Chapter Six: Catch 22-Part Two
While Veronica fought with Amber in another part of Yggdrasil, Nichole circledimpatiently.
(Where am I?)
The thought swirled around in nothing until it collected into the form of Kim Possible on a lit path in the dimension of The World Between Worlds. Kim groaned and shook her head. Then, she looked at the white and gold dragon from before, but the golden eyes didn't seem to focus on her specifically.
Why are you naked, child?
W-What do you mean? Kim stammered as she unconsciously covered herself in spite of the fact, she currently wore her mission clothes.
Without warning, Nichole breathed fire aimed at Kim. Frozen as the torrent of flame washed over her, the teen yelled at her arms to rise and shield herself, but they never moved. In the moment of panic, Kim summoned her armor. Then, the redhead glared hard at Nichole with subdued but ferocious anger in her eyes. Chaos, what was that for?!
The white and gold dragon smiled, Look at yourself, Kim's draconian teacher laughed. You are properly dressed for training.
Kim looked down and saw she now wore her Beskar'gam. Why do I need my armor? Kim countered, We're in my mind.
There is much you must learn for which we do not currently have time, Nichole muttered. You may know ranged weapons and your fists, but you know nothing of how to handle a sword. Nichole growled before she summoned a claymore, her dominant fist on the foregrip and her right hand behind it. Summon your blade, hatchling.
Alright, Kim closed her eyes, and a blade materialized in the redhead's right hand. While it had the thin, quick profile of a Rapier, the blade also had a relatively wide flat. Speed married with decent defensive possibilities… Kim said before she took an opening stance on instinct.
Form VI? Nichole smiled. Adaptation and speed… The dragon couldn'tstop a smile. The Form suits you, young one. She frowned. If it is adaptation with which you work best, I need to teach you a harsh lesson concerning enemies, especially brutish ones. They never fight fair. The white dragon let her sword drop to a chest guard.
When the duel began, Nichole watched as Kim adapted quickly to the weight in her hand. Swords flowed together as if drawn to each other.
Quickly, Nichole stepped up her attack. Let us see how you handle Chaos Incarnate. Nichole showed clear distaste when she spoke the final two words, her jaws spitting the words in a silent snarl. I hate the so-called "Form variant" of Vaapad, but it will help with your reaction speed at the least. Nichole launched into a flurry of movement. The previous rhythm of Nicole's favored Juyo fell away into a mindless and wild attack series. Kim surprised herself when the redhead met blow for block. Then, Nichole shocked her further and threw the large blade in her hands as if it were a light-weight toy. Kim's Mando'ade blood and training screamed at her to move in and capitalize on her opponent's currently weaponless state, but dozens of battles with Shego labeled the stunt as a feign. As such, Kim kept her distance.
Wise, Nichole praised. The weapon fell from the blackness of Yggdrasil back into her hand, but this time, Kim watched her dragon tutor grip the hilt between the two cloth grips. For Humans, this is too heavy and unbalanced for a single hand to control, Nichole said with a smirk of pride on her lips. I am not Human though. Am I child?
Kim grinned under her helmet and attacked with renewed vigor. Her strikes hit harder and faster as Kim flowed through the stages of Form VI with some noticeable Form III and IV usage to fill holes in the dueling style as Kim fought, guided by instinct and a "oneness" with her blade, hard to properly articulate.
Kim made a mistake and tried to process this indescribable "battle union" with her blade in the middle of her training with Nichole. The redhead Mandalorian stepped out of rhythm in her flowing form of attack when thoughts of her union with her weapon shattered The Void.
Without warning, the dragon took advantage of this opening and struck near Kim's foot. The armored teen tried to compensate, but overthinking took the girl to the floor with nothing but a little encouragement from Nichole's tail. When Kim recovered, Nichole helped the learner to her feet.
Your enemies never fight fair, Kim. Nichole said gently. The only reason you make it out alive when you deal with these types involves a warped code all grandiose villains seem to share about "giving the hero a sporting chance". Nichole looked at Kim. You must forget this unconscious safety net you've built when taking on your usual rogues. Nichole put a clawed hand on the girl's shoulder, her face going grim as she continued to speak. I fear you have learned as much already with your current state.
