Shego lit up her hands brighter than Kim had ever seen them and leapt towards Kim over the table at the same time as Kim flipped over a chair towards her enemy and said, "So not happening."
Shego's plasma encased fist met Kim's boot sole and the two crashed to the top of the conference table scattering the various belongings Shego had placed on there. Rolling off to opposite sides they now faced each other across the width of the table.
Trying to catch Kim off guard Shego hurled a plasma blast at Kim, who whipped her head to the side. Reaching back Kim felt the suit's arm shift into something one might mistake for Jai Alai equipment, catching the bolt of energy Kim heaved Shego's own attack back at her with as much strength as she could muster.
Shego dived to the side with a look of surprise on her face, rolling to her feet the villainess smirked and said, "Those new toys of yours are pretty good princess, too bad they're not good enough."
Kim then found herself having to pull the same move as Shego had very recently as Kim's nemesis threw a chair across the table at her. Rolling to her feet Kim returned the smirk and taunted back, "I'm just getting warmed up, old age catching up with you?"
Shego growled and flipped over the table, landing she lit up her hands once more and dove at Kim. Taking advantage of the protections of the supersuit Kim grabbed a once again surprised Shego by the hand and planting her other hand in the villainess' stomach threw her into a wall.
Sparing a moment to rub her head where it had hit a stud instead of drywall, Shego taunted from her position against the wall, "Sticks and stones may break my bones," and then whipping up she threw an unabridged college dictionary into Kim's stomach causing her to stagger back in shock, "but words will definitely hurt you."
Kim sank to her knees as the force behind 2,000 pages of academic compilation dropped to the floor beside her. Shego walked up in front of her and looking as evil as Kim had ever seen her lit up a single finger and in a voice dripping with malice and cruel anticipation said, "Good night Kimmie."
But then arcs of electricity leapt around Shego and she dropped to the floor unconscious before she hit. Kim looked up in surprise as Tara walked out of the shadows holding a familiar Taser, giving Shego another jolt for what Kim presumed was spite Tara said, "And that's why you should never turn your back on a cheerleader."
Then looking at Kim, Tara dropped her tough veneer and in her normal uncertain voice asked, "So did I do good there?"
All of a sudden filled with the desire to laugh, Kim smiled up at Tara and said, "That was better than Ron on his best day, and that's saying something."
"Thanks," Tara was looking down at her feet and her cheeks were tinged with a light blush.
Kim got up, briefly searched through her pockets and then started digging through the mess she and Shego had made of the room during their fight. "What are you looking for?" Tara asked as she walked up to where Kim was looking through a pile of books. "This!" Kim said excitedly as she pulled the Kimmunicator out from under several coloring books.
Punching the familiar sequence on the device Kim waited only a few seconds before Wade's face showed up, tense at first but immediately relaxing at the sight of her face. "Kim!" he said, "you had us worried, are you all right?"
"Yeah," Kim said as offhandedly as she could, "just got a little tied up. I've taken care of Shego, mind calling the cops?"
"They're on their way," Wade said, "when Ron and Bonnie called in and you still hadn't I pried a few units away from cleaning up the Diablo's and sent them towards your location."
Wade was proven right as sirens and flashing lights accompanied his statement. "Thanks Wade, you rock." Kim shut off the Kimmunicator and stowed it in its pouch. She and Tara walked out to a squad of police exiting their vehicles unsure of what to find. Kim quickly calmed them down and informed them where Shego was. The police started running in and Kim looked around, eventually spotting a Kawasaki with a familiar green and black paint scheme.
Leading Tara over to the motorcycle Kim reached into her pocket and removed the pilfered keys. Turning back to Tara Kim felt like a nervous schoolgirl, "You know Tara, we'd better hurry."
Tara, confused, just looked around before returning her gaze to Kim and saying, "Hurry where?"
Kim smiled mysteriously, feeling confident once more as she handed Tara the spare helmet and grabbing her own said, "You'll see."
Still confused Tara held the helmet as she asked, "But what about Ron and Bonnie?"
Kim pulled Tara onto the motorcycle behind her and said over her shoulder before lowering the faceplate, "If I know Ron he'll catch up to us if he doesn't beat us there."
Then Kim started the motorcycle and revving the engine a few times for sport took off for Tara's house. Rockets or no, Kim thought as Tara grabbed onto her tightly, this was so much cooler than his scooter.