9. Scraps
The call came unexpectedly, one random Tuesday.
"I have a Ms. Monique Montague at the gate," the GJ security guard said at the entrance to Kim and Ron's development. "She's on your allow list, but after 9pm I have to call."
"I know, Bill," said Kim. "You can let her through." She hung up the phone.
"Who is it?" asked Ron as he was playing with Julie in the family room.
"Monique," said Kim. "Did she tell you she was coming?"
Ron shook his head. "I hadn't heard anything."
"Maybe she was in the area," mused Kim. "I can't imagine she'd fly out here from California and forget to call in advance."
"She does have her own jet these days," pointed out Ron.
"That's just tabloid gossip," Kim shook her head. Ron stared back at her earnestly. "Wait, really?"
"GJ recently started keeping tabs on anyone with an easy way out of the country," said Ron. "Her name was on the list."
"Wow," said Kim, then turned to head towards the door when she heard knocking.
Opening the door, Kim stared at the disheveled Monique standing in front her. She was wearing a trendy coat, but was gripping it closed with one hand and looking over her shoulder nervously. Kim frowned immediately.
"Kim!" Mon yelled as soon as she looked up. She pressed forward before Kim could say anything, moving into the house and closing the door behind her.
"Mon, what's going on?" asked Kim.
"Is your house monitored by GJ in any way?" Monique asked instead.
"Um," said Kim, looking over her shoulder towards the doorway to the family room. "The outside is, but I don't think the inside is bugged or anything." Kim tried to catch Mon's eyes but the dark haired girl kept glancing around frantically. "Tell me what's wrong!"
Monique groaned. "I guess I gotta risk it," she said, before reaching into her coat and pulling out a wrinkled yellow envelope. She shoved it into Kim's hands.
"What's going on?" asked Ron, walking in with Julie in his hands.
Kim opened the envelope and looked inside. Inside she saw a plastic bag with something black in it, a sheet of paper, and a smaller, sealed envelope. "I'm not sure," said Kim pulling out the plastic bag and looking at the long black hair trapped inside. "Mon? Where did you get this?" She pulled out the piece of paper.
"It came to me via courier this morning," Monique replied, staring at Ron and Julie. "My god, is that your daughter?"
"Yes," nodded Ron. "This is Julie. I forgot we haven't seen you in a while."
"Way too long," said Monique, melancholy. "Hi, Julie."
"Hallo," said the little girl. "Who're you?"
"I'm Monique," said Mon with a smile. "I'm ... I was a good friend of your mother's."
"Hi Monique," said the girl, who then turned to look up at Ron. "Daddy, I'm tired."
Ron chuckled. "All right, let's take you to bed." He started heading towards Julie's bedroom.
"Mon," said Kim looking at the letter with wide eyes. "Is this for real?"
"I don't know," admitted Monique. "But I couldn't risk it not being real."
Kim absently put a hand on Monique's arm and began ushering her to the kitchen table. "Come on, why don't you sit down and I'll try to get Wade on the Kimmunicator."
Monique nodded silently and sat down.
It took several minutes of hunting and searching before Kim and Ron could locate the now ancient device. Eventually they came across the device in an old box labeled 'Memories.' It was oddly dramatic, considering the circumstances.
"Kim," said Wade with a wide smile through the Kimmunicator. "I've been waiting for this day."
"It's night, Wade," said Kim. "No time, I need you to scan some hair for me and do a DNA match on it."
"Okay, easy," said Wade. The Kimmunicator ejected a dish-like apparatus. "You know the drill."
Kim opened the bag and dropped a few of the hairs on the tray which promptly retracted into the device. It hummed and rumbled slightly as it scanned the specimen provided before finally going quiet.
"Okay, I have the data," nodded Wade. "It'll take a few minutes to search my... data... base... Hang on. This is Shego's hair. Not more than a few weeks old." Wade looked a little confused for a few moments then looked back at the camera up at Kim. "What's going on?"
Kim looked between Monique and Ron. Monique appeared shaken while Ron was apparently trying to get a hold on the situation. "Wait, only a few weeks old? That means she's alive!"