What do you mean? Kim asked, I'm sleeping.
Nichole shook her head. Yes and no, Nichole began. Your mind is unconscious, but you are far from asleep. As we speak, your body adapts to a particular stimulus recently introduced.
Kim stopped for a moment. The odd sensation that brought me to an unconscious Shego?
That's a unique way to describe Karadim, the white and gold dragon admitted with a shrug. I cannot dive into detail until Shego and Amber join us, as is Draconian custom. Nichole punched Kim hard enough for the teenager to feel it through her Beskar. Now is not the time to discuss such things, Nichole smiled comfortingly. Now is the time to reunite with she who holds your heart.
Kim woke up slowly with a groan. Ghosts of soreness in her arms from training made moving slow and stilted. After some time, the soreness faded, and Kim could move a bit more freely. The girl's ears picked up movement outside, almost robotic if the slight rhythmic echo on the tile floor told the young warrior anything. Kim tensed and mentally cursed when her body protested angrily at the young woman's attempted quick movement. A pair of irregular lumps under Kim's pillow registered as the Mando'ad laid her head back down reluctantly on the pillow. (At least, I have my 1911s.) Kim thought as she found comfort in her trusted sidearms. "Betty, I know you stand outside." Kim said calmly. "Stop the games." Kim growled. "Shoot straight with me for once, you pathetic desk jockey!"
"KP, I'm really starting to worry about you," Ron, not Betty, said as the boy walked into the room slowly with hands raised and a frown on his face. "What happened?"
"It's only a guess, but I think GJ moved in while I was distracted with Gemini and retook Veronica into custody," Kim shook her head. "You never can trust Suits to keep their word." Kim muttered angrily. "At least with politicians, you know to expect to be gutted while they smile and promise a surgeon team to patch ya up." Kim grumbled. "Suits are different," Kim sighed. "You can never predict what the fucked crackheads will do."
Ron nodded. "Do you think Betty will take your proposed GJ overhaul seriously?"
For a moment, confusion flashed on Kim's face before she nodded in understanding, (Yori truly is amazing for you, Ron.) Kim smiled, "If Betty cares about her people and isn't a political snake, she'll take it seriously."
Ron smiled and pumped his right fist in the air, "Booyah!" Ron's eyes gleamed with happiness. "Master Sensei approved her leave to be on Team Possible a few hours ago."
Kim caught a strange sense of relief in Ron's tone. "When's the wedding?"
Ron turned scarlet, "Kim!"
The girl laughed at the blonde's embarrassment and shook her head at Ron's suddenly uncomfortable body language.
"What's with this focus on me and Yori?" Ron smirked, "What about your and Shego?"
The laughter stopped, and Kim sighed, "That's a major big, Ron," Kim said in sudden trepidation. "There's apparently much I need to learn before I can fill her Mark and make her mine."
"Fill her Mark?" The odd phrase caught the blonde off guard, but he only mentally shrugged and nodded as his face fell, "Oh, Kim, I'm here for you."
Before Kim could refute Ron's conclusions, both heads snapped toward the door. Ron's face set into a dangerous glare. Kim reached up and gently put a hand on his shoulder with a shake of her head even as her other hand tightened around the grip of one pistol under her pillow. In response, Ron cooled off slightly but still held some anger in his eyes.
Betty walked in and glared down at Kim. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!"
Kim smirked, "I finally did your job for you?"
Betty glared hard at the currently bed-bound fighter. "You terrified most of the villains in the world," Betty growled. "Many are declaring an early retirement, and Señor Senior, Sr. currently seeks a plea bargain with Global Justice as mediator between him and the countries where he's been most active."
Kim nodded and sat up with much effort. "What does this have to do with me?" Kim asked with a shrug. "The villains are free to make their own decisions."
Betty groaned and rubbed her good eye with a growl. "With no global threat villains to fight, many are questioning the existence of Global Justice."
Kim nodded her head with clear irritation. "You still haven't told your superiors about me or the coming invasion?"
"Invasion?!" Ron spluttered, "Damn, KP. What else are you hiding?!"
Kim almost shouted, "Not my people, Ron!" Kim shivered, "My Mom and I are alone in this universe!" Kim took a deep breath and quickly worked to calm her flash-pan anger. "These are wild beasts who live for conquest and know nothing of honor or clan!" Kim shook her head, "I only got a glimpse of them in Yggdrasil," Kim debriefed. "These creatures live for the thrill of the hunt and are brutish in combat."
Betty nodded,"I see."
Kim glared hard at the glorified bureaucrat, "No, you don't!" Kim challenged. "All you see are numbers on a casualty list." Kim growled. "When these monsters come; men, women, and children will be equally hunted like animals." Kim sat up and struggled to her feet. Then, the redhead marched up to Betty as The Void blocked out pain for the moment. "These monsters shall give no quarter, no mercy, and absolutely no fucks about Humanity!" With Kim's rage at its zenith, the girl sucker punched Betty and sent her to the floor. "Start thinking about people before there's no one to save." Kim buckled as The Void evaporated under the force of Kim's anger.
Ron reached to help Kim, but she looked at him in warning before a roar shook the building. "What was that?!"
Kim smiled, (So, she's finally awake?)
Betty whirled on the door with her weapon drawn. "Ronald, protect Kim!"
Kim sighed and stiffly climbed back in the hospital bed. (If Veronica walks in and thinks GJ is trying to transfer me to their medical staff, it will be dangerous.) Part of her wanted to be on her feet to hug Shego when the woman walked in, but her wounds cried out deafeningly in Kim's mind without The Void to control pain. Kim let herself snuggle down into the covers for the show.
Shego didn't blow the door off its hinges or torch her way through into the room. Rather, the green woman simply walked in and shut the door gently behind her. "Hey, Kimmie."
Betty held her weapon ready to fire at the woman's chest. "What are you doing, Shego?"
Shego raised a brow, "Doy! I guess it's illegal to visit my girlfriend in the hospital?"
Betty blinked in shock for a moment. Then, the woman slowly holstered her weapon in disbelief, "Of course," Betty moved and gestured to Kim with the hand not busied with the agent's weapon.
Shego nodded and walked over to Kim with a grin. "Xena, I have a surprise for you when you heal up." Then green woman knelt next to Kim's ear and whispered, "I can't wait to fly with you, my Karadim."
Ron and Betty shared a look of confusion. Karadim?
Whatever the word's meaning, Betty and Ron watched Kim nearly glow with happiness. Then, the girl squealed and hugged Shego. "Thank you, Veronica." Kim whispered before she kissed the green woman. Energy coursed through Kim when the pair's lips met. (Damn, what was that?!)
Nichole's familiar laughter rolled through Kim's mind, Karadim is the Bond itself, but that was the birth of your and Shego's Sola Myn.
Amber brokeinto the conversation. While Karadim is the "bridge", Sola Myn marks the start of active traffic on that bridge. Amber smiled, The Sisters likened it to old customs of betrothal but not engagement.
Kim raised a brow, her and Shego now completely oblivious to Betty and Ron, their attention completely invested in this mental conversation. What's the diff?
Legal distinctions, Amber said with an unseen shrug. Once Sola Myn forms, Dragons have the right to kill anyone who attempts to seduce another in the pair.
Kim nodded as Betty looked on in concern. That makes sense.
Betty grit her teeth and walked over between Kim and Shego. "I'm sorry, Shego," Betty said with a tone to suggest the leader of GJ slightly amused at the situation. "Visiting hours are over."
Kim looked over at Shego and nodded, I know you need to fly. Kim gently brushed Veronica's mind. Be patient.
The woman sighed and roughly broke Betty's grip, "I'm out of here."
Before Kim could lay into Betty, the girl felt a knife in her gut and screamed in agony, vaguely aware the pain originated from Shego. "Veronica…"
A nurse glared at Betty and pushed the woman out of the room before the man began checking Kim's wounds, "Where does it hurt?"