"It's worse, actually," said Kim, holding up the letter in the envelope. She laid it down before Ron and the Kimmunicator. "She's being held hostage."
"By who!" asked Wade. "Who could possibly be hold Shego hostage?"
"It doesn't say," said Monique.
"Hostage?" asked Ron. "What do they want?"
Monique looked to Kim who grimaced. "They want me," said Kim.
"You," said Ron. "They want to trade Shego for you?"
Kim reached into the envelope and pulled out the smaller, sealed envelope and turned it over in her hands. It read, "Do not open except in the presence of Kim Possible." Kim shrugged, that was easy enough to comply with. She tore open the envelope.
"Kim!" warned Monique and flinched when a small round, flat object fell from the halves of the envelope and landed on the table. "What if that was an explosive or something?" asked Monique in a manic voice.
"You wouldn't have gotten in the front gate with it," said Kim. "Scanners at the gate register everything you come in with, especially explosives."
The object looked like a poker chip and Ron picked it up. "This side up," he read off the back of the disc. "All right," he said, placing it back on the table in the manner instructed. As soon as he did, the rim of the disc lit up and a thin rod extended up from the center of the device. At the tip of the extension was a small lens that lit up and began shining light all over the room. It lingered once on Kim, then discontinued and retracted back into the chip.
"Odd," said Kim.
The chip then lit up again and a holographic image of an elderly man sitting in a throne-like chair and holding a diamond tipped cane appeared. The face on the man was grim and creased from years of frowning and grimacing. His hair, what was left of it, was bone white and limited mostly to the sides of his head above his ears.
Kim cocked her head. "Senior Senior Senior," she concluded.
"Ah, Kim Possible," the hologram said. "I know, I know, you're married, but old habits die hard. It is so good to know that some people can be depended upon to follow instructions, though. From my business partners to my very own son, I have been plagued by people who insist on doing their own thing, much to their detriment."
"Wade," whispered Ron to the Kimmunicator. "Is this real-time?"
"No, I'm not detecting any incoming signals," said Wade. "It's probably a recording."
"As much as I would like to become lost in the pleasantries, there is business before us, and I do very much enjoy business." The hologram flickered for a moment then changed to show a model of the Earth, gently spinning. A box appeared on a section of Asia. "This is where you'll find me." The model changed to show a closer depiction of the area, showing regional lines and features. It quickly changed again to show a much closer view of a strange stone tower constructed in the mountains amongst some trees. "Here is the fortress I inhabit."
The view changed back to show Senior Senior Sr. "I can only imagine what must be going through your mind, Ms. Possible, but I assure you, I'm not giving you a choice." The hologram back to the schematic of the tower, a section of mechanics running the length of the tower and going deep underground was highlighted and then brought forward.
"This is the base generator for the Heavy Particle Emitter. A wonderfully cataclysmic device that the Syndicate constructed but never got the opportunity to use due to your clandestine operation that caused the downfall of the organization. Global Justice has searched far and wide for the missing weapons materials you traced the purchase of but, unfortunately, were unable to find this fortress and thus, it is currently under my control."
"Of course, without the targeting systems from the facility in Europe, I'm quite certain it will indiscriminately destroy areas of the planet once activated." Senior Senor Sr. appeared again.
Kim clenched her fists and stared holes into the holographic representation of her enemy.
"And just to make sure you don't do anything brash like nuke this place from orbit, I've taken the liberty of locating the wayward Ms. Shego and bringing her here to be my guest."
The image changed to show Shego bound and gagged in a dirty prison cell. She was dressed in plain clothes that looked ragged, and her hair had been cut to half its old length, but she didn't appear very bruised. She also didn't appear very conscious.
"Just so there is no confusion, I'll lay it our explicitly," said Senior Senior Senior as his visage appeared again. "You come here, by yourself, and Global Justice does not get to know anything. Not where you're going and certainly not why. I'll be reasonable and give you 72 hours from the conclusion of this message. If you come here, you will have the opportunity to liberate Ms. Shego and destroy this machine. If you do not come here, I turn on this machine and vaporize various areas of the planet. If you try to destroy this place, then you will likely succeed, but at the cost of a single innocent life."