Kim shivered, "I feel like someone just crushed my gut." Kim whispered before she reached out with her mind and tried in vain to make contact with Shego. Veronica, you need to come back!
Nichole answered in Kim's mind. She's experiencing what we call The Change. The Ligith Dragon explained. She won't be able to hear you until the pain fades, but Amber helped her exit the hospital and get to a safe area before The Change passed a threshold of control. Nichole blushed unseen, Think of it like a second puberty for Halflings like her.
Kim mentally nodded but starred in horror as Betty ran in the direction of Shego, "Veronica…"
The nurse smiled gently at her as he expertly checked around the apparent area of injury. "Odd, I can't find anything broken or bleeding."
Kim cursed her current condition and looked at the nurse in irritation. "I know you're just doing your job, but it was more sympathetic pain than anything." Kim said with an honest blush.
The nurse nodded. If he was irritated because of the situation, the man didn't show it. "All part of the job."
In a forest outside Middleton, Shego collapsed as pain rolled through her body without mercy. The woman curled into the fetal position in a grassy clearing and vaguely felt tears leave her eyes as pain seemed to flare every single nerve in her body. An island of peace floated up from the sea of pain. "Kimmie…"
Yes, Amber coached. Focus on her, and the pain will become distant. The black dragon smiled. Long ago, my sister and I taught Mando'ade a similar technique they have come to call The Void. Push your pain into the furnace of your mind. Amber smiled as she watched from Yggdrasil. Good, turn the pain to fuel, child.
The green woman vaguely registered as her bone structure began to change and adapt to support functional wings on the young Hybrid's back. A roar thundered from Shego's mouth as the fleshy membranes grew in size to match the woman's humanoid body. Pressure on Shego's wings faded with a RIP! The green woman almost laughed as some of the pain fled. However, her body still crawled as ebony scales pierced the surface and locked together with no rough joints, all of one piece from thousands possibly millions of scales.
When Shego slumped to the grass, she no longer looked Human. Instead, she looked like a biped black dragon with a face a little drawn out into an incomplete draconian expression with green eyes to mark her as a Hybrid opposed to native Dragon.
In addition to this new form, new instinct made Shego quickly wrap herself in her wings to hide her scales. How can I make a cloak?
For the time being, the draconian part of Shego considered catching and skinning a deer. A meal and a cloak in one stop, but the green thief swiftly struck down the idea and began towards an abandoned lair from Drakken's early capers before she met the Princess. A blush warmed the woman's cheek as she ran toward the hideout. The thief smiled as the trees and grass began to blur around her.
With the speed, Veronica began to think of clouds and the rush of air against her wings. I need the sky, Shego shivered and stumbled as her legs became jelly beneath her. Shego forged on with her teeth clinched and forced strength back to her legs. An urge pushed her on at greater speeds. An annoying urge to open her wings and take flight gnawed at the back of Veronica's mind. The woman fought it tooth and nail. No, she ordered. I shall wait for Kim! The resolve to keep this vow wavered as the thief walked up to the sheer cliff on which the liar sat. The woman smirked and funneled some of that annoyance into launching herself from perch to foothold as she scaled to cliff, some fifteen or twenty meters per leap up the unforgiving vertical face.
Instinctively, the green thief opened her wings to control the final landing in front of the large lair. Shego shook her head when she saw lights gleaming from inside the massive, ominous building. Part of Shego wanted to kick the door in and take control by force, but she held back the desire with thoughts of possible combat with whomever occupied the hideout at present. Let's take a page from Kimmie's playbook.
The woman nodded to herself and slipped into the front door. Fromm there, Veronica made her way to her old room and smiled when she saw a rather large box in the corner of her old quarters. From there, the woman began working to fashion an outer cloak from one old catsuit. Then, the woman began to adapt a second for her wings. With a grin at the finished product, Shego zipped the front up and blew the dust from a mirror under the clutter in the closet.
For a moment, Shego thought she saw a reflection with an evil smirk and Kim bound at her feet. Then, the image returned to Veronica as she was a catsuit and hooded cloak combo. Satisfied, Veronica turned to leave.
"Shego, is that you?"
The woman hissed, "(I am Verda, Human.)" The words flowed from Shego mouth as easily as English. The harsh, biting growl in the words proved impossible for Human tongues to master or even understand as words with the exception of one specific circumstance.
Drakken began shaking. "A-Are you with Kim Possible?"
Veronica glared at him. "Don't…tempt…me, Doctor D!"
Drakken starred at her for a moment. Then, his eyes went from fear to intrigue and curiosity. "Incredible!" He whispered as he reached to lift up her hood. "How did this happen?"
Shego gripped his wrist firmly in her clawed right hand. "Don't." The woman growled with a snort as smoke billowed from her nostrils in warning. "Only my Sol Mythrin or one I consider family may see my scales!"
Drakken stared, "But…we're an evil…"
Shego squeezed the man's wrist until he cried out in pain and stared in a mix of terror and sadness as her eyes gleamed with dangerous anger. "Finish that statement, and you lose the hand."
Drakken turned to her with anger and tears in his eyes. "If you want to be so beastly," Drakken snapped his fingers and henchmen swarmed her. "I'll cage you like one!"
"You shall try!" Shego's rage turned hot with even the implication of reference as a beast. Then, the woman roared and blasted the men with fire.
Back at the hospital, Kim threw off her blankets and began to dress in hurried movements. "I don't have time to explain!" The teen responded when Ron and Betty tried to stop her. "Ron, get my armor plates, please and thank you." Kim said calmly before she walked into the bathroom, changed into her body glove, and walked out.
Betty glared at Kim. "What do you think you're doing?!" The woman stared in shock as Ron began to fit the armor on Kim's body glove without further question or attempt to stop her. "You need rest, Kimberly!"
"(No, what I need to do is save Drakken from his own stupidity before Shego roasts him alive for calling her the worst Draconian slur he could use.)" Kim countered, too angry to speak English, instead speaking in extremely heated Mando'a tones.
When Ron picked up the sen'tra and gently attached it to the backplate, Kim gave him a quick thankful smile. Then, Kim put her M1911s in thigh holsters on the armor. With a nod to Ron and a smile under her helmet at his understanding the situation, the Mandalorian shot out of the window with her jets on full burn towards Shego.
"Fuck!" Ron looked at Betty in stunned disbelief. "Kimberly, you've put me between a rock and a hard place twice in less than a week."
Ron just shook his head and muttered in clipped Japanese, "(Kim's right. You don't understand honor.)"
Shego shook her head and smiled predatorily. Then, the woman ignited her hands and charged. Astonishingly, the men did manage to get a chained collar around the woman's neck and pull her to the floor. Then, Drakken's beefy helpers threw chains over her to keep her on the floor in counter to Shego's attempts to free herself.
Panic began to set in as the chains pressed into Shego's wings. If I try to break out now, I'll damage my wings and likely ground myself. A new wave of terror flooded into Veronica at the thought. Kim, Shego called in a desperate plea. Please, hurry!
The scream of jets in the distance brought Drakken's eyes up from a gloating smirk. As he turned to the noise, a metal fist shattered the blue man's face. With Drakken on the floor, he stared in absolute horror. Drakken spat a few teeth before he managed a garbled, "Who are you?!"
Kim didn't dignify the question with a response. Instead, the redheaded bounty hunter looked at the chains. "Wade," she said with a frown. "I need a structural analysis of the chains." After a moment, Kim bathed the floor mounts which held Veronica bound with her wrist flamethrower until they turned cherry red. Then, Kim grinned under her helmet when Veronica flexed and broke the chains. "Don't bother with them, love." Kim placed a gauntleted hand on Shego's cheek. "We still need to fly."
Without protest, the green woman leapt from the cliff and opened her wings. A roar of elation echoed for miles when Shego's wings opened and caught air. As Shego rose into the air, Kim shook her head with a face-splitting grin and took to air after her.
A giggle escaped Kim as she activated her thrusters. "Wait for me!"
Please Read and Review.
I am curious to know what thoughts are on Kim and Shego's attitues toward particularly Betty and Drakken in this chapter.