The holographic Senior looked Kim directly in the eyes. "I hope we understand each other."
The illusion flickered then vanished, leaving the dull grey chip silently behind.
"He's finally gone insane," said Wade in awe. "Kim, whatever he says you can't..." he paused.
Kim was shaking in her chair in rage.
"Kim?" asked Monique, sliding ever so slightly away from her.
"Wade," growled Kim.
"Y-yes, Kim?" The Kimmunicator seemed to shiver.
Kim stood. "I need a ride. And the suit." Turning on her foot, she stormed out of the kitchen and towards the bedroom. It was nearly thirty minutes later before anyone dared follow her.
Ultimately, Ron was the sacrificial lamb. "Dear?" he said, entering the bedroom. His wife had already donned her 'uniform', black midriff, cargo pants, gloves, boots. Despite having had a child, her dedication to her martial arts over the last three years had left her incredibly toned and fit, even sexier than when she'd last gone out like this in college. Ron set his hormones aside and walked up behind her as she was packing her brown satchel.
"I hate to say this," Ron continued, not having gotten a response. "But are you sure this is the rational thing to do?"
Kim glared at him, but he held his ground. Kim continued packing all the same. "I can't let him be out there with that thing. And he's doing this to get at me, Ron. If I don't respond, do you think it'll stop here?"
"Let GJ take care of it," said Ron. "We'll be able to sneak in and disable the device before Senior even notices we're there."
"He'll be watching you," said Kim, holstering her hairdryer. "You know as well as I do he was in deep with Syndicate, there could still be agents out there feeding him info. We can't take the chance."
"We have secret ops, places we can launch undocumented attacks," offered Ron.
"We can't risk it. He's toying with me, Ron. Just me. That means if I go and get noticed, it'll be expected, he won't go launching doomsday weapons. He'll just try and stop me or capture me, just like his good villain book says to."
"He killed his own son, Kim," Ron pointed out. Kim paused for a second. "He may have escalated his standing above cheesy Bond villain."
"We're the ones who made him have to do that," said Kim. "I was the one who turned him. That's why he's after me. He wants to see my blood."
"I agree," nodded Ron. "I don't understand why you're going, though. We have many options, and it's possible his weapon doesn't even work. It could malfunction, or explode, or we could come up with a means of neutralizing it."
"What about Shego?" asked Kim.
"She didn't even look alive in that clip, Kim," added Ron. "I know you don't want to hear it but it would be easier for Senior to just kill her and use those hair clippings as bait." He sighed. "As far as anyone knows, she's been dead since the Syndicate downfall."
"Those hair clippings were fresh," said Kim.
"Cloning, or some other means of replicating her DNA."
"He wouldn't have bothered, he knows Wade would detect it if it was fake."
"Kim," started Ron, then stopped. "She's dead. Even Monique accepted it. She's even legally dead in the US so Monique could have control over her assets in the company."
Kim frowned. "We saw her, Ron," she said. "At the hospital, when Jules was born."
"She couldn't have been there," said Ron. "We have reports from her in Europe minutes before that. There's no way she could have instantly been at that hospital. It was imagined."
"We BOTH saw her, Ron," insisted Kim. "How could our minds have conjured the same mirage at the same time?"
"I don't know, but there is no other explanation. She died in the explosion at Syndicate, that's what went into the official reports and that's what we both signed on at the conclusion of the mission." Ron struggled to find reason in their shared experience. "What other reason can you come up with? That we saw her spirit? Then it seems even more likely that she died."
Kim looked down. "I gave up on her by signing that form," she said. "I let her go, on paper so that she could be declared legally dead. If I was wrong to do that..."
Ron moved next to her. "You didn't have any reason to believe otherwise."
"I did," said Kim. "I just didn't act on it. This time, I have to know for sure. She gave up so much for us on that Syndicate assignment, I can't let her be destroyed by Senior Senior Senior of all people."
Ron shook his head. "What are you going to tell Jules?"
Kim looked back at him. "That I'm going to make the future better."
Ron rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm sure a three year old will appreciate that answer."